Comments on: Is It Time To Tap U.S. Oil Reserves?

Energy Secretary Tells Congress Dipping Into Strategic Reserve Won't Reduce High Gas Prices

[taotxzen]

By Greg Palast for TomPaine.com/OurFuture.org
[New York, May 22, 2008.]
I can%u2019t make this up:

In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world%u2019s top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.

The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week%u2019s rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.

It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.

Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton%u2019s team. There could be no more vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won%u2019t learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.

Let me explain.

In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.

The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price.

[minnick8-2009]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Let''''s tap into the U.S.Oil Reserves. These gas prices are killing us. Why not use our own oil! Come on congress!
Posted by susieq_13

We should be full-speed ahead on developing as many of our own resources as we can collectively do with all our technology, talent, and financing capability. We should be developing electric cars, more solar energy, nuclear energy, hydro energy, domestic fossil fuels, off shore drilling, and building refineries to become self-sufficient and out from under foreign dependency as fast as we can. I betcha it won''t happen.

[minnick8-2009]

Oil companies for the longest time drilled for oil here in America, capped it, and they''''re sitting idle. Congress should force oil companies to uncap our domestic sites and put it into the market. That and removing the gas tax as well as releasing oil from the strategic reserve is desparately needed to forestall the economic crisis the high cost of gas is hitting America with. Enough of the excuses and do it NOW!
Posted by denn034

That is a lovely thought, but if Congress tried it, there would be such an outcry against it by environmentalists and the libs. It will happen eventually, but I bet it won''t happen until America is in chaos. I hope I''m wrong.

[ov442]

In reality, there isnt a supply and demand crunch. There are no shortages. There has been a steady increase in drilling, pumping and processing of crude oil over the past decade. The speculation is caused by controlled release of oil from both OPEC and non OPEC sources.
The Oil companies arent making just 8% profit, thats a crock.
The Oil executives are paid enormous sums to plan decades ahead for what their companies will do to keep revenue flowing and raising dividends and share prices for the current shareholders.
These men are also paid in shares significantly so they have a more vested interest in raising share prices. They will do whatever is necessary to work the system, control what they can and force profits into the company and out to the top shareholders. Period. there is NO other conclusion that can be made other than these men have worked at setting up this situation years ago.

[denn034]

Oil companies for the longest time drilled for oil here in America, capped it, and they''re sitting idle. Congress should force oil companies to uncap our domestic sites and put it into the market. That and removing the gas tax as well as releasing oil from the strategic reserve is desparately needed to forestall the economic crisis the high cost of gas is hitting America with. Enough of the excuses and do it NOW!

[frankbowers]

Well as for the nuclear war head with dubai on it newsflash he will desert it as well,but as long as he is president they''ll be no relief for the price of gas the bigcompanies have an agreement w/dic&that is final&gw has no say.
let''s not 4get that gw and dic gave 3000$rebates to the purchase of large SUV''s less than 4 years ago when the price was already started up&they plan on giving the same next year or so.
The bestg of good byes Frank Bowers of Austin, TX

[susieq_13]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Let''s tap into the U.S.Oil Reserves. These gas prices are killing us. Why not use our own oil! Come on congress!

[susieq_13]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Let''s tap into the U.S.Oil Reserves. These gas prices are killing us. Why not use our own oil! Come on congress!

[prairiefox1]

I think I know a nuclear warhead named Dubai !

[prairiefox1]

Nationalize the oil companies and be done with it!

[shanev137]

http://tinyurl.com/4dpgge

[ceebo6817]

Actually, Ohio produced something like a billion dollars in oil and gas in 2006. To quote Ohio Department of Natural Resources (http://www.dnr.ohio.gov/mineral/publica
tions/pdf/oilgas06.pdf) stats from 2006:

%u2022 5,566 registered well owners, including 4,120 domestic owners, operating 62,966 wells.
%u2022 Issued 2,291 permits, including 1,239 drilling permits.
%u2022 Issued 289 urbanized area permits in 19 counties.
%u2022 Drilled an estimated 952 oil and gas wells in 42 of Ohio%u2019s 88 counties.
%u2022 Monroe County was the most active county with 79 wells drilled.
%u2022 Produced 5,422,194 barrels of crude oil, at an average price of $62.43 per barrel.
%u2022 Produced more than 86 billion cubic feet of natural gas, at an average price of $7.75 per mcf.
%u2022 The combined market value of crude oil and natural gas production was $1,007,449,596.

Note that was at $62.43 per barrel of crude - in 2006. A barrel of crude in now worth twice as much, and drilling permits rise accordingly.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 02:47 PM : May 23, 2008

Umm, I am not a math whiz or anything but 5,422,194 barrels of crude oil a year is a little over 14,855 a day. 14,855 compared to 9.4 million barrels a day (the amount Saudi pumps a day), I believe you could say that is not a whole lot of oil.

[getcentered]

Americans support terrorists ever day by buying gas.....

[notblue]

boobyduck1, if you can''t look beyond the print to the root cause of the problem then go ahead and blather on. Next time I will take it one step at a time for people like yourself. Furthermore, unlike you I am not a fan of politicians or people like who represent any rigid ideology whether it be far right or far left. Politically blinded leftwing ingrates like yourself base your entire belief system on political ideology frequently ignoring facts and common sense.

[prairiefox1]

If the earth opened up and swallowed Wall Street all our problems would be solved!

[prairiefox1]

Oil prices have doubled in the past year and have shot up nearly 50 percent since January to a record $135 a barrel. Much of the rise appears to be driven by speculators betting that tight supplies %u2014 or outright shortages %u2014 will push prices even higher.
We''re already in a mild recession,%u201D said Lakshman Achuthan, an economist at the Economic Cycle Research Institute. %u201CI think if we go towards $150 (a barrel), we start talking about something worse than a mild recession

[bobbyduck1]

notblue says: This article is not about the strategic reserve

Well it is easy to see why you''re "notblue" and support these idiots since you don''t bother to read before you spout off! But then that''s the neo-con wing of the GOP way, isn''t it? Totally ignore facts and fail to respond to the actual issues, just push your agenda at any cost to anyone, except of course big oil and your own twisted egos.

Why don''t you and cornbiker swing on down to Guantanamo maybe you could share a cell. Your heroes assure us it''s practically like the Havana Hilton...though it''s more like the Hanoi Hilton.

With any luck, maybe Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rush Bimbo could all join you too! Wouldn''t that be fun for you?

[primilioneah]

I have never understood why some of us are so jealous of the so called big oil. Look! even if the Saudis pumped 30 million barrels a day, we will be encouraged to drive more, the motor vehicle companies will be encouraged to make more cars and the cycle will go on and on. To make it even worse most of copamies are involved in oil futures are American. So asking the Saudis to give us more crude oil is no solution.

Rather Americans should consider driving less. We should also try to produce more of own oil.

[jtom58]

Now if you were a Republican, you''''d tell a big fat lie and hope nobody went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs004.htm), where they would find that Oil and Gas Extraction is bundled with Mining - and the two combined sectors had a total employment of 619,000 in 2006


Oil and Gas Extraction is only one small component of the oil industry. There is also the manufacturing (refining), packaging, distribution, retail sales, and commercial sales sectors. Not to mention the financial and administrative positions each of these sectors.

[tonic1661]

When a new industry is created new jobs are created. Alternative energy is a new industry which with the willingness to give up old ways for better cleaner alternatives will create new jobs.

Tap out potential. Not our fear.