Maxine Waters: Socialize the Oil Companies
Posted on May 23, 2008
Update: Glenn Beck: Government isn’t the solution, its the problem. Welcome Ditto heads!
Guess what this liberal will be all about? Socializing!
Link: sevenload.com
Now, if the US government and the Democrats like Ms. Waters were truly interested in erasing the oil companies’ record profits and helping the American consumers, then they would be doing everything they could to increase oil and gasoline production so as to saturate the market. The price of oil and gasoline would then drop through the floor. Remember when oil was $8 a barrel and gasoline was a mere $.95? Oil companies were merging left and right because they couldn’t stay in business on their own and the price of gas wasn’t on the American people’s radar. If punishing the oil companies is truly what Democrats like Maxine Waters really want to do, then they would glut the market. They would change the law so that the supply of oil and gasoline vastly outpaced demand and oil and gas prices dropped.
But they won’t do that because they don’t care about the American consumers. They don’t want the American people using more oil or gasoline. They want the American people to hurt at the pump so they don’t drive as much. Why? Because Democrats actually think the America people are the problem in all of this to begin with.
The oil executive’s answer?: We’ve heard this before, its called Hugo Chavez. This is a hero of the left. Note to Congress: Read Atlass Shrugged.
Also read the Astute Blogger’s post on the slipping mask of the Democrats.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Communism, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, News, Politics As Usual, Stupidity, U.S. House, Video
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45 Responses to “Maxine Waters: Socialize the Oil Companies”
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What an embarassment. What a moron. It’is about time someone told Congress that Congress is the problem, and then Waters issues the ultimate threat - socialization. Of course, she meant Nationalization, but she is too ignorant to be able to speak clearly. Does anyone think the government, which will not let us drill and can not do anything efficiently, will do a better job of lowering prices if they ran the companies. Get Real! Congress is the problem. Impeach them all! Start the recalls, they do not represent the will of the people, who by overwhelmming margins want domestic drilling. Start the recalls. It worked for Grey Davis - get rid of any of them against Americas security. They are traitors, willing to pay our enemies oil money so our enemies can attack us. Aren’t there any lawyers out there to start the recalls? Where are the patriots?
Having the 110th Congress hold hearings on why gas prices are so high is sort of like having the Nazis running the war crimes trials after WWII.
unDemocrats / liberals / socialists / communists / obama / maxine……all different words for the same thing. They like high prices ….they can control us more and after all that is the essence of being an unDemocrat
Would the real socialist, communist, progressive democrat please stand. Well, isn’t that a surprise. The majority of demunists are on their feet. Marxist Waters is finnaly out of the closet. And the look on her face. Oh no, what do I do now? How about resigning for a start.
to follow up: the unDemocrats know there is going to be hell to pay if oil prices keep going up. Notice they stopped yapping about global warming ?
It’s time to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1991.This creature has no business being in Congress.If Elbridge Gerry were alive,he’d be aghast.
This is another wonderful case for TERM LIMITS! These lawmakers are incompetent buffoons who merely have to pander to their base back home to get elected every 2 years. This blathering idiot has won 9 elections to the U.S. Congress! We will not see a change in Washington until we can term limits these freaks out after a few terms.
HOW DID A DIM BULB LIKE WATERS END UP IN OUR CONGRESS? HER SLIP OF THE TONGUE WAS VERY TELLING. TO THINK THAT OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING TO PAY A SALARY TO SOMEONE AS IDIOTIC AS THIS IS DEPRESSING! THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR MEMBERS OF THIS CONGRESS. QUITE FRANKLY, I THINK THE OIL EXECS SHOULD CHANGE PLACES WITH THE IDIOTS GRILLING THEM. LET THE OIL EXECS GRILL THE CONGRESS AND ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR “TAKE” FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS, IN NOT ALLOWING US TO DRILL OUR OWN OIL. IT LOOKS RIDICULOUS FOR OUR COUNTRY TO BEG OTHER COUNTRIES TO DRILL MORE, WHEN WE AREN’T DRILLING FOR OUR OWN. WHAT A MESS THIS CONGRESS HAS PUT US IN BY PUTTING THEIR REELECTIONS AHEAD OF THE “GOOD OF THE COUNTRY!”
THIS IS NOTHING NEW. IT IS A DEMAND FOR NATIONALIST SOCIALISM. IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO DUST OFF THEIR JACKBOOTS.OUR JOB IS TO STOP THEM. I SUGGEST CONGRESS NEEDS PROFESSIONAL HELP FOR EXTENDED PERIOD IN A SECURE FACILITY. THEY ARE ALL READY DOING A GREAT DEAL OF HARM TO THE ECONOMY. ALL FUELS THAT POWER THIS NATION ARE UNDER ATTACK.
AN EXAMPLE TAKEN FROM RIEGEL, INDUSTRIAL CHEMESTRY, 5TH EDITION, PAGE 404, COST,PRODUCTION AND USES OF INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL, TOPIC ETHYL ALCOHOL FROM CORN IS SHOCKING AND REQUIRES SCIENTIFIC NOTATION TO HANDLE NUMBERS OUT AND BEYOND TEN TO THE NINTH ( BILLIONS ).
33 BUSHELS OF CORN OR ONE TON PRODUCE 90 GALLONS OF 95% ALCOHOL. TO PRODUCE 100% REQUIRES A SULFERIC ACID PROCESS TO SUCK THE LAST OF THE WATER MOLECULES OUT OF THE PRODUCT.
THE US PRODUCES CURRENTLY ABOUT 32 BILLION BUSHELS. GRAB YOUR PENCILS. IF 10 BILLION BUSHELS WERE USED TO CREATE ETHYL ALCOHOL, HOW MANY GALLONS OF PRODUCT WOULD THE NATION HAVE?
NOT ONLY ARE THESE POLITICIAN DERANGED JUST THINK OF THE EXPORT TORTILLA GAP THIS WOULD CAUSE IN MEXICO.
I don’t believe she meant ‘nationalize’.
I think that SOCIALIZE is exactly what she meant and only after the word began to slither from her lips did she realize the cat was getting out of the bag.
I’m sure Maxine and Co. will be able to run the oil companies at least as well as they provide border security.
This is brilliant! Threaten the oil companies with nationalization and then wonder why they aren’t building any new refineries? These dim bulbs haven’t got a clue, and don’t even realize they can buy vowels!
It isn’t the threat of socialized oil that is hindering new oil production in the US… it is the leftist environmentalist wackos that care more about plants, animals and insects than about human beings.
Bruce, she meant, I believe, that as a Socialist, she would nationalize the oil companies, as did her fellow Socialist, Hugo Chavez in Venezuala, who just recently nationalized all the oil companies there.
I’ll accept that, Ron.
First, Rush Limbaugh listeners call themselves Dittoheads, not Didoheads. That is from a caller many years ago who wanted to reiterate the sentiments of prior callers without wasting the time to say it all again–namely that they like his show and appreciate that he voices an opinion they were unaccustomed to hearing, but generally agreed with.
Second, Maxine Waters is an idiot. Of course, she is a Liberal, which presumes she has to first be an idiot. She can not even speak English properly. We sure don’t need the likes of her running our oil companies or our medical system.
Third, the ACLU occasionally might do soemthing worhtwhile; but essentially it is a group of Communist perverts trying to damage our society as much as possible from within.
Bruce, those Leftist Environmentalists don’t actually care a hoot about animals or plants. They care about causing harm to America, the Great Satan. Most of them could not distinguish between a spotted owl and a sparrow. They are the same “activists” you see marching in gay day parades or anti-war protests.
I’ll buy that, too, Al.
Please clarify for me, though, your sentence:
“They care about causing harm to America, the Great Satan.”
Which is the subject of ‘the Great Satan’; ‘They’ or ‘America’?
I have to agree with a number of the comments above. The only way that we will have change in this country is to stop re-electing these people to Congress!!! We don’t need term limits as long as the American people take the time to look at the record of voting that the Representatives and Senators have. Our Constitution did not provide for term limits because the Founding Fathers would have never in their wildest dreams thought it would become a career for some. Do not re-elect any of them, just vote against all incumbents.
TAKE THEM OVER, AND STOP ALL NON-INDUSTRY SPECULATION, THAT IS NOT INVESTMENT ORIENTED.. prices will plummet.
We have nationalized airport guards, air traffic controllers, and prescription drugs because of Neocon Republicans efforts, and no one here is complaining about them, despite the fact they dont work well at all and cost a fortune.
The OIL that the oil industry is seeking is vastly from public land / public-owned off shore deposits.
Right now we are paying Exxon Amoco etc. to pump up the oil for their profit that the public owns,
deregulating hedge fund speculators who trade off-shore to avoid controls designed to prevent them from buying enough contracts to affect/scare up prices,
80% of all world oil production is nationalized ,…
which is why gas in Mexico costs the public about 2.20-2.50 a gallon for regular right now while my non-nationalized gas is nearly twice that. Mexico public resources are benefitting the mexicans not fat rich old men in office suites.
If the govt threatens to take over pot-holder of flip-flop manufacturing let me know, I`ll join the protest with you. If they want to take obver all oil refining and even exploration on public lands, I have zero problem with that- It is simply cutting out the middle man, which is entirely a good business principle- why pay fat rich old men to take free public resources and then sell them to the public that already own thems at a retail markup, while a seperate set of fat rich suited scumbags buys unregulated billions of oil futures on unregulated european exchanges from a manhatttan office and essentially bets that oil will stay above a certain elevated price point for more than four days, which enmasse scares up the pump price, screws you and me, and makes the hedge fund a 50% profit for four dasy of sitting on their ass.
Oh yeah, and while my actual LABOR earnings over those same four days was taxed at about 40% overall, their capital gains tax for four days of waiting and laughing while you pay through the nose to compensate speculators who have no oil, refining, industrial background, they never produced a damn thing, their capital gains tax rate for screwing you was 15%…
I may disagree with Maxine Waters on everything else, but on this shes actually brave enough to do what is in the best interest of the general public and thats the scariest thing their is to parasite, monoplistic speculators.
Functional lesson here- My enemies enemy can be my friend.
Hey, John Adams,Your kidding, right. Especially on Memorial day weekend, your gonna talk about taking private businesses away from Americans. Where were you when oil was 10 dollars a barrel, and the companies all went out of business?
Lets get serious here. If you really think the government runs anything efficiently, and would not find ways to run up the costs for their union thugs, your nuts. I”m in my fourth week waiting for my License plate for my big truck - paying storage while they try and get me the plate they’e had 60 days to get. Can you think of anything the government does efficiently of that does not cost twice what private industry pays? The government loves the high prices. They are making 3 to 4 times what the oil companies are, and they don’t have to do a thing. If the government could bring oil to the market, why don’t they? As you say, they own most of the land it’s on. They do not want, (and when I say they, I mean Maxine and the rest of her radical, leftist, environmentalist, global warming and ethanol scam loving anti-drilling democrat and rino traitors), America in the world position she currently holds. Obama and their ilk want us to feel bad for heating our houses, and worry about what the rest of the world thinks about how much we eat. He doesn’t realize, or want to admit, that the reason the rest of the world is starving is their all, with very few exceptions, dictators, Kings or socialist, communist countries. They would not be starving if they were free people. Americans are the most generous people on the planet, we give more money and help away, by far. If the rest of the people want to eat better, they should overthrow their governments. We’ll help, in the name of freedom. Now leave me alone, I’m turning up the heat so my 3 inch steak doesn’t get cold. The dog hates cold leftovers.
Right on, Ron.
‘ole ‘John Adams’ probably didn’t stop to consider that a hefty portion of what we are paying at the pump is freakin’ TAX…you know, that ever-increasing slice of our hard earned money which is grabbed by big government so they can give $350,000/year to Planned Parenthood to slaughter 3000 babies a day…(potential taxpayers that never see the light of day…now there is irony for you) and womb-to-tomb care for the entitlement mentality crowd that manages to be born.
Take a gander at this tax chart:
http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/upload/Jan08MFTNotes.pdf
Note that the two highest tax rates are Obama’s state of Illinois - 57.9 cpg and Clinton’s state of New York - 59.6 cpg (both figures include the flat fed tax that is levied in all states)
I wouldn’t trust Maxine and her crowd to manage a brothel, let alone the oil industry.
This sounds to me like she is proposing
FASCISM. Private ownership but government control. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Whose the Fascist now?
The gas cost portion we are paying in `tax` (including to support the costs of Neocon created public airport guards, public air traffic controllers and a MASSIVE Neocon taxpayer subsidized prescription drug plan only for enrolee`s / over a trillion there alone over the next 5 years or so)..
..absolutely PALES in comparison to to the portion of gas prices that are going to worthless, NON-industry speculators. The fact that OUR cash has lost nearly HALF its value in the past two Bush/Neocon presidential terms (where we have enabled a phony fixed trade scheme designed to offshore US manufacturing while allowing no-cost imports of the same products back into the US, treating them like US manufactures`) is also a crucial facet without which we COULD NOT be in this position.
You see, when you trade, your currency value rises with manufactures` export increases. Except.. our major trade `partner` (most favored nation status under Bush) from which we import a huge pt. of all our consumer goods, has a fixed currency valuation that does not represent it actual value, while we allow ours to fluctuate.
Thus, our dollar value will forever continue to tank under the Neocon trade schemes, because the sytem is `fixed` to ensure our trade partners currency value never goes up, while ours can plummet to a pathetic valuation and it will still be cheaper to manufacture in China than Cincinnati.
Then you want to buy a gallon of gas, and your oil which is the target of global speculators will cost you 50% more than it did in 2000 when your currency was still valuable. The speculators scare up the fact that US currency is devalued and has lost its overseas buying power, and the prices go even higher on speculation that the dollars decline will continue, based on the fact that our trading partner has a protected, fixed currency while we have years ago sold out our own industrial base under Bush.
Knocking out the Soros-class speculators would alone almost entirely solve the problem. Neither Bush nor the dem leadership wants to even talk about the Hedge Fund speculators becasue their parties get a cut of those profits back in the form of PAC donations, and those Hedge Fund class speculators are there friends.
I have no issue with nationalizing a crucuial resource that the public already owns in the first place.
We dont hire mercanaries to do all our fighting in war,we have a natioanlized fighting force because merc`s are only out for money, they have no interest in what is best for the nation.. we recognize that to have an effective military force some things are crucial enough, and costly enought that they cannot be outsourced and must be undertaken for national security reasons.
Oil is critical to every other facet of our national security. period. Coupled with the fact that `Business` generally doesnt require that public resources be given to them so that `business` can recover the resources and sell that at markup to the consumer who owned them in the first place. Oil is not a business in the sense of a legit manufacturer.. it requires public subsidy to gain the raw material it needs.
The oil industry is simply a `middle man` i.e.- simply a salesman, not a legit business, and all they bring to the table is the actual refining. The oild industry will not undertake new refining beccasue it is in their interest to maintain a artifical ceiling on fuel, to control any price deflation.
Thus, in conclusion, if `oil` companies need `my` nearly free oil fields to gain product, dont build new refining because it will decrease the value/availability of their product, they are in truth needed no more than Bush seems to feel the US needs to protect its manufacturing base. The extraction and refining means can easily be nationalized, and if EVEN IN MEXICO, one of the most corrupt, disfunctional, screwed up nations in the hemisphere, the consumer product is HALF OUR CURRENT COST, it simply makes financial sense.
CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN.
Great rhetoric Mr. Adams, considering you are apparantly a Fascist also.
Government can not solve the problem, Government IS the problem.
Yes, Maxine Waters statements would sound ludicrous if you, good Americans, had stopped the restriction of alternative fuel source development.
Mr. Adams does swing into a couple of facts. The Soros-money fixing commodities speculators, among others, are screwing us. I still maintain that the oil companies, which Mr. Adams has apparently not heard calling for refineries, the ones that can’t get them built due to some bug somewhere, that percentage wise are not making more then any major American Company, and make less then most, only control 4% of the wold market. Exxon mobile controls 2% of the market. Nothing they do short of bringing new product to the market, or directly to us, will lower fuel prices. Certainly the government would never be able to run it as efficiently as the private sector. They have never run anything as efficiently as the private sector, due to their relationship with their UNION THUGS. All congress has to do is remove the restrictions, grant emergency status to the companies to build and drill. Or, if they really cared abut the citizens, they would do what Mr. Adams suggested, build and run their own government oil production company to go get the oil in this country for this country. IF they cared, which they don’t. They love this deal, they can blame the capitalist system and steal as much of the oil companies business as they can, and , with the help of a socialist media, look like champions while the countries economy collapses. Private industry built these companies. If the government made bad deals, they have to live with that, or go around it. And, BTW, There are no restrictions on building alternative fuel sources. Go do it. It’s a free country. Why the oil companies should have to put one dime into alternative energy, I don’t know. You want Alternative energy, do it and shut up. I’ll pay for it when I can use it. Until then, I want my oil company to find and refine oil. We are being screwed because 80% of the world market is non-capitalist. The are rigging the market. We are paying our enemies for oil we need, because the traitors in Washington won’t get out of the way of business. Want cheaper prices for everything? STOP VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS!
Chauna, et al.. I expect we all agree that if you want a solution you first have to be able to articulate where the problem originated…
Frankly, 90%+ of americans cant do that.
Show me where a oil company in the past twenty years launched a full scale, financed effort to have a refinery built and had it suppressed or derailed.
There arent any beyond casual, insincere proposals, and if there were any instances of derailed refinery construction, congress would have gotten an earful on it last week, along with a laundry list of each occasion they obtained land, began engineering, and pulled permits for a refinery only to have it derailed by environmetalists and /or NIMBY types. There is no shortage of oil on the market as we speak, there is only a limitation of refining capacity.. at this time. If all of AMWAR were waiting to be refined to morrow we couldnt do anything with it beacsue there is no surplus refining capacity- that is the real choke point, not exploration or new drilling.
I do not like or dislike Oil companies per se, they just offer nothing of value, and there is no reason I should have publicly owned resources transferred to a private company, sold back to me at retail markup. It is not `pro` or `anti` oil business, it is just anti-bad deal for `joe consumer`.
Thus you end up with a very complicated problem which was deliberately INDUCED, make no mistake, and those who are affected cannot articulate either a VERY brief, general (as I did above) overview of causation, nor the route to a solution.
The almost certain end result will be confused individuals who in certainty of their own sloganeering shout `facist` etc,.. because they have no actual understanding of what has actually taken place or who/why/who enabled it.
Bush is a very liberal republican, and his trade policy has damaged our very currency valuation to its core, and induced commodity inflation joined to the currency deflation. This ahs been capitaized on to add new levels of gouging and misery.
We cannot pull out of this tailspin because our manufacturing infrastructure, which is the economic driver of free markets, has simultaneously been deliberately exported, enmasse.
The result is we have to deficit spend (enjoy your 600 check) to create a `stepped` descent into reccesion that will take longer to establish itself, instead of an obvious `sloped` plummet into reccesion, that we can all see over a few short months.
Most people fail to understand the Bear Stearns bailout and Bush`s reason for financing it. We just spent Hundreds of billions of your childrens and grandchildrens tax dollars to bail out a corrupt investment (non-guaranteed) bank that knowingly made worthless loans to prop up the US financial system. This again, didnt `fix` any problems, it just pushed it off onto a future date/administration.
Bear Stearns could have very likely caused the collapse of our financial system, and we did the equivalent of a `duct tape` patch of borrowed chinese funds to make it go away for a while. The problems associated to BS and th corrupt financial industry are only just starting, and i will guarantee you that you are going to get juiced for bailouts by others in this industry who threaten to take down our financial system with them unless the taxpayers give them the same deal.
Do I agree with democrat `solutions`? Other than scrappping bad fixed industry export schemes marketed as `free` trade, I havent heard any, and even those industry export plans are dubious considering Clintons` campaign is being run by Mark Penn, who is on the 20 Million $ payroll of Columbia to lobby for `free` trade (meaning remaining US industry will be rewarded for relocating to comumbia), while Clinton publicly says something different. Obama claims to oppose NAFTA then sends his aides to tell the canadians behind the scenes that he didnt really mean it, and later lies when he is caught.
The reality is, anyone who thinks the Bush Repub Neocon leadership or the Clueless Democrat leadership are going to `fix` anything is out of their mind. They are both going to keep catering to the demands of their respective funding lobbies, and borrowing from Chinese shylocks at your kids expense to pass the problems down the line.
These problems need to be viewed in an entirety of bad deals and decision making that interact with one another to create and amplify the inflationary impact. If you are only looking at the pump price and then shouting `damn those oil companies`, or `see what happens when we havent drilled in ANWAR` you are not understanding how this cumulatively came to be, OR more importantly, whats coming at you next.
Hey John Adams, I just can’t believe your ignorance. The oil companies bring “nothing of value.”? That says it all. You have nothing to say about our worthless congress, who for 35 years have passed regulations against the oil companies, and only do things to increase their value, (their, or their
(continued from above) (their, or their
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Hey John Adams, I just can’t believe your ignorance. The oil companies bring “nothing of value.”? That says it all. You have nothing to say about our worthless congress, who for 35 years have passed regulations against the oil companies, and only do things to increase their value, (their, or their UNION THUGS bank accounts value, I mean- how do our reps. get into congress and become millionaires on their salaries, hmmm, but I digress). Every private business in this country, to the smallest candy store, is of more value then the theives in Washington produce all their lives. You are a perfect government drone, you drank the public education, “government can do it all” kool-aid, and you think private business has no value. So much for anything elde you have to say, go work for the socialist Waters, you deserve each other. Do us all a favor though. Go to a socialist country and try your ideas, leave us capitalists and our private businesses alone. As Reagan said,”Government can’t solve the problem, government, (and willing sheep like John Adams), are/is the problem”. Post away J.A., I know now to ignore your postings as ignorant anti-capitalist rants.
We have the last bastion of Liberty in the world. Our politicians want to end that.
Could Thomas Jefferson be elected today? When will people wake-up and fight the Socialistic movement that controls our Government Schools, Congress and the Senate?
We need a refreshed fight for Liberty.
Mad Max is from the same socialists crowd itching to get their paws in the Pride of American Industry and make it a redistribution platform !
This is the type of crowd Obama has around him as supporters !! Wait till Farrahkhan ,Jeese the James and Rev Sharpie Sharpton get in IF Obama is elected !!
The genius of Barack Hussein Obama:
“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”
Hello?!?!?
*** This is the type of crowd Obama has around him as supporters !! ***
Uh, actually Waters endorsed Hillary Clinton.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/maxine_waters_f.html
But thanks for playing anyway.
There is no way you can get a political ghetto rat out of the ghetto. LA, Detroit, NY, NO, CHI, etc., AND THEY’RE ALL functional illiterates who exploit their constituants by using hate and false promises for their own gain to stay in public office. They capitalise on ignorance and stupidity Because they are themselves ignorant and stupid, BUT cunning and shrewd. So whaddaya gonna do? Bitch and moan? Tell me, what good does that do? We’re stuck folks. And, we’re stuck for a long time. Now try blaming that on George W. Bush.
My question of the day. What event happened in November 2006 to cause both food and gasoline prices to sky rocket?
You put a bag of manure in front of a Democrat and inevitably they’re going to step in it. Maxine Waters stepped on it and rolled in it. She gets caught. But I’ll give her this..she has been honest. She has told us what liberals and leftists in this country genuinely would like to do.
This is amazing that we even have to have this discussion in this country. Hey john Adams, Waters did not say that the government would start producing oil or create a national company to do it, she said she would be all about taking over their companies. She has had nothing to do with creating Shell or keeping it afloat during the bust of the 80’s and the no profit prices of the 90’s and she is not responsible for the billions of dollars they have invested in learning how to extract oil and do it safely and efficiently. So what right does she or any government have in “taking” over their companies. That is socialism and it will not be tolerated in this country. If the government can get oil and compete with the oil companies then let them, they have no right in taking over that company though. And by the way, you keep talking about public land… can you point to the constitution and tell me where the government has any right to own land??? ANWR is a farce because the government has no right to own that land. They hide behind the umbrella that they are “protecting” and “preserving” a piece of wildlife area when they are overstepping their constitutional bounds. It was meant for private entities to do what the government has no right to do. You also say that the oil companies give nothing of value?? If there was oil 4000 feet under your house could you get it out?? You may be paying for that product but in that price reflects the labor, technology, and most importantly the liablity in getting that product out of the ground. It may be “public” land that is in dispute but the oil companies still pay the government obscene taxes when it is not public land that they extract oil from so what right does the government have in making any profit off of the production of a product from private land when they have no investment in the tecnology or labor to produce the product and do not lift a finger to make one drop of gasoline. If the government and Waters was smart they would realize that by allowing an estimated 5,000,000 barells a day to be produced out of ANWR alone the tax revenue from that production alone would be staggering. Not to mention the fact that we could potentially become and exporter of oil reather than and inporter of oil, I would think that with your view of international economics that would make the most sense for our currency and our standing in the international markets. That would then warrant the case for an oil company to want to build new refineries because it would be profitable to do so. Because not only could they refine fuel in America and save us from importing nearly 60% of our refined feul but also it would be profitable for them to start increased refining to export to growing countries like China and India. There is supply problem and the problem is that we import more oil than we produce in this country, and we import it from the very people that are artificially bidding up the futures… and you have so diligently explained how that works in your posts but what you failed to see is that it is not oil execs doing the bidding it is those in control of the largest oil productions in the wourld… OPEC. The oil companies are merely reaping the benifits of OPEC’s strategy to cripple us economically. If we were to produce our own oil and maybe even enough to become an exporter of oil then we would have market control just like private companies had control of the oil production of the OPEC fields before the 70’s. You say that 80% of the world is nationalized oil like it is a good thing. Nationalized oil is what go us where we are today. When private oil companies owned the fields that OPEC now runs they produced more as demand got higher, but that is not what the OPEC crowd is doing right now. Overall the production of oil from OPEC controlled fields has stayed consitient since the 70’s when they took over even though demand has gone through the roof. In short, your disgust is directed at the wrong entity and our only way to get free from that entity is to become energy independent once again. And that is what the guy from shell was trying to get across so brilliantly when Waters proved how inept she and the rest of them are at saving us from this problem. Private competition in any market will always produce a better result than government intervention.
Ralph, I entirely agree with you on exploration, and I think you misunderstand me if you feel that I suggested that DOMESTIC oil exploration should be limited.
I said that lack of new fields was NOT the cause of the current price escalation, but at no point advocated FOR restraining public OR private exploration or recovery.
You also would have a hard time finding someone who would agree with you any more strongly that federalized land ownership, which in some western states amounts to the preponderance of the land, is inexcusable unless its realistically needed for a military base or is a part of a park system. That didnt occur recently though, and I think that although its a valid point, you are moving far afield into a separate though legitimate topic.
Oil companies pay a royalty.. sometimes. but they are generally legacy royalties that given modern recovery expenses and sales price are the eqivalent of you buying a brand new Chevrolet for 500 bucks.
I do not preclude a private firm from accessing deposits found on their own land and profitting by their work. No one short of a real wartime emergency has the right to prevent private investment in privately owned mineral rights, as long as your not destroying your neighbors water table or dumping spoil on THEIR land, as that amounts to a situation not dissimilar to eminent domain. If you dont have rights to use your OWN land, then you are effectively being deprived of your property.
The problem is, the oil companies can pull or reopen wells on private lands, but their real value per cost to access (`fracing` colorado shale is costly and difficult) is going to be the large proved, known deposits, and they want the known oil fields at continuing bargain basement prices on PUBLIC lands that they do not have to acquire, but can exploit by paying (or not) a token fee to the Feds.
Should far-fetched polar bear devastation claims stop Alaskan oil field production?.. a resounding no. However, given the current consumer cost it is unwise to allow the past deals with private firms on Pulic land to continue, AS BEFORE.
Ideally, I would like to see a federal refinery system, accompanying the storage system we already maintain for refined emergency stores. It does not have to rival the size of even one domestic refiner. A hundred Billion for a two million barrel a day maximum capacity is all it would take, and this is how it would work;
My suggestion would be to kill two birds with one stone, and utilize the Federal sytem at all times to supply fuel to the emergency stockpile, thus maintaining its staffing and physical plant, but at a reduced capacity EXCEPT-
If we face speculation interference as is curently the place, or if prices breach a cutoff, lets say for argument of $70 a barrel, we dont call any oil exec`s in front of a photo-op congressional hearing, we dont send the president to hold hands with the Saudi `king` and beg his intercession, we dont waste time trying futily to regulate / plead for mercy from foreign commodity markets set up to juice us-
We do only two things-
1) All oil recovery royalty agreements are open to suspension at our discretion, if the producer cannot maintain the per barrel ceiling, and its production will revert to /be utilized to supply the emergency federal refinery sytem. If the private company cannot make a legit profit off of 70 dollar barrels, they cannot meet the obligation of the contract and it will become non-exclusive.
The free market is now introduced as we have the greatest of all elements in play- COMPETITION and INCENTIVE,..
.. which do not exist under current, poorly executed exclusive royalty licenses that simply charge based upon the companies REPORTED production.
2) At the arrival/approach of the price ceiling, the federal refining system will be utilized beyond its previous stockpile-only capacity and will supply the difference to thwart speculatory pressures on the price. You gain a second advantage here, because the speculation is largely discouraged as we now have the means to largely ensure a fixed price point within a deniable margin, ovecoming spikes or volatility, which is difficult for speculators to make any sizeable profit off of.
We spent more in Iraq over the past six months than it would take to implement this system to pre-production phase. Problem solved. Now lets get back to screaming nonsense thats fun, and makes us feel good, and actually acomplish nothing.
You shall know them by their fruits.
And the oil company response to the heated question about nationalizing oil companies..it would be called what Hugo Chevez is doing in his country. But then look at the prices there…. and in Mexico. I see NO high prices there!
Will, More to the point, Mexico`s production / exploration oversight as well as general industry competency is minimal, and even in that case the price is still within the two dollar a gallon range converted from litres.
We have the potential to significantly decrease consumer cost under esentially a competitive licensing plan. You cant really count Chavez as a operations standard bearer though.. he is essentially using the state oil revenue MONOPOLY as a giant bribe to underwrite/reward his lackeys there and abroad.
If we refuse to regulate speculation, then the alternative is to increase competition. Move from a straight legacy royalty scheme for public land to a controlled site licensing system, and if the major players dont want to involve themselves domestically in a plan that builds a profit into the license, then we benefit from a resurgence of small AMERICAN companies who want to profit from those public site licenses, instead of a globalist conglomerate that has grown contempful.
When we utilized auto manufacturers in WWII to build tanks and typewriter manufacturers to assemble Carbines they didnt take it to court, or threaten legal action, they said they wanted to do their part for the nation. Make no mistake, THAT WAS nationalizing industry, and it won us WWII.
When you embrace the Neocon globalization of industry that we have been taught to love as so `conservative` guess what?.. that isnt `american` industry anymore, even though it may have the same name, it doesnt have the same interest and its welfare no longer rises and falls with that of its parent nation state.
Anytime we hear talk of promoting `business` and `trade` listen very closely, because US NATIONAL interests are likely about to get shoved in the backseat or the trunk, while globalist interests move to the front seat.
Globalism and NATIONALISM are not compatible as the former requires a donor state oblivious of its own potential dismantlement(globalism) and the latter requires a vigilance to its own individual economic interest.
We can for minimal cost add what would essentially be an available 10% federal cushion to our current refining capacity, use it process stock rotated out of the emerg. reserve, and pay for a at least a significant part of continuing sytem operations/maintenance in that manner- when you need it to expand refining operations, you have that option.
Ebonics on the floor of the senate,haha.It will only get worse if Obama gets in the Whitehouse.This woman is a simian with language skills.
Time to reintroduce COMPETITION to the oil industry, BUILD refineries, and DRILL wherever we need as long as we aren’t making a mess. I don’t think a pipeline is going to hurt wildlife anymore than a new subdivision at the edge of a city. Additionally, we have a government that has way overstepped its CONSTITUTIONAL bounds and needs to be returned to its proper CONSTITUTIONAL RESTRAINT! It’s time for REAL CONSERVATIVES to LEAVE the Republican Party and start their own. Without the conservative base, they will die . . . and although for sometime the Democrats would have power, a party based around FREEDOM, OPTIMISM, and the CONSTITUTION can come out of the woodwork and take over. LETS DO IT!
. . . .and no, this is not a Ron Paul front. Frankly, Ron Paul doesn’t have the ability to communicate the message well enough, however his heart is in the right place. Someone with the same convictions, but the communication skills of Reagan and the organizational skills of Gingrich . . . . and some of his communication skills too. Right now, there is nobody that fits that mold.
Was Maxine Waters smoking crack when she made the remark…suggesting to socialize the oil industry on the pretense of lowering oil and gas prices.
Please tell me she was on crack. In these uncertain times, I need some assurances.
Wow! Where to start?
If you watch carefully, Madam Waters pauses after she said “socializing”. That is the moment that she realized she was saying what she was thinking, and not thinking about what she was saying. During the pause, She probably was contemplating the fallout that was sure to occur, but still decided to plow on. Of course not real criticism of her or her remarks was expressed in the media.
As far as I know anyone can speculate in the oil markets. Private individuals like John Adams, or groups like HEDGE FUNDS can speculate on oil. Just a reminder: Madam Hillary Clinton nee Rodham, speculated with $1000 dollars on cattle futures, and came out with $10,000. What may not be known is speculating on futures is a zero sum gain. That means for every position holder that makes money, there is a position holder that loses money.
The tank producers of WWII bid on the opportunity to create tanks. They were not nationalized as implied above. The producers had a profit motive.
The U.S. government has a lot of oil stored in the strategic reserve. This is the oil that will be used by the military to protect the U.S. when every other oil source goes dry. Regular citizens will have to figure other ways of getting to work, because this oil isn’t for them.
Since the dollar is weak, the U.S. will be a destination for a vacationing world. U.S. products are more affordable overseas. Unfortunately it is a burden here.