The petro-despots are colluding to decrease oil production, raise energy prices, boost income for the Russian war machine, and poke the West.
I rode my bike to work today. Consider yourself poked back, MBS and Vladimir Vladmirovich, you murdering bastards.
Republicans are trying to politicize the petro-despots’ ploy, claiming that President Joe Biden needs to increase domestic supply but not stop oil companies from decreasing domestic supply through exports:
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the Biden administration should increase oil production to lower oil prices, which have carried over to raise the cost of food and other consumer goods.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that White House officials asked the Energy Department to analyze the impact of a ban on the export of refined oil products such as gasoline and diesel fuel as a way to hold down U.S. pump prices.
“The hardworking people of this country are paying the price,” Rodgers said. “President Biden must reverse course and take meaningful action to unleash American energy.”
Rodgers argued against initiating a ban on U.S. oil exports. “I am warning this administration to not use this as an excuse to ban American exports or further their radical energy transition,” she said [Benjamin J. Hulac and James Downing, “OPEC Production Cuts Add Fuel to Domestic Energy Debates,” Roll Call, 2022.10.05].
What course does Rep. Rodgers think President Biden has to reverse? According to David Doney’s chart of Energy Administration data, U.S. oil production has recovered from the pandemic slump and is at an all-time high (all-time—as in, higher than during the petro-anarchy days of the previous Administration):
If President Biden “reversed course”, he’d decrease oil production (not that I’d mind, because we really ought to wean ourselves off our addiction to a finite fuel source whose use is wrecking the planet). Under President Biden, U.S. energy production is continuing an upward trend that started under President George W. Bush and really took off while Biden was hanging out in the White House with Barack Obama.
And on that export ban—wait: isn’t the whole point of increasing American oil production to increase American energy supply and not only lower American energy prices but insulate American energy prices from the Saudis’ and Russkies’ jerking our supply chain? We’re exporting six times as much petroleum products as we did 20 years ago—why don’t we just pour all that black gold into our own tanks and tell the rest of the world to kiss off?
Oil companies claim that banning exports would actually decrease domestic supply:
The largest U.S. oil trade groups said on Tuesday that they have “significant concerns” that the Biden administration is considering limiting fuel exports to lower consumer prices and urged top officials to take the option off the table, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The joint letter from the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufactures to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm represents the latest volley in a clash between the oil industry and the Biden administration over high energy prices.
…”Banning or limiting the export of refined products would likely decrease inventory levels, reduce domestic refining capacity, put upward pressure on consumer fuel prices, and alienate U.S. allies during a time of war. For these reasons, we urge the Biden administration to take this option off the table,” the groups said, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine [Jarreyy Renshaw, “U.S. Oil Groups Urge Biden to Take Fuel Export Ban off Table, Letter Shows,” Reuters, 2022.10.04].
So the GOP and the oil companies want to make more oil in America, but they don’t want us to use it? Why do I feel like they aren’t really trying to solve the problem affecting most American motorists?
I welcome discussion of the macroeconomic/market forces that obligate the U.S. to continue exporting its energy wealth to sustain some global good. But if we all just rode our bikes to work a couple more days a week or found other ways to park our cars, our oil exports and the machinations of the petro-despots wouldn’t matter to our daily lives.
Monkey Wrench Cyclery has lots of bike routes there in PennyTown.
All you liberals forget Senile Joe then senile candidate Senile Joe states he wanted to put the oil companies out of business.
Senile Joe has proved green energy is not ready for the main stage.
Well taken, but speaking of macroeconomics, if we would deregulate the oil industry as Trump did, the price of oil would fall dramatically. Case in point, gas under $2.00 a gallon.
Ahem! Gasoline prices fell under Trump because the pandemic took everybody off the road. The environmental damage caused by Trumpian deregulation may never be mitigated.
Sam2, no one is going to put oil companies out of business. The oil companies want to squeeze all the profits they can from their existing production systems (which may be another part of why they, like OPEC, aren’t producing at maximum capacity, in order to stretch their finite supplies for a few more years), but when they’ve slurped up all of the oil, they’ll make sure they’re positioned to sell wind power, solar power, and other resources.
But putting them out of the oil business would be good for national security and the planet.
Deregulate the oil industry, let them produce and let people burn as much oil as they want, and we won’t have a healthy planet left to go for a drive on. Regulate the oil industry to death, or at least to transition to cleaner fuel, and we can use the cash to reduce the impacts/costs of climate change.
Extracting oil and gas from public lands releases about 20 percent of energy-related US greenhouse gas emissions so the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management intend to scale back leases to the industry in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and other states. According to Interior the social costs of VOC emissions from oil and gas production on public parcels exceeds $4 billion annually.
Last year the US Department of Energy awarded $12 million to seven projects intended to accelerate development of geothermal potential including $2 million to the University of New Mexico and $1.5 million to Montana State University. Geothermal mining has been a topic of keen interest in Montana for decades where radioactive decay heats groundwater.
Colorado could even tap orphaned oil and gas wells to supply hot water for electricity generation according to KUNC especially now that the state is falling behind on its own self-imposed emissions-reducing mandates.
Black Hills Energy and PacifiCorp enjoy a duopoly in Wyoming with power consumers bent over the barrel. Nationalizing the grid has never been more urgent.
There’s a definite push by foreign influencers and their radicalized Republicans, like Sam2 and Mr. Sol, to artificially drive-up oil prices to help Republicans in the election. Don’t be fooled. Russia, Iran, N. Korea, and Israel will do and say anything to get Trump back in power.
Two of Cory’s favorite things are bike riding and McDonalds food. This blurb combines them. From my “I love new things.” file.
– Eating your McDonald’s fries, burger, and drink while in your car isn’t really an issue (hands on the wheel notwithstanding), but what happens if you’re traveling by bike? In one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, Copenhagen, McDonald’s has solved that issue with their McBike packaging.
– The McBike is a takeout container that’s designed to fit securely on the handlebars of your bike. It can hold a drink, burger, and fries without spilling. How’s that for convenience? The innovative packaging has been released at “bike-thru” windows all over the country and will also be launched in other bike-friendly cities like Amsterdam and Tokyo.
If you want US oil production, you have to have high oil prices. I’ve mentioned before that I have a small amount of inherited mineral interest in the Bakken oil patch. Oil production in the North Dakota oil wells I have a mineral interest in increases when prices are high. They pump more oil from existing wells, and they complete more new wells into different pools. They want to maximize the money they get from their investment, obviously. If oil prices are low, they tend to conserve the resource until the price rises. They do that by pumping less and holding off on well development. What would happen if the feds opened up all their land to oil production? Oil prices would go down. The wells on private lands would reduce production. I’d get less royalties, but overall US oil production would not necessarily increase.
Biden needs to stop selling arms to the 9-11 hijackers in Saudi Arabia and to allow imports from Venezuela, both of which he has proposed.
OPEC has been consistently under-producing its quota by about 2.8M barrels/day. So, cutting its quota by 2M barrels/day doesn’t matter much on the ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG-DwlPtXEE&t=2s
Yes, “unleash American energy.” The Republicans’ tired old refrain against government regulation. Well, there are consequences to GOP/cowgirl hip shootin’ emotional messaging! In her early congressional committee advocacy right after the Deep Water Horizon explosion, she was busy keeping the rattlesnake off the endangered species list. (see Natural Resources Committee June 19, 2010 hearing video). Our flame- throwin’ governor, now, who eliminated Department of Environment and Natural Resources less than a year after it’s heavily experienced director retired and she replaced him with a young (mid-40s SD JD 2006) Daugaard Republican Ft Pierre farmer/rancher/cabinet member (Marlboro Man, Presho rancher/politician Cliff Roberts’s gs)!
[There was] no way to put this in historical context because we have never faced anything like this before”.[64] As with the Exxon Valdez disaster, litigation [over Deep Water Horizon’s catastrophic 2010 oil spill] was being discussed in terms of a 20-year timescale.[62] [66]
On 4 September 2014, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled BP was guilty of gross negligence and willful misconduct under the Clean Water Act (CWA). He described BP’s actions as “reckless,” while he said Transocean’s and Halliburton’s actions were “negligent.” He apportioned 67% of the blame for the spill to BP, 30% to Transocean, and 3% to Halliburton. BP issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the finding, and saying the court’s decision would be appealed.[67] wiki
Prosecutors claimed that BP’s Donald Vidrine misinterpreted a critical pressure test that led to the explosion, and he and Bob Kaluza were initially charged with 22 felony manslaughter charges. Manslaughter charges against those two BP executives on aboard, were dismissed. I watched the whole debacle from Austin Texas. (I once worked for BP fueling F-18 Hornets.)
Texas is afterall an oil state.
Vidrine seemed concerned by pressure-test results, but accepted the arguments from others that the well was secure. In his statement to BP investigators, Vidrine said he didn’t see a problem with the tests and ordered the crew to begin replacing heavy drilling mud—used to hold back to flow of oil and gas in the well—with seawater, one of the final steps in completing the drilling process….The lighter seawater failed to hold back the flow of hydrocarbons, which were under intense pressure, causing them to spill over onto the rig floor, where they were ignited by one of the rig’s generators, causing a series of explosions.
Under Vidrin’s plea deal he testified against Kaluza, the other rig supervisor working on Deepwater Horizon, at his colleague’s February 2016 trial. Kaluza was acquitted.
210 millions gallons of crude [134 million to 206 million— Encyclopedia Brittanica) spilled for almost 90 days into the gulf from about 4 miles down. The US Supreme Court rejected oil giant BP’s legal challenge to a compensation deal over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Reuters, 2014.
By 2017: https: //www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/donald-vidrine-bp-company-man-deepwater-horizon-dies/
The Gulf Long-Term Follow-up Study, or GuLF, found workers on the cleanup site were 60% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma or experience wheezing symptoms. Researchers analyzed data from more than 19,000 spill response and cleanup workers and 5,585 others who were trained but not part of the cleanup. (I watched efforts out of Port Lavaca, TX at the time.) http://www.portlavacawave.com/lifestyles/health/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-cleanup-put-workers-at-risk-for-asthma/article_1ff94faf-8940-5468-8160-869032cef7ec.html
DWH Trustees determined that the injuries caused by the DWH oil spill affected such a wide array of linked resources over such an enormous area that the effects of the spill must be described as constituting an ecosystem-level injury. Consequently, the DWH Trustees’ chosen alternative for restoration planning employs a comprehensive, integrated ecosystem approach to address the ecosystem-level injury. The Final PDARP/PEIS describes a comprehensive restoration plan at a programmatic level to guide and direct the ecosystem-level restoration effort….Birds” restoration type can advance the goal of “replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources.” The DWH Consent Decree with BP and the Final PDARP/PEIS include funding allocations for each restoration type and each Trustee as well as for monitoring, adaptive management, and administrative oversight. In total, these allocations include $8.8 billion in natural resource damage claims that will be paid over a 15-year period. https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-08-LA-FinalDraft_RPEA7-1_081422_508.pdf
C’mon, Joe. Peter Zeihan? You believe Peter Zeihan? Zeihan’s a gloom and doom sensationalist whose predictions have been miserably wrong 64 percent of the time over the last ten years.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a comrade by who he believes.”
I agree with your analysis, Leslie. I watched the documentary and followed every step with the informed mind of a roughneck whose life was in the hands of drill pushers who read pressure tests and determined when to bypass a B.O.P. (blow out preventer).
British Petroleum was at fault for the deaths of many on the rig.
Donald Pay points out the complexity of oil production in the USA. Those wells in North Dakota are still productive but turned down. It’s a big complex game played out by industry sharks. There are thousands of wells with minimum production out there. Also many leases available for companies to develop on federal, state and private lands. There is no oil production for the public interest. Unless you consider the stockholders, CEO’s and company owners making huge profits the public.
The United States has never taken a serious stance toward moving away from oil. Until it does, it will NEVER be energy independent, and it will always be at the whims of OPEC’s price manipulations. Reliance on oil undermines both our domestic safety and international policy. Each time we make any move toward divorcing ourselves from big oil, the checkbooks come out, and the Manchens of Capital Hill ensure that any progressive policies quietly go away. It is a political sickness that unfortunately does not only rot our GOP friends (although they are MUCH worse).
No reasonable argument can be made that the technology of Henry Ford, the gasoline-burning, internal combustion engine, ought to be the heart of the American transportation economy still.