jimbobbob's Blog

Addiction refers to the habitual use of something for which one does not receive a benefit, or at least a long-term benefit. For example, we think of addictions as pertaining to the use of drugs such as cocaine or heroin that might give the user a temporary “high” feeling but that in the long term are injurious to his health.  The term “addiction” denotes a moral choice, as though it were immoral to use oil, but moral to use a fuel developed from a different source.  People use petroleum as the basis for fuel for their automobiles, heating their houses, powering vehicles used for work, and many other things. The assumption from the “oil is addictive” crowd is that these things are somehow immoral if they are done with the help of oil but moral if done by aid of another fuel. In the pre-capitalist, pre–fossil-fuel age, life expectancy was about 30 years. Environmentalists try to tell us those were the Golden Years.  In other words, fossil fuels and especially oil have been valuable products for civilization as we know it.  Petroleum-based fossil fuels have enabled people to enjoy standards of living that were unthinkable in the past. The difference between depending on something and being “addicted” to it is vast.

 

 

Second, the new Democratic Congress is attempting to levy stiff taxes on domestic oil (and natural gas), all in the name of trying to force down energy prices. Earth to Congress; slapping punitive taxes on anything ultimately raises prices for those goods and services. The obvious purpose is to discourage domestic production of petroleum, making oil-based fuels more expensive, which is ironic, since one reason that voters turned out the Republicans was that they blamed them for high gasoline prices. The reasons for such policies are obvious: Congress wants to end the era of fossil fuels altogether, or at least force consumers to use other fuels that Congress has deemed morally suitable for this country. That’s why Congress continues to push the “addiction” lie, as well as the fossil-fuels-create-global-warming myth!

The global-warming hypothesis, however, is no longer tenable. Scientists have been able to test it carefully, and it does not hold up. During the past 50 years, as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen, scientists have made precise measurements of atmospheric temperature. These measurements have definitively shown that major atmospheric greenhouse warming of the atmosphere is not occurring and is unlikely ever to occur.  In science, the ultimate test is the process of experiment. If a hypothesis fails the experimental test, it must be discarded. Therefore, the scientific method requires that the global warming hypothesis be rejected. It's not surprising that they should have turned out wrong--after all the weatherman still has difficulty predicting local weather even for a few days. Long-term global predictions are beyond current capabilities. What mankind is doing is moving hydrocarbons from below ground and turning them into living things. We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of the carbon dioxide increase. Our children will enjoy an Earth with twice as much plant and animal life as that with which we now are blessed. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the industrial revolution. Hydrocarbons are needed to feed and lift from poverty vast numbers of people across the globe. This can eventually allow all human beings to live long, prosperous, healthy, productive lives. No other single technological factor is more important to the increase in the quality, length and quantity of human life than the continued, expanded and unrationed use of the Earth's hydrocarbons, of which we have proven reserves to last more than 1,000 years. Global warming is a myth. The reality is that global poverty and death would be the result of Kyoto's rationing of hydrocarbons”

 

Arthur Robinson and Zachary Robinson are chemists at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

 

A 2005 RAND study estimates that about 800 billion barrels of oil trapped in shale are technically recoverable from the Green River Formation. This amount is more than three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

 

The US Minerals Management Service estimates that America's outer continental shelf holds about 19 billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil and 85.7 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered recoverable natural gas. But Congress has outlawed development there - even though the Chinese are planning to explore for oil within 60 miles of the Florida coast.

 

Drilling in ANWR would produce 1 million barrels of oil a day. Drilling in ANWR is equivalent to punching a hole in the ground the size of a postage stamp on a football field!!

 

The United States has more oil than the entire Middle East combined!! The beginning of the BUSH Administration (2001) GAS was $1.44 a gallon AVG, stable AVG to from there to 1.95. Then 2006 and the NEW DEMOCRAT CONGRESS and PRICESS LEAPED UP from 2.10 a gallon to today’s 4.00 a gallon AVG!! That is a 90% increase in 2 years!!

 

 

 

China, Cuba, Canada and others continue to drill off our shores where US companies are not allowed to drill because of Democratic policies!

 

Yes, that's right China and Cuba are actively exploring oil fields 50 miles from Key West, Florida while U.S. companies are barred from working in this area because of U.S. policy . So, instead of allowing the most environmentally responsible companies to operate there and increase our domestic supply, China, who has a dismal environmental record, is preparing to suck our close, lucrative oil reserves dry.

 

 

 

 

The U.S. hasn't built one since 1976, yet the EPA requires at least 15 unique 'boutique' fuel blends that can be sold in different areas around the nation. This means that U.S. refinery capacity is stretched so tight that even the slightest problem at a refinery causes enormous supply problems and price spikes. Congress has done nothing about this.

 

There are only two guaranteed ways to reduce the long-term price of a commodity, lower demand or increase supply.  The United States could end its dependence on foreign oil in less than 10 years if the government would allow American oil companies to drill in areas where there are known reserves right here in the United States. Liberal and populist politicians get a lot of mileage out of promising to reign in oil company profits. But what they will not admit is that the Federal government, and governments at the state and local levels, profit far more from a gallon of gas than the oil companies do. The Federal gasoline tax is currently 18.4 cents per gallon. That's more than twice the average per-gallon profit of eight cents that the oil companies make. Since 1977, governments have collected $1.34 trillion in taxes on gasoline; more than double what all the U.S oil companies combined made in profits over the same period.