George W. Bush as Marie Antoinette, "Let Them Go Ice Fishing In Maine" (Part One)
(PART ONE)
With winter's falling temperatures millions of American households are having their budgets devastated and residing in near freezing homes because of heating oil prices they can no longer afford. This while we have an administration and a Department of Energy (DOE) oblivious in action and deed, nay even supportive of the sky-high price of oil leading to these exorbitant levels for fuel and gasoline.
Let me try to explain. The administration wants us to believe a fiction self serving to themselves, their friends in the oil industry here and abroad and especially effective in placating the American public. That fiction, simply stated, is that the oil market, and today's lofty prices are a reflection of supply and demand, freely determined, freely set. It is a fiction that permits them to sit idly by as prices continue to escalate deflecting all blame and responsibility. Fully understood, it is a glaring example of this president's stubborn and one dimensional thinking, and that of an administration that has brought so much grief to the nation.
The oil market is not a free market. Its supply and price is determined in the near term by the willingness of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel, supplier of 40% of the world's oil needs, to actually deliver that oil to world consumers.
All other arguments (no matter their merits or otherwise) such as peak oil, production constraints, increasing world demand, political disruption, continuing on to stormy weather, have had little to do with this year's exploding price movements other than providing convenient cover for an unprecedented upward march in oil prices from $49.90/bbl in mid January this year to $99.29/bbl on November 21. What has impacted the price of oil is OPEC's decision to cut its daily supply of oil to world markets by 1.7 million barrels a day effective beginning earlier this year. Of this programmed cut only 500,000 barrels/day were reinstated this fall and that with prices already well into the nineties.
Consider the following. This nation is sitting on a stockpile of some 700 million barrels of oil called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These 700 million barrels have been purchased and are being stored at the expense of the national treasury, to be used in the national interest, that is to say our interest, yours and mine. The key to this vast store of oil is held by the President (an ex oil man, but perhaps one might gainfully argue still more oilman than presidential), the Vice President (among the oil industry's biggest boosters) and the DOE.
This administration has held that the SPR is to be used in case of emergencies and disruption of supply. Their gospel purports that the SPR is not to be used in any way that interferes with the free workings of the marketplace by, as example, releasing reserves to lower the price of oil. That of course begs the question: what is a free working marketplace? And within what parameters are decisions made to release or forestall access to the oil in the SPR. Does not OPEC's calculated holding back 1.7 million barrels of oil a day from the marketplace qualify as a significant disruption in supply? Should the SPR be used to counter market manipulation, whether through restraint of supply or in the commodity pits? What constitutes an emergency? Is it acts of force majeure crippling supply or purposeful distortions (viz. OPEC's actions) that risk catapulting price and in turn imploding the economy? Or both? Or all?
In its one-dimensional policies predicated on the stubborn mantra that the oil market is freely traded and working, the administration has unwittingly or malignly or perhaps even stupidly helped prop up ever-rising prices. In effect what the administration has done is have us pay for the SPR oil twice. First when the oil is purchased for the Reserve, and then through a glaring lack of responsiveness to programmed distortions, by willfully foregoing the release of calibrated quantities from the SPR that could go a long way toward stabilizing rogue and runaway markets.
More problematic yet is the policy impact, timing and grade allocation of crude oil purchases made by the DOE for delivery to the Reserve...
End Part One
Raymond J. Learsy is the author of the updated version of "Over a Barrel:Breaking Oil's Grip On Our Future"
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I won't even use the word "strategic" in order to avoid the military implications.
Think of oil as being the same as cash. How can those accursed "payday lenders" get away with charging so much vigorish?
Because they know you are flat broke and desperate.
Bad idea, releasing the SPR...very bad. We'd be flat broke, oil-wise.
These a-holes blather on and on about "the free market" knowing full well that there is no "free market". In fact, they don't want a "free market", 'cause they're more than happy to have the government's help whenever it will be to their benefit. "Free Market" that's just a code word for greed as far as I can tell.
Senators Snowe and Dodd, aware of the critical condition in the northeast, have requested the release of SPR to help alleviate an emergency situation (not officially declared) that exists.
With all the blather about an election 11 months away, the poor and unfortunate,including the poor working stiffs, are ignored - totally ignored, just like the Snowe-Dodd request.
It's frustrating to hear that a recession isn't about to happen, and to see what is actually taking place in your own backyard.
How can this administration and Congress ignore fellow Americans who are suffering from an early winter with extreme low temperatures?
The SPR should be released now to preserve the jobs and lives of those suffering from this humiliation created by OPEC and the speculators on Wall Street.
With the mainstream media owned and controlled by big business, don't expect too much to change between now and the official date of Winter's arrival.
Meanwhile, an open invitation to all of the administration and Congress for a weekend's ice fishing on Lake Munsungun in Maine.
You know, let's roll back the clock, here.
Ok, Maine. Bitter cold in the wintertime.
No, REALLY cold. So, what do you do to get
warm? Well, if you're smart, you insulate
your home in the summertime so there's less
cause for concern in the wintertime. Then,
when it gets cold, you use something called
'a fireplace' to burn something called 'wood'.
Presto, petro-independence. But, all of that
takes something called 'work'. And, 'consumers'
that don't need your 'crap' are worthless
to global petro-conglomerates, but if you
use 'eco-poltix'(R) to drive them into a
condition of dependency by whining about
fireplace emissions, then they have to use
your clean-burning natural gas or whatever
else it is that you're selling, then you
get to propagate the distribution model
and revenue stream that bought you that
yacht to begin with. Unless. Unless. Unless
there's a resurgence of science and common
sense. Unless people can start rigging their
homes for solar, like the guy did in North
Dakota with his solar hot air home heating
project. Imagine now what'd happen if 50%
of the people across the country went and
rigged for winter temperatures with good
insulation. Wow....that petro-fortune would
dwindle.
The Great Game of "see no evil" in the Saudi Royal Family's oil spigot continues. 9-11 resulted because BushCo told the intelligence agencies to back off following the money and 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi families. Then the US attacks Iraq to either privatize the oil or, in the alternative, to keep it off the market to create a shortage.
It is no accident that oil and oil services and the defense contractors have made the biggest killing in the world's history off these policies. The oil industry combined with the Eastern American Establishment to make no-bid contracts and to control access to oil. Disguised as a defense measure, the control of the oil is exploited by those in control of the bilateral elites in Washington, privileged elites, big corporations, and venal politicians. They risk nothing, by the way, they pay nothing either. Tax cuts while record profits are reported. The terrorist threat is a political and economic opportunity.
There is a shadowy cabal of international oil traders who have seized control of the world's market and the price of oil. It took a US government who would conspire with OPEC, not bust it. This is Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group in action. No wonder he doesn't want you to know who was there and what plans were made when he carved up the Middle East, just as the British did in days of old. This time to their own benefit and that of their supporters. Why take over when you can control?
AND the temp. went above freezing 1 ONE day in the last several weeks!
vericitatus: What this WE s--t!
I HAVE been driving a vw diesel ( well 3 in a row) since 1981,
( bought it with several thou in stock market gains from OIL STOCK Ha Ha!
They get 50 miles to the gallon. ANd I figure about $1,000. in yearly repairs ( no car payments!)
I listened to what Jimmy Carter was saying!
remember hearing some duffy radio announcer on MPBC in the early 90's blathering about how much oil we had not to worry!
I have been giving stern lecurtes to Strangers,
who abuse oil ( leave the car running while they shop, etc.) for the last 15 years. The response ("Oh I need an SUV I have a large family." Boink! My Dad used to drive the 9 of us around in a VW bus, in the 60's!
AND Republicnotademocracy. WHat a stupid remark about Global Warming. YES we had 45 days past the traditional first frost date this year. My tomatoes ripened on the vine for the first time, in MAine. October was a gift.
December for the past week 1/2 is an absolute nightmare, freezing, 3 feet of snow coated with ice, hard to shovel, and I've been going from 50 gal to 50 gal like a bloody game of musical chairs,at one interval carrying 2 gallons of diesel fuel from the gas station, 6 trips to keep the heater running.
MY CAREER HAS BEEN SUPERCEEDED! How can I earn more money to buy fuel while I'm busy keeping what I have running. AND I have at least $1,000. inventory in paint that I can't let freeze!
If you are intellectualizing, you are part of the problem!
I just caught the news and they were talking
about this place in Iraq having a HUGE amount
of oil. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
"And within what parameters are decisions made to release or forestall access to the oil in the SPR."
I can offer one (in last paragraph)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940250,00.html
Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and Bagdad.
The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to Syria.
Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.
Until 1948, the pipeline ran from the Kurdish-controlled city of Mosul to the Israeli port of Haifa, on its northern Mediterranean coast.
The revival of the pipeline was first discussed openly by the Israeli Minister for National Infrastructures, Joseph Paritzky, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz .
The paper quotes Paritzky as saying that the pipeline would cut Israel's energy bill drastically - probably by more than 25 per cent - since the country is currently largely dependent on expensive imports from Russia.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, father of the vision to pipe oil west from Iraq. In 1975, Kissinger signed what forms the basis for the Haifa project: a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the US would guarantee Israel's oil reserves and energy supply in times of crisis.
The memorandum has been quietly renewed every five years, with special legislation attached whereby the US stocks a strategic oil reserve for Israel even if it entailed domestic shortages - at a cost of $3 billion (£1.9bn) in 2002 to US taxpayers.
And -- gee, golly gosh -- look-ee here:
Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Funds bit off a big chuck of Citibank with a $7.5 billion dollar cash infusion. Your gas dollars at work -- only they aren't warming our homes or keeping our commerce rolling. Sorry, America: no heat, no jobs, no health care, no gasoline to get away or to bring food in.
You know, if I was on a cheek-kissing basis with the people who were about the buy my country at a fire sale, I'd be holding hands with them in a Rose Garden too.
We need to look b ack to the beginning of the last century. The robber barons were riding roughshod through the wallets of Americans and laws were enacted to stop them. We must redo the process taken against J. Paul Getty and Standard Oil 100 yrs. ago for the sake of non wealthy Americans (a majority of the populace). We (the majority) have no representation in Washington. They have taken and shoved down our throat the words of Woodrow Wiloson-"The business of America is business". Federalise the oil industry and repossess the fallow oil fields that have been capped off since the 70's when oil was hovering around $8/bbl. There is no shortage, only manipulation. Gasoline and diesel are by-products of profitable polymers, anyhowl.
No offense to anyone but I'm always tickled when I read my Huffpo brothers and sisters explaining the world oil market to Ray Learsy. Reminds me of folks explaining the science of hitting to Ted Williams.
Excellent piece ...as always............tm
We humans are hard wired to find cause and effect. Whenever things seem to be going badly we need to find someone to blame. Rarely, if ever, do we look in the mirror to find the cause of an ill effect. But this time that is exactly where we have to look. We would not be in this mess if we hadn't been such profligate wasters and over consumers of energy. We learned nothing from the '70s. The 55 MPH limit, mileage standards, and turning off lights in buildings worked to bring consumption down, but there was so much more we could have done to be much more energy efficient. Did we? No.
Americans seem to have very short memories. And are horrible at picking out intricate webs of causality. It was so much easier to use more and more oil, build bigger houses, buy SUVs, etc. not to mention how much happier having more stuff made us.
Forget the idea that there is some magic bullet that will bring energy prices down. There is none. And since energy is the one non-recyclable resource that is common to everything we do -- all work -- the cost of everything will continue to rise even while our ability to earn goes down. This is reality friends. There is nothing the president can do (opening the SOR), or the Saudis (pump more oil), or anyone can do as long as people waste energy and insist on 'growing' the economies. It really is that simple. But it is sad that so many people will cling to their cherished beliefs in the energy fairy until it is really too late to orchestrate a soft-landing. People really do believe there is a free lunch.
V.
Don't make this harder than it is. OPEC is manipulating the market, pure and simple. And our Dear Leaders care more about their coffers than they do about the nation.
If we are a nation of the people, they need to be held accountable!
In 2000, during another oil price spike-then President Clinton ordered the release of oil from the SPR to offset and ease prices. Candidate Bush excoriated Gore for this action, one that presumably was a boon to every citizen and business in the nation. The shrub was rewarded with the presidency. Why should or would he act act now? The extreme profits being warehoused now will pay for the future, extreme military expansion required for the neocon plan of geostrategic petro-imperialism as laid-out in the Project for a New American Century's philosophical writings.
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Posted December 18, 2007 | 07:36 AM (EST)