You're exactly right, Birdz. ExxonMobil got completely off the hook on that one...

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Taxpayers paid for most of the clean up after the Valdeze oil spill while ExxonMobile tied up all of the lawsuits in court for 20 years. This is in the same time period when Lee Raymonds was getting very rich as CEO and the corporation starting posting the highest profits of any corporation in US history.

What's happening right now is a gimmick. Offshore drilling will have no relationship at all with decreasing the price of gas at the pumps within the near future. The oil corporations and their bought and paid for legislators want to use public anger at the pump to serve their own purposes.

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Prove that drilling here will reduce prices. Why not just have them drill the sites they currently hold leases for and have not touched?

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And an opinion is all it is. I invite you to dedicate a modicum of effort to learning the dynamics of a globally-traded commodity before spewing your own gas on the economics of the topic.

Can Offshore Drilling Bring Down Gas Prices? - Seeking Alpha

Some ballpark figures:

A few critical aggravating factors this article does not account for: the trend of OPEC countries to move away from dollar holdings; plausible OPEC reactions to the prospect of a 2% bump in global oil production; the high likelihood that demand in the far east will continue to increase at a rapid and sustained rate.

I'll also add that there is a trend among the nation's legislatures to assemble regional fossil fuel-reduction accords. Here in Minnesota, the governor (Tim Pawlenty (R) and top v.p. candidate - McCain's coming to MN tomorrow - watch for possible announcement) will be negotiating a Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord with the legislative mandate to meet reductions of 80% by 2050.

This is a bold figure put together by last year's legislature dominated by DFLers ie. Democrats. But nationwide, trends clearly point to the more immediate and local efficacy of reducing consumption and demand versus increasing production.

Btw, is it not a conservative virtue to change one's own behavior before appealing to federal intervention for help with paying the bills?

No, Fibrillator, Grim's "opinions" are actually what mere mortals like us call "facts."

Sorry, but he's just on a plane so much higher than ours, it's useless to debate with his awesome clarity.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The issues surrounding recent discussions on US offshore drilling for oil has significant impact for all Americans where Obama and McCain talk about in pollClash . The soaring oil prices are affecting the costs of everything from food to gas. There are also significant issues on local and global environmental impact. While there are many issues, we need to look at our next leader and determine which will have the best course of action going forward. Here's where your vote and voice can count. Watch the two video clips below submit your vote. Also, leave a comment if there is more you wish to say or an issue you think should be raised within the context of this clash.

So, why haven't gas prices dropped if just the notion of offshore drilling is supposed to drop global oil prices?

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

How a Shady Citigroup Subsidiary Secretly Makes Billions in the Oil Market - Political Fever - The Political Debate Forums

Lumara has posted and excellent article about how money grubbing sociopath stock brokers have doubled the price of gas at the pumps. Let's take oil off the market for speculation and eliminate the middleman slobs from the process. Oil and gas are not just any other commodity. When the price on oil and gas goes up, this is the driving force behind a wide range of costs for goods and services increasing. There is a very direct link to inflation. The current substantial jump in inflation is pushing the working poor and the elderly on fixed incomes that have been barely making into not being able to survive on their income.

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I'm for off shore drilling as most of you probably know, but for nationalized, not privatized.

As for it only adding 2% to the global market, yeah, that is all it offers, but the mistake that was wrongly assumed was that the adding 2% would have a 1:1 ratio on the price. Oil is a nessisity and so it has very inelastic suppy and demand curves. That means that a 2% could have more like a 6% or a 16%. Compare, in 1998, gas was 1.03 in my area, now it is over 4x that cost, but the global demand is not up 4 fold. And also, there is no requirement that we have to sell it all on the global market. We can also look at the 700 million barrals a year would translate into $91 billion a year (if the price only fell 2%) that our country would be making rather than buying, and that would have a good impact on our dollar and our debt.

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"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides