The democrats allowed a ban on offshore drilling to expire, the Repubican presidential candidates chant is “drill baby drill“, and no one is talking about this. At least half a million gallons of crude oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. Nice. Gee, wonder why……. oh that’s right, because it’s so environmentally safe to drill offshore.
Hurricane Ike’s winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
With the storm approaching, refineries and chemical plants shut down as a precaution, burning off hundreds of thousands of pounds of organic compounds and toxic chemicals. In other cases, power failures sent chemicals such as ammonia directly into the atmosphere. Such accidental releases probably will not result in penalties by regulators because the releases are being blamed on the storm.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also suspended all rules, including environmental ones, that would inhibit or prevent companies preparing for or responding to Ike.
The AP’s analysis found that, by far, the most common contaminant left in Ike’s wake was crude oil — the lifeblood and main industry of both Texas and Louisiana. In the week of reports analyzed, enough crude oil was spilled nearly to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more could be released, officials said, as platforms and pipelines were turned back on.
Looks like the south may not rise again after all.
Gas shortage leads to fights, threatens college football in South
(CNN) — Gas shortages are afflicting drivers across the Southeast. Some of the problems were caused by Hurricane Ike affecting oil production and refining along the Gulf Coast, but empty gas pumps also are being blamed on the consumers themselves. [...]
Athens, Georgia
A petroleum executive suggested that the football game between the University of Georgia and University of Alabama should be canceled this weekend because fans could drain all the gas in the Athens area, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported.
“That gas needs to be used for people to go to work, and for people to take care of their families,” Tex Pitfield, president and CEO of Saraguay Petroleum in Atlanta, told WGAU radio in Athens.
But representatives of Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said he would not consider “a ridiculous idea like this,” WSB said. (emphasis mine)
Gov. Perdue thinks it’s a ridiculous idea to consider the needs of the people trying to get to and from work next week. Well, neither does the Bulldog crowd, apparently. Drink and me merry… and to hell with tomorrow.
Missing from the following article is the most-often used word I’ve been seeing lately when discussing gas prices on the decline - ‘PLUMMET’.
Gas prices that jump from $2.00 to $3.00 gal. are “edging up”. But when they fall three-microns of an ass hair, they use the word “plummet.” Haven’t you noticed that?
Gas prices extend decline: 5 days and counting
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Gas prices decreased for the fifth day in a row, according to a nationwide survey of credit card swipes at gasoline stations.
The average price of unleaded regular dropped 1.8 cents to $3.739 a gallon, from $3.757 a gallon, according to the survey released by motorist group AAA.
Prices have stayed below the key $4 level for some time now but they are still much higher from a year ago, when gas was selling for less than $3 a gallon. Current prices are about 33% higher from a year earlier at this time.
What’s the next logical step after prices start dropping? Why, you take the gas away, of course!
Interior Department officials, while handling billions of dollars in oil and gas royalty payments, engaged in illegal sex with industry employees and accepted meals, drinks, ski junkets and golf outings from major oil companies, internal investigators reported Wednesday.
Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney’s release of three reports, which stem from a $5 million investigation dating to 2005, implicated at least 19 current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service in incestuous relationships with industry, frolics that included marijuana and cocaine use.
The reports raised new concerns about the management of programs that collect $8 billion in annual revenue from offshore and onshore mineral leases.
Devaney said that his investigators had “discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” in the recently created “Royalty in Kind” program, in which the government forgoes royalties and takes a share of the pumped oil and gas for resale. Several of the program’s staffers, based in Washington and Denver, “admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters.”
STANLEY, North Dakota (CNN) — Herb Geving unleashes a broad smile in his 11,000-square-foot mansion. The former cattleman, farmer and owner of a North Dakota garbage business is now retired, able to count the dollar signs brought in by three oil wells.
“Oil,” he says, “it’s amazing. You don’t have to work at all. You just walk to the mailbox and there it is.”
I wonder how much will end up going to McCain’s campaign?
“Hark“, a commenter on The Carpetbagger Report blog site posted something I felt deserves more airtime:
Barbara Boxer spoke this afternoon from the Senate on Bush’s drilling plan nonsense. It was carried on C-Span 2, where I caught it while on the treadmill.. She was quite effective, and she addressed those mysterious 68 million acres that the media won’t follow up on. She said they contain more than six times the oil in ANWR, and the oil companies aren’t exploiting them simply because they like things the way they are. She said they want the offshore and ANWR acreage simply to pad their balance sheets and raise stock prices. She also made the point that it is the oil companies that are keeping refinery capacity tight, again for business reasons.
She had a good line, illustrated on a poster: (8 Years) divided by (two oil men) = 4$ a gallon gasoline.
She said a lot more, but I think the truth about those 68 million acres should shoot this drilling proposal down just by itself. It won’t, of course, because the media won’t tell the American people the truth.
The American people are never going to know how corrupt George Bush and his administration and this current roster of Republicans actually are, and that could be the end of us. They have just not learned the lesson. How else can you explain John McCain running neck and neck with Obama?
As if paying the high price for gasoline isn’t insane enough, trying to figure out why prices are so high is a maddening ordeal.
Robert Novak (anal, polyester king) seems to think that it stems from simple supply and demand:
The problem is massive global demand overpowering a finite supply, aggravated by uncertainty about oil supplies in the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela.
Speculation does sometimes carry the price of commodities and stocks to extreme levels. This happened to stocks during the Internet boom of the 1990s, to gold during the inflation era of the 1970s, and to real estate during the boom up to 2006.
Yet, others are saying it’d directly related to peak oil. What do you think?
As far as burning down the last forests, clear-cutting the last grouping of trees, making pristine land uninhabitable even by man… LET THEM HAVE IT!
They’re going to get it anyways. Spoiled, three-year-old, crybabies usually get what the fuck they want. Having fifty-million dollars in the bank just isn’t enough. They have to have more!
Just as the religious crowd won’t stop needling and needling until they have complete control of your personal life, the wealthy and power crazed won’t be happy until every single dollar is in their pocket and all natural resources are drained of their treasures. And until we elect a government for the people, we might as well raise our hands and surrender.
Bush to lift executive ban on offshore drilling
WASHINGTON - In another push to deal with soaring gas prices, President Bush on Monday will lift an executive ban on offshore drilling that h[a]s stood since his father was president. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.
The president plans to officially lift the ban and then explain his actions in a Rose Garden statement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. [...]
But Perino said Bush no longer wants to wait. She pinned blame on the leaders of the Democratic Congress, noting that no action has been taken on this issue.
“They haven’t even held a single hearing,” Perino said. “So we are going to move forward, and hopefully that will spur action by the Congress.”
Asked if Bush’s action alone will lead to more oil drilling, Perino said, “In terms of allowing more exploration to go forward? No, it does not.”
PS: Would someone please shove an oil derrick up Dana Perino’s ASS already.
Question: What do you get when you put Republicans in charge?
Answer:
Stock drop on Fannie, Freddie; Dow below 11,000
NEW YORK - Stocks are falling further as investors grow more concerned about mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Dow Jones industrials are down more than 220 points and have dropped below the 11,000 mark for the first time in two years.
A statement from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government’s focus is ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain as presently constituted. But the market appears unimpressed by Paulson’s words.
The rising price of oil is also taking a toll on trading, creating even more worries about the effect of inflation on the economy.
Ahmadinejad sneezes, and the price of oil goes up. Now that’s power!
We’re already being warned that the cost of heating our homes this winter is going to skyrocket. What will those who barely made it through last winter to do?
Oil sets new record above $147 a barrel
NEW YORK - Oil prices spiked to a new record above $147 a barrel Friday, as rising hostilities between the West and Iran and the potential for attacks on Nigerian oil facilities gave investors reason to rush back into the energy markets.
Another drop in the U.S. dollar also lured buyers.
The resurgence in crude prices not only raises the concern that $4-a-gallon gasoline is here to stay for U.S. drivers — it also means that heating homes could get significantly more expensive this winter. Heating oil futures surged on the New York Mercantile Exchange to a record of more than $4.15 a gallon, and natural gas also rose.
“If you think your gasoline bills are expensive now, wait till you get your home heating bill this winter,” said Stephen Schork, an analyst and trader in Villanova, Pa.
Does Washington really have proof that Iran is seeking atomic bombs? Absent any proof, isn’t it kinda small of us to join with Israel in taunting and threatening Iran? Absent any proof, wouldn’t it be illegal to attack Iran?
I can’t help but feel we’ve turned into a bully nation. And that leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
Iran tests missiles, vows to hit back if attacked
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate if they attacked the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear projects.
Washington, which says Iran seeks atomic bombs, told Tehran to halt further tests if it wanted the world to trust it. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, insists its nuclear program aims only at generating electricity.
Rising tensions have rattled financial markets. Oil prices, which had slipped from record highs, rebounded about $2 a barrel after Wednesday’s tests.
All the sudden the sprawling suburbs in America don’t look so attractive. Our obsession with buying cheap is going to come back and bite us in the ass. The death of the Mom and Pop corner stores and all the independent businesses that were accessible by foot, or bike was and is a shame. Now we’re going to feel it. Really feel it. The difference between European towns and American towns is the European towns (for the most part) still have their town squares with businesses. For the most part, we don’t. We have Walmart that’s 15 miles out…… a library that’s not accessible by foot, a grocery store you can’t walk to, a park that’s way on the other side of town, a Home Depot that’s next to the Walmart that’s 15 miles out. A Walgreens pharmacy that doesn’t deliver. No local independent hardware store, no Mom and Pop grocery store, no meat market, no independent pharmacist who knows you by name and will deliver your kids meds when they are too sick for you to leave the house. Too bad…….
Oil at $135? That was just the opening skirmish in the “peak oil” wars. The latest smart money? $200 oil in 2010, with gasoline at $7 a gallon. And that is going to turn Americans into car-shunning Europeans once and for all—poor Americans, at least.
That’s the latest gloomy forecast from Jeff Rubin at Canadian brokerage CIBC World Markets, who just a few months ago figured $200 oil would be a thing of the distant future—like 2012.
Mr. Rubin laughs off recent attempts to take the steam out of global oil markets. Saudi production promises of 200,000 barrels a day doesn’t dent the 4 million barrel-per-day decline from aging fields every year, for starters. And it will just be “gobbled up” by increasing domestic consumption in Saudi Arabia, like other oil-producing countries that subsidize fuel.
Monday, October 6th
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran 
