U.S. Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges

[marmar]

Published on Friday, September 2, 2011 by Inter Press Service
U.S. Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges

by Stephen Leahy


With four times as many oil rigs pumping domestic oil today than eight years ago and declining domestic demand, the United States is awash in oil. In fact, the U.S. exports more oil than it imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration - and has done so for nearly two decades.

The country's oil industry is primarily interested in who will pay the most on the global marketplace. They call that "energy security" when it suits, but in reality it is "oil company security" through maximizing profits, say energy experts like Steve Kretzman of Oil Change International, an NGO that researches the links between oil, gas and coal companies and governments.

The only reason U.S. citizens may be forced to endure a risky, Canadian-owned oil pipeline called Keystone XL is so oil companies with billion-dollar profits can get the dirty oil from Canada's tar sands down to the Gulf of Mexico to export to Europe, Latin America or Asia, according to a new report by Oil Change International released Wednesday.

"Keystone XL will not lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil, but rather transport Canadian oil to American refineries for export to overseas markets," concludes the report, titled "Exporting Energy Security". ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/02-7

[ixion]

1. We're being sold down the river

literally. :grr:

[tularetom]

2. If that oil is for US consumption why is the pipeline going to a port?

The oil is going to be sold to whoever is willing to pay the most for it.

China has already contracted for some of it.

[Oilwellian]

3. We live in...

Oilwellian times.

K&R

[blindpig]

4. Capitalism rules...

until we stop tolerating it.

Expropriate the energy sector.

[Eddie Haskell]

6. Yes, and it's selling to the highest bidder.

The fact that we're exporting oil only prooves that someone overseas is willing to pay more for it. Even with the additional wells, non-Opec production is falling.

[xchrom]

5. recommend

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. Sorry, I call bullshit

total US domestic crude oil production is in the range of five million barrels a day; add in natural gas condensates and ethanol (which gets counted with "all fuel liquids" through accounting sleight-of-hand) and the total production goes up to c. 9 million bpd. Per Dept of Energy figures, total US oil IMPORTS for May of this year: 8,988,000 barrels per day. Total EXPORTS for the same period: 2,642,000 barrels per day (of which some significant percentage is already foreign oil brought to the US for refinery processing and not domestically produced). I have no idea who Stephen Leahy is, but his inability to get such basic facts right makes me not inclined to trust anything he has to say.