Re: Shocking New Video: Why McCain Wants to Drill Up Our Tourist Beaches

On 2008-08-23, Doug McDonald <mcdonald@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Wolf Leverich wrote:
>
>> In terms of drilling, there's virtually nothing we can do that
>> would much affect total world supply, and hence the global price
>> of oil. 
>
> Incorrect. The US still has a very huge oil supply at well
> below current prices. AT present prices, we have the largest supply 
> anywhere.

Nope, correct.  With regards to *drilling*, look at the
DoE estimates.

If you disagree, what's your source?

There are massive oil shale resources in Colorado and
Wyoming, as I noted below, but that's mining and not
drilling.

                         ###

>> The reason you aren't utterly wrong is because we (the US and
>> Canada) do have enough oil shale and tar reserves that we could
>> cap the price of oil at the recovery price of shale/tar, if
>> we're willing to pretty much destroy the southwestern corner of
>> America to produce oil for international consumption.
>
> For domestic consumption.

You can't separate domestic and international consumption,
unless you intend to abrogate a whole host of international
trade agreements.

Throwing away those agreements is with me -- I don't have much
use for "free trade" -- but most Republicans would think that
taking a protectionist stance was not a wise thing.

                         ###

>> BTW, if you want to blame someone for the short-term run-up
>> in oil prices, blame Republicans.  What's going on right now,
>> for the folks extremely short on clues, is that the industry
>> is profit-taking in a major way while there's no meaningful
>> oversight or threat of excess profits taxation.
>
> The blame is on Democrats for not allowing more production.

No, we can't produce enough through drilling to break OPEC.
If you can't produce enough to cause the cartel to lose
discipline, you can't affect pricing at all.  Zilch.

                         ###

> The only answer is to elect Republicans.
>
> Doug McDonald

The only answer is to conserve where it makes sense (as has
been observed, simply inflating our tires has more impact than
drilling ANWR) and ****ft to non-cartelized energy sources.
We've got huge wind and solar resources available within our
borders, and that's where we ought to be directing our capital
streams.

Re electing Republicans, sure, go vote for a guy who was
895th out of 899 in his class at Annapolis and has nasty enough
senior moments that at times he can't even recall how many houses
he owns.  But based on recent experience, I'd say electing a
President with distinctly unimpressive intelligence is maybe not
the wisest thing the electorate could do. 

Cheers, Wolf.