Botched Doha deal undermines OPEC credibility, oil prices tumble

(Hat tip: KimR) - Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel. Read more at Yahoo News Read More......

After 40-year ban, U.S. starts exporting crude oil

America is wasting little time getting back into the oil exporting business. Just weeks after Congress lifted a 40-year ban on exporting oil, the first shipments of the black stuff left U.S. ports for Europe. The first freely-traded shipments of U.S. crude are symbolic of the country's newfound role as a leading producer of oil.

Read more at CNN
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Who’s afraid of cheap oil? Low energy prices ought to be a shot in the arm for the economy.

ALONG with bank runs and market crashes, oil shocks have rare power to set monsters loose. Starting with the Arab oil embargo of 1973, people have learnt that sudden surges in the price of oil cause economic havoc. Conversely, when the price slumps because of a glut, as in 1986, it has done the world a power of good. The rule of thumb is that a 10% fall in oil prices boosts growth by 0.1-0.5 percentage points.

Read more at the Economist
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Big banks brace for oil loans to implode

Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling. --Firms on Wall Street helped bankroll America's energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects that ended up flooding the world with oil.

Read more at CNN Money
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Iran sanctions: Middle East stock markets crash as Tehran enters oil war

Stock markets across the Middle East collapsed as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.

Read more at the UK Telegraph
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Ship of Turkish President's Son Implicated in ISIS Oil Trade

According to the Independent, oil tankers owned by Bilal Erdogan, son President Erdogan, has involved in the illicit oil trade with Islamic State (ISIS). The ships are registered in Malta and all fly the Maltese flag.

Read more at Marine Link
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Dow falls 300 points, Nasdaq plunges 2% as Street eyes Fed, oil

U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent on Thursday, pressured by continued uncertainty over the timing of a rate hike and low oil prices. --"The market has really taken a pessimistic stance vis-a-vis the Fed," said Dave Schiegoleit, a senior portfolio manager with The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank in Los Angeles.

Read more at CNBC
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Barack Obama’s quiet war on oil

President Barack Obama’s enemies have long accused him of waging a “war on coal.” But a very different war on oil and gas is coming next. The newest phase of Obama’s environmental agenda has the oil and natural gas industry in its crosshairs, with plans to curb greenhouse gas pollution from rigs and refineries, tighten oversight of drilling on public lands and impose a strict ozone limit that industry lobbyists slam as “the most expensive regulation ever.”

Read more at Politico
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

You have been fed a load of crap!

You're not supposed to be this well informed! If you agree, don't read this...
2012: The Progressive Elite vs. the American Hard Hat by By Larry Leonard, published by Oregon Magazine

April 21, 2012 — You have been fed a load of crap. It comes to you in two types. The first is in the form of a lie. Something is this, and the liars tell you that it is that. The second type of lie is more subtle, and is created by omitting information from a story. These are known as lies of co-mission and lies of omission. Used simultaneously, they throw a blanket of fantasy over reality. ✧ We’ll use energy as a model for this essay, but remember that the process works in education, campaign speeches, the presentation of history, economics — you name the topic and somewhere in each information pot you will find deception of the type described above.  

Energy and the American Economy - All this week, from all the news sources in America, you have been misinformed by both the liberal MSM and fair and balanced FOX. The MSM did it intentionally. FOX did it unintentionally. To set up this section, here’s something you’ve heard for weeks: “The president says that if he opened up government energy locations, it would not lower the price of gasoline.” ✧ That is a beautiful attempt to sidestep the key political issue today by way of what sounds like a reasonable lie about another, related subject. I’ve been waiting for weeks for FOX to pick it up. They haven’t, so it’s time Oregon Magazine did. Read more at OregonMag.com...

I particularly like Mr. Leonard's summation, "...Euro-socialism or a dynamic economic revival. It’s up to you." --bc Read More......

Federal judge throws out Obama drilling rules

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land. ✧ U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ✧ The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said. Read more: Seattle PI

Note: Judge Freudenthal was appointed by President Obama. Read More......

AEI: Big Oil has Little to do with Pump Prices

6/9/2011 - "Big Oil" is not to blame for the skyrocketing price of oil. Rather, domestic energy policy and international instability are to blame for rising prices. Read more at American Enterprise Institute (AEI)... Read More......

Barone: Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom

MICHAEL BARONE: In contrast to the marginal effects of much ballyhooed public policies, there has been a huge breakthrough in energy production in the past couple of years. Read more at Townhall...

There is a lesson here for public policy generally, including health care. No centralized government expert predicted the vast expansion in energy supply from hydraulic fracking. It was produced by decentralized specialists in firms subject to market competition.

Learn a little about "hydraulic fracking" in this article. --bc Read More......

After two years of Obama, here's your change

Not one positive number in this list of vital economic statistics. Every American, whether Democrat or Republican, should be looking at this list and asking, "How can we change these trends?" The answer is in November 2012. LIST BELOW

	Jan 2009	Jan 2011	% chg	src
Avg. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.44	84%	1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43.48	$99.02	127.7%	2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38.74	$91.38	135.9%	2
Gold: London (per troy oz.)	$853.25	$1,369.50	60.5%	2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$6.33	78.1%	2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13.75	42.3%	2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob	$13.37	$35.39	164.7%	2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall	7.6%	9.4%	23.7%	3
Unemployment rate, blacks	12.6%	15.8%	25.4%	3
Number of unemployed	11,616,000	14,485,000	24.7%	3
Number of fed. Employees	2,779,000	2,840,000	2.2%	3
Real median household income	$50,112	$49,777	-0.7%	4
Number of food stamp recipients	31,983,716	43,200,878	35.1%	5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients	7,526,598	9,193,838	22.2%	6
Number of long-term unemployed	2,600,000	6,400,000	146.2%	3
Poverty rate, individuals	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	4
People in poverty in U.S.	39,800,000	43,600,000	9.5%	4
U.S.. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	n/a	10
Present Situation Index	29.9	23.5	-21.4%	11
Failed banks	140	164	17.1%	12
U.S.. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate	89.76	82.03	-8.6%	2
U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	13
U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	13
National debt, in trillions	$10.627	$14.052	32.2%	14

Just take this last item: In the last two years, we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. That's over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH, and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster, it would be doing 1,755 MPH!

Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration;
(2) Wall Street Journal;
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics;
(4) Census Bureau;
(5) USDA;
(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor;
(7) FHFA;
(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller;
(9) RealtyTrac;
(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ;
(11) The Conference Board;
(12) FDIC;
(13) Federal Reserve;
(14) U.S. Treasury

Via email Read More......

SUBJECT: FW: ANWAR

This post is from an older email that first circulated in 2008 and has come around again. The photos (below the fold) are beautiful and they do tell a story. Snopes rates the email on ANWR as "MULTIPLE" (containing true and false claims). However, are we energy independent yet? No. Have we gained on reducing our dependence on foreign oil? Not substantially, if at all. Should the debate on drilling in ANWR be resumed? There is some good current information at www.anwr.org.--bc

See the email below...

VIA EMAIL, 11/18/2010 (Hat tip: Carolyn Webb)

"Unbelievable! This is the best presentation on ANWR I have seen. I would like to add a little more information. A new pipeline across Alaska isn't required since the location for drilling in ANWR is about 70 miles from the North Slope Prudhoe Bay pipeline [Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)] where it would be connected. Second the wildlife love the pipeline since it is heated and provides a shelter during the worst times during the winter."

FIRST, do you know what ANWR is?
ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Now, a comparison...


And some perspective...


Note where the proposed development areas is. (It's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain")


The following pictures are what the Democrats, Liberals and "Greens" show you when they talk about ANWR... and they are right, these are photographs of ANWR.



Isn't ANWR beautiful? Why should we drill here (and destroy) this beautiful place? Well, that's not exactly the truth. Do you remember the map showing the proposed drilling area in the ANWR Coastal Plain? Do the photos above look like a coastal plain to you? What's going on here? The answer is simple. The photos above do NOT show where the plan proposes to drill!

Below is what the proposed exploration area actually looks like in the winter.


And this it what it actually looks like in the summer...




Here are a couple screen shots from GOOGLE EARTH...
(Click these images for larger view)


As you can see(above), the proposed drilling area is a barren wasteland. Oh, and they say that they are concerned about the effect on the local wildlife?

Below is a photo (shot during the summer) of the "depleted wildlife" situation created by drilling around Prudhoe Bay. Do you think the caribou really HATE that drilling?


Here's the same spot during the winter...


Hey, this bear seems to really HATE the pipeline near Prudhoe Bay, which accounts for 17% of U.S. Domestic oil production


Now, why do you think that the Democrats are lying about ANWR? Remember when Al Gore said that the government should work to artificially raise gas prices to $5.00 a gallon? Well, Al Gore and his fellow Democrats have almost reached their goal!

Now that you know that the Democrats have been lying, what are you going to do about it?

Read More......

Air Force gets order to help with oil spill

BRIETBART NEWS, 4/20/2010 - WASHINGTON (AP): The Pentagon has approved the use of two Air Force planes to dump chemicals on the oil spill threatening the Gulf Coast. ∴ Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the operation by two C-130 Hercules cargo planes. ∴ The planes were sent from Ohio to Mississippi Thursday to await orders. A number of civilian planes have already been doing the same job—using chemicals to try to break up the oil. ∴ The federal government is working to determine how large a role the military should play in the cleanup. Read more at Brietbart... Read More......

The demise of the dollar

THE INDEPENDENT (UK), 10/6/2009 by Robert Fisk (Hat tip: Glenn Beck) - In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading. ∴ In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. ∴ Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. ∴ The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years. Read more at The Independent... Read More......

Cuba to Russia: Drill Here, Drill Now!

AMERICAN SOLUTIONS, 8/6/2009 by Steve Everley - While Americans continue to suffer from an artificial energy crisis, perhaps it's time we take advice from the unlikeliest of places: Cuba. ∴ The Cuban government announced last week that it had signed contracts with Russia to allow the Russians to explore for oil and gas off its coast, possibly as close as 45 miles from American shores. Read more at American Solutions...

"...Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, bowing to anti-energy influences, has needlessly delayed the offshore leasing process." Read More......

Ben Stein on oil & gas (2 years ago)

(A good understanding of the oil and gas markets)Who's to Blame for High Oil and Gas Prices?Yahoo FINANCE, Posted March 17, 2006 - by Ben Stein

Executives of the big oil companies have been hauled before the U.S. Senate recently to defend their industry's recent mergers and record profits as American consumers face high oil and gasoline prices. I'm going to defend the big energy companies in this case, since I think they're not the reason for high prices.

Before you write me angry e-mails, dear reader, let me first lay down some street credibility. Yes, I'm a gray-haired guy now. But I've spent a lot of time in my life as an antipoverty lawyer in New Haven, Conn., and in Washington, D.C., helping very poor people with their legal woes. I also spent years as a lawyer working on prosecuting false and deceptive advertising.

Probably the lion's share of my adult life was spent writing about financial fraud for financial publication Barron's, and I helped put a number of fraudulent entities out of business. I also testified against a number of fraudulent managements in lawsuits, both state and federal, and I still often write about injustice in the boardroom.

That being said, I also know how a lynch mob operates. After all, if there's a problem, some cause has to be found. And it's really lovely if the cause can be someone rich and powerful so that we can work off our envy and also take the intoxicating drug of anger. Anger organizes our emotions, lines them up, removes ambiguity, and feels good.

Urge to Crack Down
So, the mob goes after someone to lynch, even if that person is innocent. After all, as the immortal Bob Dylan sang long ago, "A lot of people have knives and forks, and they don't have nothing on their plates, and they have to cut something."

This comes to mind because of the recent actions in the U.S. Senate that attempt to "crack down" on energy companies because the price of oil is so much higher than it used to be and because one large oil concern, Exxon (XOM), is reporting very large profits (after many years of modest earnings).

The crackdown takes the form of preventing oil companies from merging or at least making it much harder for them to merge. The idea is that the energy companies have been fixing prices at artificially high levels, and if they merge, they'll just do it more.

This idea is apparently backed even by someone as wise as Senator Arlen Specter (Rep.-Pa.), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a fellow graduate of Yale Law School.

No Conspiracy
The only problem with this idea is that it's based on a totally false premise. The energy companies don't set the price of oil or of gasoline. The prices you pay for heating oil or gasoline aren't set in boardrooms in Texas but in trading rooms at commodities markets all over the world.

Gas prices aren't set in shadowy conferences in shooting lodges, but in rooms of people shouting or punching computer keys in London, New York, and Tokyo. Oil is a world commodity like tin or copper or rubber or coffee. The price is set by traders anticipating supply and demand.

Rumors of war in the Mideast, terrorism against oil platforms in Nigeria, warmer weather in New England, bitter cold in London -- these are what set energy prices. Even the biggest U.S. energy companies are tiny pawns in the game compared with the world market, flotsam and jetsam in the ocean of world oil trading.

So, when prices go up or down, it's not a conspiracy. It's panic or confidence in the market. It's just like what happens on the stock markets every trading day -- greed or fear at work, not at the companies being traded but on the exchanges. The oil companies can either lose or gain from this trading.

Hobbling the Oil Companies
I know this is hard news to digest because who do we hate then? Well, some think we solve the problem by just hating and blaming the innocent -- in this case, the oil companies, dragging them from their beds, and lynching them. So what if they're innocent? Someone's got to pay.

The only problem is that if we keep punishing the companies that in good faith give us the energy we need to power our lives at market prices -- which sometimes give them a big profit and sometimes give them a small one -- eventually, they'll go away. Or they won't have the ability to do their jobs as well because of all the restrictions we've put on them.

Never mind, some think. A lot of people have knives and forks, and they don't have nothing on their plates, and they have to cut something.

Read More......

Petitions

American Solutions Petition: Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less
According to American Solutions' tri-partisan research, 73% of the American people agree that with appropriate safeguards to protect the environment, we should drill for oil off America's coasts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Online Initiative Petition #112: Respect for the Law Act
Circulated by Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR), this initiative requires specified documentation to: 1) get an Oregon Driver license; 2) register to vote in Oregon and; 3) eliminates statutes/regulations that prohibit law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities. Read More......

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

Next Energy News, February 13, 2008 [posted here March 29]

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant. Continued... Read More......