Future hinges on domestic oil
According to the Daily Breeze:
Even as environmental extremists continue to obstruct energy projects and control Democratic lawmakers, a few of California's anti-oil groups have changed their tune. The Santa Barbara-based group formed after the 1969 spill, "Get Oil Out" or GOO, and the Environmental Defense Center have agreed to a plan by a Houston company to build a platform 4.7 miles offshore, drill 22 wells over about a decade and remove four old platforms - along with other environmental onshore improvements.
A June Zogby poll found 74percent of Americans favor offshore drilling, including a majority of Democrats, so it appears that Democrats' old liberal scare tactics are no longer working.
Seeking answers to high oil prices, the Democrat-controlled Congress recently held a series of inquiries, interrogating oil company executives and commodity-trading experts. Oil company CEOs said they did not control prices and their companies made a net profit on sales of 8.4 percent, 1 percent less than the average for large industrial companies. After paying dividends, their profits were invested in finding new oil and developing alternative fuels.
The four commodity-trading experts agreed that much of oil's high price was due to speculation. They said the price of oil should be $60 to $80 per barrel, not $130 to $150, so gas prices should be half what they are today. Executives from the Chicago Board of Trade, the nation's largest commodity trader, claimed speculation did not drive prices, but the history of price fluctuations suggests otherwise.
Following almost every negative rumor about the Middle East, oil prices rose as much as $6 per barrel in a single day, although nothing whatever had changed actual supply or demand. Over a recent three-day period, the price dropped nearly $16 per barrel. The drop followed President Bush's decision to rescind the executive ban on most offshore oil drilling and discussions in Congress about allowing increased drilling on federal lands and water.
In contrast, although it was reported weeks ago that U.S. demand for gasoline had fallen nearly 4 percent and gasoline supplies had increased by 1 million barrels, gasoline prices were initially unchanged. So which is it? Speculation or supply and demand?
Regardless, liberal Democrats are not unhappy with the high price of fuel and energy or their effects on the economy. They insist conservation is the answer, along with alternatives such as biofuels, wind, solar and thermal power generation. They favor hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles and still oppose clean coal and nuclear energy.
They oppose nuclear energy even though France generates 80 percent of its electricity using nuclear power and Japan and South Korea derive 40 percent of their power using nuclear. These nations plan to build more plants using standardized designs and have largely solved the nuclear waste problem, long used as the excuse by the opposition, by reprocessing spent fuel rods....click to continue.
