Or for that matter any supporting evidence. Also note that he has 2 seperate policies, 1 for energy and 1 for climate change. Like the 2 have nothing to do with each other. Thus carbon is a problem twice. Also realize that cap and trade is an industry creation with the neoconservationists or collaboraters, thus suspect from the beginning.
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hahahahahahaha:
http://wilderness.org/ourissues/wilderness/
Andrew Bush sends this along
Dear reporter/editor:
Given today’s announcement that Congress will allow the offshore drilling ban to expire—opening many more acres to drilling—we thought you would be interested in the story below from yesterday’s business wire, “Chesapeake Energy (CHK) Plans To Reduce Drilling Budget.” In a nutshell, before the dust has settled on the oil and natural gas industry’s “drill, baby, drill” multi-million dollar advertising campaign, the country’s largest independent natural gas producer has announced that it is curtailing – or “shutting in” — its near-term natural gas production, and slashing its drilling budget by 17%. All because the price of gas to consumers has apparently drifted “too low” for consumers, in the company’s view.
“ Chesapeake ’s actions and attitude typify the ‘public be damned’ manner in which the oil and gas industry in this country operates,” said Wilderness Society Senior Policy Advisor Dave Alberswerth . “American consumers and Congress were convinced by the industry’s ‘drill baby drill’ campaign that the key to lowering energy prices was “more drilling”, at the same time that one of our nation’s largest gas producers was apparently laying plans to curtail its own drilling and production operations for fear that their profits weren’t high enough. American consumers should take note of Chesapeake’s actions, because this company is among those that have promoted the notion that American has abundant natural gas supplies, that all we have to do is drill for it, and has even urged Congress to subsidize greater use of natural gas to fuel our vehicle fleet.” Alberswerth noted that although most of Chesapeake ’s operations are on non-federal lands, it is likely that other natural gas producers who do have operations on federal lands will follow suit.
“ Chesapeake ’s action is another good example of why increasing domestic drilling is an inefficient solution for reducing energy prices,” said Wilderness Society Economist Pete Morton , who also noted that after eight years of the Bush drilling boom and more than 170,000 new natural gas wells, energy prices are still high. “Whether Chesapeake ’s action is driven by high extraction costs or a profit-maximizing desire to keep prices high for consumers, it reinforces the need for a thorough economic analysis of proposals to increase domestic drilling.”
Contact: Dave Alberswerth (202/429-2695) and Dr. Pete Morton (303/650-5818, ext 105), The Wilderness Society
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) announced plans to reduce its drilling capital expenditure (capex) budget during the second half of 2008 through year-end 2010 by approximately $3.2 billion, or 17%, in response to an approximate 50% decrease in natural gas prices since June 30, 2008 and concerns about the possibility of an emerging U.S. natural gas surplus in advance of increased demand from the U.S. transportation sector. Of the $3.2 billion drilling capex reduction, $0.8 billion is attributable to the drilling capex carry associated with the company’s recently closed Fayetteville Shale joint venture with BP America (NYSE: BP), $0.5 billion is attributable to the drilling capex carry anticipated in a Marcellus Shale joint venture and $1.9 billion is attributable to reduced drilling activity. The company plans to reduce its current operated drilling rig count of 157 rigs to approximately 140 rigs by year-end 2008 and expects to keep its rig count relatively flat through 2009 and 2010.
In addition to reducing drilling capex, Chesapeake has elected to temporarily curtail a portion of its unhedged natural gas production in the Mid-Continent region due to unusually weak wellhead natural gas prices that are substantially below industry breakeven costs. The company has curtailed approximately 100 million cubic feet (mmcf) per day of net natural gas production (approximately 125-150 mmcf per day gross) and plans to restore this production once natural gas prices recover from recently depressed wellhead price levels of $3.00 – 5.00 per thousand cubic feet (mcf). This curtailment represents approximately 4% of the company’s current net natural gas and oil production capacity of over 2.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (92% natural gas).
The company has also reduced its full-year 2008 production growth estimate to 18% from 21% to account for the temporary curtailment discussed above, the sale of 45 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (mmcfe) per day of production associated with its Fayetteville Shale joint venture with BP, the anticipated sale of 60 mmcfe per day of production in the 2008 fourth quarter associated with the company’s fourth volumetric production payment (VPP) and shut-ins in the 2008 third quarter of onshore production associated with natural gas processing plant limitations as a result of damage by Hurricane Ike.
Additionally, as a result of reduced drilling activity levels announced today, the company has lowered its anticipated production growth forecasts in 2009 and 2010 to 16% per year from 19% per year. At these levels, Chesapeake believes its production growth will still remain at or near the top of its large-cap peer group, particularly in light of continued strong drilling results from its shale plays. Notably, during the month of September, Chesapeake completed three additional horizontal Haynesville Shale wells with average per well initial production rates exceeding 10 mmcfe per day bringing its total horizontal Haynesville Shale wells on production to 14.[SM]
Drew F. Bush
Communications Associate
The Wilderness Society
Phone: (202)-429-7441
Fax: (202)-429-3945
The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness
and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.
Its not just OIL. Every form of hydrocarbon will become flash points as part of the world abandons the carbon economy while others rush to it as a salvation.
http://ecoworldly.com/2008/09/16/fight-over-natural-gas-has-bolivia-on-brink-of-collapse/
Fight Over Natural Gas Has Bolivia on Brink of Collapse
Published on September 16th, 2008
Posted in Bolivia
Having gained confidence after handily winning a recall election with 67% of the vote last month, Bolvia’s President Evo Morales has proposed some controversial changes to Bolivia’s Constitution. He wants to redistribute wealth obtained from the sale of Bolivia’s abundant natural gas resources in a more equitable way to help the poor. He also wants to change the constitution so that he can run for a second term. These proposals have lead to violent protests in the country’s eastern provinces, that contain the bulk of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves. These regions are now threatening to break away. Tension is high and a civil war might soon emerge.Some of Morales’ opponents claim that he is trying to obtain dictatorial powers. They subsequently have blockaded roads, and temporarily shut down natural gas pipeline flow to Brazil (which gets 50% of its gas from Bolivia). Martial law has been declared in one province and the details of one particularly violent incident are still sketchy. It is unclear if Bolivia’s military is entirely behind Morales. At least 30 people have died so far during the conflict, and countless others have been injured.
Last week Morales also accused the United States of helping to fan the flames of the conflict, framing it as a coup d’etat to remove him as president. He expelled the American ambassador to Bolivia to send out his message of disapproval. The U.S.’s ambassador has denied the claims made against him.
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But this has happened before:
Bolivia’s Mesa Offers to Step Down as Protests Mount, by Andrew J. Barden in Mexico City for Bloomberg [2005 March 7]
“Bolivian President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to Congress almost 17 months after taking office, amid stepped up protests against the government’s energy policies…”It’s a highly dangerous moment for Bolivia,” Mesa said in a letter to Congress, read aloud by Cabinet Chief Jose Galindo and broadcast on CNN’s Spanish network. “These movements are leading the country to a point that is unsustainable. I can’t continue to govern under these circumstances,” the letter said.
“Mesa’s resignation would throw the South American country back into a political crisis less than two years after former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was forced from office following deadly riots in opposition to his plans to export natural gas to the U.S. and Mexico.”
“Evo Morales, leader of the second-largest party in Congress, the Movement Toward Socialism, is leading protests to demand a new hydrocarbon law that raises royalties for foreign companies in Bolivia such as Spain’s Repsol YPF and Total SA of France. Bolivia has 28.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Latin America’s second-largest reserves after Venezuela, according to BP Plc’s statistical review of world energy.”
What does vast mean in Bolivia today?
“”According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Bolivia’s proven natural gas reserves were 24 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), as of January 2003. A study by U.S.-based consulting firm DeGolyer & MacNaughton in April 2003, however, certified Bolivia’s natural gas reserves at 54.9 Tcf, giving Bolivia the second-largest reserves in South America after Venezuela. The graph to the right reflects the large increases in reserve estimates since 1997.” From USA’s Energy Information Agency
Comparing Bolivia’s Natural Gas reserves with Global consumption of 90 TCF of natural gas per year, giving the benefit of the doubt that reserves are “certified” indeed at 54.9 TCF, Bolivia would be able to meet humanity’s Natural gas needs for 223 days. Is that a vast amount?
Peasants in Bolivia organized in September 2003 to revolt against “selling” [giving away?] their energy inheritance to the USA, where the average person consumes 40 times more natural gas, 15 times more electricity and 15 times more oil. To characterize this transfer of natural wealth as necessary for the economic well-being of their country is to completely misconstrue the inherent value of this resource in the long term as a mechanism for internal economic development. Furthermore, it could only come from ignorance of realistic global oil and natural gas reserves and prospects, or because Sanchez is deliberately ignoring these facts to support a political agenda
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And you know what this always leads to? When will they ever learn that standing in the road of social justice is foolish at best and disruptive at worse. People that have nothing have nothing to lose:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/12/content_9938579.htm
Even the Chinese know that.
Bolivia crisis cuts natural gas supply to Brazil by half
RIO DE JANEIRO, September 11 (Xinhua) — The political crisis in Bolivia led to a 55-percent reduction in the country’s natural gas supply to its biggest customer Brazil, Transierra pipeline company said in a statement on Thursday, The reduction was due to malfunction of a pipeline in southeastern Bolivia. It remains unclear if it was a technical problem or an act of sabotage.
It is the second incident with Bolivia’s pipelines in less than24 hours. A pipeline in the Yacuiba region exploded on Wednesday, leading to a 10-percent reduction in the natural gas exports to Brazil.
Brazil needs about 60 million cubic meters of natural gas everyday, and half of the supplies comes from Bolivia.
Edison Lobao, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, has met with technical personnel and experts from the country’s state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras to work out a contingency plan to deal with the supply reduction.
Sao Paulo city, which depends on Bolivia for 60 percent of its natural gas supply, has already launched a contingency plan. Sao Paulo state’s Basic Sanitation and Energy Secretary Dilma Pena said that the industrial sector will face the biggest reduction in gas supplies.
She added, however, that residential and commercial clients, as well as hospitals, will be spared from the supply reduction.
Protests, which broke out two weeks ago against Morales’ plans to amend the constitution and reallocate gas revenues, turned violent this week in southeastern Bolivia. Anti-government protesters blocked the road, stormed official buildings and clashed with supporters of the president.
The borders to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay have been closed and Bolivia’s ambassador to Brazil, Rene Mauricio Dorfler, said his government is considering declaring a state of emergency in the country.
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I know this is dated but the conference was held at the middle of this speculative oil price spike that has gone on for at least 6 months. I wonder if the Peak Oil folks know how to tell a speculative spike, a real spike through scarcity of production facilities and true Peak Oil. All of them would shadow a simlar spike?
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-42/1212300955258630.xml&coll=6
Sunday, June 01, 2008By Garret M. Ellison
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS — The collapse of cities, a return to rail transportation, famine and a worldwide depression are but a few outcomes predicted by energy industry insiders and believers in the peak oil theory who gathered this weekend at Calvin College.
“We will have a different civilization, to be sure,” said David Goodstein, a vice provost and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Goldstein wrote the book, “Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil.” He joined dozens of speakers at the International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change.
He was the kickoff speaker at the three-day event, which explored the double-pronged crises of peak oil and climate change by examining their effects on society, and offering sustainable solutions.
Peak oil is the point at which half of the world’s supply has been extracted and production levels off. This is expected to cause massive societal upheaval because the worldwide demand for oil is increasing rapidly.
It’s a controversial subject, and not all are convinced. Skeptics and some oil producers say a peak is years away and that new technologies will allow our energy appetite to be satisfied by tar sands and oil shale while renewable sources come online.
But those who believe in the peak oil scenario say we have reached that point already or will in a few years. New oil discoveries are slim. The last major discovery was in the 1960s.
They say that alternative energies cannot match the capacity of fossil fuels, and nuclear fusion — the one known silver bullet — is perpetually 25 years in the future.
Supply will be further constrained by aging infrastructure, they say. These arguments are fueled by the rising cost of food and oil, which recently topped $130 a barrel.
One point that everyone agrees on is that oil is a finite resource, and that nobody quite knows for sure how much is left.
“We will see the effects of the peak very soon. How soon — I don’t know,” Goldstein said.
“It’s possible that it’ll be off another five, 10, or even 20 years.
“But 20 years is nothing on the scale of human history,” he said. “Our children, or our grandchildren are in for some very difficult times.”
That could mean civil unrest and famine, as petrol-based fertilizers become prohibitively expensive, driving up the cost of food — and everything else.
“The haves and the have-nots are going to be fighting for diminishing reserves,” said Steven F. Crower, an energy investment banker based in Denver.
“I think the price of oil will cause the collapse of the dollar,” he said. “The new gold standard is going to be energy.”
That’s somewhat less dire than the reality painted by Richard Heinberg, an author of eight books on peaking resources and a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.
All complex systems inevitably collapse, said Heinberg, and ours is no different. A local-based agrarian economy is his vision of the future. Rail will be the primary transportation mode.
For some conference attendees, the concept of peaking oil production seemed like a very stark reality.
“I think it was Hunter S. Thompson who said that sometimes the massive crime that takes place in front of everyone is the one that goes unnoticed,” said Jackson Carreras, 24, of Plymouth.
The conference was organized by Aaron Wissner, of Middleville, who heads-up the local nonprofit, Local Future. It runs through 5 p.m. today.
Send e-mail to the author: gellison@grpress.com
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Here are the people that brought you the above conference. They seem like nice enough young people
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Local Future
Paths to Sustainability
Michigan Conference – Nov. 2008
NEW!!! Announcing “The Conference of Michigan’s Future: Energy, Economy & Environment” for Friday, Nov. 14 through Sunday, Nov. 16 at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville, Michigan. Click the link above for speakers, ticket, and other specifics.
International Conference – Online
Local Future hosts the International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change: Paths to Sustainability. The inaugural conference features 50 presenters including Richard Heinberg, Julian Darley, Dr. David Goodstein, Megan Quinn Bachman, Stephanie Mills, and Pat Murphy.
NEW! – Watch conference presentations & download podcasts for free.
Introduction
Unemployment, inflation, war, peak oil, climate change, biodiversity loss, overpopulation — global problems that need local solutions.
Local Future helps communities develop compassionate, sustainable, local, systems to provide jobs, food, energy, transportation, and essential services.
Local Future Network members develop these systems by helping their community to transition from dependent units of the failed global economy; to independent cultures of compassionate, sustainable, local economy.
Global Problems
The global economic system creates problems which threaten humanity and the planet:
- peak oil
- climate change
- over population
- resource depletion
- widespread pollution
- misallocation of power
- institutional cruelty
- economic instability
- environmental destruction
- geopolitical conflict & war
This unsustainable global economic system fails to protect humans, the environment, and the natural systems on which all life depends. It does not meet the long term goals of civilization.
When a system fails to such a catastrophic degree, it is time for change.
Local Solutions
New local systems must be developed that are grounded in a value system of truth, compassion, understanding, sustainability, renewal and community. Developing new systems takes dedicated individuals who share the common value system, walk a common path, and move towards a common vision of the future. Local systems are needed to provide:
- jobs – that are challenging, safe and community oriented
- money – community currency that creates jobs, motivates progress and reinforces values
- food – that is nutritious, compassionate, sustainable, organic and available year-round
- energy – heat, electricity and fuels from renewable sun, wind, water and biomass sources
- transportation – utilizing ride sharing, mass transit, community vehicles and human power
- homes – safe, comfortable and welcoming, zero energy new homes and retrofits
- water – fresh, clean, free water that is owned and managed locally
- waste management – emphasizing reduce, reuse and recycling
- health care – high quality, low cost, community based services and prevention
- education – local teachers dedicated to providing continuing service
- security – utilizing open communication, problem solving, education and dialogue
- entertainment – opportunities for all to participate and enjoy
- culture – celebrating diversity and history
- spirituality – inviting all people to explore the deeper questions of life
Members of Local Future Network communicate and meet to learn, support, plan, and act. They take the initiative to increase independence for themselves and their communities. Their shared value system of truth, compassion, understanding, sustainability, renewal and community guides their actions toward a vision of a prosperous local future.
:}
I swore on my mother’s grave (sorry mom) that I would not put up a post about oil prices until they fell below 100$$ per barrel because I was tired of people pointing fingers at each other because the whole system is rigged. The Chinese were hoarding diesel for the Olympics (now over), the speculator’s contracts were lapsing (August 31 and September 15), the Senate is going to have hearings in the middle of September (hint: it will all be back to normal by then), and when the oil prices fall the gasoline refiners will lose their cover and half to ramp up aritificially low production levels to drop the price of gasoline. BUT not before 300 billion $$$ are vacuumed out of poor people’s pockets. Boy that took a long time to say! Then I saw this letter and was re-energized to put the facts out there one more time, so maybe people would wake up and just stop using those nasty stinky oil products.
Things could be done
to reduce price of gasoline
The recent letters regarding the why and wherefores of the price of oil and
gasoline prompted me to join in the debate.
First, a few observations:
Since 2003, investments in commodity index funds have increased
from $13 billion to $$260 billion, a 20-fold increase.
The Commodity Exchange Commission has already set
limits on the holdings any one investor can have in a commodity
to prevent speculation. But the larger institutional investors
(known as “swap dealers”) such as Goldman Sachs have exploited an
exemption that allows them to bypass those limits if they make trades through
brokers or dealers.
The majority of these trades in the USA are made by a British company
with headquarters in Atlanta while all the trading takes place in
Chicago! They do have a rep in London, Robert Reid, who answers to Atlanta.
The intercontinental exchanges do not have to abide by the rules set up by
the New York Mercantile Exchange because they are listed as a foreign company!
Last month Michael Masters, a portfolio manager, told Congress that index
speculators had bought the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of oil — eight times
as much as the United States has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
over the last five years!
Because of all this speculation the price of oil has reached $140 a barrel.
The speculators in oil futures obviously say it is supply and demand that
is causing the rise in prices. Granted, there is a certain amount of this i
nvolved, but not in the USA. The demand or use of oil in the U.S. has
been stead for at least a decade.
The ex-president of NYMEX, appearing before a congressional committee
a few weeks ago stated that if margins, which are now 50 percent, were
increased, the price of oil would drop to approximately the marginal cost
of oil, which is between $60 and $70 per barrel. It was also stated that
these margins could be increased, according to NYMEX rules, during an
emergency. I think this is an emergency! By the way, it was stated that this
could be done within a 30-day period.
P.S. Just recently, a bill that would put new limits on speculative trading
in energy commodities failed to get the two-thirds majority required.
Most Republicans objected to the bill — the vote was 276 to 151.
Eric Gregg Springfield
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Think Eric is crazy? Want to hear more names of the AMERICANS picking your pocket? Well okie dokie then.
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http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/1276-Stop-the-Oil-Speculators.html
What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it?
Don’t rely on the White House—with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil—or the Congress—which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either.
Last week the price of crude oil reached about $130 a barrel after spiking to $140 briefly. The immediate cause? Guesses by oil man T. Boone Pickens and Goldman Sachs that the price could go to $150 and $200 a barrel respectivly in the near future. They were referring to what can be called the hoopla pricing party on the New York Mercantile Exchange. (NYMEX)
Meanwhile, consumers, workers and small businesses are suffering with the price of gasoline at $4 a gallon and diesel at $4.50 a gallon. Suffering but not protesting, except for a few demonstrations by independent truckers.
A consumer and small business revolt could be politically powerful. But what would they revolt to achieve? Their government is paralyzed and is unable to indicate any action if oil goes up to $200 or $400 a barrel. Washington, D.C. is leaving people defenseless and drawing no marker for when it will take action.
Oil was at $50 a barrel in January 2007, then $75 a barrel in August 2007. Now at $130 or so a barrel, it is clear that oil pricing is speculative activity, having very little to do with physical supply and demand. An essential product—petroleum—is set by speculators operating on rumor, greed, and fear of wild predictions.
Over the time since early 2007, U.S. demand for petroleum has fallen by 1 percent and world demand has risen by 1.3 percent. Supplies of crude are so plentiful, according to the Wall Street Journal, “traders of physical crude oil say their market is suffering from too much supply, not too little.”
Iran, for instance, is storing 25 million barrels of heavy, sour crude oil because, in the words of Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran’s oil governor, “there are simply no buyers because the market has more than enough oil.”
Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale in London agrees. “There’s various signals out there saying for right now, the markets are well supplied with crude.”
Historically, oil has been afflicted with the control of monopolists. From the late nineteenth century days of John D. Rockefeller, and his Standard Oil monopoly, to the emergence of the “Seven Sisters” oligopoly, made up of Standard Oil, Shell, BP, Texaco, Mobil, Gulf and Socal, to the rise of OPEC representing the major producing countries, the “free market” price of oil has been a mirage. Despite the breakup of the Standard Oil company by the government’s trustbusters about 100 years ago, selling cartels and buying oligopolies kept reasserting themselves.
In an ironic twist, the major price determinant has moved from OPEC (having only 40% of the world production) and the oil companies to the speculators in the commodities markets. What goes on in the essentially unregulated New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)—without Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforced margin requirements, and, unlike your personal purchases, untaxed—is now the place that leads to your skyrocketing gasoline bills. OPEC and the Big Oil companies reap the benefits and say that it’s not their doing, but that of the speculators. Gives new meaning to “passing the buck.”
Deborah Fineman, president of Mitchell Supreme Fuel Co. in Orange, New Jersey, summed up the scene: “Energy markets have been dictated for too long by hedge funds and speculators, who artificially manipulate the numbers for their own benefit. The current market isn’t based on the sound principles of supply and demand but it is being rigged by companies and speculators who are jacking up prices for their own greed.”
Harry C. Johnson, former banker who worked for many years inside Big Oil and ran his own small oil company in Oklahoma, blames the CFTC, the Department of Energy, the Administration, and Congress, as “asleep at the switch on an issue that is probably costing U.S. consumers $1 billion per day.”
He cites “some industry experts, who profit greatly from the high price of crude, and have stated openly that the worldwide economic price of crude, absent speculators, would be around $50 to $60 per barrel.
Imagine, our government is letting your price for gasoline and home heating oil be determined by a gambling casino on Wall Street called NYMEX. The people need regulatory protection from speculators and an excess profits tax on Big Oil.
In addition, a sane government would see the present price crises as an opportunity to expand our passenger and freight railroad capacity and technology.
A sane government would drop all subsidies and tax loopholes for Big Oil’s huge profits and other fossil fuels and promote a national mission to solarize our economy to achieve major savings from energy conservation technology, retrofitting buildings, and upgrading efficiency standards for motor vehicles, home appliances, industrial engines and electric generating plants.
Those are the permanent ways to achieve energy independence, reduce our trade deficit, create good jobs that can’t be exported and protect the environmental health of people and nature.
Those are the reforms and advances that a muscular consumer, worker and small business revolt can focus on in the coming weeks.
What say you, America?
Andrew Peters sent me this email and at first I thought I would post it as one big comment. BUT just as I was getting ready to hit submit, I thought, “heck this would make a great Post”. So with out any intro, Community Energy Systems first guest blogger:
Actually Andy is an overachieving intern:
From:“Andrew Peters” <andrew_peters@tws.org>
To:
info@censys.org
Hi Doug,
I’ve been reading the Energy Tough Love Blog and appreciated your focus green solutions, so I thought you might be interested in further information on the energy crunch. (You can also find a compilation of expert opinions here). Congress may have just left town but that doesn’t mean finding a solution to high gas prices has become any less pressing. The oil and gas industry has peddled misinformation and downright deceit in order to push the idea we need to drill more to lower prices.
I’d urge you to dig deeper and post the truth about this issue. Drilling everywhere will not provide relief from high oil prices. Not here. Not now.
The price of oil depends on a host of world economic factors, all of which have nothing to do with how much drilling is or is not taking place on our public lands. As a nation, we consume nearly a quarter of the world’s oil output and yet we hold less than 3 percent of its proven oil reserves. No increase in American drilling can meaningfully affect the price at the pump. Already, our country has more drill rigs (1,900) in operation than do all the other countries in the world (1,300).
Destroying some of our wildest places and scarring our beaches might pad big oil’s already overflowing bank accounts but it won’t help Americans.
We have reached the end of cheap and easy-to-extract oil. Supply barely outstrips demand and, as developing countries grow ever more oil-hungry, neither America nor the world will be able to produce enough to sate them. Some in Congress have suggested turning to unconventional sources like oil shale but no viable technology yet exists which can squeeze oil from rock.
Instead, we should recognize that the future lies in investing in renewable energy technology, increased fuel efficiency and more efficient energy technology. With these resources, we can place our nation on firm footing for the future while preserving the country’s wildest places for our children.
Best wishes,
Andy
If you couldn’t access the links above, I’ve posted them below in the order they appeared.
http://www.wilderness.org/gasprices/
http://wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/ExpertsOnOilPrices.pdf
http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Energy/DrillingWilderness.cfm
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2008/08/economists-letter-on-offshore-drilling.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSL119632920080731?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
http://www.gulland.ca/depletion/endofcheapoil.htm
Andrew Peters
Communications
The Wilderness Society
Phone: 202.429.2639
Fax: 202.429.3945
The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.
:}
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Their is no such thing as profit, from an environmental perspective. When you take into account the human and environmental damage from industrial waste and product transportation the “extra money” simply and magically disappears. Right into our children. Did we think that if DDT was killing Eagle Babies it wasn’t killing ours?
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http://www.childenvironment.org/
We need to find definitive answers about the relationship between toxic chemicals and health so we can protect our children, now and in the future.
Philip Landrigan, M.D.
Chairman of Mount Sinai’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine
Today’s children are subject to a whole host of diseases that come from toxic environments. These can include some of the following:
The mission of the Children’s Environmental Health Center is to protect children against environmental threats to health.The CEH Center accomplishes this by guiding, supporting, and building the programs of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Our Goals
About the CEH Center
Mount Sinai’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine is renowned for its work in children’s environmental health, occupational medicine, epidemiologic research, and disease prevention. Department Chair Dr. Philip Landrigan and his team of medical researchers are uniquely qualified to identify environmental hazards and protect the health of our children.
Dr. Landrigan is an international leader in public health and preventive medicine. His research helped catalyze the U.S. government’s phase-out of lead from gasoline and paint beginning in 1976. Dr. Landrigan chaired a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Pesticides and Children’s Health, whose report secured passage of the major federal pesticide law in the United States, the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. This is the first federal environmental law to contain specific protections for infants and children. His work as Senior Advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency was instrumental in helping to establish the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection.
For more information, please contact us at (212) 241-6145.
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http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cceh/
MISSION
The Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention is a multi-disciplinary collaborative research organization established to examine how toxic chemicals may influence the development of autism in children. The Center’s goal is to contribute knowledge about autism that will lead to new strategies for the prevention and treatment of this mysterious condition.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that typically affects a person’s ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to their environment. Autistic children are limited in their social interactions, often locking into repetitive behaviors and rigid patterns of thinking.Parents and health professionals have raised concerns about how environmental factors such as pesticides, a variety of chemicals, or even some ingredients included in vaccines may effect the development of the disorder. We are the first center to examine the roles of a wide range of toxic chemicals, genetic predisposition, and the interplay between these two in altering brain development during early life and leading to abnormal social behavior in childrenTo learn more about the NIEHS/EPA Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research program, please click on the following links: U.S. EPA Children’s Centers website (http://www.epa.gov/cehc) and NIEHS Children’s Center website: (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/translat/children/children.htm).
Center Directors
Isaac Pessah, Ph.D., Director – Center for Children’s Environmental Health
Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., Deputy Director – Center for Children’s Environmental Health
David Amaral, Ph.D., Research Director – UC Davis MIND Institute :} http://www.who.int/ceh/en/
Children are exposed to serious health risks from environmental hazards. Over 40% of the global burden of disease attributed to environmental factors falls on children below five years of age, who account for only about 10% of the world’s population. Environmental risk factors often act in concert, and their effects are exacerbated by adverse social and economic conditions, particularly conflict, poverty and malnutrition. There is new knowledge about the special susceptibility of children to environmental risks: action needs to be taken to allow them to grow up and develop in good health, and to contribute to economic and social development.
Our work on children’s environmental health is carried out in the following activity areas:
In addition, this web site provides access to a large number of publications, statistics, indicators, fact sheets on children’s environmental health, as well as links to other related WHO and non-WHO sites. |
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We are creating a whole medical institution to treated our for the TOXICS we give them. What kind of sense does that make?
I never thought I would be citing Kathryn Rem at the SJ-R for an environmental article. Don’t get me wrong she is a dandy writer, in the same league with Tim Landis (whom I regularly “borrow from”), but she usually writes a food column. I read it faithfully because I am a minor foodie, and she usually has cool things to say. In her Seeing Red About Green, she broke a story that I might have missed. Thanks Ms. Rem!
www.sj-r.com/features/x379998865/
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This is the article that I think she based her article on:
http://industry.bnet.com/retail/2008/07/14/one-quarter-of-consumers-say-screw-the-environment/
Industry news and insights by Lisa EverittOne-Quarter of Consumers Say ‘Screw The Environment’Two new studies say 10-26 percent of shoppers are “Never Greens,” whose reactions to environmental claims ranges from apathy to outright anger.
Mintel International in Chicago coined the term “Never Green” to describe 10 percent of the shopper universe. A second study by The Shelton Group of Knoxville, Tenn., found that 26 percent of respondents were “hardcore skeptics,” mostly upper middle-class, conservative, middle-aged men.
reporter Jim Edwards profiles William Coverley, a retired investment banker from Ohio, who just bought his 10th vehicle, a 2008 GMC Yukon XL that gets 14 miles per gallon.
“I don’t care about the environmental reasons and I’ll tell you why,” Coverley said. “All this stuff about carbon emissions, no one really knows about the output of the sun and yet it’s the single most important input behind global warming . . . Are the Chinese going to be environmentalists? Are the Indians going to be environmentalists? Are the Russians? I don’t think so.”
Edwards suggests studying your market carefully before launching green marketing, because emphasizing environmental claims may cost you the business of people like Coverley or Washington accountant Sally Herigstad. She bought organic produce by mistake at Fred Meyer and was dismayed to discover a recently deceased two-inch caterpillar in her steamed broccoli.
Shelton Group CEO Suzanne Shelton found that 46 percent of respondents felt “guilty, skeptical, irritated or unaffected by green issues,” and the same percentage put their comfort ahead of convenience and environmental concerns. The study was commissioned by Shelton Group client BP Solar.
A Denver-based business writer, Lisa Everitt is a veteran of daily and weekly newspapers and trade magazines, including The Natural Foods Merchandiser, Rocky Mountain News, Inter@ctive Week, San Francisco Business Times, and the Peninsula Times Tribune.
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So in the end that is what the environmental movement is up against. The environmental Rape Crowd, proud that they are stealing from their grandchildren because their grandparents stole from them. If you think they aren’t vocal, you would be wrong.
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www.screw-the-environment.imgwebdesign.co.uk
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2041643/posts
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODDDu25OG6M
http://screwtheenvironment.blogspot.com/
www.iammamahearmeroar.blogspot.com/
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/8/214522/1724
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This is the last time I am going to post about nasty icky oil (that we should stop burning anyway) until it falls below 100$$ a barrel. We need the stuff for pharmecuticals, and parts for our satellites/space craft. Stuff that only oil can be used to make. Transportation ain’t one of them and we need to quit using it for that. Oil will be below 100$$ a barrel by the end of August. All of the oil people should be freaking out because we used some 800,000 fewer barrels in May the USA and those kind of changes usually are permanent.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices;_ylt=AshIG6iZs_taqFegOtxj5tOs0NUE
Oil hits 7-week low on demand worries, dollar gain
By4 STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK – Oil prices tumbled to their lowest level in seven weeks Tuesday as a stronger dollar and beliefs that record prices are eroding the world’s thirst for energy sparked another dramatic sell-off
The drop — as much as $4 a barrel during the day — was a throwback to oil’s nosedive over the past two weeks and outweighed supply concerns touched off by a militant attack Monday on two Nigerian crude pipelines. It was oil’s seventh decline in the last 10 sessions.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.89, or 1.52 percent, to $122.84 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, prices fell to $120.42, the lowest level for a front-month contract since June 10; they have now fallen more than $25 from their trading high of $147.27, reached July 11.
More concerns that crude’s run-up over the past year has pushed prices to unsustainable levels fed Monday’s decline. The U.S. Transportation Department said Monday that U.S. drivers logged 9.6 billion fewer vehicle miles in May — or 3.7 percent — compared to the same period last year, the biggest drop ever for the historically busy summer driving month.
And demand for oil in the U.S. — the world’s thirstiest consumer — continues to fall, dropping by 891,000 barrels per day in May compared the same month a year ago, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Monday.
“We’re seeing both statistical and anecdotal evidence of very rapidly weakening demand picture,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill.
The declines accelerated after oil briefly dipped below $122, a key resistance level that triggered technical selling by computers programed to dump oil contracts once prices fall below a certain threshold. The next technical level traders are watching is $117.
“I think we could see $117 a barrel in a one-week time frame, and this market could eventually get to $100,” Ritterbusch said.
Also weighing on prices was a sharply stronger dollar compared to the euro, which made commodities less attractive to investors who have bought oil futures as a hedge against inflation and weakness in the U.S. currency.
The euro bought $1.5557 compared with $1.5752 late Monday in New York.
“It looks like oil is selling off today with the very, very strong dollar and nothing to drive it higher. Quiet seems to be bearish these days,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.
In a further sign high prices are curbing Americans’ consumption for fuel, retail gas prices fell further below the $4-a-gallon mark. The average price of a regular gas fell 1.7 cents to $3.941, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Prices Information Service and Wright Express.
Monday’s attack in Nigeria targeted two pipelines believed to be owned by a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and was the latest in a two-year campaign of attacks on the country’s oil industry. Shell said a pipeline had been damaged in attacks and that some crude production had been shut down to prevent the oil from spilling into the environment.
The oil company said Tuesday it may not be able to fulfill some oil-export contracts because of the damage. Shell didn’t specify how much oil production was cut by the attack or how long repairs would take.
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http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-34728620080729
‘Abnormal’ oil prices could fall to$80-OPEC pres
By Muklis Ali
JAKARTA (Reuters) – OPEC should not consider cutting production after oil’s steep two-week decline as markets are now balanced, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Tuesday, adding that prices could yet fall another $50 a barrel.
Khelil, who is also Algeria’s oil minister, said oil prices could fall to $70 to $80 in the long-term, if the U.S. dollar continued to strengthen and geopolitical anxieties eased.
“The price today is abnormal at $123 a barrel,” said Khelil, speaking to reporters on a visit to Jakarta to meet Indonesia’s energy minister.
He did not elaborate, but OPEC ministers have said repeatedly that they believe the surge in oil prices is not being driven by a shortage of supply.
Asked if OPEC members should cut supply if oil prices continue to decline, he said: “No, I don’t think so, why should they cut production? They always want to make sure there is good supply and demand and to satisfy the demand.”
U.S. oil prices have fallen by $22 from a record high above $147 a barrel earlier this month amid growing concerns that high prices and slowing economic growth are causing a decline in demand, but prices are still up 30 percent on the year.
“We are not worried about any price, because we don’t decide the price. We just meet the demand,” he said.
Khelil said he did not see any signs of demand destruction from high prices.
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Oh sorry, as oil gentily falls to 70 or 80$$ per barrel. Americans will have to come to grips with the fact that the super wealthy just soaked the world for 350 billion $$. The Saudies have to be trembling. Americans travel 40 billion miles less this year. Bummer guys.