Sen. McCain seems determined to use the same line of attack versus Sen. Obama that Sen. Clinton used. Now he’s resurrecting the idiotic gas tax holiday that does nothing to address the actual Republican-aided energy problem. Maybe Sen. McCain just forgot how these attacks ended up not working for Sen. Clinton.
Yeah, he forgot, that’s it.
Related
McCain vs. Obama vs. Clinton
Bush vs. Clinton
McCain Campaign Copying Clinton
I’m not sure why McCain cares about the gas tax, I’m pretty sure his car runs on anger and old spice…
Carol McCain’s abandoner won’t take responsiblity for the damage to the dollar from the war he’s waved the pom poms for
Tactics, schmactics. Let’s talk about energy.
Wasn’t it about ten years ago when we were told that the benefits from drilling in ANWR wouldn’t make an impact on the market for at least…what was it? Ten years. Hmmm- that extra domestic production would be helpful about now, eh?
Who is it that has consistantly blocked domestic offshore drilling? (Democrats)
Who is it that has consistantly blocked the building of new refineries in the United States? (Democrats)
Who is that has enacted a “windfall profits tax” in the past with disaterous results? (Jimmy Carter and Democrats- and you think prices at the pump are high now. ThI remember the good old days of gas lines… and Obama would bring them back.)
Who is it that consistently blocks nuclear energy and clean coal technologies? (Democrats, although Obama at least has given a nod to the latter lately.)
What has the Democrat controlled Congress done about energy since 2006? What the hell have they been doing?
So now you want to give more subsidies to big agriculture who is profiting from the ethanol caused run up in cost of the food supply and needing more and more land to produce crops for that supply of fuel that is a less efficient form of energy by roughly 30% and that from production to market produces more carbon in your “climate crisis” world?
Who is already threatening to block research and development of domestic production of oil in the shale fields of Montana and North Dakota- possibly the largest reserve of oil in the world? (Activists on the left.)
But hey- jus blame it on Bush. Right? (Oh- and McCain.)
Does he still want to implement it before Memorial Day? He’d better get cracking, that’s coming up pretty soon.
I’m pretty sure his car runs on anger and old spice…
Funyuns and failure.
Who is it that has consistantly blocked the building of new refineries in the United States? (Democrats)
Who has blocked building new refineries, specifically? Who has applied to build new refineries?
Apropos of nothing, less than 200 comments to go until # 10000. Milestone!
Here is the Annenberg Political Fact Check article on the gas tax holiday, which according to them would just transfer that revenue essentially from the government to the oil companies -
http://www.factcheck.org/gas_price_fixes_that_wont.html
Marty, it seems more likely to me that the problem is refinement, rather than drilling. I swear every source that claims expertise on how much ANWR would contribute seems to be pulling their numbers from an unsavory place, because they’re always different and they always serve that particular source’s political agenda. According to factcheck – which claims to have no political agenda and indeed bashes both major parties – ANWR would lead to a ‘negligible bump’ in the world market, and wouldn’t open until the 2020s.
On the other hand, even if ANWR isn’t the answer, I’m still a Democrat that supports more domestic drilling. I confess to being no expert on the subject but I have a feeling the environmental groups, for all the good work they do, shoot themselves (and us) in the foot somewhat by taking a default negative position on any domestic energy exploration that might negatively impact the environment. That’s according, at least, to the UCLA Professor Jared Diamond, in the preface of his book ‘Collapse.’
They’re only running refineries they have now at around 85%–one of the reasons…not profitable enough to ramp them up even higher.
Why anyone with half a brain would think oil companies would want to do something to intentionally jeopardize their profit margins is beyond me…
Oh BTW, anyone who really thinks that ANWR oil wouldn’t be sold to China needs their head examined.
“They’re only running refineries they have now at around 85%–one of the reasons…not profitable enough to ramp them up even higher.”
The oil equivalent of plowing under crops to drive up prices.
“They’re only running refineries they have now at around 85%..
I suppose that’s the Democrats fault as well.
Not to worry–Marty will make it seem that way
“Who is that has enacted a “windfall profits tax” in the past with disaterous results? (Jimmy Carter and Democrats- and you think prices at the pump are high now. ThI remember the good old days of gas lines… and Obama would bring them back.)”
Well that was lame. The windfall profits tax didn’t create the gas lines. Price caps did. I haven’t heard that anyone–Mr. Obama included–is suggesting we should do that again. On the other hand, maybe you meant to suggest that Mr. Obama simply wants to bring the lines back.
I’m pretty sure you’re wrong on that one.
With help from a few noteworthy Republicans.
Would you like to call “calf rope” now? Or shall I taunt you another time?
Awesome point, Marty. Say, just curious, but what was the price of oil in March of 2003? Gas? I know I can count on you for the answer. Thanks in advance.
Oh, and in your awesome post, does ANWR stand for “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge”? Just curious. Thanks again.
“Wasn’t it about ten years ago when we were told that the benefits from drilling in ANWR wouldn’t make an impact on the market for at least…what was it? Ten years. Hmmm- that extra domestic production would be helpful about now, eh?”
Nope. There’s not enough oil in all of the United States to tip the supply and demand curve. It just doesn’t exist.
Drilling won’t help now, only conservation will.
I’d go over the rest of your post point-by-point, but you’ve don’t nothing to show your are worth my time or respect.
Nationalize the oil companies.
Only part of me is jesting.
Why do conservatives always try to paint the problem as “our dependence on foreign oil”? There is no problem with our dependence on foreign oil. The problem is our dependence on oil. Get it? The solution isn’t finding more domestic oil, it’s finding workable alternatives, conservation and increased efficiency. Solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, hydro, -power. 100 MPG cars, electric cars, air cars, public transportation, rail freight. Rebuilding our electrical grid. America rolled over and went back to sleep through its wakeup call in the 70’s. Now we are paying the price.
midder,
You are correct, we did sleep through this when we had a chance to fix it. Now we need to be deep into the search for non-fossil fuel sources of energy. We need to be building nuclear plants like there is no tomorrow and we need to be investing in figuring out some other way to power our cars.
Until these projects come online, we need more of our own oil and we need it yesterday. We need to build more refineries (which is the real problem).
Respectfully,
The Squid
Nuclear power? I don’t think so. 20 tons of waste/day to dispose of? There’s gotta be a better way. And if we took the billions of oil royalties we fail to collect every year we could find it.
Squid Shark: “We need to be building nuclear plants like there is no tomorrow…”
And where are you going to get the uranium from? Granted, Uranium is off its recent record highs, but it is still nearly twice what it cost a few years ago. And uranium takes oil to mine, lots of it.
You don’t need to switch to a new limited natural resource for your energy needs. You need a limitless clean energy source. AND YOU NEED TO CONSERVE ENERGY.
midderpidge: Nuclear power? … 20 tons of waste/day to dispose of?
A little more care before you start throwing around those numbers, there, midder.
In actuality
At 20 tons/day you’d accumulate 56,000 tons in 2800 days, or 7.6 years. Pretty sure we’ve had nuclear power in this country before 2001. (Actually, nuclear power started in the US over 50 years ago (Shippingport) and the last plant to come online, Watts Bar 1, was in 1996. So we’ve been running at a pretty steady level for the last 12 years.)
Looking ahead, adding 63,000 tons in the next 27 years comes out to about only 6.4 tons/day.
Hey Squid,
Did you read what I posted? Refiners turned down production on the ones they have now because they’re not making enough money. So exactly how is building more of them (that they don’t want) going to help?
So exactly how is building more of them (that they don’t want) going to help?
Simple, blend. They can limit production on the ones they have now even more. Instead of only 85% capacity, they can turn it down to 50% = Profit!
Oh, sorry. How about if we settle on disposing of nuclear waste is a pain in the ass, nuclear waste and fuel is dangerous, and there is no way to 100% secure it?
Then we go into trading one finite fuel with pricing problems with another.
The other main problem you guys fail to notice is how the uncertain supply of energy is damaging the US economy. Compare how resilient our economy is going to be against that of the European union, particularly the key countries like France, Germany and England. These countires are already way ahead of the US in terms of alternative energy, mass transit and conservation. And that gap is increasing.
The best solution conservatives seem to be offering is short term at best. 20-30 years down the line we’ll have another crisis, while our economic rivals will laugh at us.
“These countires are already way ahead of the US in terms of alternative energy, mass transit and conservation. And that gap is increasing.”
Like Nuclear? France has been running on something like 90% nuclear power for years.
Respectfully,
The Squid
“Like Nuclear? ”
Uranium prices are double what they were a few years ago. Switching from oil to nuclear is not a great savings.
You must conserve energy and find a non-limited resource energy source, like solar or wind.
“You must conserve energy and find a non-limited resource energy source, like solar or wind.”
So you go from limited to unreliable?
Respectfully,
The Squid