Way to go Texas!

They are leading the nation into renewable energy with their wind power expansion plans for the next few years. Several Texas power companies are investing in transmission lines to bring electricity from wind farms in the western part of the state to urban areas. It's expected that they will bring enough clean energy to power about 4 million homes.

The forward thinking T. Boone Pickens is planning a 2700 turbine wind farm that will power 1.3 million homes. Here’s a Texas oil man moving the country in the direction of renewable energy.

This is what we should have been doing for the last 10 or 15 years but at least we have a few people committed to United States energy independence now. FINALLY, we’re headed down the right road.

Show the rest of the country how it’s done Texas!

Profiteers at work

I read an article today that said oil prices have dropped more than $14 a barrel this week. It's the third straight day that the barrel price has dropped. The article went into some analysis about why, including the fact that natural gas prices dropped because of unexpected increase in supply and a number of other reasons.

The statement at the end of the article was what I thought was most significant though. It said that regular unleaded gas held it's record high of $4.114 per gallon for the second day while diesel hit a new high of $4.845.

Isn't it interesting how speculation or a news story can cause prices at the pump to jump up 5 or 10 cents a gallon in a single day but when the actual price of a barrel of oil drops, it takes days or weeks for the price at the pump to fall?

Why is that?

OK Democrats, let's see what you do.

Everybody is blaming the Bush administration and the Republican Party for our present economic woes in this country and the high prices at the pump, but the president today lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling and urged Congress to act to lift their legislation blocking this much needed oil exploration.

The ball is clearly in their court. Let’s see what they do. If it’s typically what the Democrats do, they will drag their feet and do nothing before the recess next month and the situation will get worse due to their inaction. Then they will point fingers and continue to blame the Republicans for everything.

If nothing is done about it, the situation is going to get worse with the speculators going nuts and driving up the price. However, if the areas presently banned were opened up to drilling, we would have access to enough oil to replace most, if not all, of the oil we presently import from the Middle East.

Drilling in ANWR and other places offshore is not the long term answer though. We need alternative energy sources for the long term, but it IS the answer in the near term. The Dems will say, “Oh, it won’t do any good. It will take years to get the oil to market so it won’t affect the price.” Watch what happens though. Just the act of congress lifting the ban and opening up access to this wealth of oil would have an immediate effect on all the speculation about oil supplies. The market would stabilize and the price will come down.

My bet is, the Democrats controlling congress will do nothing and we’ll continue our downward spiral.

What a Coincidence

My last blog post was about what the war in Iraq is costing us and that sooner or later we will need to get out of there and let them take charge of their own country.

Today I read an article in the news about how the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says his government wants a short time frame for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The current mandate governing the operation of our forces in Iraq expires at the end of the year so negotiations are under way to reach an agreement as to the role of U.S. troops and the date of their withdrawal.

So the Iraqis favor a short time frame for troop withdrawal and taking charge of their own country. Now we’ll have to see how our government responds to this. Are they going to agree that the Iraqis should take responsibility for themselves and get us out of there, or are they going to try and drag it out and maintain our presence and influence in their affairs?

The reaction of our government and what each of the presidential candidates has to say about it will be really interesting to see. It will also speak volumes as to what each candidate will do in the future concerning foreign affairs especially in the Middle East.

Watch this one closely folks and it may tell you who will be the next president.

What It Costs

With the candidates set for their respective runs for President of the United States, we are going to see some of the issues pushed front and center for each candidate to declare his position on and try and convince a majority of the voters that his is the correct and most beneficial one.

One of those issues that is perhaps the most important to the American public is the economy. There’s also the price of gas and the war in Iraq. There are many more issues for the candidates to differ on of course, but these are probably the most important for most people.

What a lot of people don’t think about is that these issues are all tied together. The price of gas, even though it is artificially inflated at the moment, in large part is governed by what happens in the Middle East. What we do over there has a direct impact on the price and availability of oil and consequently gas at the pump.

There are differing views on whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place, whether we should still be there now and whether we should get out. I can see the arguments for staying the course but I don’t know if they are valid. I understand that we should at least facilitate a stable transition to self government there and not desert the people that have worked with us as was done after Desert Storm. We can’t just pull out if it puts people’s lives in danger by us doing so. We owe them that.

The fact is that sooner or later we do need to get out of there. They need to step up and take control of their own destiny and we need to get out. And I mean not just out of Iraq but out of the region altogether. It’s not our responsibility and if you want to know the truth, we just can’t afford it. Our economy is tanking and the money it’s costing us to maintain our military presence over there isn’t helping.

That’s another thing the average American doesn’t have a clue about, because they never really think about it.

If I threw out a figure of $40 billion, that would be a staggering amount of money to the average, hard working, tax paying American, right? I mean, most of us would be happy to hit the lottery for a couple million. We’d be set for life. Millions are big amounts of money, but Billions? Wow… I couldn’t imagine having that kind of money.

So if I said the war is costing over $40 BILLION, it wouldn’t be hard to believe, right? Right… The problem is, it’s costing us that EVERY MONTH. Yes, friends and loyal readers, that is what it is costing us every single month. The cost of the war in the Middle East has risen to over $500 billion per year. The projected total cost of the war is something around $1.7 and $2.7 TRILLION with some estimates saying it could reach as high as $5 TRILLION.

Now, if you have a little trouble comprehending the scope of these numbers, I’ll try and put it into perspective for you. Most people are familiar with a million. That’s the number you get to after all those hundreds of thousands, in other words, the number right after nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred, ninety nine.

A Billion is a thousand million. So if you know what it would be like to win that million in the lottery, imagine having a thousand of them.

A Trillion is a thousand billion. Let’s see… If you were to spend $1 every second, that’s $3600 ever hour, it would take you over 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars…

How long do you think it will take before we go broke?

I bet you're thinkin' now, huh?

Seers, Mediums and Psychics at work

I've been following the news everyday about the gas prices ( I know... who hasn't, right? ) and it never ceases to amaze me how you can find contradicting stories on the same website on the very same day.

Today I read a story on CNN.com about how some group of pinheads called the "International Energy Agency" said that oil speculation in the market is NOT influencing the price of oil. Now, by CNN's own definition in the story, this group is "an influential oil-policy group". INFLUENTIAL OIL-POLICY GROUP... It makes we wonder just how influential they are and who are they influencing about "oil-policy". I can't believe anyone with more than a couple operating brain cells could say that speculation in the oil market isn't having any effect on the price. Of course the story didn't say whether this group lives on planet Earth, so maybe they have an excuse for not knowing what is happening on our world.

Everywhere you look, you see and read about people in this country doing things to save gas. I've noticed a lot of people driving slower on the highway, heck I'm doing it myself. I'm also consciously making an effort to drive less and if I have to drive, I consolidate trips into one, etc. People are buying fuel efficient cars in droves. They can't make Prius's fast enough to keep up with demand. I've read in the news where our consumption of gas in this country is down and continues to fall do to people's conservation efforts. Supplies are up yet the price just keeps climbing.

Anyway, another story on the same website states, "Crude prices rose more than $2 a barrel Tuesday after an energy advisory group reduced its estimate on the amount of oil that will reach the market in the coming years." So this story is telling us that the mere mention of supply maybe not being as much as they originally SPECULATED on, is having an immediate effect on prices. These guys are PROGNOSTICATING on what supplies MAY do over the next SEVERAL YEARS and the price immediately jumps $2 a barrel.

Guess which agency it was that issued this report. You guessed it, the very same agency that said speculation doesn't effect the price... HELLOOOOOO!!!

Who the hell are these guys anyway? What do they use, a crystal ball? Tarot cards? Ouija board? If you ask me, I would say they just shot themselves and any chance at credibility right in the head. They just proved they don't have a clue and anything they say should be taken with a grain of salt. Nobody should be paying any attention whatsoever to this group of "oil psychics", yet the people who trade the market lapped up everything they said like a hungry puppies and what's the result? We take it in the backside again. It's absolutely ridiculous.

I think we should all go on strike. We, the work force, should just stop working and stay home for a week or two. Just shut the economy down for a bit until these guys that are playing us settle down and quit manipulating the system. We'll save a couple hundred bucks in gas anyway. For some people making minimum wage, it would probably look pretty good. Why work when you have to spend 1/3 or 1/2 of your take home pay just to get back and forth to the job? Might as well stay home and go on welfare, you'll probably come out ahead.

Let all the rich oil barons pay all the taxes and pick up the tab for the country for a while.

Sound like a plan?