"Captain Compassion" <daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net> wrote in message
news:lu4062tmt4t3gtbqupbvk7lsoem49g6umk@4ax.com...
Asks What Wells Do They Drill?
By DANIEL JOHN SOBIESKI
http://www.swnewsherald.com/online_content/2006/05/050806ov_sob_drill.php
If anyone wonders why gasoline prices have soared above $3 a gallon at
the pump, consider the fact that on the same day that the House of
Representatives passed a bill that would allow the Federal Trade
Commission to investigate and punish oil companies that conspire to
keep prices up, it failed to pass a measure to promote expansion of
U.S. oil-refining capacity.
But does the conspiracy investigation go so far as the deal that
may have been struck between the oil companies and the Republican
government to destroy the value of the dollar, thus making the
owners of oil extremely wealthy? I will admit that this would be
the boldest conspiracy in history and that the concept is very
far reaching. But it IS a matter of shared interests. The oil
people want to be very rich and the Republicans want to be
very much in control.
Consider as well that those to whom the basic laws of supply and
demand are a complete mystery are themselves conspiring to keep oil
priced high by preventing oil development in a tiny portion of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in areas of the Outer Continental
Shelf. But instead of looking in the mirror, they blame oil companies
and gas station owners for "price-gouging" as demand rises but supply
does not.
Poking holes in the ANWR will not resolve the problem and offers
MUCH LESS than offshore development.
Those calling for a return of the tax on "windfall profits" ignore the
fact that, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation, the
biggest profiteers from oil aren't the companies that produce it and
deliver it to our gas tanks, but the federal and state governments
that tax it.
The people who create such reports are anti government and want
to enforce this notion that taxes are burned in a furnace.
Between 1977 and 2004, total federal and state taxes on gasoline sales
totaled $1.34 trillion, thanks to average taxes at the pump of about
40 cents a gallon, or more than double the $640 billion of oil company
profits. And that doesn't include the taxes the oil companies paid on
their profits.
And just about ALL of that money was used to create and maintain
the infrastructure needed to support the use of gasoline powered
cars. No taxes, no roads, no more oil profits. And BTW, it is
better to tax the stuff that destroys the environment than it is to
tax wages and capital gains. Government is not free but it is also
not the dead weight loss that the rightards want to claim.
Together, the Big Three oil companies, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and
Chevron, last quarter earned 8 cents on every dollar of sales. In
contrast, Google, Yahoo and eBay made 19 cents on every dollar of
sales and no one is accusing them of gouging their customers.
And no person is coerced by circumstance to consume the
products of Yahoo and Google. The American working people
are FORCED to consume oil in order to earn a living. I also
support a tax shift from a tax on wages to a tax on Viagra.
Government taxes take more than four times as much out of our pockets
than Exxon's first quarter profit of $8 billion which occurred largely
due to growing worldwide demand, particularly in China and India.
Fully 75 percent of Exxon's sales come from outside the United States.
And US excise taxes are not applied to gasoline sales outside the USA
and the revenue from these sales are probably shifted offshore while the
costs are booked here. It is not really possible to determine the
"profits" of multinationals for the purpose of income taxation by a given
sovereignty.
The way to exert downward pressure on gasoline prices is to increase
supply. If President Bill Clinton hadn't rejected the idea of drilling
in ANWR in 1995, we would today have another million barrels of
domestic oil per day filling our tanks, creating jobs, and lowering
prices, two-thirds of what we now import from Saudi Arabia.
The way to exert downward pressure on gasoline prices is to use
less gasoline by virtue of developing alternatives and simply limiting
the gluttony of those that can afford to waste fuel. That is done by
taxing the hell out of the stuff and providing a citizen's dividend to
all persons equally. No need to try an figure out who needs the
money. Just send the same amount to all citizens. A check for
$50 will not make any difference at all to Bill Gates, but the guy
that is really hurt by the cost of getting to work will get some
relief.
According to a recent National Petroleum Council Study, the portions
of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the 48 contiguous states
could provide enough gasoline for 116 million cars for 47 years,
enough winter heating oil for 47 million homes for over that same
period, and enough natural gas to maintain current levels of
production for the next seven decades.
So why not do that instead of screwing up the ANWR?
The study also found that keeping these areas off limits, as most
environmentalists and Democrats want to do, will cost American
consumers more than $300 billion in increased energy costs. Democrat
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida has introduced legislation that would
extend the current OCS moratorium until 2020.
There are a few loons in the Democratic Party.
The irony here that under a 1977 agreement engineered by Jimmy Carter,
Communist Cuba is allowed to drill in the Gulf of Mexico north from
the western tip of Cuba virtually to Key West, Florida and is being
helped in that effort by China and India.
I will NOT defend this.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there may be as many as 9
billion barrels of oil in the North Cuba Basin. The Gulf of Mexico may
be one of the world's greatest oil resources but, under current
policy, we won't know until others find it.
That raises a good question as to the ownership of this oil. The
oil can be pumped by the US AFTER the other people FIND it?
We import some 1.75 million barrels of oil a day from Mexico. Much of
that oil comes from the Cantarell oil field off the Yucatan peninsula.
Mexico has just discovered a second giant oil field, Noxol, not far
from Cantarell, estimated to contain as much as 10 billion barrels of
oil.
Wait a minute!!!! How can the Mexicans find oil!? Pemex is run
by the government. Goverment can't do anything like that!!!! We
all KNOW that government exists to burn money in a furnace and
to otherwise spend it on wars against those that do not share OUR
religious views. Surely you must be mistaken about this.
The next time you fill up at the pump, ponder the prospect of Chinese
oil rigs pumping oil for Castro's Cuba 50 miles off the Florida coast.
Yep. On that part you are correct. We should not allow OUR
sovereign oil to be stolen by some other sovereignty. But we should
also nationalize OUR oil.
--
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers
of society but the people themselves; and
if we think them not enlightened enough to
exercise their control with a wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take it from
them, but to inform their discretion by
education." - Thomas Jefferson
http://GreaterVoice.org
.
