Offshore Drilling

[thesightless]

Re: Offshore Drilling

http://seekingalpha.com/article/53815-ocean-power-technologies-wave-of-the-future

[ddr]

Re: Offshore Drilling

i agree that this issue is important as a whole..

BUT, all i am saying is that this is an issue only because the politicians see it as a way to appeal to people that have no idea what goes on behind the idea, to gain votes and get elected.

i find it funny how bush and mccain have been against offshore drilling throughout their whole careers... to, out of the blue, say its an important issue and demand that it be done... politics at its finest right there.

[Garrick]

Re: Offshore Drilling

nobody predicted the predicament we're in now though i don't think... at least not this bad. so at least now some politicians are realizing the need and opportunity. unfortunately, tons still oppose it.........

[Garrick]

Re: Offshore Drilling

big government at its best:

http://www.foxnews.com/urgent_queue/printer-friendly-story.html#a54ef44,2008-06-18

[88Mariner]

Re: Offshore Drilling

big government at its best:

http://www.foxnews.com/urgent_queue/...f44,2008-06-18

yeah. it's on a new thread. i post. yesterday.

[subterFUSE]

Re: Offshore Drilling

OIL PRICES: '08’S DEFINING ISSUE

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on June 17, 2008.

Gas prices are the first important issue in the 2008 elections. But both parties have been pathetic in their solutions and, one suspects, in their understanding of what is going on.

Democrats call for windfall profits taxes. Bad idea. How can you get oil companies to explore and drill if you tax away their profits? Republicans focus on a gas tax “holiday,” an 18-cent palliative to gas prices that now top $4.50.

Fadel Gheit, managing director of oil and gas research for Oppenheimer and Co., and Jim Norman, author of the book The Oil Card, coming out next month, say that speculation is responsible for a huge part of the run-up in prices.

The growing demand for oil by India and China and the instability of oil supplies certainly account for much of the increase. But the recent spike, they say, is equally due to the weakness of the dollar and massive speculation.

They argue that oil prices are, indeed, determined by supply and demand — not only the supply and demand for oil, but also the supply and demand for oil futures. (Oil futures are a commitment to buy 1,000 barrels of oil at a certain date at a certain price.)

Formerly, most of the investments in oil futures came from energy companies. The federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sharply limited investments by those outside the business, to prevent precisely the kind of speculation now gripping the market.

But when the stock market slowed down in 2000–2002, outside investors decided to speculate in oil futures.

The new players were institutional investors like corporate and government pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments and other investors, guided by brokerage firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

To avoid the CFTC caps, these investors moved their operations to London, setting up the International Commodities Exchange. Now they can buy all the oil futures they want.

Michael W. Masters, of Masters Capital Management, told Congress that the volume of investment in commodities futures soared from $13 billion at the end of 2003 to $260 billion by March of 2008.

After a while, the CFTC rescinded its limits on how much speculators could buy as long as they went through special “swap” desks at the major brokerage houses.

You can buy oil futures for only 5 percent down on margin, a bargain considering the 50 percent margin requirement for stock market equity investments. Because the margin requirement on oil futures rises as the due date approaches, few investors actually end up buying the oil; they just roll over their investments.

So the willingness of sellers to unload their oil futures, and of buyers to acquire them, sets up its own market of supply and demand that has more to do with determining the actual price of oil than even the global demand and supply for the product itself.

On May 20 of this year, Masters told Congress: “Commodities futures prices are the benchmark for the prices of actual physical commodities, so when index speculators drive futures prices higher, the effects are felt immediately in spot prices and the real economy. So there is a direct link between commodities futures prices and the prices your constituents are paying for essential goods.”

Gheit and Norman suggest that the CFTC regulate the domestic oil futures market (NYMEX) and the participation of U.S. companies in the ICE, restoring the caps on the amount of oil futures speculators can buy. Gheit also urges raising margin requirements for them.

Both worry that the oil futures bubble is going to burst and cost a lot of investors — particularly pension funds who channel their investments through the swap desks of the brokerage houses. We don’t need another sub-prime or savings-and-loan crisis on our hands right now.

The Senate recently tried to force CFTC regulation of all commodities speculators, but the bill was loaded down with a windfall profits tax, so the Republicans killed it.

John McCain needs to get with this program. In his town hall meeting in New York City last Thursday night, he attacked speculators for driving up oil prices but didn’t propose remedies or really explain the problem.

Americans will pay close attention if he does. For McCain, this is the issue and now is the time to use it.

[day_for_night]

Re: Offshore Drilling

John McCain couldn't explain the problem of speculators if he tried. you need a phd in finance to wrap your head around some of it, and he isn't even close.

[subterFUSE]

Re: Offshore Drilling

MCCAIN SCORES WITH OFFSHORE DRILLING PROPOSAL

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

June 18, 2008.

John McCain has drawn first blood in the political debate following Barack Obama's victory in the primaries. His call yesterday for offshore oil drilling — and Bush's decision to press the issue in Congress - puts the Democrats in the position of advocating the wear-your-sweater policies that made Jimmy Carter unpopular.

With gas prices nearing $5, all of the previous shibboleths need to be discarded. Where once voters in swing states like Florida opposed offshore drilling, the high gas prices are prompting them to reconsider. McCain's argument that even hurricane Katrina did not cause any oil spills from the offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico certainly will go far to allay the fears of the average voter.

For decades, Americans have dragged their feet when it comes to switching their cars, leaving their SUVs at home, and backing alternative energy development and new oil drilling. But the recent shock of a massive surge in oil and gasoline prices has awakened the nation from its complaisance. The soaring prices are the equivalent of Pearl Harbor in jolting us out of our trance when it comes to energy.

Suddenly, everything is on the table. Offshore drilling, Alaska drilling, nuclear power, wind, solar, flex-fuel cars, plug-in cars are all increasingly attractive options and John McCain seems alive to the need to go there while Obama is strangely passive. During the Democratic primary, he opposed a gas tax holiday and continues to be against offshore and Alaska drilling and squishy on nuclear power. That leaves turning down your thermostat and walking to work as the Democratic policies.

McCain has also been ratcheting up his attacks on oil speculators. With the total value of trades in oil futures soaring from $13 billion in 2003 to $260 billion today, it is increasingly clear that it is not the supply and demand for oil which is, alone, driving up the price, but it is the supply and demand for oil futures which is stoking the upward movement.

The Saudis have made a fatal mistake in not forcing down the price of oil. We could have gone for decades as their hostage, letting their control over our oil supplies choke us while enriching them. But they got greedy and let the price skyrocket. The sudden shock which has sent America reeling is just the stimulus we need for a massive movement away from imported oil and toward new types of cars.

The political will for major change in our energy policy is now here and those, like Obama, who don't get it need to rethink their positions. To quote FDR, “this great nation calls for action and action now” on the energy issue. What has been a back-burner problem now has moved onto center stage and McCain has put himself in the forefront.

The Democratic ambivalence stems from liberal concerns about climate change. The Party basically doesn't believe in carbon based energy and, therefore, opposes oil exploration. That's why Obama pushes the windfall profits tax on oil companies - a step that tells them “you drill, you find oil, and we'll take away your profits.” But Americans have their priorities in order: more oil, more drilling AND alternative energy sources, flex-fuel cars, plug in vehicles and nuclear power.

With his willingness to respond to the gas price crisis with bold measures, McCain shows himself to be a pragmatist while Obama comes off as an ideologue to puts climate change ahead of making it possible for the average American to get to work.

Of course, the high price of gas makes it inevitable that the US will lead the world in fighting climate change. With $5 gas, Americans will switch en masse to cars that burn less gasoline. Already we have cut our oil consumption by 500,000 barrels a day in the past year (about a 3% cut). The move away from oil will be exponential from here on out, dooming radical Islam and reversing climate change at the same time. But while we are getting new cars, we need more oil and McCain has flanked Obama on this issue. Big time.

[Steve Graham]

Re: Offshore Drilling

^ yeah seriously.. i've never asked the question and i'm not a scientist! you cleared in up for me. i really have no more concerns so lets get the fuck out there and drill. and lets stop worrying about the polar bear too while we're at it and strike up some oil in alaska too, ffs.


ring of fire! now i know... that is huge!

I had a ring of fire before, but I guess thai food will do that sometimes

[Garrick]

Re: Offshore Drilling

so president bush lifted the offshore oil drilling ban yesterday amongst a great attitude shift lately that we should begin drilling offshore... look at what our great congressional speaker has to say about it:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=prnw.20080714.DC27560&show_article=1

am i missing something here? is she really this much of a bigot? seriously... can someone explain to me where she has a legitimate argument? i am clearly missing it.

[88Mariner]

Re: Offshore Drilling

i hope that woman dies. quickly and painfully.

under no interpretation did her quotes make any sense. i award her no points. may zeus have mercy on her soul.

she is the political version of christocrats. making no sense is the name of the game.

[runningman]

Re: Offshore Drilling

I can't get over Bush!! I feel like I'm always talking about this loser because he constantly makes the wrong decision.

Do you notice nobody is talking about the environmental impact of doing what he proposed?? All he is doing is trying to make more money for his oil buddies before he gets punted out of the White House..

We aren't running out of oil so don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Here is an article from Jan 2008..

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3207311.ece

What is happening is the oil companies are drilling us right in the ass because they can with a government like this not even trying to prevent them..

[Garrick]

Re: Offshore Drilling

^ are you kidding me? it isn't about running out of oil man. it is about becoming less dependent on foreign energy from the crazy middle east, helping our US economy and eventually lowering/stabilizing the prices of gas.

not to mention we are talking about offshore oil drilling, so the precious polar bears that everyone thinks are endangered won't be harmed. if something catastrophic happens, it happens. but it would be due to negligence. outside of the exxon oil tanker driven by a drunken negligent captain there have not been any catastrophic events due to oil drilling offshore. it is safe and does not harm the environment.

and please don't start with the oil company controlling everything bullshit. do you knw what a profit margin is? there is a huge difference between profit and profit margin. the oil companies are hurting just like we are. lord knows with the price of oil today, they aren't making a lot of money. if they can drill for oil, they stand to make some profit. so sue them! they are a freakin business and businesses try to make money.

[toasty]

Re: Offshore Drilling

am i missing something here? is she really this much of a bigot? seriously... can someone explain to me where she has a legitimate argument? i am clearly missing it.

I'm not understanding the bigot comment at all. I'm wondering if I'm even looking at the right article, because while there might be legitimate reasons to disagree with what she's saying, I don't see what this has to do with bigotry. Seriously.

I completely disagree about releasing oil from the strategic reserve. We're paying more than we'd like at the pump, but that's not going to change any time soon, tapping that reserve isn't going to change anything on that front anyway, and that's just not what it's for. We need to be in serious shit before we start tapping that. It's a "strategic" reserve, not an "I'd like to drive oil prices down for a week or so" reserve or a "kneejerk reaction" reserve.

One thing with offshore drilling, though. People act as if this drilling will start, and each of us in the US is going to get a check. Obviously not the case, and if global demand continues to rise while we ramp up production offshore, the impact is going to be negligible. Doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't do it, but we've got to figure out a bigger solution to the problem than just drilling for more oil...

[Garrick]

Re: Offshore Drilling

bigot = a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.

sounds like pelosi to me....