Gore gas problem plan

If you follow any news, you’ve seen former Vice President Al Gore speak about Energy Independence with some specific ideas about it. Gore’s plan includes investments in solar, wind, and geothermal power. He calls for a promise to all coal and oil workers that they will have guaranteed jobs out in the sun and fresh air.His stand is one that why waste time and money on energy that will not ever decrease in price. Gore has chosen an opportune time to bring his proposals into the media spotlight.
The public is growing weary of all of the political posturing over the price of gas, but seeing zero substantial action coming from Capitol Hill. The most recent proposal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would almost be humorous if it wasn’t such an obvious political stunt for the cameras. Releasing 10% of the reserves equates to about 70 million barrels.Many would love to see us use less fossil fuel for energy supply in our country. According to some expert, right now solar, wind and geothermal power are not reliable enough to supply enough power for our country.

What do you think??

Here’s a video of Al Gore speaking about his energy approach:

Bush says drill drill!

Should we drill more offshore or not? Some environmentalists say “no”. An increasing number of impoverished drivers say “yes! yes!” Bush recently responded to the “drill drill” movement. He’s increasing pressure on Congress to expand offshore oil exploration.

“The only thing now standing between the American people and the vast oil resources of the Outer Continental Shelf is action from the United States Congress,” he said. The case is being made that the that oil companies should drill in about 68 million acres of federal land they have already leased for such use — a move the Democrats say would nearly double U.S. production.

Other folks want Bush to to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a stockpile set aside for emergencies — and work with Democrats to crack down on Wall Street traders who are driving up oil prices by buying huge quantities of oil just to resell at a higher price.

Personally, I think we shouldn’t put limits on commodity trading. If demand goes down, that will take care of the market! I’m a believer in the fact that eventually our free enterprise system will self-correct any situation instead of counting on our government “to fix everything.” What do you think?

For the whole Bush story, click here.

55 miles per hour returning?

Remember when the maximum speed limit was 55? That was way back in 1974 when the nation faced the Arab oil embargo….Gee, why didn’t we become more proactive about energy independence back then? Good question, right!

In 1995, we were permitted to “put the pedal to the metal” again and the 55 mph limit was dropped…Deja vu—-well requiring us to drive no more than 55 is back on the table again in Congress.

In a recent discussion, Republican Senator John Warner from Virginia asked Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to caclulate how much we would save at 55 mph- when enacted in the past the savings was 167-thousand barrels of oil a day. Savings could be greater today.

What do you think? Should Congress re-enact the reduced speed limit? You know, besides saving gas, it would save lives as well…

Here’s some related stories:

Gasline News Tracker service announced

A news service on all aspects of high gas prices launched today. Pump-less-gas.com, the blog devoted to news, information, resources, and money saving tips now provides a news service called News Tracker. Editor Frank Girard explained “what we are doing is providing constantly updated, highly focused news on all aspects of high gas prices. Currently our coverage includes the topic of “high gas prices” and “fuel efficient cars” with other topics being added every week. The service provides a list of headlines and related story summaries from more than 4500 media outlets from all over the United States on these two topics with more planned,” Girard explained. “To read the headlines stories/news summaries listed, one simply clicks on the headlines/summaries to instantly get the whole story. Now instead of having to search for news on highly focused topics related to all aspects of high gas prices, this information is constantly updated and instantly available from our blog Pump-less-gas.com/wordpress,”Girard continued.

The News Tracker service described can be found at this address: http://pump-less-gas.com/wordpress/news-tracker/

Exxon exiting retail gas business

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, plans to cut off its branded service station arm of the company in the U.S. resulting in the sale of the approximately 2,220 Exxon Mobil owned stations from the total station figure of nearly 12,000. Exxon Mobil’s service stations account for a small amount of the company’s overall profits.

What prompted Exxon to exit the retail gas business? Some speculate besides the fact that retail is a very small percent of Exxon’s profits, Exxon may have been “fed up” with government regulators calling them to testify as they investigate the theory that the oil companies are taking unfair advantage of consumers.

What do you think about oil company pricing?

Check out the complete story at Motor Trend Magazine’s site click here

Related stories:

Oil prices and speculation \

How much of the price of oil is the impact of speculation (traders betting on the price of oil rising or falling) as opposed to the true real demand? And how exactly are oil prices determined? This has been a recent subject of conversation when the topic is financial trends and energy. I haven’t studied this in detail so can’t say but want to share with you one perspective in a summary of one article provided below:

Article Summary

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. Nymex in New York and the ICE Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices which in turn set most of the freely traded oil cargo. A third rather new oil exchange, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), trading Dubai crude, is more or less a daughter of Nymex, with Nymex President, James Newsome, sitting on the board of DME and most key personnel British or American citizens. Brent is used in spot and long-term contracts to value as much of crude oil produced in global oil markets each day. But how today’s oil prices are really determined is done by a process so opaque only a handful of major oil trading banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley have any idea who is buying and who selling oil futures or derivative contracts that set physical oil prices in this strange new world of “paper oil.”

The trading of energy commodities by large firms on OTC electronic exchanges was exempted from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron and other large energy traders into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 in the waning hours of the 106th Congress.

Get the full article here:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878

Other related articles and links to the complete articles are noted below:

OPEC wants to talk about oil prices - “The price has nothing to do with a shortage of oil. There’s a lot of oil on the market. It’s because of speculation and OPEC cannot control speculation,” he added. If the oil market was well supplied, it would produce more than is … These steps could lower oil prices - Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher. … Are Low Interest Rates and Speculation Raising Demand for Oil and … - Everyone is looking for someone to blame for high prices of oil and other mineral and agricultural commodities. Speculators (among others) are high on the list, followed by the Federal Reserve. While I don’t think blame is necessarily … Rocketing Oil Price A Bubble - The billionaire investor’s comments came only days after the oil price soared to a record high of $135 a barrel amid speculation that crude could soon be catapulted towards the $200 mark. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, … Increased Oil Prices Almost Entirely Due to Unregulated Speculation - This was on the Diana Rehm (NPR) show today, with some economists on talking about the Soros testimony on oil prices in Congress yesterday. The panel also noted food price increases are due almost entirely to speculation. … [vinnomot] Current oil price are unjustifiable:Saudi Government - OPEC President Chakib Khelil said that had it not been for the weak dollar, political tensions and speculation, oil prices would probably be around $70 a barrel. “In terms of fundamentals, there is no problem of supply and demand. …

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Energy Manhattan project?

Why aren’t we treating the high priced gas crisis like we treated the need to develop the A bomb during World War II? The Manhattan project was an all out effort by the government and private industry to develop the atomic bomb…we did it in record time and the course of history was changed forever!

We put a man on the moon because Kennedy inspired us and dedicated talented folks made it happen even though some people laughed and said it couldn’t happen…Why the hell don’t we have a Manhattan like project going on at this very moment but for alternative energy? The lack of an effort like this makes me mad as hell!…Mad for the sake of the security of this country…mad about what these high prices are doing to our economy and the people on tight budgets who are struggling now because of these prices.

Before we decide on who will be President, we should demand that the candidate we choose commit to an alternative energy Manhattan project…and not just rhetoric but a comprehensive detailed plan for how to make it happen!

Here’s a thought- a group of bright…no… brilliant minds from multiple disciplines from private industry should develop a written position piece and proposed plan for the Manhattan project starting right now.

Some say we should begin drilling in more places now to give oil prices some relief…If this is our only alternative, perhaps we should…but only as an interim measure. We need a longer term comprehensive Manhattan type project that is more environmentally friendly but with limited impact on our free enterprise system.

Why don’t we have the Oil Manhattan Project? Is it too controversial for our politicians? Are lobbying groups blocking this? Has no leader in business or government suggested this idea? Is the public not smart enough to demand that a project like this begin now? What do you think???