Buffalo Boy's Blog
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Oil Prices Dropped?
The bastards in OPEC did not get the desired results after cutting a record 2.2 million barrels. So either the markets during the summer were full of crap and was all spectator driven BS or the economy is so weak that it just doesn't matter anymore what OPEC does.
Oil fell below $40 a barrel today which as long as we are on the subject, why are prices around here not yet in the $1.50 range? I have asked why before and I really think its time for New York State or the Feds to step in around here and put a cap on how much gas station owners can charge for profit on a gallon of gas if that is in fact the problem.
It will be interesting to see what happens for a full day of trading after this news. Today may not have been the best day for them to do it market wise. However, the US dollar also fell in value today which also has traditionally coincided with a rise in oil prices.
Maybe, the markets are not ready to over react to bad news and instead have a wait and see approach on what it does to world supplies.
Category: oil/gas
Why are Gas Prices Rising?
Gas is going up despite oil going down. Please explain that one to me. By my estimates, gas should be around $3.40-3.60 a gallon at the $92 per barrel of oil range so what gives?
Everyone is blaming the spike in gas on Ike but shouldn't oil be the first to go up? Instead its going on a nose dive and gas seems to be ignoring that.
I think its all out gouging and its pathetic. Its an excuse by the oil companies to keep gas prices artificially high. And what can we do about it? Sit here and take it up our tail pipes. We are powerless. The only power we have is to not drive or use any fossil fuels.....good luck.
Category: oil/gas
Thus The Reason For Government Intervention
This news piece only confirms the need for the federal government to step in and roll back any tax breaks the oil companies are getting from the Bush administration. Its a bunch of crap and they know it. A windfall profits tax is exactly what is needed and it can't come too soon.
The fact that they are not putting their profits into finding new oil or any new sources of energy should surprise no one. They are the epitome of greed. Instead of investing in new oil or new sources of alternative energy they are buying back stocks and dividends. Why? because they are greedy money hungry pigs who are okay with sucking every last dollar that they can out of us before the oil markets crash either by the price becoming so ridiculous the market forces new alternatives from new companies willing to do the research and invest or when the price drops because of new oil deposits and reserves. Personally, for the environment I hope its the first, but either way the oil companies need government intervention to roll back their tax breaks. If the oil companies are not going to reinvest their astromnomical profits in alternative energies and new oil, then maybe the American tax payers can do it for them and put them out of business in the process. The percentage of their profits that they have invested has remained the same for years while the money they invest on stock buybacks and dividends has gone from 1% in 1993 to 55% last year. Thats crazy. There is no defending big oil folks. They deserve what ever heat they get and what ever consequences the new democratic regime doles out to them. The gravy train will be over when the next president takes over. No more tax breaks, no more ignoring pollution laws. Either invest it back into the energy market and produce more and new energy or give it back to the American public in the form of tax dollars. Of course, they confirm from the big oil companies exactly what I have been reading and researching, the easy oil is gone. What ever is left is going to be via expensive projects in deep water. Either way, its time for some action and for that money to be redirected toward the energies of the future.What An Idiot
Listen to our President in todays news conference. He is such an idiot. As he talked about oil and the economy today, the stock market plunged, GM is coming out with bad news and the banks are screaming for the feds to bail them out. The man just doesn't get it. Every answer he gave was a line of BULLSHIT.
He and his administration do not care about you and me. The smartest thing to do would be to release oil out of the strategic petroleum reserves, that would lower oil prices right away by about $8 a barrel. Then they have to use the 60+ million acres that are already there waiting to be tapped, not open up new lands like ANWAR. Use what ya got first. Why aren't they using those 60 million acres? Because they don't even have the rigs available to drill with.
Here ladies and gentleman is the leader of our nation, George W. talking about a magic wand:
NO NO NO TO MORE LAND TO DRILL
Here the idiot goes again. What does he not get about the fact that we already have leased out MILLIONS of acres to oil companies that are currently NOT in use and could be used FIRST before opening up NEW and very ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE LANDS to drill in.
Bush and republicans keep beating Alaska drum and honestly, we should all be wiser for saying no to this. We should all realize that there are already millions of acres of land already leased that oil companies simply have not drilled yet.
Use what you already have. Im not willing to allow oil companies to have free reign over our land, water and air just so they can get 100,000 barrels of oil a day in 10 years.
Besides, the answer to our energy problems is not oil, its using less energy, researching and developing alternatives to oil and ensuring that we don't need oil in the future. Look, I realize that we still need the stuff, but if they can't find it on the millions of acres of land already opened to them, then maybe there is no more oil to be found.Category: Energy | News | Politics | environment | oil/gas
Oil Companies Paying Off US Supreme Court
Obviously the conservative judges on the US Supreme Court can be bought off by big oil. The US Supreme Court decreased the punitive damages that Exxon Mobil needed to pay for the Exxon Valdez Oil spill from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
Alaskans are none to happy about the decision and no one can argue that $2.5 billion is too much. Not when Exxon Mobil is making that 10 times over per quarter. $2.5 billion is a drop in the bucket, Consider it interest on what they should have paid back then to a community and state that is still recovering and obviously bitter about the spill today.
I guess its okay to have a drunk captain driving a oil tanker according to the US Supreme Court of judges who can now be bribed. The damage that that spill did to the Alaskan economy, its wildlife and that community is worth well over $2.5 billion and is yet another example of how little conservatives and the Bush administration care about the well being of the people and the land, air and water that we have a right to be clean and healthy.
Instead they will do anything to save the coorporate interests as long as they get their pockets lined. There is the other reason Obama needs to win the presidency, so he can balance the liberal vs. conservatives on the supreme court. At a time when Exxon Mobil could have been made to step up and do the right thing, they are let off the hook in a time when no one trusts them or the system this country was founded on. Almost 20 years later Alaska is being essentially told that big oil's profits are worth more than their environment and economy that was brought to a stand still by this spill.
Category: News | environment | oil/gas
High Gas Prices Killing Music
You can raise the price of gas as high as you want, you can raise the price of everything if you want, but for me, as soon as it starts to interfere with the ability of new, up and coming indie rock bands to go out on tour and essentially broaden their musical horizons, putting the whole indie rock scene in jeopardy, then its personal.
I love music and this article is all about that music scene being affected by high fuel costs. Most indie bands who are trying to survive don't get fancy record deals that pay for their travel and hotels, they like the band in this article get around in a rented van or someones personal vehicle.
They don't get guaranteed money and they don't get royalties on record sales because they have to play shows to generate interest and get people to buy their music. This will do a few things, I think you will start seeing many indie bands playing more local shows, you may even see more local bands try to organize mini festivals locally in order to generate more fans at the shows and more interest from outside the area. One thing I do know is, it limits the ability of any band to travel much unless they are in the top tier of live performing acts. Its tough for bands to pay hauling their equipment around and maybe even a small crew. It will be interesting to see how this affects the music scenes across the country and if it limits bands ability to survive or if they reinvent the way the expose people to their music. My thinking is through things like Youtube and other media, bands will figure it out. Though there is nothing like the live experience of a good live band perform. This is a clip from one of Canada's most successfuly Indie bands (indie meaning they don't have a major record label supporting them which does have its benefits) This is Sloan with Money City Maniacs:Oil Companies and Government Are LYING
All this hog wash about how the oil companies need more permission to drill off the continental shelf they need more areas to drill is a bunch of crap. They are also lying about the Chinese drilling off the coast of Florida. Show me proof of that and Ill shave the Yankees logo into my head. The Chinese aren't drilling off the coast of Florida, Cuba or anywhere close to the Gulf of Mexico. Its all a story. They are also feeding us a line of bull about the reasons why refineries haven't been built since the 1970's.
First, the big oil companies in this country have over 10,000 permits/leases with which they have permission to drill on 44 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico, the continental shelf on both coasts and on PUBLIC LANDS, thats right public lands!!!!. They are not using any of these permits or very few of them so even if there is oil, they have permission they just aren't drilling.
Second, the Chinese are not drilling off the coast of Cuba or Florida or anywhere in the Gulf, its a story to get house and senate leaders to give them more rights than they already have, more than the 10,000 permits they are already using!!!!!!!!
Third, the reason why there have been no refineries built is because no one has asked to build one! Since 1975, there has been ONE count them 1 permit submitted to the EPA for permission to build a refinery and permission was granted! So, they haven't applied for permits. They can't bitch that they can't due to restrictions, they haven't applied or asked to build any refineries.The one they did get, was approved!!!!!!! All they have to do is ask.
The fact is that this governement and big oil would rather have prices where they are so they are happy with the status quo.
The fact still remains, that even if they get any major field online, which Bush was quoted in the paper as saying that there could be 18 billion barrels, sounds like a lot, but 18 billion barrels at our current consumption of 20 million barrels a day, is about a years worth of oil for our country and that is assuming it came out of the ground that fast.
Realistically they keep throwing different figures around, Ive heard 18 billion, I have heard a trillion which would only be about 20 years worth, which would give us some room but again, unless that comes out of the ground in 20 million barrel a day increments, we need imported oil.
So, no matter what comes of this drill or not to drill, A) our government and big oil are lying through their teeth and B) we still need to develop alternative fuel sources that are not oil or gas and C) we need to improve fuel standards/technology and our habits to increase conservation.
Credit Card Companies Gone Ape Shit
This story is an example of how credit card companies screw everyone, from the consumer to the person selling the merchandise. I knew that credit card companies charged retailers a small fee for having credit card terminals available, however, I did not know that it is a 2% fee. So, gas stations with their small margin of profit on gas, lose money the higher the price of gas goes due to those credit card fees that eat into their profit margin.
The credit card companies don't kill us enough on interest rates, hidden fees, late fees and all sorts of other excuses to charge us extra, they have to charge the retail outlets more?
That is the other industry that needs to be monitored more closely after the government cracks down on big oil. Credit companies screw millions of Americans and young college students every year, offering cards with limits people never will be able to repay based on the interest rate.
Just remember the next time you fill up at the pump though, pay in cash it will help not only your credit, not to pile more debt on your credit card, but it will also help the small business/gas station owner who is making little or nothing on your fill up. As much as we bitch about the price of gas, its not the station owners fault, they are stuck in the middle of the bitching consumer and the oil company, and now credit fees.
Polar Bears Fair Game Again
Apparently the Polar Bear is not as threatened as we thought, either that or George Bush and his lack of an environmental conscience are at it again. Im sure Ill get all the negative comments about screw the polar bear we need oil and get called all sorts of names like commie pig or tree hugger or some shit like that and so be it.
This is another example of how the Bush administration makes a law only to break it. The polar bear is threatened yet, oil companies (because the Bush administration was probably paid off by the oil companies and they were to the tune of $2,500,000,000 for these contracts) get freedom from the threatened status and the penalties that go with it. The federal government gave away public lands to private oil companies who when they are through with it will leave it a shadow of its former pristine self with nary a penalty to pay.These are people in the White House that would take your home if they thought there was any oil under it.
Its not unlike the lack of the superfund bill that holds coorporations accountable for toxic landfill cleanup. Only in this instance, the federal government is basically saying, go in, do your damage and there will be no punishment if you damage it. Its disgraceful and an insult to our intelligence as citizens of a country that should have learned its lesson with the near extinction of the Bald Eagle.
I grant you that according to the article no polar bear has been killed by an oil company since the 1970s, maybe not directly. The habitat that will be taken from these creatures by the hundreds of miles of roads and refineries and loss of ice that will occurr will surely indirectly affect the bears habitat and ability to thrive in this area.
Im not saying that oil companies shouldn't drill for oil, but I see little being done to address the need for other sources of fuel. I see little being done to introduce more ethanol into the fuel we use, more hydrogen power, wind power and using other things to decrease our dependence.
For as much as they are going to get out of this, I hope its worth it. Realistically, we won't see a drop of this oil, even if there is any for at least 5-10 years and even if they do find oil, how much is there that is realistically going to put a dent in our appetite as a country that uses 20+ million barrels a day. You are going to have 5 companies competing for what? Maybe 1,000,000 barrels a day? Thats 1/20th of what we use now.
I one day want to take my future kids to Alaska and I would like to see polar bears still there without seeing huge refineries and drilling rigs.
Category: Politics | environment | oil/gas
