(Chancellor Gordon) Brown blames Opec for fuel crisis (BBC)

[icymist]

Brown blames Opec for fuel crisis

Chancellor Gordon Brown has pointed the finger of blame at oil cartel Opec for the petrol crisis but has ruled out tax cuts to ease forecourt prices.

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr, the Chancellor said Opec has failed to respond quickly enough to the surging demand for oil from China.

He called on Opec to increase supplies and relieve pressure on prices.

(more)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4234788.stm

[TheFarseer]

1. More 1970's thinking

Why are we plagued by 1970's thinking? Let's think futuristic. Everyone says the oil will run out sooner or later (except rush limbaugh) so let's do something about that.

[Canuckistanian]

2. What an idiot

It's not the crude oil supply, it's the refining capacity that's causing this.
That, and the burgeoning demand from China and India. Pumping more crude isn't going to solve anything.

[JoFerret]

10. That's the last thing Gordon Brown is.

.

[sakabatou]

12. Brown: Unqualified at everything

[buzzsaw_23]

3. OPEC's cutting into

our divine right to consume?

MORE_MORE_MORE

[leesa]

4. Right. Never mind the gouging by the non-OPEC energy industry.

Why aren't you blaing Blair for screwing up the oil supply in Iraq?? Or Bush for turning Venezuela and Canada against the US and UK and into the arms of China's oil needs.

[Strelnikov_]

5. OPEC Production Has Flatlined

Mr. Brown may want to do some quick reading on Peak Oil.


OPEC Output Increases Just 10,000 Barrels Per Day in August

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_f...

"It is becoming increasingly obvious that in the short term most OPEC countries cannot produce much more than they are doing," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts. "We are seeing very small increments even though prices are higher, in nominal terms, than they have ever been."

[Zynx]

7. Oil production all over the world has basically peaked out.

There is some room for increases, but the difficulty is that so many oil fields are depleting rapidly.

[Zynx]

6. We've used oil for over a century. It's time we changed.

It was time thirty years ago too, but we can't do anything about that now. At least we can have to good sense to change now.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Mr. Brown just went down a couple of points on the Jack Rabbit index

Welcome to the world of peak oil, Mr. Brown.

Oil production is at an all-time high. OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing nations are doing their part to keep prices in line. In case anybody needs to be told, that effort is largely futile.

The increased supply is outstripped by increased demand. This is due to large economies like China and India emerging from developing to developed status. One third of humanity lives in one of those two nations. Those economies need petroleum to fuel their industries just as much as those in more established western nations.

This is why we should not expect to see the pump price below $2/gallon again.

Mr. Brown would make more sense if he demanded that China and India remain in relative poverty. However, it would not be politically correct for the finance minister of a western nation to demand that developing nations stop developing in order for western consumers to pay lower prices. So, of course, neither Mr. Brown nor any one else is going to propose that.

The only real solution is to develop alternate sources of energy in order to supplement and eventually supplant fossil fuel. The west has wasted enough time on this effort.

It shouldn't concern us if western profit centers like ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco are swept into the dust bin of history by this effort. Better them than us. After all, they exist for our benefit, not the other way around.

[dansolo]

9. And how much of the increased demand

Is a direct result of the outsourcing of US manufacturing plants? I don't see how officials can't recognize that if we continue to ship our factories overseas, the demand for oil in those places will increase.

[SoCalDem]

11. Perhaps the developed world should have thought twice before they

slingshotted China into the 21st century.. China did nto "move forward" at a normal pace.. Their leaders saw an opportunity to JUMP in with both feet and they DID it.

Western companies came there are built factories there because of the cheap labor..Those plastic trinkets are not the bargain they once were when we now have to pay $3 a gallon to drive to where they are sold:eyes:...

China's "great leap forward" is in overdrive, and it's not stopping, so we might as well get used to it..

The western world helped them get there and now we pay the price.. They need the same oil we used to count on for ourselves..

Like when you bring 3 friends home to dinner without telling Mom.. You get to share YOUR dinner with them..(you get less)

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Remember, their interests are not necessarily our interests

The interests of business is to maximize return on investment; the interest of the worker is to maximize wages. In an ideal free market, that should arrive at a fair wage. However, with workers in industrialized countries now directly competing with working in less developed countries, wages are lower all over.

Those making low wages are not good consumers. The race to the bottom is a lose/lose proposition.

The interest of transnational corporations in the global free market will be to keep wages low. An authoritarian regime like China is best suited for that. The question becomes what the Chinese government will do to keep their workers in line without giving them the benefits of their labor. That doesn't sound pretty. In fact, it sounds like a police state.