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  Betzee at 10:43 PM JST - 22nd June

  As someone living in a state where gas prices are approaching $5.00 a gallon, I do wonder how all those driving gas guzzlers can afford to fill up their tanks. They now have to face the hard-budget constraint consequences of their choices. Some far-sighted leadership from the WH might have lessened the pain.

  Specifically, GWB never pushed Detroit to improve mileage standards. Now the no end in sight to escalating prices at the pump has resulted in auto assembly plant closings in the USA. Who in their right mind is gonna buy an SUV these days? By contrast, to buy a Japanese hybrid, requires buyers to get on a wait list. As Tom Friedman observes, a real leader would have said the following:

  “Oil is poisoning our climate and our geopolitics, and here is how we’re going to break our addiction: We’re going to set a floor price of $4.50 a gallon for gasoline and $100 a barrel for oil. And that floor price is going to trigger massive investments in renewable energy — particularly wind, solar panels and solar thermal. And we’re also going to go on a crash program to dramatically increase energy efficiency, to drive conservation to a whole new level and to build more nuclear power. And I want every Democrat and every Republican to join me in this endeavor.”

  That’s what a real president would do. He’d give us a big strategic plan to end our addiction to oil and build a bipartisan coalition to deliver it. He certainly wouldn’t be using his last days in office to threaten Congressional Democrats that if they don’t approve offshore drilling by the Fourth of July recess, they will be blamed for $4-a-gallon gas.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22friedman.html?hp

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  Betzee at 10:46 PM JST - 22nd June

  As Tom Friedman continues:

  But, most of all, this deadline is from a president who hasn’t lifted a finger to broker passage of legislation that has been stuck in Congress for a year, which could actually impact America’s energy profile right now — unlike offshore oil that would take years to flow — and create good tech jobs to boot.

  That bill is H.R. 6049 — “The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008,” which extends for another eight years the investment tax credit for installing solar energy and extends for one year the production tax credit for producing wind power and for three years the credits for geothermal, wave energy and other renewables.

  These critical tax credits for renewables are set to expire at the end of this fiscal year and, if they do, it will mean thousands of jobs lost and billions of dollars of investments not made.

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  yabits at 12:16 AM JST - 23rd June

  The problem is simple, most of the 68 million acres of land or ocean that they can drill on per the leases have not been proven to contain any oil at all.

  The facts are -- according the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration -- that the US has an estimated 86 billion barrels in reserves, only 14 billion of which lie in the moratorium areas. That's 85% of the reserves held in areas where the oil companies are authorized to explore and drill. What the oil companies are doing is using the fallout of higher prices to get access to 100% of the reserves while they've got an administration that's friendly to their interests.

  Leave ANWR alone.

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  yabits at 12:26 AM JST - 23rd June

  As Tom Friedman observes, a real leader would have said the following...

  Go back to early 1977 and you'll find that then-President Carter developed the first-ever energy policy for the nation, telling us that ending our dependence on imported energy is the moral equivalent of war. He helped pushed through deregulation policies and conservation initiatives which eventually helped break OPEC's back and buy the US a good 25 years of breathing room.

  What happened? Successive Republican administrations (helped by Democratic representatives from the auto-producing states) eased up on CAFE standards for vehicles and Americans went back to buying gas guzzlers and homes farther and farther out, which increased communte times. Few took mass transit or car-pooled.

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  adaydream at 12:29 AM JST - 23rd June

  I guess I have no problem with more oil leases, but they aren't using what they got already.

  I understand they aren't testing or drilling in about 78% of their current leases.

  They reduce the size of their pipeline to help push up prices. < :-)

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  yabits at 12:42 AM JST - 23rd June

  I understand they aren't testing or drilling in about 78% of their current leases.

  Your numbers are accurate. Republican politicians from Florida and South Carolina -- where many of these reserves sit -- would find it politically much more expedient to dig up a wilderness area in Alaska which contains a only small percentage of what is needed.

  South Carolina Senator Linsey Graham -- McCain's campaign manager -- was on Meet the Press this morning, and he had to explain his comments in 2005 where he said that drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Gulf (where most reserves are located) was sending the wrong signal at the wrong time to try to wean our dependence on foreign oil. Now he's talking out of the other side of his mouth.

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  faulkmore at 12:52 AM JST - 23rd June

  yabits at 12:16 AM JST - 23rd June writes...

  The facts are -- according the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration -- that the US has an estimated 86 billion barrels in reserves, only 14 billion of which lie in the moratorium areas. That's 85% of the reserves held in areas where the oil companies are authorized to explore and drill. What the oil companies are doing is using the fallout of higher prices to get access to 100% of the reserves while they've got an administration that's friendly to their interests.

  Leave ANWR alone.

  It's amazing so many people from the US, not living in Japan, writing comments On JT. Wouldn't be surprised if Democrats Abroad Japan are sending mail outs asking mainlanders to flood JT with their comments.

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  Betzee at 02:45 AM JST - 23rd June

  I'm not for offshore drilling. The California coast, in my opinion, is one of the country's most accessible national treatures. It also supports a thriving tourist industry that draws people from all over the world (particularly when the US dollar is weak). I stand behind Arnold Schwarzenegger in his opposition and feel it's sad he has not been able to dispel the myth real men can't be environmentalists. Keep tryin', Arnie!

  By the administration's own reckoning, off-shore drilling won't have an impact on US production before 2030. (But, hey, you're welcome to hang on to the SUV just in case.) It's understandable GWB would offer false hope of a quick fix but John McCain's flip-flop is not reassuring. Does he understand we can't drill ourselves out of this mess? Opening up coastal deposits would unlikely have any effect on the price since the amounts are too small to make a difference.

  We do, however, have an unrivaled ability to innovate. Just throw the people who can do that some tax credits. I mean it's not like oil industry doesn't get them, after all. Silicon Valley is already the world leader in clean technology. But unless there's a strong signal from the government it's serious about kicking our addiction to oil period, venture capitalists will worry the transition costs will be unattractive in the event increased outflow reduces the price of oil.

  Given the start-up costs, they are a highly risk averse bunch who are all too aware government funding for energy research and development today in about one-fifth of what is was in 1979. That means the private sector is going to have to carry a much larger load.

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  SuperLib at 12:25 PM JST - 23rd June

  What about other drilling, Betzee?

  From what I've been reading the drilling won't impact prices, and higher oil prices will start to shift investment to alternate sources of fuel, so drilling won't take away that benefit.

  The drilling will cause the US to import less of the oil we need from other nations, and again that's good in my book.

  States will still have the final say, so if The Terminator doesn't want it in his state and if people in California and Florida agree then they can get their way. And if Alaska wants the jobs and revenues then they also get what they want.

  The biggest concern I have right now is how the process will play out. I don't trust the US government to make the right decisions when the oil companies come knocking, but the issue is in the spotlight and that should provide some better oversight from environmental groups and other groups that will work to make sure special interests aren't the only ones who benefit.

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  Betzee at 12:47 PM JST - 23rd June

  The ban on offshore drilling was originally implemented back in 1981 after a spill off scenic Santa Barbara. The platforms were never removed; they are visible to the naked eye of anyone who drives on the 101. Obviously, it was quite close to shore.

  How much oil is where and when it's peaking is subject to pure speculation (by people with varying degrees of knowledge often working with limited information). I would like to see us move away from dependence on oil. R and D, of course, costs so much and those in a position to undertake it with respect to developing alternative sources of energy are waiting for some type of deal from Washington to reduce their risks. Corporate subsidies in America don't come in the form of Uncle Sam handing you money, rather it's some type of tax reduction. So people are waiting for the next administration to unveil its plan (before formulating their own business plans).

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  adaydream at 12:50 PM JST - 23rd June

  Whine..whine...whine. george bush screwed up this economy almost all by himself. It also took the republican congress. < :-)

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  Jahdog at 05:12 PM JST - 23rd June

  KoolAid, you asked about Bush's oil buddies. There's Cheney, for one.

  The son of Prescott Bush, who was forced by the Trading With the Enemy Act to cut all ties with Hitler and the Nazis in 1942, was so involved with Saudi Arabia that no matter how hostile, no matter how many human rights violations, he still glad-handed the nation because of the money and favors it bestowed upon him and, of course, his buddies. The grandson, Junior, has been in the pocket of Big Oil since he was barely a shrub... http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/OPINION/806210327

  Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat...The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India...

  Sensitive to the appearance that they were profiting from the war and already under pressure because of record high oil prices, senior officials of two of the companies, speaking only on the condition that they not be identified, said they were helping Iraq rebuild its decrepit oil industry. http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15929.html

  ...executives Stephen Simon of Exxon Mobil, John Hofmeister of Shell Oil, Peter Robertson of Chevron, John Lowe of ConocoPhillips, and Robert Malone of BP America.

  Sam Nunn joined Chevron’s board in 1997 (Condi Rice 1991-2001). Richard Armitage and fmr. Asst Secretary of State J. Stapleton Roy are Conoco directors http://news.muckety.com/2008/04/02/sam-nunn-should-share-chevrons-hot-seat/1722?rLink

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  Sarge at 05:47 PM JST - 23rd June

  Jahdog - "The grandson, Junior, has been in the pocket of Big Oil since he was barely a shrub"

  You really hate our president and our oil companies, don't you?

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  Betzee at 10:30 PM JST - 23rd June

  The platforms were never removed; they are visible to the naked eye of anyone who drives on the 101.

  They may not be the actual platforms but something similar used to secure the hole cap. Nonetheless, the evidence of the drilling which occurred almost three decades ago is a permanent fixture on the coastline.

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  tashidelek at 02:24 PM JST - 26th June

  ha ha ha

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