to keep Gas Prices down and Why the Republicans are OK with that.
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This is good news for John McCain (and the Republican Party in general):
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.
The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom’s crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%. […]
Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco’s 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.
According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as “peak oil”.
Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.
This means President Bush knew that Saudi Arabia didn’t have as much oil as they claimed and therefore the Republicans and their allies in Big Oil knew. But that was just fine for an oil man like Bush. He knew it would actually be an opportunity for his buddies, and ultimately for his party, too.
No wonder the GOP wants to “drill, baby, drill” rather than develop renewable alternative energy.
A Republican minority in the Senate today used procedural tricks to kill the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 — a measure that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives on May 21 by a vote of 263 to 160.
The law, among things, would have extended tax incentives crucial to existing green energy businesses, and secured 100,000 jobs now at risk. Sierra Club’s Carl Pope called it
…..kicking the economy while it’s down.
No wonder Joe Barton apologized to BP. No wonder they want to strip the EPA of its power to regulate greenhouse gases. No wonder the Republicans don’t want to invest in infrastructure such as upgrading our electrical grid so we stop wasting half the electricity utilities create because of an outdated infrastructure (Texans should know something about a failure to reinvest in their electrical grid after the last few weeks)…
Asked about investment on the television talk shows Sunday, House Republican leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) each declared it was just another Democratic ploy to spend more money. Instead of Obama’s “invest-and-grow,” Republicans now offer “cut-and-grow,” which will take its place beside “government ownership of the means of production” and “tax cuts that pay for themselves” in the Pantheon of Economic Nonsense.
Republicans, it turns out, have no public investment strategy, just as they have no health-care strategy and no agreed-upon blueprint for reducing federal spending. What they have are poll-tested talking points, economic delusions and an overwhelming partisan instinct to say “no” to anything Barack Obama proposes. In their response to the president’s State of the Union message, they remind us once again that they are not serious about economic policy and not ready to govern.
… and eliminate federal investments in energy efficient automobiles:
House Republicans outlined $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade — including killing the government’s auto research program.
The plan would cut $200 million from FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership — an Energy Department program that was begun by President George W. Bush in 2002, along with Detroit’s Big Three automakers. […]
The move would be a shift from recent years when the government has been boosting auto research spending. Congress approved $2.4 billion in cash grants for advanced batteries and other vehicle programs in the stimulus, and has set aside up to $25 billion in low-cost loans for more fuel efficient vehicles.
The Obama administration won $300 million in the stimulus to buy more fuel efficient vehicles — a proposal that some Republicans criticized.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110120/AUTO01/101200465/House-GOP-proposal-would-end-fed-auto-research-program#ixzz1DSsb8TVY
I guess this Superbowl commercial didn’t make them all weepy-eyed with old-timey patriotic feelings for their fellow Americans in Detroit:
(cont.)
You see, now is the time for all good Republicans (and Blue Dog Dems, too) to rise to the aid of their lords and masters the oil and gas industry companies who stand to make a killing as oil prices rise by keeping us ever more dependent on ever more expensive petroleum products. Conservation? Hooey, they say. Invest in green technologies such as solar power? They’re more than happy to let them go to China. But eliminate subsidies and tax loopholes that benefit Big Oil? Heresy! they scream.
Republicans argued a repeal of the subsides would amount to a tax hike on the oil companies.
“So Sen. Schumer is suggesting that the Republican House should pass job-destroying tax hikes that even the Democrat-controlled Senate doesn’t support?” Steel asked.
Yeah, because with oil and gas prices at an all time high and with the obscene levels of profits major oil companies have been racking up over the last decade, God forbid we eliminate subsidies to Big Oil. After all, with Saudi reserves overstated and declining rapidly, now is the time for Big Oil to make a killing. And guess who they have targeted as their primary victim? Your pocketbook. The more gas prices rise, the more expensive everything that relies on gasoline dependent delivery systems (i.e., food, consumer goods, etc.) becomes. The fewer fuel efficient vehicles, the less we invest in our electrical infrastructure and the less we invest in alternative sources of renewable clean energy technologies, the more we spend on oil and gas and coal.
And, of course, this means more Republicans will benefit from Big Oil and Big Coal “investing” in GOP Political Action Committees and other Post-Citizens United election year spending to defeat Democrats. Now tell me again, dear Tea Partiers: how exactly will more tax cuts save America’s economy and create jobs? How is our over reliance on fossil fuels and failing to invest in clean energy technologies going to create more jobs? Last time I checked, the Bush tax cuts led to the first jobless recovery in — well, I don’t know how long.
Maybe St. Ronald of Reagan knows the answer, but last I heard he wasn’t telling anyone, or at least not anyone who isn’t crazier than Glenn Beck. Then again, Reagan raised taxes when he realized cutting taxes was ballooning the deficit and hurting the economy.
No matter. Big Oil will win big. The Republicans will grow fat from all the money thrown at them by lobbyists. And Democrats who refuse to fight for policies that promote new jobs, clean the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil (a national security issue according to the Pentagon) will continue to lose elections.
Oh, and our country will continue to spiral down toward a third world economy. Anyone remember the Soviet Union’s disintegration as a superpower when their attempt to maintain their empire became unsustainable? Guess what. That’s where we are headed, and it isn’t a good place to be. Just ask anyone who isn’t part of the new super rich elites in Russia.
