The Cost Of The Drilling Ban
September 5, 2008 | Filed Under Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Taxes, War on Terror | No Comments
-By Dan Scott
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US imported 3,661,404,000 barrels of crude oil in 2007. That’s royalties the US Treasury didn’t collect, directly added to the annual budget deficit and ultimately the national debt. So how much money did the Democrats with their drilling ban cost the US Treasury last year? The bigger question is how much would the price of oil drop to if the US Congress had gotten it’s act together and stopped playing politics as our friends at CORE are so upset about?
According to Representative John Peterson (R) of Pennsylvania’s 5th District, the current going royalty rate is 15.17% on the cost of barrel of oil. (See PDF file)Before we start, the essential premise of Representative Peterson’s claim of $ 2.5 trillion over five years is based on the recent peak cost of oil and natural gas projected into the past. He was using the past five years of consumption by keeping the drilling ban thus denying the rest of the world that oil for their use.
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Liberal Policy Failures
August 27, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Energy, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture | 1 Comment
-By Dan Scott
I always find the audacity of liberals amazing when they spout their pantheon of myths like, oil free economy, the US has no energy policy, the economy is in recession, illegal immigration is good, unions protect workers, health care is out of control, the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes or terrorism is worse than ever. Ironically, each of these myths have a basis in fact that directly indicts the liberals for their own policy failures.
One of my favorite liberal myths is the oil free economy panacea based on alternative fuels. As I pointed out liberals are great at selling things as long as you don’t look too deeply under the surface of their advocacy. When we look deep enough what we really see is a liberal agenda to control the economy and manipulate people for their own ends at everyone’s expense. As we saw with the myth the US has no energy policy, in actuality we see 30 years of liberal pandering and incompetence via drilling bans artificially restricting the US and by extension the world’s energy supply. The inevitable effect of any restriction on a commodity is to force up the price of the commodity. Of course not one drop of oil was saved by the drilling ban, all oil not procured domestically was outsourced form foreign sources. The recent drop in consumption is not as a result of a “more efficient economy” it is as a result of an economic slow down with a recession in the offing if current energy policies don’t change. Saving oil via an economic slow down is not conservation, it is total incompetence, the point is supposed to be to use less oil for greater economic output.
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What is Tennessee’s Senator, Bob Corker, Doing? Selling us Out, That’s What!
August 11, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ken Marerro over at Blue Collar Muse has a nice round down on the low down of the guy living down to expectations, Bob Corker (R, Tenn.). It appears that Senator Corker is selling down the river the erstwhile GOP House members who made such a strong stand on energy last week. Corker is signing onto a Senate energy bill that is little else but a GIANT give away to the Democrats.
A friend emailed me about Bob Corker’s involvement in the Gang of 10. He asked, “What is Corker doing?” To quote Bob Corker himself, he is doing “…exactly what I came to the Senate to do.” To the host of Tennesseans who bemoaned the choice of Corker over Ed Bryant as our Senate choice in 2006, he’s doing exactly what we feared. In fairness, for two years Corker has been a pleasant surprise. However, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to begin living down to our expectations.
Just like GOP Senators in the Gang of 14 and judicial nominees, Republicans in Energy’s Gang of 10 are undermining GOP leadership and strategy. Mitch McConnell and GOP leaders have worked this issue for months with the backing of Republicans and Democrats; legislators and voters. Pressure was mounting on Democrats to surrender their sellout of Americans. Gas and oil prices were falling. Support for Energy Independence via drilling and R&D for alternative and renewable energy sources was growing. It seemed inevitable the GOP would get their vote and sooner rather than later. Now, thanks to meddling by Corker, instead of continuing to exploit flaws in Democratic policies, Senate GOP leaders might be forced to regroup and decide if they can even continue in the face of the Gang’s treachery.
It gets worse, of course. Hit up the Blue Collar Muse for the rest of this infuriating tale of Republicans that are more like… well, they are RINOs, let’s face it.
How Many Democrats Are Trying to Pass an Energy Bill… How About ZERO
August 10, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Energy, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
A nice five week vacation sounds nice to Democrats who’d rather be taking it easy instead of passing the energy bill in the House of Representatives. Yes, while we are paying $4 a gallon and more, Democrats decided it would be cool to go on a “well deserved” vacation.
AP Headline Asserts VP is ‘Unpopular Cheney’
August 7, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Energy, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
Well, the Associated Press is certainly living up to its new rules of being opinion editorialists instead of reporters if the following headline is any indication: “Obama links energy troubles to unpopular Cheney.” This was unleashed on the world by the AP on August 5. So, I ask you, does “unpopular Cheney” sound more like opinion than it does simple news reporting?
In fact, the Cheney comment was not even the crux of Obama’s comments, but a throw away line meant to give red meat to the far left. Obama did not center his energy discussion on Cheney. Yet here we have the AP deciding to make that the focal point of the discussion by making it the headline? Even more ridiculously, the AP twice reported that throw away line in the same 10 paragraph story. This seems to reveal that it is the AP, rather than Obama, that wanted to focus on Cheney the most here.
Certainly we can face facts that the liberal press has succeeded in pillorying Vice President Cheney since almost the minute he stepped into the VP Mansion at the United States Naval Observatory. It is, therefore, a fact that Cheney has a low approval rating. But it seems to me that the headline branding Cheney “unpopular” is somewhat unseemly and opinionated as opposed to newsworthy.
What About Those Oil Companies and Their Big Profits?
August 7, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Wall Street Journal had a pertinent piece on August 4 that bears some repeating. In it they asked “What is a ‘windfall’ profit anyway?” and provided some much needed context about the money that oil companies make.
On Aug 6, Obama made an amazing policy suggestion. He said that the government should actually confiscate money from private businesses and redistribute that money, giving it away like welfare! This is pure, socialist, redistribution of profits. It is also as anti-American as you can get.
So, the Journal made some pertinent points to ponder about just what the oil company profits are and how they measure against other industries.
First of all, the Journal notes that Exxon, for instance, paid an enormous amount of taxes. “Between 2003 and 2007, Exxon paid $64.7 billion in U.S. taxes, exceeding its after-tax U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion.”
According to the WSJ, here were some more facts about Exxon’s “obscene” profits:
Exxon’s 2007 profit margin = 10%
Here are the profit margins of some of our other industries and companies:
- Areospace Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 8.2%
- U.S. Manufacturing Sector’s 2007 profit margin = 8.9%
- GE’s 2007 profit margin = 10.3%
- Berkshire Hathaway Investors = 11.47%
- Chemicals Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 12.7%
- Computers Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 13.7%
- Electronics and appliances Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 14.5%
- Pharmaceuticals Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 18.4%
- beverages and tobacco Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 19.1%
- Google’s 2007 profit margin = 25.3%
Want “obscene” profits? How about electronics company LG that saw profits increase 505% in 2007? Maybe we should lay low the evil profits from Abbot Laboratories that saw a 110% increase?
So, why are we attacking just the oil companies again? Could it be that it’s just because the Democrats want a whipping boy? Why, yes. Yes it could be.