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7521. alistairconnor - 5/23/2008 1:15:38 PM OK I see. It might seem more logical that the lack of a tax would stimulate extra activity this time around, but...
I agree. My analysis is that the oil majors aren't actually very interested in opening up new, difficult, capital-intensive fields. They have an incredibly profitable racket going on : they are sitting on reserves of easy oil that have increased astronomically in value, and so their stock price has followed. It's far easier to hand out dividends than to do all that dirty work developing new fields, that can never be as profitable as their current holdings.
On the bottom end of the industry, there are hundreds of small outfits that are experts at squeezing the last drop out of marginal or abandoned oil fields.
What is lacking, presumably, is a middle tier of companies with enough capital to do the new developments that the big boys aren't very interested in.
Result : the whole thing is a sunset industry. I'd much rather the big boys were taxed on their super-profits to encourage (to force) investment in renewables, on a huge scale. Because that's what's needed. Drilling the parks isn't going to change the game. Leave it in the ground. 7522. thoughtful - 5/23/2008 3:47:11 PM Well my thinking is the tax last time prevented them from gaining so much from limiting supply as the benefits were taxed away. This time, they gain so much profit from limiting supply, they have no incentive to fix it.
And of course, they have no incentive to develop alternatives...cutting off one's nose to spite one's face... 7523. jexster - 5/25/2008 1:09:44 AM America the Humiliated
Now the French are laughing at us....
In the beginning of the 1970s, when a barrel of black gold cost less than $2, no one imagined that one day an American president would be reduced to begging the king of Saudi Arabia...
Le Monde: The Power Has Changed Sides 7524. jexster - 5/25/2008 1:17:42 AM Hugo has us by the balls ....
and all we have is George W. Bush and his designated heir, an old man who is quite possibly even dumber than him
Consumer countries' dependence is linked to the fragility of the multinational companies. Oil states and their national public companies share 85 percent of the world's reserves. The majors no longer hold more than 15 percent and are having trouble reconstituting that percentage to the extent they draw those reserves down. What weight does "giant" ExxonMobil - the biggest listed company in the world - carry compared to Gazprom or Saudi Aramco? The great Western companies' access to oil fields - closed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Mexico, ever more difficult in Russia, Venezuela and Algeria - would involve "returning to the period before the 1970s' nationalizations," believes Nicolas Sarkis, director of the "Arab Oil and Gas Review." 7525. jexster - 5/25/2008 1:19:39 AM Gazprom...McManchurian Candidate..how does that fit your international Muzzie-Commie Conspiracy Mandrake..errrr ConnedMan? 7526. jexster - 5/29/2008 6:15:04 PM Better Than Corn 7527. arkymalarky - 5/29/2008 10:15:20 PM Anyone here use Dreamweaver? 7528. concerned - 5/29/2008 10:53:03 PM What a strange demented sand box of a world jexster must occupy. 7529. anomie - 5/29/2008 11:03:21 PM I don't know what Dreamweaver is Arky, but it reminds me of an old 70s song.
7530. anomie - 5/29/2008 11:05:45 PM Is Microsoft stupid? The tablet pc was a flop and now they're touting a touch screen system. I'm happy with my hand resting on the mouse. I don't want to be raising it up to a screen every 5 seconds. And imagine the dirt and fingerprints. 7531. jexster - 6/3/2008 1:07:31 AM Global Warming "Africanizing" Spain 7532. jexster - 6/3/2008 1:25:52 AM Life on mars!?!?!?!
 7533. concerned - 6/3/2008 9:26:14 PM Re. 7531 -
It's due to development, not global warming. 7534. concerned - 6/3/2008 9:27:27 PM Virtually every mention of 'global warming' in jexster's cite is gratuitous. 7535. concerned - 6/3/2008 11:15:57 PM Well, there may be some real effects of climate change on page 2, but still, most of it is 'oh, gee' where's the water for our new golf course fairways? 7536. alistairconnor - 6/6/2008 12:24:45 PM USA : the Can't-Do attitude
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The United States will tell a July meeting of the Group of Eight rich nations that it cannot meet big cuts in emissions of planet-warming gases by 2020, its chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson said.
"It's frankly not do-able for us," he told Reuters on Tuesday, referring to a goal for rich countries to curb greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
Of course you can!
If Obama doesn't do it...
Peak oil, or economic collapse, will. 7537. arkymalarky - 6/6/2008 12:47:55 PM Heard the other day that driving in the US is already down 11%, the steepest drop ever. 7538. anomie - 6/6/2008 10:32:11 PM I think car companies have been missing a golden opportunity the last few years by not selling a small, street legal, electric car, for a fair price. I'd have bought one years ago. It's almost impossible to calculate the gas and money that could be saved if we didn't take our full-sized cars down the block for local errands. 7539. robertjayb - 6/10/2008 5:27:12 PM ANWR drilling worth six-bits a barrel...(McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — If Congress were to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, crude oil prices would probably drop by an average of only 75 cents a barrel, according to Department of Energy projections issued Thursday.
The report, which was requested in December by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, found that oil production in the refuge "is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices."
.................................................
...the report also finds that opening ANWR could have other benefits, particularly in Alaska, where tapping the resources in the Arctic refuge could extend the lifespan of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Sounds a bit like the space program where we need a shuttle to reach the space station and we need the space station to provide a mission for the shuttle.
7540. robertjayb - 6/11/2008 2:53:23 PM Charlie Rose had an excellent show last night with a panel on the price of oil and an interview with author Misha Glenny.
The panel prescriptions included: clean coal technology, nuclear power, plug-in hybrid autos, removal of subsidies for corn-based ethanol, elimination of tariffs on imported ethanol (read Brazil). So-called major oil companies are inflexible dinosaurs. Independents will lead the way to improved domestic oil production.
Author Glenny's new book is McMafia, about international organized crime which he says accounts for 20-percent of world GDP.
Videos should be available later at The Charlie Rose Show...
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