An energy self-sufficient US could change foreign policy.
Talk about dishonesty! President Barack Hussein Obama, while in the White House Rose Garden, said, "Congress up until this point has thought it was a good idea to send billions more of your tax dollars to the oil industry." Not one cent has ever, during the Obama administration, been sent to the oil industry. So, again, we have Obama demonstrably lying. He was trying to get the Senate to end oil company tax incentives, something available to ANY company. But the Democrat controlled Senate did not go along with Obama. The Senate bill needed 60 votes to clear a Senate procedural rule, different from a filibuster, but as widely predicted, it failed on a vote of 51-47, mainly along party lines. The proposal, sponsored by Robert Menendez (D-MD), would have cut billions of dollars in tax breaks for the "big five" oil companies: ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Royal Dutch Shell. Obama, who has proposed eliminating even more subsidies than Menendez has, hailed the bill, with his administration releasing a statement in support of it. And there's that word "subsidies" again. Will the Obama mendacity ever cease?
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Article comments
26 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
My having responded to you signifies nothing other than my good form and politeness.
Roger, you owe me a keyboard, or at least a primer on how to clean coffee off one.
27 - Glenn Contrarian
*snort*
28 - Costello
I'll nominate the Doctor's train comment for a No-Prize like Marvel Comics used to give out. Funny stuff
Is there anyone outside yourself who is a member of your particular audience, Rog?
29 - roger nowosielski
I've already discharged my civil obligation to you, Dreadful, by way of polite repartee. To engage you any further in this matter would be going beyond the call of duty and no longer authentic speech on my part. So I do bid you adieu.
30 - Jordan Richardson
I've...discharged my civil obligation to you..."
Is that a euphemism?
31 - Glenn Contrarian
A "no-prize"? Talk about a blast from the past!
And "I bid you adieu" is laying it on a mite thick....
32 - zingzing
heh. i like the bit about "authentic speech" amongst all the "civil obligations" and "polite repartee" and "engagements" and the "call of duty," etc. i'm hoping roger has a sense of humor. but i dunno. maybe that was meant to be taken seriously. i can't decide which way is more funny.
33 - Cannonshop
#32 I think it's Roger being a Smartass-aka being funny, like, on purpose and stuff.
It's not his usual style, so he's probably not being serious.
34 - Cannonshop
#13 Glenn,you want to put the stake in Big Oil? Here's what you have to do:
Develop a power source that will drive a Personally owned automobile at highway speeds, requires refilling/recharging about once a week for a typical commute of between 35 and 40 miles, carries 4 full-sized adults with the current highway safety requirements, and costs less than your house.
That'll put the big dent in big oil, right there. Basically the same room-temperature storage, ease of transmission, ease of application, as gasoline, with similar to same energy density per pound.
Without it being oil, and without inflicting even MORE grievous environmental issues than oil.
We already have ONE possible replacement for the second largest draw (okay, several really)-biodiesel works fine in tractors and would probably work fine for tractor-trailers and we KNOW it works in buses and aircraft, with similar portability, storage characteristics,etc. as fossil fuels.
It's easy to rant about "big Oil" but it's hard to actually come up with real, working solutions that aren't predicated on vaporware or utopian fantasies of 'social change'.
35 - Zingzing
To #33, I hope so. Pomposity and Roger have gone to bed together before... I had a laugh either way.
36 - Glenn Contrarian
Cannonshop -
Despite the fact that we've made significant inroads when it comes to fuel efficiency, you're forgetting the biggest obstacle of all: the political power of Big Oil, enshrined not so long ago by the Supreme Court in a decision called Citizens United.
When it comes to alternative energy, Cannonshop, it doesn't happen all at once - it's a long road, one step at a time. But no matter how good the vehicle is, it's got to somehow overcome the political power not only of Big Oil...but also of Detroit. There's a film you might be interested in, called "Who Killed the Electric Car"...and it shows quite clearly that as long as Big Business is able to impose its will on government (thanks to Conservatives, mind you), it's very unlikely we'll "drive a stake" into Big Oil in our lifetimes.
37 - Jet Gardner
re:34
The Brazilian car manufacturing industry developed flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on any proportion of gasoline (E20-E25 blend) and hydrous ethanol (E100). Introduced in the market in 2003, flex vehicles became a commercial success, reaching a record 92.3% share of all new cars and light vehicle sales for 2009. By December 2009 they represented 39% of Brazil's registered Otto cycle light motor vehicle fleet, and the cumulative production of flex-fuel cars and light commercial vehicles reached the milestone of 10 million vehicles in March 2010, and 15.3 million units by March 2012.
By mid 2010 there were 70 flex models available in the market manufactured from 11 major carmakers. The success of "flex" vehicles, together with the mandatory E25 blend throughout the country, allowed ethanol fuel consumption in the country to achieve a 50% market share of the gasoline-powered fleet in February 2008. In terms of energy equivalent, sugarcane ethanol represented 17.6% of the country's total energy consumption by the transport sector in 2008.
38 - Igor
Glenn points out quite rightly that it is the political power of Big Oil that is holding back alternative fuels. It's the Dead Hand Of The Past that has cursed all great civilizations.
Even Big Oil has a problem replacing Big Oil. Both the Tar Sands oil and deep fracking oil that they hope to transition to carry extraordinary new costs, costs of both finished product and externalities (enviromental, war, opportunity cost, government cost, employment cost, etc.).
Besides, who cares about the Big Oil companies? They don't pay taxes and they're foreign owned so the benefits of profits and subsidies goes to foreign investors, not Americans. In California they don't even pay oil extraction fees for drilling! And the entire US oil industry only employs 310,000 workers (we already have over 2 million in the alternate energy business).
There is absolutely no need to replace oil with a single product. Many different products and industries will replace the current energy producers with a broad spectrum of suppliers.
39 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
When I was in Brazil, I was delighted to note that one of the major petroleum corporations there is called Super Gas Bras.
It's a wonderful country, I tell you.
40 - Glenn Contrarian
I never did get to go to Brazil - Rio is (along with Pattaya Beach, Thailand) one of the two top destinations among sailors for port visits. I'll leave it to your imaginations as to why that is....
41 - Jet Gardner
Hunky horny sailors laying on the beaches wearing next to nothing?
42 - Glenn Contrarian
Jet -
Actually, come to think of it, the most popular locations for those with alternative outlooks on sexuality (or should they be normal outlooks on sexuality?) are Thailand and Brazil. I never made that connection until now. I must be getting slow in my old age.....