Drilling for US oil.
At $130.00 plus a barrel adds up to huge profits for any oil company. It’s not about domestic supply it’s about world supply. If a barrel of oil sells on the world market $130.00 you can bet you will pay the same for oil produced in US. The only people that would benefit would be the oil companies and stock holders. The oil companies are not interested in lower gas prices, only profit. Most all oil producing country’s are government run oil industries and domestic fuel prices for these country’s are a fraction of what the US. Citizen pays. In a capitalist country (USA) the oil produced here would be sold to the highest bidder, you will not get the price brake that government owned oil producing countries enjoy. If you hold stock in oil you might be able to subsidize the price of gas with your dividends.

What do you think would happen if congress would for once work for the best interest of US citizens and put stipulations on domestic drilling such as no exporting of domestic oil? Or regulate exports and the coast of domestic sales. This is one way to control speculators here and abroad. By reducing import oil to the so called largest consumer the US. Foreign oil surplus would rise and the price of oil would drop.
I’m sure we would be labeled isolationists by the oil company’s as well as hypercritical oil producing nations. And why would I care they are taking advantage of are laws and posturing them selves to control are energy needs and we did this to ourselves. World economics is world business and are silver tong politicians have duped the American people and failed to secure the peoples best interest. The coast of generating a single barrel of oil in Saudi Arabia is about $2.00. And we pay $130.00 per barrel with no leverage to control this.
Congress is trying to pass a bill to stop or control oil speculating. How arrogant. What is to stop over seas speculation? The US is not the only market trading oil. Domestic speculators work in domestic markets. Sound like congress was not satisfied with running out American industries now they are working on Wall Street.
There are many solutions to this. The future looks bright with alternative energy. But it’s not here now and I can’t afford to make an overnight change after all I am like most people with a family trying to cop with everyday coast of living.

Oh in regards to mineral rights to government leased land. This is a no brainier. All survey data should be public domain if an oil company leases land for oil production and fails to do so TERMINATE THE LEAS. Exploit the survey data.
Disqualify the company from bidding on the same leas. Issue oil business licenses so you might expand the industry and end this group monopoly Stop the land grab and hold. If there is no oil on that land why dose the oil company’s hold on to the Leas?

Our goverment has proven they are not credible in anything! Give Pelosi anymore power and she will be wearing a crown, prancing around with her wand,wanting to knight her loyal party members!!!!

Don’t believe we the people are whiners, we are just tired of getting the “see ya wouldn’t want to be ya” attitude from thoes we have elected and trusted to take care of business in an expedient way.

China certainly has no qualms about drilling near by. (what’s up with that ????) Have we been tatooed,
bamboozled, hoodooed again ????

Congress should —- or get off the pot !!!! What part of Do Something do they not understand??? !!!!

To Rick, If the oil companies really believe that a crisis exists and more drilling will bring about lower prices for oil, then let them put it in writing. Every choice will have a cost that some else does not like or want. But, at lease allow those that want to choos non-petro means do so. Even if oil drilling is a viable answer, why should the other alternatives be ignored. I would like to know why a battery powered vehicle would be ‘just plain stupid’. We use different vehicles now for different purposes and usually they are chosen based upon the job and someone’s preference. Why would you restrict someone from making the same choice about a conveyence of travel? There have been many people throughout the ages who have had great creative ideas and were thought to be ‘just plain stupid’. And you don’t have to be an Einstein to see that in the history of the world.

Ellen, dems are supposed to be the smart ones, while the rest of us are bible-totin’, gun-totin’ hicks. If they ever think that wind power is the alternative, then they had best think again. Seems to me that good ole Teddy would not let a wind-power operation near his majestic home, how many more will subscribe to that type of action. Solar power costs to much to be of any effective use, while a car battery to carry us across the plains is just plain stupid. Batteries cause more pollution than fossil fuels and you people just don’t seem to realize it. Again, the slogan is drill now, drill here, and pay less, which is something you libs just don’t understand. The next conflict the US enters has a chance not to be across the ocean, the so-called silent majority is close to their boiling point. I sat quietly through Jimmy Carter’s administration, who is classified as the worst president ever in history to my thinking, but I will sit quietly through a lib’s administration that tries to ruin this country.

The roaring 20’s..screech-crash!!

If we drill in the presence of other alternatives, the oil market will not dictate the cost of living. If Congress passed laws for the masses for alternative fuels competition would drive down the cost of all. Oil has spurred a good bit of our economy and could probably be supported by what we produce now within. The oil we use for fuel comes mostly from the Middle East. The amount we recover here will not even come close to replacing our gluttonous appetites for mobility. We need to go on a diet as well as drill some more. But, drilling is not the whole-listic answer to our problems. We’re being dooped, conned and controlled into thinking that our oil producers are the only ones who can keep us independent and free. Remember words like boycott. Germany was able to do without oil during WWII. It takes ingenuity, creativity and just plain perserverance. We need other solutions to be made available and possible for the American peoples’ use. Then let them choose. But don’t fill them with deceptions and hopelessness without at least providing them other means of hope…which may I add are realities today.

http://www.evporsche.com/
http://www.biofuelbasics.com/
http://www.hlineconversion.com/index.php
http://zeropollutionmotors.us/?page_id=36

It’s time to wake up and stop smelling the gas fumes!!!!

increase mileage by 10% by dropping ethanol from fuel. That becomes par because most gasolines contain 10% ethanol. Sell the resulting extra corn to the Saudis rather than give them, of all people, financial aid. Promote on-demand hydrogen usage for gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. The technology is old but effective, Thousands of people are doing it. It cleans emissions, saves fuel and money. Stationary engines, including power generation can be built on existing technology to run only on gases produced from water. Beats the wind generators for cost and reliability. Keep the government away from any critical function. You know they no longer can do anything simply and cost-effectively.

That’s what we need - more big government, more socialism.

Here’s an alternative. How about the captains of industry showing integrity and using some of their hard earned (in some cases) profits for the benefit of society, instead of million dollar birthday parties in Greece. I understand why the left pushes this big government control - it is because many of the capitalist big shots just want to turn a profit, without any concern for the national good, and someone needs to call them to account. The best solution would be for government to free industry from red tape and for industry to act with integrity. I believe that American capitalism can solve this problem, but it needs to be set free and act with integrity. Both socialism and an immoral form of capitalism are cataclysmic. Is there any hope?

Any plan to break are dependency on forien oil, has to start with us drilling are own oil. Otherwise we are still depending on other countries oil. That being said, it is true that we have to come up with alternetive fuel source.
But we don’t drill are own oil, so we keep lining forien countries pockets with moneis. While the americans keep going further in debt. Mayby when the everage Joe can’t afford just a gallon of gas they might start to drill again.

READ MY SIPS!!!!!! WE DO NOT NEED TO DRILL MORE!!!!! There are alternate fuel options in place already, i.e. LPG, gas, hydrogen fuel cell, electric motors and lithium batteries, etc. The technology and conversion to any of these alternatives for power to vehicles are here and being sold either here in this country to municipality vehicle fleets or in Canada which has been using alternate fuels for years. Our governing bodies have blocked use for the masses by refusing to pass laws that would allow the same equipment available to be used on everyone’s cars and trucks, i.e. LPG or natural gas. The only conversion that law will allow is for the conversion hardware to be installed on an identical vehicle, even if you would use the same identical equipment. The present laws say that a different vehicle has to have a certification even if it uses the same apparatus. Most companies are not willing to pay the expense for this without having some return. This is an easier swifter fix for the masses beyond DRILLING!!!!! To tell you the truth, I’ve been drilled enough with these high oil prices!!! If the government wants to boost the economy and support private businesses, then give me my High Definition TV allowance with a working tax break and I’ll take care of at least one American citizen in a way that will benefit the masses rather than all those who continue to have. Or better yet, let me at least purchase one of those air cars from India, Germany or France. We won’t need another GM (Great Money), or Chrysler (Crys less) or Ford (For ‘De or me). These are just my thoughts. Feel free to comment or email me.

A national oil company? Think it through, folks. Do you have any idea what a barrel of US government oil would cost? It certainly is NOT going to help with oil prices. By the time the paper work is done and the first barrel is produced we’ll have perfected hydrogen cars. Before you wish for this please just think of any Federal program you’ve been associated with. How was that experience?

Mandate that US crude be sold only in the US? Think it through, folks. In the 70’s, Carter mandated that Alaskan oil be sold only in the US. At the time, oil companies were trading Alaskan crude (Heavy with high levels of kerosene and deisel) for Japanese crude (Lighter with higher levels of gasoline) A win-win situation for both countries. For political correctness, the US oil companies producing in Alaska had to refine inferior oil, at greater cost, for less fuel.

Please let the people who know what they are doing do it! Think it through, folks.

READ MY SIPS!!!!!! WE DO NOT NEED TO DRILL MORE!!!!! There are alternate fuel options in place already, i.e. LPG, gas, hydrogen fuel cell, electric motors and lithium batteries, etc. The technology and conversion to any of these alternatives for power to vehicles are here and being sold either here in this country to municipality vehicle fleets or in Canada which has been using alternate fuels for years. Our governing bodies have blocked use for the masses by refusing to pass laws that would allow the same equipment available to be used on everyone’s cars and trucks, i.e. LPG or natural gas. The only conversion that law will allow is for the conversion hardware to be installed on an identical vehicle, even if you would use the same identical equipment. The present laws say that a different vehicle has to have a certification even if it uses the same apparatus. Most companies are not willing to pay the expense for this without having some return. This is an easier swifter fix for the masses beyond DRILLING!!!!! To tell you the truth, I’ve been drilled enough with these high oil prices!!! If the government wants to boost the economy and support private businesses, them give me my High Definition TV allowance with a working tax break and I’ll take care of at least one American citizen in a way that will benefit the masses rather than all those who continue to have. Or better yet, let me at least purchase one of those air cars from India, Germany or France. We won’t need another GM (Great Money), or Chrysler (Crys less) or Ford (For ‘De or me). These are just my thoughts. Feel free to comment or email me.

July 25, 2008

Why Crude is down but Gasoline is barely
by MrArbitrage

As I have been hearing the complaints of many disillusioned consumers that gasoline prices are barely moving down despite the significant drop in oil prices, I think this would be a good time to point out the reason why that is.

When crude oil goes up, you see it immediately reflected in the price at the pumps. The perplexed public rightfully gets angry about this saying “they didn’t pay that new, higher price for the gasoline in those pumps so why are they charging me as though they did?” This immediate price hike happens because they are charging you in advance for their “replacement cost”. The thing that outrages consumers is that although prices at the pump immediately respond to the oil price on the world market when it moves upward - gas prices do not seem to quickly respond on the DOWNSIDE of the world oil market.

The reason why the gas price stays high when the oil prices correct is because…
(continued) http://tableofwisdom.com/Energy_Crisis.html

Hey Ellen, I , like thousands of other U. S. citizens, own stock in those big, old evil oil companies you hate so much. If you really want to see an industry in a mess just establish a government run oil company. The government has been the problem and is the reason we don’t have more oil production in this country right now. T Boone’s idea may be alright for the future; but for right now we need to open up drilling everywhere. I am tired of us citizens down on the Gulf Coast providing all the off shore oil in the U.S.

Al Gore stated his ideas about reducing our need for oil last week. It’s too bad on July 25, Rush Limbaugh had to twist and lie about what Gore said, as Limbaugh said Gore’s idea was to do away with oil use within ten years. Limbaugh went on to ask who would believe such an idea possible. Limbaugh asked if that were to happen, how would we fly planes without using oi?

Gore never proposed to do away with oil use in ten years. What Gore said was that he proposes producing all ELECTRICITY from renewable resources within ten years. It would be nice if Limbaugh could stick to the facts instead of resorting to lies and distortions.

You have just further proved that your a Scoialist. That’s what it’s called when the government owns the businesses.

Also, why could Obama got to Iraq & Afghan without his loving press but not got the samwe way to visit the wounded in Germany?

Ellen, how can you suggest that our do nothing congress run an oil company?

Harry and Nancy display their ineptness everyday.

Our own oil company owned by our government?

Sure, Ellen, great idea. Let’s hire Hugo Chavez as CEO.

Great idea.

Government run oil company. Sorry, I can’t buy into a bigger government. Plus they can’t run ANYTHING in an efficient, non-corrupted way, so why would this be different. I think we need to push hard on both fronts. Drill as much oil as we can and develop alternative fuels. Then one day in the future when we are producing more oil than we need in the US, we can start selling it to China. Imagine that, the US could MAKE some money on it’s own natural resources. Not that any of that money would make it back to the little guy, but it would make me feel better.

The US Government already makes an obscene profit off oil in the form of taxes. What oil compaies pay is a huge number: over $1 TRILLION in the last few years.

This is an idiotic idea. The US Government couldn’t run a popcorn stand let alone a multi-billion corporation.

Besides that it pure Communism.

This is actually a slap into the face of what this country is. We are not a socialist country. We do not need government ran businesses, can you say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Those are government ran as well, and since 1998 has been told by economists that their “non discriminatory” tactics, ie not being able to ask about credit history or financial status of people of lowere socio economic status, have caused this mess.

Here is another thing you might want to rap your head around, if Oil Companies were so greedy, and these alternative fuel sources are marketable and can create thousands of jobs, while making money, why haven’t the oil companies exploited this for greed purposes? Could it be that it isn’t that marketable? Hmmm, but this couldn’t be could it?

That is the beauty of a market economy, if i can be done at low cost and make it profitable, its done, if there is a niche for it, it’s sought at.

Why don’t we ask the poor people in Venezuela how grand it is to have a nationalized Oil company Ellen?

Also yes we could have more alternative fuels but wind and solar are renewable energies but not sustainable, and its costly to store any surplus of energy, and plus you have to understand that with a lack of super conductivity techonology that it takes a lot of energy to transfer energy from the source to where it is used, so you lose a lot in the process.

but no obviously the answer is big government, at least to people that don’t have the courage to take care of themselves.

Ellen,

Your true colors come out. That is Socialism and very scary. That is why I as a Democrate has voted Republican the last few elections. I propose that all the people that do not want to drill pays $8.00 a gallon and we that do pay $2.00.

Perfect, the Medicare/Medicaid program is riff with fraud and cost overruns. Every and I mean EVRY thing entrusted to “government control” is costing the American taxpayers more and more each year, because the people (from White House to Congress) can’t seem to stay within a budget. Now, you propose that the “government” should own anything to do with our energy? Let me guess, Al Gore and Pickens will be the CEO and CFO. Gads, is that the ONLY answer you have, “Let the Government do it”??

Have you ever dealt with the US government? Do you honestly believe the US government can do anything efficient enough to make a profit? This is the same government that’s bankrupting social security. The same government that has a national debt in the TRILLIONS! This government pours hundreds of billions into the public education system only to be the laughing stock of industrialized education standards. You want THIS government to manage your oil supply too? No thanks.

Can anyone be more useless than these Democratic so called leaders in Congress. Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion to release oil from the nation’s emergency oil reserve would be laughable if it wasn’t so absurd. Just think, you take millions of barrels of oil out of the reserve and release it into the market. This oil MAY OR MAY NOT reduce the price of gas at the pump. Either way, oil is going to have to be purchased by the government, at taxpayers expense, at a price probably higher than the oil released, to replenish the oil in the emergency reserve. So, you have dumped taxpayer purchased oil on the market that may have zero impact on the price at the pump. Wouldn’t it make much more sense to declare a “gas tax holiday”? A “tax holiday” is going to GUARENTEE the price at the pump is going to be lower and will probably cost the government less than it would cost to buy new oil to replenish the emergency reserve oil released.

Never thought I could possibly agree with you on anything. Your idea on a government owned energy company is compelling. Of course the fact that I thought of this myself really helps me to concur. The biggest hurdle of course is our government actually taking a good idea and not creating another bungling beaurocracy out of it. My thoughts are that you could create bureau of some kind consisting of ten of the most brilliant minds in the business world who would serve on a voluntary basis to control the assets of this “company”. The development could be given to existing oil companies or venture companies willing to take the risk but who would be in effect working for us under contract. In this manner our country could control the profits and the distribution of same. You are correct in that many of our competitors in the energy field are in fact owned by their respective governments. ie Venezuela, and most of the Middle East nations. I think this is an idea that should be refined and proposed by someone with some credibility such as Newt Gingrich or even Mr Pickens.

what if . . . we started our own version of socialism? Venezuela owns their oil company. hmmm. what if we allowed the ‘government’ to own and run all other nationized ‘businesses’? hmmm, where could that lead? where would that end?

the government has no business in corporate business. what we need is a capitialist approach without government interference. if the democrats and republicans would leave the entrepreneurs alone, T Boone and others would actually walk us out of this mess the aforemention politicos have put us in.

RSR–Pelosi and Reid are probably sitting across from each other right now, scratching their heads trying to figure out what you just said (wrote, actually). It makes so much sense. It must be like reading a foreign language to those of their ilk.

Don–It’s not BIG OIL that is anti-trust, it’s BIG GOVERNMENT that’s anti-trust. And if Mexico is such the example, why am I providing food, housing, education, police and fire protection, jobs and healthcare, with my tax dollars, to all the illegal immigrants flooding this country from down there. If their way worked, we’d be doing it that way. Our way would work, if the gov’t would just get (and stay) out of the way. And even when they don’t, Capitalism still works better.

Ellen, they’re coming at you pretty hard on this one. Don’t be too surprised. I think MOST Americans are still just appalled at the idea of communism. Quite frankly, once I get passed being mad about someone actually wanting to destroy this country, and leave my son and grandchildren to rot in a communist society when I’m dead and gone, it really just breaks my heart.

“Why not us?” Because, Ms. Ratner, the United States is not a Communist or Islamist dictatorship, but, supposedly, a Constitutional democratic republic, in which people are Constitutionally entitled to own things and control and dispose of the fruits of their labors as they think appropriate. If you want a parental central government that owns and beneficently doles out the nation’s resources as it sees fit , you need to go live in Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, or take a time machine ride to Soviet Russia or the era of royal divine right.

For Heaven’s sake, this is America!

I certainly don’t want a government ran oil company. I can’t think of a single program the government controls right now that is not a vast wasteland of red tape and inefficiency. We need to drill for oil right here and right now. If Congress had taken any action whatsoever in the last 10 years, we would not be having this problem. As for me, I’m taking action. I’m going to help vote has many of the do nothings out as possible. They need to quit fighting and start earning their pay. We need action, not bickering.

Where have you been for the last 40 years? If Congress controlled a company, that could make a profit, they would borrow money so they could spend all the potential profit, all the next ten years profit and pawn all the assets and spend that money, all to buy votes for the next election.
The worst thing that could happen would be to give Congress control of US oil.

** Editor/moderator: typo in my email sent a minute ago. Apology. Resubmitted here.**

Ellen: ” … what if we formed our own company owned by our government?” “What if our government made the profit …?”

What profit? *Our* government? The same government whose experience and influence is behind the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac institutions we have today?

The best thing the United States Government can do is get out of the way of energy production: repeal unreasonable restrictions on drilling, on nuclear power generation; phase out unreasonable taxpayer-supported subsidies for biofuels that raise our vegetable costs.

Would we be in the mess we’re now in if government *had* kept out of the way? Perhaps partly. You can’t ignore the increased energy demands of the Chinas and Indias.

But, would the mess be as bad as it is now? Hardly.

I second Mr. Apel’s request that you share with us what you’re smoking.

To use a term from the younger generation, OMG! Like many new “ideas”, just taking it at face value, it sounds like a no brainer. Drill our own oil, require U.S. use only and use the profits for alternatives. Great! Who could be against that. Assuming that the price of this oil will follow the world price, what happens when, yes when, the price of oil drops and it suddenly costs more to get the oil than it can be sold for? Well, its a Government entity now, so congress will just step in and subsidize it with tax dollars. I applaud any and all new ideas, but never will I go along with socializing any other program and give the control of that program to the government. Have you forgotten that the USA is the most innovative country the world has ever seen BECAUSE we’ve, until recently in our history, let free enterprise do it’s job, while the government has kept it’s nose out of it? Why do we constantly look to others for their ideas when we have a long history of coming up with the best solutions ourselves? The government running any program outside the military has never ended well.

Then we would be using the least efficient entity to get the oil out of the ground and spending the profits on even less efficient sources of energy.

America’s infrastructure is based on oil. All the trucks, planes, trains, ships, that deliver all goods to market run on oil. All automobiles, as well as all the gas stations accross America run on oil. All petroleum based products, run on oil. Athough alternative fuels most definitly should be developed, in the mean time America must have oil to keep our economy from screeching to a halt. In addition, our national security requires energy independence ASAP, so that we are not transfering all our wealth to foreign countries who do not like us, and who can cripple us by turning off the spigot, disrupting oil transport to us, or arbitrary oil price hikes. These are all reasons why we must be drilling for more oil right now and right here in the U.S.A. … ASAP. Nancy Pelosi and her cronies stubborn commtiment to petty party politics, instead of realistic concern over our national interest, even in the face of 76% of Americans who want off shore drilling now, will end up in bringing America to its knees.

The fact is we have been, for many years now, researching alternate energy sources. Both private and government funding is supporting this endeavor. To date alternate energy is not ready for prime time because the costs to produce energy are still higher than fossel fuels. So when some politicial like Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Reid or Al Gore tell you we need to invest in Alternative energy. Tell them “We already are dufus!” “Its not cost effective yet on a large scale.” You, in Washington have refused to give tax credits to home owners to encourage more conversions and developement at the grass roots level. I for one do not want federal tax dollars going to alternative energy companies that Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid own stock in. They are rich enough at taxpayers expense thank you.

3rd try. Nationalize the oil companies-this is such a great idea seeing that the government can handle disasters(not), social security is running so well(not) our energy crisis has been growing since the 70’s etc. Our esteemed reps in D.C. are going back and forth and not getting anything done. I am beginning to think that it is the Dems that are the ones who are in favor of keeping us dependent on foreign oil (they keep telling us it is the Republicans)because they won’t allow us to drill in our own country. Drill and also work on alternative fuels- after all we can do more than one thing at a time can’t we. 30+ years hasn’t been enough time to do something about energy- just let them keep moving the timeline. OUR REPS IN WASHINGTON ARE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MESS WE ARE IN,NOT BIG OIL.

Great column Ellen! As a matter of fact, it got my creative juices flowing like never before.

Immediately after we create this government owned and operated oil industry, we should create a government owned and operated automobile industry. Ford, GM and Chrysler are dinos and will probably get absorbed by some foreign company (oops Chrysler). Our government can take over their facilities and start producing our passenger cars that run on the hot air congress never seems to run out of. We could call the car the Harry Pelosi hot air express.

Then what about the banks they too will soon be foreign owned and/or controlled, then what about……………and ……….. and……..

Nikita, you were a step ahead of your time!!!!

Ellen
Let the government own an oil company? Have they ever managed a business successfully?
Have they stopped fighting long enough to truly do what’s right for this country? Do they have the moral courage to help this country out of this energy mess? Unfortunately everyone knows the answers to the above questions. NO, NO, NO and NO. What they need to do is get out of the way and let people who are in touch with reality get the job done.

Maybe we can harness all the methane gas that is discharged from inside the “Beltway.” We could power the entire country forever. I agree 110% with Russ.

I don’t understand why we can’t just do all of the above. I mean sure we can do all of the renewable stuff but why not start drilling as well. The main arguments against drilling make no sense. For one they claim it harms the environment, but have you seen some of the pictures of areas we are drilling. Yes there are caribou and bears are all types of animals living as normally as they have before. Those animals can’t make out the difference between a tree or a pipeline. secondly, if Alaska was the size of Virginia, then the area we would be drilling in ANWR is only the size of Dallas fort Worth airport. In this small area, there are somewhere near 20 billion barrels of oil. Another argument is that the oil companies aren’t drilling where they have been “given” leases. First off, they bought those leases, they were not given those leases. Secondly, most of those leases contain very small amounts of oil so it would be a bad investment for an oil company. Also, some of those areas did contain substantial oil reserves like Destin Dome but after such knowledge the oil companies were not allowed to drill there. The last argument is that it would not affect the price of Oil today. Well this is easy to counter becuase you can say getting anything out of renewable will take even longer, But aside from this point, the argument that it will have no impact today is false. The futures’ market by definition is based on what will happen in the future. If speculator’s see a jump in supply in the future, then they will bid the price of oil down thus resulting in lower prices today. I recognize drilling is not the only thing we should do. We have to invest in renewable forms of energy AND nuclear energy. But we should also invest in the resources America has to give some relief to Americans.

Wow! I almost thought you were being sarcastic! For many local and national issues, I am completely for gridlock. Our governments have forgotten what it takes to operate properly. They have way too much power and wealth. Start to take those away and the people interested in running a government will step up and do it well and those currently in power will fall back to running their own corporations, et al. It’s actually and interesting idea, but will never work in today’s environment. Why can’t we ramp up our oil production and refining capacity then suck OPEC’s desert sands dry then wave bye, bye? We have to become energy independent.

If you live in Alaska you share the oil wealth. Do some homework, ellen. There are planty of viable options. For home, Geo Thermal for Heating and Cooling . Our power grid needs to be from Nuclear Energy as primary source ( If France why not US ), Sugar Cane Ethanol and of course drill here,drill now and pay less. Imagine what would happen to the markets if the US announced this. WE will begin drilling our own sources for oil, transition of power grid to Nuclear will begin and import from Brazil Sugarcane Ethanol ( much more efficient form of energy than Corn Ethanol). Its not difficult

As citizens of the United States, we don’t own ANYTHING the government owns. We don’t even own the REAL ESTATE we have a deed to, much less government property. If the government owned our energy production…can’t be allowed. Remember, we still elect people to the oval office like Jimmy Carter and (gasp!), possibly Barak Obama. There’s two guys on the planet (three if you count Homer Simpson) I’d trust less than OPEC with our energy supply. Osama Bin Laden and Barak Obama. Okay, better make it four since we mentioned Jimmy Carter…uh-oh. Reverends…Wright, Jackson…Sharpton, this list could climb as high ten or twelve.

Besides, it would be easier and quicker to just elect Hillary Clinton to the White House. I mean, why go through all the hassle of putting together a huge oil conglomerate when you can just “take the profits” from the ones already up and running? Just get congress to lure Exxon-Moble, Shell, British Patroleum and those guys to our shores and up to Alaska and then, BAM! Grab those profits and blow all that money on entitlement programs for the lazy, the illegal and the irresponsible.

No. How about just letting the enterprises that successfully supply our energy now do what they do, only let them do it here in America instead of forcing them to do it abroad, thus padding the pockets of those who have vowed our demise.

Why not us? Good question, and there are different ways to answer it.
The government can’t even manage to keep its federally owned wildlife reserves in shape. Do we really think the recent fires in California would have been so bad if loggers had been allowed to remove the dead wood? And you want to put them in charge of oil, which is even more combustible?
Sorry, bad joke. Let me try a different method.
Government already has more than enough control in the lives of American citizens as it is. Why give them even more control? Remember, the principal of a representative republic is that the government works for us, not us for them. The government governs, or is supposed to govern, as we tell it to. They (our congressmen) don’t, we give them the boot and put somebody else in.
If they take control of something that massive, even if it does benefit us for the short term, what would the long term be? Restrictions as to how much fuel we are alloted based upon family size or approximate distance we travel to work? How about this idea, the government can determine what kind of vehicles we drive and how far we can drive them.
Ooh, I know, how about one step further. The government determines there is an oil deposit under your property, so they force you to sell at or below market value. Don’t think its that crazy an idea. Property has already been taken by such methods to preserve marshlands. Remember the Supreme Court said last year that a municipality can force you to sell your property if it is for the greater good of the municipality. And you want to give them even more power over you?
Now, the idea would work much more efficiently (and be more profitable without so much of the bureaucratic red tape) if these companies were co-ops. Or even the big businesses would be better. Just keep it out of the hands of the government.

DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!!!!!! Congress get out of the way!!! T Boone, don’t expect me to subsidize your solution!!! Did I mention DRILL!!!???? Don’t let the government touch it!! They are terrible managers!

Excuse me? “Instead of giving our oil resources to multinational oil companies, what if we formed our own company owned by our government? ”

There’s a name for that. It’s called “Socialism”. It never works. It always makes the problem worse than it was before. The opportunites for corruption are rampant because, despite assurances to the contrary, those directly in charge of the program will be accountable to no one and essentially above the law.

However much you may disagree with the way the major oil companies have conducted their business in the past, however bad you may think their practices are, do you really believe that a government-owned oil company will be any better? On the contrary, it will be far, far worse. Imagine, an oil company run with all the compentance of the DMV and the compassion of the Social Security Administration! Oh yeah. Sounds great, doesn’t it.

Form our own company run by our government? Carl Marx would approve. Next we’ll get the government to assume control of all the farms and factories, then all media outlets. After that we’ll ban all religions and censor all communications. And in the end, the communists will have conquered us without firing a shot … as I always suspected they would.

DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!!!!!! Congress get out of the way!!! T Boone, don’t expect me to subsidize your solution!!! Did I mention DRILL!!!????

First of all, I believe Mr. Pickens is just lobbying for federal subsidies of his multi-million dollar wind farm he is planning on building in West Texas. This is why he is jumping in now - the wind farm subsidies were not renewed in the last energy bill. Nor were solar or a host of other “alternate energy” projects. Mr. Pickens also has a natural gas for cars company. So, his “bold plan” is nothing but a scheme to enrich himself at the taxpayers’ expense. His statement that he “doesn’t need the money” is irrelevant. It comes down to whether he WANTS the money and whether his investors want the money.

There is no alternate energy source that comes close to the portability or energy density of gasoline, coal, natural gas and nuclear power. As West Texas experienced, the wind doesn’t always blow and you have to have back-ups for wind farms - read conventional energy. Solar covers huge tracts of land and is only available for, on the average, 12 hours a day. That does not include clouds. While the desert southwest has fewer cloudy days than the rest of the country, it does have them. Do you want to want to have to endure blackouts when a weather system moves across that area? We could store the energy in batteries, but they would have to be huge to meet the demand when the alternates can’t operate. Since batteries have a limited life, what do you do with them once spent? They are all considered hazardous waste. They are also expensive to replace. So much for cheap clean energy. This also applies to hybrid and battery electric cars - an expense and environmental hazard I hear nothing about from the “green” quarter.

As far as conservation goes, it is something that is logical to do. However, the more we conserve, the bigger the detriment to the economy. Everyone is talking about how the US cut its oil consumption by 2% last year. Anyone notice the economic slowdown during the same time period?

I hope that human ingenuity comes up with a way to power our civilization without fossil fuels, especially those coming from unfriendly parts of the world. However, until that day comes, we have to make the most of the energy sources we have that won’t bankrupt us. Its either that or reduce our standard of living to that of the third world.

Unfortunately, Ms.Ratner, the very definition of Communism is that, “…the means of production are owned by the state.” Mr. Monroe’s idea falls prey to the philosophical attractiveness of Communism which we all know is a complete and utter failure in practice. Private enterprise will always succeed much better than government owned entities. The oil producing states of the Middle East produce wealth because of a natural resource, not because of a system of government based on tribal politics and state ownership.

What a concept! The government running our oil companies. Nothing new here just more Socialism being offered from Ellen and her Liberal Socialist friends. Our founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves.

Ever read Ayn Rand Ellen? Probably not since it would interfere with your Marxist-Socialist world view.

BTW, The little Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez (no doubt a hero of yours) nationalized his oil. The result was a drop in production by 40%.

When will you lefties ever learn?

Regardless of where you stand on drilling or re-tooling our energy efforts we have to get past all the fighting in Washington. The environmentalist want all it their way and the drillers the same. In the mean time the nation flounders when it comes to our energy future.

Perhaps we need to assemble the best minds in the contry. Some from the energy industry, some environmentalist, some scholars, some business people, and some ordinary citizens from Main St USA. Have them generate a plan then hold a Nation wide referendum on the outcome. Then get to work.

My guess is what will happen is a compromise of sorts will emerge. Where in the near term we continue to drill, and for the out years we develop the alternatives required to sustain our economy, and get off of foreign oil. I am not sold on the Pickens Plan but some of it has merit. For example we cannot continue to send 6-700 billion dollars elsewhere annually for oil. That is absolutely insane to transfer that much wealth to other Nations.

Finally, take note that nowhere in the above paragraphs did I mention the Congress. They will only hinder the process as they form their partisan battle lines. I would urge the Country to remember the words of Vince Lombardi, ” We can achieve great things if you dont care who gets the credit”.

Thanks
Bob from Pennsylvania

We don’t “give” resources to international oil companies. They pay lease fees to explore, drill and develope our oil. As mineral owners we (our gov’t) gets 1/8 to 1/4 of the oil outright to sell or keep. We also tax everything else and wind up with about 40% of the oil’s value. The oil company for their multi-billions investment, gets the rest. Meanwhile, they employ many Americans who build and work the rigs, pipelines, etc. Avoiding imports strengthens the dollar and energy prices fall.

Or, import oil with no jobs no royalties, no lease fees, trade deficits and weak dollar, thus rising prices.

US oil, please

A large profitible enterprise run by a government bureaucracy? When did THAT ever benefit the American people? The model for this is Amtrak. Are we getting better transportation, cheaper, because of the government funding of the railways? Quite the contrary. I think the market will drive the alternate fuels effort, but as others have pointed out, there are a lot of hurdles. For example, what happens to solar power at night? We have no cost-effective way to store the energy generated during the day. So if its nighttime or not windy, everything comes to a halt.

The author would like an oil company owned the citizens (government). There are models currently out there, she referenced the Mid East, that we could to base the company on. We could also use Russia or Venezuela. They both have State owned oil companies. Interestingly enough they are both Communist countries. The last time I checked that was the Communist doctrine, businesses owned by the people. It sounds so perfect, “Owned by the People.” How free are those countries that have businesses owned “By the People?” Oh yea did I mention they are Communist? More great examples are in the Mid-East. They are all beacons of freedom and democracy. None of them are run by tin pot dictators or a single family. All the people share equally in the wealth and live a life of luxury. What the author suggests in truly nothing short of Communism. But I am sure there are some factions out there that think this is a really good idea. I can think of at least one Senator that would think this is a great idea.

Our current government is so dysfunctional it can’t get out of its’ own way, Republicans and Democrats alike. To give them something like this would set us back into the 19th century. Every gas pump in the States would be long dry while they debated something meaningful like the official name or who got more stations in their district. You know, got to get re-elected and all.

Communism is so much more palatable if you call it something different.

What if we socialized the oil industry? The same thing would happen that happens with everything else that the government owns and runs. It would become miserably bureaucratic, horribly inefficient, and largely ineffectual. This would set up a battle between the entrenched interests who feed at the government trough, and the rest of us who get taken advantage of. Government control by dictatorships cannot be compared to government ownership by democracies like the U.S. The former is a variant of private ownership, the latter is a reversion to the failed socialist models of the old Soviet Union and to a lesser extent Western Europe.

The person that said that Congress has done nothing since the 70’s hit the nail on the head.

I will only add to that remark with this: Our entire U.S. Government leadership, Congress, and the Presidents since the 1970’s have completely and utterly done exactly nothing to fix our dependence on foreign oil — and then we wonder how terrorists get their $$.

All of our government leadership sits by — and has, let me guess, another “Hearing into the Matter at Hand”… how many hearings have we had, at what cost to the tax payers, about the cost of gas?? Anyone know?.. What has been the outcome of those hearings?… ready?… NOTHING.. we have been duped again — what are we paying for?.. Let’s see, another hearing maybe.. to do nothing..

Our leadership is totally inept and refuses to listen to the people who put them in office — and yet, we keep re-electing them… I guess that says quite a bit about us as voters doesn’t it… maybe it’s time we took a good look at who we are voting for and what they stand for. Of course if they are a politician they will tell you anything to get elected/re-elected — and once in office they only care about two things.. getting re-elected and getting enough money together to accomplish the former goal.. getting re-elected… when was the last time you spoke to your congressman/woman?.. wrote them a letter — told them how you feel on issues..?? How about your senator?.. do you even know their names? what about their voting record? How about number of days absent? Did you know that most of our elected leaders work about a 3-4 day work week? and get paid the same….

Many have recently criticized Pickens but at least he has an idea.

It’s been 35 years since the first oil crisis & our government has sat around & done nothing about establishing any kind of energy policy.

Now we are suffering the consequences.

I think the house & senate should all resign in shame.

They’re all so busy pandering to various special interest groups & passing rediculous laws pertaining to equal rights, etc that they have lost track of our greatest need. “National Security?

I firmly believe that the technology is here right now to get 50 - 60 even 70 mpg from