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Myth: Renewable energy will solve the energy crisis.
Reality: Renewable energy will help but will not allow us to continue the kind of society we have now. Ed Markey made a reference to biofuels, but the only currently commercially produced biofuel in the US, corn ethanol, is an enormous boondogle that is responsible for higher food prices, environmental damage, soil degradation due to monoculture, and very little displacement of fossil fuel consumption due to the fact that biofuel production costs almost as much energy as is contained in the biofuels themselves.
Myth: We can solve the energy crisis by drilling ANWR.
Reality: The amount of oil available in ANWR and off protected coastlines is small. It would not reverse the decline in US production; it will merely slow the decline for a brief time. We have to ask ourselves how much environmental destruction we are willing to endure for a little more petroleum.
Myth: Taxes or tax breaks to the oil industry have an effect on production.
Reality: Throughout differing tax regimes over the years, no evidence has emerged that the level of taxation has an appreciable effect on oil production.
Myth: ExxonMobil sets the oil price.
Reality: There is no evidence to suggest a conspiracy on the part of the oil industry to fix prices. Even if there was such a conspiracy, it would not work due to the fact that private corporations only control about 15% of world oil production. The other 85% is under the control of state companies. Crude oil, like other commodities, is traded on open markets and the price is set there based on supply and demand.
I think this last point is the most important. People see problems such as rising energy costs and want to find the easy scapegoats, but in reality the high prices are the result of stagnant supply and rising demand. Prices will continue to increase has supply decreases. The sooner we can get past the scapegoating and look at the actual reasons for what happens, the sooner we can find useful solutions.
Real oil price went up but not by much.
Our shot up for two reasons:
Dollar is worth about 45 cent to $1 in comparison to 2001.
Oil companies have raised up the price they pay for crude and processing by about 30% because they have monopoly on distribution within the US and keep consolidating.
Our government officials profited in millions each year. Hence they will institute the usual "war profiteer" tax that could have alleviated some of the suffering of the poor by being used to finance health care.
Not all of these officials are elected, but many are. Keep that in mind.
I didn't see the hearings but this sounds like the same excuses they gave the last time. When was there a down-cycle for oil industry??? Is the panel just playing softball with these oil-moneybags? Did anybody question further about the down cycles? If there ever was downcycle, this time in history should be it. But no - historical record profits rolling in.
With all the crude oil being sucked out of rhe earth all over the world, what is left behind?
I would think nothing, a void. What geological implications could this have. I really hope someone out there has thought of this and has an answer.
One point: Saying that drilling in ANWR won't help the supply issues is like saying adding another drinking fountain in an office building won't supply more water to thirsty people. It's part of the puzzle. If you add all the untapped reserves we currently know about, foreign dependence could be, if not eliminated, hugely reduced. The new reserve under N. Dakota, Montana, and Co. is predicted at something larger than the largest in Saudi Arabia. We aren't allowed to drill or build more refineries because congress has meddled in the business. OPEC controls the bulk of reserves, and it sets the price. Oil companies buy much of the oil on the open market -- they pay the price you see on the business page of the newspaper, same as butchers pay for pork and beef. The government makes a lot more money per gallon than Mobil Exxon ever has. And the government doesn't have to explore, find, drill, ship, refine or deliver the gas to your pump. They stick a .45 in our guts when we fill up, and we pay up.
As for fuel cells, it takes more energy to create the hydrogen, to capture the electricity on a platinum collector(it takes alot of energy to mine for and process platinum for industrial use, not mentioning the price) to manufacture the batteries, to store the hydrogen, etc. than to drill for oil. If it was such a great idea, Exxon/Mobil would already lead the planet in fuel cell production and hydrogen distribution.
As for down-markets for oil, from the mid-80s to 2000, the market was so down that nobody bothered to drill for it. Imagine gold was going for $1 per ounce. How many people would be breaking their backs to find it, and if they did, would it be worth their time?
Apparently those cavities are refilled with sludge, water and a host of other by-products that are removed in the process.
We will see progress on issues like energy, health care, unemployment, social security to name a few problems facing this nation on a daily basic when this self-serving congress and senate does their jobs.
The dog and pony show is all that we will get for this government.... They cannot work together and they are not working for "You".
With record profits, this government should be damn sure they are collecting all of the taxes that are due to the government, instead of throwing our money at them....Constant cycle Stupidity
If our Government was in the business of Government; our country would be light years ahead of the world.