“The US is so much bigger than the European countries” (So? Do you need to drive from CT to OR, or FL to MT, or even Dallas to Houston? It’s not about size, it’s about scale)

“We need to ship fresh produce across the country in trucks” (Ever hear of trains? Ever hear of locally produced produce?)

“The closest bus stop is 1 mile from my house” (So move!)

“We just don’t have a good public transit system in this country” (1. Read your US history and see what we used to have. 2. We just didn’t have the interstate highway system 60 years ago, but that didn’t stop us from building it)

“Higher gas prices is SOCIALIST talk.” (You wouldn’t take a life preserver from a Socialist if he threw it to you when you were drowning, would you?)

“What do we care what the rest of the world is doing?” (DUH!!! How old are you??)

What a bunch of pathetic excuses!!!

The general public/consumer in the US tends to be the most uninformed when it comes to shopping for the the right car. US Auto marketing has pretty much brain washed people into thinking they need a V8 6000lb SUV to drive on snow plowed roads. That they need a vehicle capable of towing 10,000lbs to tow their 1500lb jet ski.
Easy loans – low interest rates live by credit mentality enables people to purchase way more vehicle than they will ever need. As a result you have people driving full sized Trucks and SUV’s 90+% of the time as basic point A to Point B transportation with one or two people riding in them.

Not to mention there are more and more people that base their weekend entertainment on fuel driven vehicles.

Yes gas is cheap here in the US – its been way to cheap for way to long. As a result our public transportation stinks – people live way to far from work – Auto makers in the US have not been able to sell better designed more fuel efficient cars so they sell us the highest profit margin vehicles with poor milege standards. The Toyota Prius is such a big deal in the US but no where else! Why? Because it really doesn’t offer a good value in other countries where they have had very fuel efficient cars more efficient than the Prius for many years already.

Simply put the US Auto buyer is just plain dumb and alot of it can be blamed on the cheap fuel costs that enabled people to justify living 2hrs from work and purchasing way more vehicle than they ever needed.

Time to wake up! Buy fuel efficient cars – live closer to work and think a little more about what your doing when it comes to fuel consumption.

Walking, biking, mass transit, etc.

On this oil price debate, I actually thought that many arguments brought are interesting, and I admit I may even have some sympathy for the people who say “it is different here in the US”. However, you often say this when you don’t want to face reality…

I was suprised, but in a positive sense, to see that apparently many american citizens are waking up to the fact that maybe the way they are living and consuming should evolve. Here in Europe, we have a tendency to see you ALL as “monster” oil consumers. “Cliché” as the old Hitchcock used to say!

Talking about prejudice, but the other way round, I really laughed out loud at some comments on Europe:
* “they have a lot of peasants”
* “they have 15-20% unemployment”
* “they live in an hills”
* etc.
For those who made those comments: well done! But maybe, from time to time, you would need to travel the world (not only Europe) a bit?! This was true sometime ago. But the world has changed, is changing quickly, and you may no longer have the superior standard of living you enjoyed in the 50s and the 60s. Again, facing reality…

Sure reads like one of those sympathetic payoffs to me.

Short answer is “no, it did not”. The main cause of the current gas crisis is our own gluttony.

Oil was $120 a barrel on May 5, 2008.

The cost of a barrel of synthetic fuel from coal is estimated to be $55, including the infrastructure and labor force necessary to operate plants.

Germany fueled WWII with synfuel from coal. It is proven technology.

America has 1/3rd of the coal on Earth and can eliminate dependence on foreign oil.

Reducing America’s trade imbalance keeps money and jobs here in America.

Every billion in trade deficit costs 13,000 American jobs. $400 billion for oil last year: you do the math.

And we can stop sending billions to countries that sponsor terrorism.

Synfuels are cleaner burning than gasoline and carbon sequestration can remove CO2.
Visit http://governor.mt.gov/hottopics/faqsynthetic.asp

Harness your anger at the pump. Call you’re US Senators and demand they break ground on America’s energy independence by encouraging an American synfuel industry in this decade.

If you don’t raise your voice the oil companies, lobbyist and politicians will assume you are fat, dumb and happy and ready to pay even more.

Perhaps the legitimate desire to preserve water front property plays a role in stopping the development of new refineries and oil exploration. But international agreements and foreign tax credits have much more to do with it:

The United States agreed to transfer jobs and technology to developing countries under
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT
Algiers Declaration
Algiers, Algeria, 4-6 March 1975

In this context, they emphasize the necessity for the full implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its VI Special Session, and accordingly they emphasize the following requirements [excerpt from full declaration]

“With regard to the depletable natural resources, as OPEC’s petroleum resources are, it is essential that the transfer of technology must be commensurate in speed and volume with the rate of their depletion, which is being accelerated for the benefit and growth of the economies of the developed countries”

A major portion of the planned or new petrochemical complexes, oil refineries and fertilizer plants be built in the territories of OPEC Member Countries with the co-operation of industrialized nations for export purposes to the developed countries with guaranteed access for such products to the markets of these countries. [Excerpt from declaration] Read sections 10 and 11]
FOREIGN TAX CREDITS
In 1977 Representative Benjamin Rosenthal of New York produced secret Internal Revenue Service documents going back to 1950. They showed that the tax laws of Saudi Arabia were drafted with the help of Aramco to call the added price of oil not a “royalty” or “cost of doing business,” as was proper, but an income tax.” The Saudis did this knowing that income tax paid to a foreign country is deductible from the income taxes an oil company pays the United States on all income received in the United States by the parent firm. From Pgs. 61-64 The Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian 5th edition paperback color emphasis added

“This plan was approved in secret session of the National Security Council and carried out without any request for authorization by Congress. A quarter of a century later, when members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee un-earthed details, the source of the king’s added income had become too self-evident for comment.” From pgs. 193-196 Oil Power The Rise and Fall of An American Empire by Carl Solberg 1976 paperback

“Essential to the deal was a renegotiation of Aramco’s royalties, most of which were now called taxes. These were increased to a level equal to half the company’s expected profits for the year. The amount of the rise just happened to equal the income taxes the company had been paying to the U.S. Treasury. Thus, by a transfer to the Saudis of a sum that would henceforth have to be made up to the U.S. government by its taxpayers, the 12. progressive fitly-fifty profit-split plan was introduced to the Eastern Hemisphere, and the lord of the world’s richest oil pools was bound over to the United States as never before: the Saudi monarchy became outspoken in its anticommunism.” From pgs. 193-196 Oil Power The Rise and Fall of An American Empire by Carl Solberg 1976 paperback

“This practice, perfected in Saudi Arabia, was quickly adopted elsewhere. Eventually, every oil-producing nation where American companies had a concession enacted an income tax law to increase its oil revenue by tapping the foreign tax credit provision of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.” From pgs. 183-190 America: Who Really Pays The Taxes by Donald L.Barlett & James B. Steele paperback

“Since that time the major multinational U.S. oil companies have paid hardly a penny of U.S. income tax on their foreign income.” page130 BANKS. BORROWERS, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT

Excepts from Aramco’s Stormy Petrol
Monday, Dec. 24, 1979
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947130-1,00.html

In their middleman role, Aramco’s American chiefs plainly have divided loyalties. From Chairman John J. Kelberer, a career-long Aramco engineering manager, on down, executives remain determined to do nothing that would anger their Saudi hosts or jeopardize the company’s concession. During the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, Aramco’s executives not only did as they were told by the Saudi government, but cut back production by more than requested just to show that they were good Saudi corporate citizens.
SO CONSUMERS WILL ULTIMATELY PAY MORE

REFINERIES IN AMERICA OPERATING AT 85% CAPACITY
Excerpts from Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois floor statement http://durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=296989 below:

That is fact. The oil companies say: Well, the problem is we do not have enough refineries. If we had more, then we would have more product and we might have a smaller spread and we would not be. Let me tell you what: Today, the refineries in America are operating at 85 percent of capacity. Do not buy this argument that it is about refineries. They have more capacity. They are holding back so they can keep their product dear and limited and short, and so the consumers will ultimately pay more.

This morning, British Petroleum, BP, announced they made $7.6 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2008. Royal Dutch Shell announced $9.08 billion in the first quarter. We are still waiting for ExxonMobil.

Understand, these are not the biggest profits in the history of the oil industry, these are the largest profits in the history of American business, some say in the history of all business throughout mankind; the largest profit taking ever. At whose expense? At the expense of consumers and families, small businesses, truckers, airlines, and our economy.
GLOBAL WARMING

The Green Phantom
Global warming’s curious absence as a campaign issue.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/133652

In the summer of 2006 I went to see Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who was running the Democrats’ successful effort to regain control of the House of Representatives. I had been reading a great deal about global warming in the mainstream press (“Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid” warned Time). So I asked Emanuel, how are the environment and global warming playing out there in the heartland? Is it stirring voters? No, he replied. In the 2006 congressional elections global warming was virtually a nonissue, he said, a low-priority item way behind the war and the economy and old staples like education and health care. Global warming is an issue for the elites, he said, not for the average voter.

SO Who Benefits from the Global Warming Advertisement Campaigns that discourage exploration for oil in Alaska & the Gulf of Mexico and new coal fired power plants?
By Michael Lewis

• 3rd world countries who are the beneficiaries of a transfer of wealth and technology from America.

• The bottom lines of International Oil Companies that use foreign tax credits to avoid paying taxes in the US and show loyalty to no nation state.

Or

• American taxpayers

Pennsylvania Governor and Former CIA Director Warn Foreign Oil Is a Threat to America’s Economy
Friday, September 14, 2007
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com/2007/09/pennsylvania-governor-and-former-cia.html

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell and former director of the CIA James Woolsey this week called America’s growing dependence on foreign oil one of the greatest threats to the nation’s security and economy.

According to the governor during a press conference:

“As a nation, we import more than 60 percent of our liquid fuel supplies. That kind of dependence on foreign oil leaves us exposed to political upheaval or hostile agendas from elsewhere in the world. “It is intolerable that our economy and way of life are so much at the mercy of foreign nations. We need to act now and spur the development of biofuels here at home. Instead of Pennsylvanians sending $30 billion each year overseas to buy gas and fuels, we can invest that money here and support our farmers who grow the crops that produce ethanol and biodiesel, the new manufacturers that refine the oils and the trucking and rail industries that ship it.”