Another year of 'drill baby, drill'?

[Joanne98]

Source: Politico


Rising crude oil and gasoline prices mean that Republicans and Democrats are getting their talking points ready for what some say could be a repeat of the partisan rancor in the summer of 2008.

For Republicans, they hope the silver lining of higher prices will provide greater emphasis for their “all of the above” strategy toward increasing domestic production of oil, gas, nuclear, coal and alternative energy sources.


“It’s obviously going to spur interest in Congress,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “Because I’ll tell you, there’s nothing more politically sensitive than the price of gasoline.”

In 2008, Republicans used the pressure from high oil and gasoline prices to force Democrats to give up the congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling. The effort hit a high point with the “Drill baby, drill” chants at the Republican National Convention that September.





Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47390.html

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Oh Yeah! Because a Gulf of Mexico full of oil and death isn't good enough for them. They want MORE!

[athenavxx]

1. Environmentalists stand strong

The corporate execs at the oil companies are starting to get greedy again. They are jacking up the prices that American pay for oil so that they can have fatter paychecks and more obscene bonuses.

In Venezuela the oil companies belong to the government. They are run for the benefit of the workers and the people. Why can't we do that type of thing here in the United States?

[defendandprotect]

2. Another year of right wing "Kill baby, Kill" ... ???

[Terry in Austin]

3. Post-peak price volatility

Yes, there are speculators. Yes, there are greedy companies. They're the bullet, the proximate cause.

But the root cause -- the guy pulling the trigger, so to speak -- is the decline of oil production worldwide.

Oil production stopped growing in 2006. It will never be higher, just because of plain old cussed geology. We're now on what some describe as the "bumpy plateau" that will continue for several years before production starts heading noticeably downward.

Prices will be particularly bumpy -- they go up, economy stalls, demand goes down, economy recovers enough for demand to come back, prices go back up and so on. We'll probably see several major oscillations like the 2008 price spike before the economy gets used to a long-term decline in supply. Prices will still rise according to the increasing scarcity, but more steadily and predictably.

All the rest -- speculators, greedy companies, weak dollar, offshore drilling, political posturing, dog ate it, you name it -- it's a classic exercise involving deck chairs on the Titanic. None of it is going to put more oil in the ground.