Energy Wars

This year's conference, enhanced through a partnership between Community Solutions and Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, is organized around Community Solutions executive director Pat Murphy's just published book, Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. The book, and this conference, "point to the life we must lead, if we are to survive on this planet."

Next month is the ASPO conference in Sacramento CA. Nate Hagens will be one of the speakers in the plenary (as well as on the Sunday TOD breakout panels). Here is a video of the talk he gave last year at the international ASPO VI venue in Cork Ireland. The speech covered net energy, energy properties and externalities on the supply side and addiction, relative fitness and steep discount rates from an evolutionary perspective on the demand side. Here is a link to the slides themselves, (which aren't fully shown at times on the video).

The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq - questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of their country.

Cynthia Mckinney was last seen in a slap down with a White House Security guard who doesn't place much faith in his ability to remember faces. While I was feeling some sympathy when I discovered the old story on the internet recently, her position in this election is obviously to be an alternative of the same color as the the likely Democratic candidate. The little siphoning drain on what makes the candidate stand out. The 3rd party prospect can say, I voted for a better African American candidate when they subtract their vote from the Democrats.

President Bush on Saturday blamed the Democratic-led Congress for the high cost of gasoline and renewed his call for expanded offshore drilling to increase U.S. oil supplies.

Offshore drilling became a campaign issue as gasoline prices hit $4 a gallon. Public opinion polls show that not only do Americans want their elected leaders to do something about it, but they think drilling for oil on the continental shelf is a great idea.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited this oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday to call for increased offshore drilling that he claims would lower the cost of food and heating homes.

Detroit automakers, the UAW and their allies on Capitol Hill will launch an all-out blitz over the next few weeks for up to $50 billion in government loans over the next three years -- money the companies say would help them survive one of their darkest periods.

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is touring an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana in order "to highlight his support for increased domestic offshore drilling." Although he will not join McCain today, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) promoted McCain's oil rig visit in an appearance on Fox and Friends this morning.

Thom fits recent events in Georgia into a historical context and into the competition for oil. This is a very, very serious situation, what's going on in Georgia, and I want to take it, bring it out to the whole great big picture because the media won't do it. The corporate media won't do it. And the Republican Party definitely won't do it and the Democrats probably won't do it because they're all, by and large, to one degree or another, complicit in how this all came about. So let's just kind of play the way back machine here, all the way back to 1860. In 1860, I think it was 1865 or 1867 [1859], the first oil well, Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the first gusher and thus began the American era of oil. And we had a hell of a lot of oil in the United States. Pennzoil was the Pennsylvania Oil Company.

Congress may outlaw elements of oil futures trading that lawmakers found distorted demand and contributed to the 69% surge in prices in the past year. US legislators are considering limits on the number of oil contracts an investor can hold and may increase disclosure requirements. Speculators such as Goldman Sachs Group use the practices to bet on price swings, which may drive up prices, though they have no intention of taking delivery of underlying goods, lawmakers say.

"I have observed that in all other countries, including in America, people are complaining about how prices of [gasoline] are going up," Denmark's prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told me. "The cure is not to reduce the price, but, on the contrary, to raise it even higher to break our addiction to oil. We are going to introduce a new tax reform in the direction of even higher taxation on energy and the revenue generated on that will be used to cut taxes on personal income - so we will improve incentives to work and improve incentives to save energy and develop renewable energy."

Under fire for high gas prices, the industry is spending record amounts on influence in Washington. Plus: How it's playing in the presidential race. Top oil lobbyists Company spending so far in 2008 Company Amount in millions 1. Exxon Mobil $8.1 2. Chevron $6.1 3. BP $5.2 4. ConocoPhillips $4.4 5. Koch $3.8 6. Marathon $3.6 7. API $2.2 8. Occidental $1.4 9. Williams $1.2 10. Shell $1.2 Source:Center for Responsive Politics Top industries Spending on lobbying so far in 2008 Industry Amount in millions 1. Drugs $113 2. Insurance $76 3. Electric utilities $65 4. Computers $60 5. Oil and gas $55 6. Education $51 7. Air transport $50 8. Health Care $48 9. Manufacturing $48 10. Entertainment $48 Source:Center for Responsive Politics NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As angry voters spark a barrage of energy bills in Congress, the oil industry is spending record amounts of money protecting its interests. In what may be surprising to some, the most recent figures from the Center for Responsive Politics show that the oil industry gives a relatively small sum to individual political campaigns - it's 16th on a list of top 50 industries.

Here's something else that could create political complications for John McCain in key swing states as he continues to defend measures that would maintain tax breaks for the oil industry: He recently opposed extending tax breaks for the wind-power industry. Making this more difficult for McCain, the fledgling wind-power industry is popular in key upper Midwest and central plains states -- and here you have McCain protecting such tax breaks for Big Oil, but opposing them for Big Wind, or, if you prefer, Little Wind.

The Cold War competition between the United States and Russia - played out in Europe with the threat of mutual nuclear destruction - ended with the collapse of the Soviet empire nearly two decades ago. But the Russian bear has re-emerged from its cave with a new and powerful weapon - the West's dependence on Moscow's vast energy supplies. The Russians now supply about 25 percent of the European Union's crude oil needs and half of its natural gas.

Many years ago, during the 1970s if memory serves, neoconservative Irving Kristol, echoing John Stuart Mill, called his conservative party, the Republican Party, "the stupid party." Kristol was referring to the Republican's inability to compete on the policy front. Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan led the Republicans out of the wilderness, but now Republicans have reverted to the stupid party, or more precisely the moronic party.

Well finally we have some good news on the oil front. Rather than a one day drop, quickly followed by crude prices resuming their upward march, we saw, prior to Russia-Georgia's saga, a steady downturn over the last week, coupled with a strengthening dollar.

As an additional preamble, when I say that the West has no more credibility than Russia on this conflict, it does not mean that Russia has any credibility, or that I love Putin, it means that the West has no credibility whatsoever; when I mock the West's claims about human rights and democracy, it does not mean that I think Russia is a defender of human rights and democracy, just that we have no credibility either on the topic. All of that stated, here are a few facts worth noting about Georgia and the current behavior of its president, Russia, and decision makers in Washington:

A key to understanding the language of politics in this country is credulity -- the willingness to believe the damnedest nonsense with no supporting evidence, as long as it appeals to one's abiding prejudice or unquenchable avarice.

A serious oil supply crisis is looming, which could push prices above $200 a barrel, a think tank has warned. A "supply crunch" will affect the world market within the next five to 10 years, the Chatham House report said. While there is plenty of oil in the ground, companies and governments were failing to invest enough to ensure production, it added. Only a collapse in demand can stave off the looming crisis, report author Professor Paul Stevens said.