If you ever aspired to be a politician, this article should be enough to put you off the idea for life. It’s a strange tale of cross-aisle tit-for-tat-ism that reminds me of the Arab Israeli conflict, substituting your tax money for deadly munitions. The New York Times‘ lead shows us the swans above the water. “The House on Tuesday night approved a measure that would ease a longstanding ban on offshore oil drilling and try to spur greater use of alternative fuels as Democrats and Republicans engaged in a bitter pre-election clash over America’s energy future.” The rest of the article reveals the furious– and futile– paddling underneath. “The outlook for the measure is uncertain with only two weeks before Congress is set to break until at least the November elections and perhaps until next year. The Senate is preparing to take up a similar bill, but even if it averts a filibuster, it seems unlikely that the bills could be reconciled before the break. And the White House on Tuesday threatened a veto of the House plan.” Change this! “We are engaged in exactly what the American people are sick of, and that is political games here in Washington that are intended to be political games and have no outcome,’ said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.
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Why is it that the government is so much for the current oil companies being the companies to become energy providers in the future?? It seems as though someone is doing all that they can to make sure that ExxonMobile is always going to be around.
You know what really upsets me? It’s not even the oil issue. Or those political petty conflicts. It’s the fact the the public pretends to be all for change, choosing nominees that advocate change, yet fall back into the tired old habit of electing people for the same old reasons:nepotism, aggressiveness towards the opponent, lies/half-truths of politicians trying to distort their own record.
And this goes on in both parties. Until THAT changes, well, nothing else will change.
The bill would allow drilling alright, 100 miles offshore, which is not where the oil is, and they want to raise taxes on the oil producers.
“Geez, we can pay more in taxes and drill for oil where there is no oil? What a deal!”
Idiots.
AKM,
tired old habit of electing people for the same old reasons:nepotism, aggressiveness towards the opponent, lies/half-truths of politicians trying to distort their own record.
You just described the Republican party of the last 8 to 10 years perfectly. That is why I quit voting for them. And I believe we need at least one more viable political party in the US – two more would be even better since we’re supposedly a “free” country and have “choice”.
“We are engaged in exactly what the American people are sick of, and that is political games here in Washington that are intended to be political games and have no outcome,’ said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.
Why quote Boner on this subject? He’s the quintessential Washington insider. Be the change you seek, Boner.
Obama and McCain and the congressional leadership from both parties say this all the time. It’s meaningless, but even more so in my opinion when it comes from the GOP, whose institutional supporters bring you such bipartisan tomes as “How to Beat Liberals With Baseball Bats.”
Adub,
Geez, we can pay more in taxes
Actually, this is a reduction in tax breaks. They’ll be paying closer to what other non-oil-producing corporations pay. We’re also talking about the most profitable multinational corporations on the planet. They don’t need the special tax breaks that they’re getting. That’s money that they should be paying into the government, reducing the tax burden of citizens like you and me.
I have no knowledge of where the oil is. Do you have a link to a map?
This is just Democrat Party games. They cannot agree to drill for oil offshore as it would upset part of their nutty base–the enviros. So they put forward a bill that really allows no drilling where the oil actually is and then quickly shut down Congress while the MSM provides cover. If the USA continues on this path it will lead to disaster. Do you really think if the USA drilled for it’s own abundant oil it would not be better for the country?
Who knows even one reason not to drill besides appeasing the enviros?
Creation of thousands of new jobs, huge increase in oil and oil reserves and greatly increased national security while lessening the strength of the Middle East nutty people and more benefits.
Not much oil out there. About 4 Bbbls (Billion Barrels) off the entire eastern seaboard. About 4 Bbbls under the Florida pan handle. About 10 Bbbls off the coast of Kalifornia. The rest of the coasts are in production.
Most of this is expected to be small pocket oil that will be relatively expensive to produce and take 5-10 years for any of it to start production.
We will need to drill all of it, just a question of now or later. The USA uses about 20 Bbbls of oil a year.
And there is no oil in the Gulf of Mexico/
Canada drills for and produces huge amounts of oil off Newfoundland. Just baloney that the oil isn’t there. The new USA, we give up before we even try.
With the way the economy is melting down it won’t matter. The government can delay the crisis but they won’t be able to stop it. A good dose of terible economy might be what the country needs.
fisher72: The USA uses about 20 Bbbls of oil a year.
Actually, it’s about 20 million bpd, or about 7 billion per year.
Current US reserves are something like 20 billion barrels. Even if this was, by use of Magic Technology, increased by a factor of 10 to 200 billion barrels, it is dwarfed by current reserves found in the rest of the world. Reserves which would correspondingly increase in step as the Magic Technology is deployed elsewhere.
Even if the entire Magic Technology 200 billion was instantly developed, overnight, and could be pumped at the demanded rate, it would supply the US for a few decades or so (current consumption plus expected growth).
Basically, the Writing Is On The Well: time to think of new energy approaches. Merge while the merging is good…
Our government is the purist example of a con-artists flim-flam.
Both are on the same side looking out only for themselves but not for the good of the American people. They choose opposing sides. Voice there positions of opposition neither of which will bear fruit.
American public buys into this nonsense because most have the mental capability of somebody buying off a street vendor.
mykeliam :
September 17th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Why is it that the government is so much for the current oil companies being the companies to become energy providers in the future?? It seems as though someone is doing all that they can to make sure that ExxonMobile is always going to be around.
Just to point it out to you; oil is the basis of our economy and will continue to be so for a long time yet. Thinking otherwise is just foolishness as in your daily life, just try and find something that the use of oil has not contributed to?
And btw, Exxon Mobile is a publicly traded company that anyone can own a share of. As with all companies, they have a right to be in business as long as their products are in demand and that they are profitable. Personally I’m thankful that we have companies willing to provide us oil when everyone acts like we should hate them for it.
$36,000,000,000 a year in profit is enough to make me hate them. And Chevron (Bush’s baby). And Shell. And BP. They are making a killing, not a living. And trying to kill us with their practices. This offshore drilling could have come about a long time ago if they weren’t buying their wives Bentleys and 3-carat diamonds with their windfalls instead of using it for research and production. Once again, profit and shareholders and paying off the politicians has won out over ethics.