Why I’m Voting for Obama – Reason 1 of 3 – The Economy (and Energy)
Filed under: Barack Obama, Energy Policy, Environment, Ohio Economy, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008, U.S. Economy
Since the first presidential election in which I could vote, I’ve been hearing politicians promise tax relief for the middle class. They called it “tax relief” because very often there was nothing in it for the middle. President Clinton, to his credit, took care of the lower end of the scale with the Earned Income Tax Credit. Both Bushes gave us more of the Laffer Curve and Trickle Down Economics. The biggest breaks under every president I’ve had the privilege to vote for or against has benefited large corporations, usually of the multi-national type. Read more
Text: Ed Rendell Speech to DNC - Energy Policy
Filed under: Democratic National Convention, Energy Policy, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008, State Governments
DENVER (AP) _ Remarks as prepared for delivery to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell:
It was eight years ago that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney came to Philadelphia to accept their party’s nomination. Onstage at that convention, we heard lots of talk about energy. The Republican platform itself called for expanding the renewable energy tax credit. But once elected, they broke their energy promises to the American people and let big oil determine our national energy policy. Read more
Tuesday a.m. Clips – Ohio Rs: No to Romney; Ohio Highway Patrol sexiness; Dimora & Russo; Ohio AG race; War of Russian Aggression; Dimora & Russo; Payday lending; Debunking offshore drilling
Filed under: Bush Foreign Policy, Cuyahoga Corruption, Energy Policy, Environment, Gov Strickland, Ohio AG's Race 2008, Ohio Economy, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008, Russian/Georgian Conflict, State of Ohio Govt
Ohio News
- Ohio activists reject Romney – Columbus Dispatch
- Troopers in trouble over romances – Columbus Dispatch
It’s time for Ohio Highway Patrol to resubmit to civilian authority – racism and sexiness too much – if the Army can take orders from W, OHP can bend to Strickland, Guzman
- McClendon wrongly held by state for 18 years – Columbus Dispatch
Original prosecutors and anyone else who stood in the way of justice in these cases should be disbarred.
- Dimora – Russo probe began long ago – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Ohio AG race overview – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Opposing sides in payday lending fight over ballot language – Dayton Daily News
- Wind may hold energy and Ohio jobs – Mansfield News Journal
- Strickland: Ohio education system stuck in past – Newark Advocate
- Diebold to close Hebron plants – Newark Advocate
National/International News
- Russia orders halt to war in Georgia – Reuters
- What does Georgia want from Russia – NPR
- Russia says it has halted aggression – New York Times
- Healing wounds, Putin calls shots – New York Times
- Bayh offers risks and rewards – New York Times
- Global trail of online crime ring – New York Times
- Editorial: Russia’s War of Ambition – New York Times
- Endangered Species Act eyed – Washington Post
- Bush questions Moscow’s motives – Washington Post
- Editorial: ‘Snake Oil’ – Washington Post
Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices Part IV of V
As posted here (and why), I continue to post the Washington Post articles from the Oil Shock series.
from The Washington Post
Gas Prices Apply Brakes To Suburban Migration
By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; A01
That 1958 brick rambler inside the Beltway is suddenly looking a lot better to Dawn and Jeff Schaefer, who are buying their first house in Northern Virginia.
Not too long ago, they were looking farther out — for a newer house, a bigger yard and all the amenities. But no more. “You get less house and property for the same price, but we’re willing to make that sacrifice to save on gas prices and commuting costs,” Dawn Schaefer said.
Cheap oil, which helped push the American Dream away from the city center, isn’t so cheap anymore. As more and more families reconsider their dreams, land-use experts are beginning to ask whether $4-a-gallon gas is enough to change the way Americans have thought for half a century about where they live.
“We’ve passed that tipping point,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said. Read more
Full Text: Obama Energy Townhall in Youngstown, Opening Remarks
Filed under: Barack Obama, Energy Policy, Environment, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008
August 05, 2008
Obama Energy Townhall in Youngstown
Barack Obama, as prepared for delivery
Youngstown, Ohio
We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges unlike any we’ve ever known. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is putting our planet in peril and our security at risk. And our economy is in turmoil, with more and more of our families struggling with rising costs, falling incomes and lost jobs. Read more
Full Text: Obama Speech on Energy Plan – Lansing, Michigan
Filed under: Barack Obama, Energy Policy, Environment, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008
August 04, 2008
New Energy for America
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama — as prepared for delivery
Lansing, Michigan
We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we’ve seen in generations. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril. Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and lost faith in the American Dream. And for too long, our leaders in Washington have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
That is why this election could be the most important of our lifetime. When it comes to our economy, our security, and the very future of our planet, the choices we make in November and over the next few years will shape the next decade, if not the century. And central to all of these major challenges is the question of what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil.
Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices Part III of V
from The Washington Post
Calif. Field Goes from Rush To Reflection of Global Limits
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 29, 2008; A01
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.
In May 1899, a pair of oil prospectors wielding picks and shovels dug into a bank of the Kern River where some gooey liquid had seeped to the surface. About 45 feet down, they hit oil, and when the local newspaper printed the news, it set off an oil rush that swept up hundreds of fortune seekers, oil companies, a big railroad and even some enterprising school districts that bought up tracts in hope of turning a profit.
Today, on an arid square of land the size of Manhattan, thousands upon thousands of black derricks crowd the landscape, bobbing gently up and down and sipping crude oil from the field discovered a century ago. The wells aren’t gushers these days, but they still squeeze out a few barrels a day here, a few more there.
Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices Part II of V
from The Washington Post
China’s Cars, Accelerating A Global Demand for Fuel
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 28, 2008; A01
SONGJIANG, China — Nodding his head to the disco music blaring out of his car’s nine speakers, Zhang Linsen swings the shiny, black Hummer H2 out of his company’s gates and on to the spacious four-lane road.
Running a hand over his closely shaved head, Zhang scans the expanse of high-end suburban offices and villas that a decade ago was just another patch of farmland outside of Shanghai. To his left is a royal blue sedan with a couple and a baby, in front of him a lone young woman being chauffeured in a van.
“In China, size matters,” says Zhang, the 44-year-old founder of a media and graphic design company. “People want to have a car that shows off their status in society. No one wants to buy small.”
Zhang grasps the wheels of his Hummer, called “hanma” or “fierce horse” in Chinese, and hits the accelerator.
Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices Part I of V
from The Washington Post
This Time, It’s Different
Global Pressures Have Converged to Forge a New Oil Reality
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008; A01
The two events, half a world apart, went largely unheralded.
Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company’s Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico’s state-owned oil enterprise is one of Valero’s main sources of crude, but oil output from Mexican fields, including the giant Cantarell field, is drying up. Mexican sales of crude oil to the United States have plunged to their lowest level in more than a dozen years.
Oil Shock: Drilling for Answers on High Prices
Washington Post series shows the national media may be waking up
Last Sunday the Washington Post began a series of articles titled Oil Shock. As stated by the Post, the purpose for these stories is to examine the economic and market forces behind the recent spike in oil prices – and therefore gasoline – and therefore everything else.
Better late than never, the national media may finally be waking up to the reality that the world’s supply of oil will not last forever and may have already peaked. So far, the Post’s series has been excellent and is suggested reading for anyone. All the more timely, the series comes during a presidential campaign. Neither the energy policies outlined by Sen. John McCain, nor those of Sen. Barack Obama seem to acknowledge the long-term gravity of the problem with oil. It is a campaign and there are more people (and special interests) to avoid riling than there is room for a grand vision of the U.S. energy future.
Information such as that contained in the Post’s series will be all the more important after the election. It will be the next President and Congress that will begin to formulate the energy policies that either make or break the U.S. economic and security future. We could have been doing things 10 or 20 years ago, or at the very least continued some of what we started after the last oil shock, namely conservation. That didn’t happen and there is no more time for dithering. Waiting this long to begin to think about an economy and society not built on oil has ensured all of us some measure of economic pain and societal strain. In large part, the decisions made by the next President of the United States will determine how much.
I am going to post the Post series here at Clips & Comment mainly because I don’t want to lose the information. I hope you’ll take the time to read these articles and consider the part you can play in ensuring an energy future for the country that brings the sort of prosperity and opportunity that oil has brought us.
Bloomberg headline on oil says it all …
Oil Falls Below $125 as U.S. Fuel Supplies Gain, Demand Drops - Bloomberg
While the apologists for Big Oil and the investor class railed about speculators driving up oil prices over the past several weeks, an opportunity was lost for the American public to begin to understand the true nature of a non-renewable resource — and the power of conservation.
If you take a moment and read the Bloomberg story linked above, you’ll see that domestic oil supplies are up and that U.S. demand for oil is down. According to the article, the U.S. Energy Department reports that U.S. fuel consumption is down 2.1% over the last three weeks. Last week’s U.S. fuel demand averaged 19.9 million barrels per day, the lowest demand in eighteen months.
The world is running out of oil. We are nowhere near ready to make the leap from a carbon-based economy to whatever will be our next energy source or set of sources. Conservation is key. We simply need to consume what’s left at a drastically reduced rate or face harsh economic circumstances which will make $4 per gallon gas look like the good old days.
Thursday Night – Obamoney, Economy, the business of the New York Times, OPEC
Filed under: Barack Obama, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Journalism, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008, U.S. Economy
- Barack Obama raised $52 million in June – New York Times
- Alan Kohler: Beware a run on the U.S. – Business Spectator (Australia)
- Merrill posts another loss – Wall Street Journal
- Single family building dips to lowest number in 17 years – Forbes
- Thomas Lifson: The rapid decline of the New York Times – PJM (via Real Clear Politics)
- Nicole Gelinas: America – too big to fail? … Probably – City Journal
- Where is OPEC’s oil? – Fortune
When I look at the graphic, part of the caption nags me – particularly the part about how OPEC produced less oil last year and is “cutting back” at a time of growing demand. The problem here is that as far as I know, there is very little transparency among OPEC member nations concerning their actual proven reserves. When one describes the situation as OPEC “cutting back” that implies a conscious decision by producers to take fewer barrels to market. What I wonder, is if it isn’t a cutting back situation, but a reality built on truly more scarce supply.
Wednesday Night – Inflation?, Andy Dick Mug Shot, Straight Talking Republican,
- Inflation Fears on consumer prices surge – Associated Press
- House Republican tells the truth: Energy Issues bigger threat than terrorism – The Hill
- Andy Dick adds his mug shot to Hollywood wall of shame – ABC News
Normally, C&C doesn’t trade in celebrity crap, but this picture and some of the details of Andy’s run-in with the law are too good to ignore. Don’t hip, stars like Andy usually get in trouble at places with names like the Viper Club? Well, Dick got himself wasted at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. After urinating in public and pulling down a 17 year-old’s tank top, he was apprehended at Sam’s Club. This sounds more like ole Cooter Brown’s night out in Chillicothe than lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Monday Evening – More Fannie, More Freddie; Afghan War; Useless Drilling; Mountain Lion
- Fannie, Freddie and You – New York Times
Clear- headed column by Paul Krugman points out that Fannie and Freddie operate under federal regulations that forbid them from buying subprime loans. So, how did we get to this point, Krugman writes in part:
Part of the answer is the sheer scale of the housing bubble, and the size of the price declines taking place now that the bubble has burst. In Los Angeles, Miami and other places, anyone who borrowed to buy a house at the peak of the market probably has negative equity at this point, even if he or she originally put 20 percent down. The result is a rising rate of delinquency even on loans that meet Fannie-Freddie guidelines.
Also, Fannie and Freddie, while tightly regulated in terms of their lending, haven’t been required to put up enough capital — that is, money raised by selling stock rather than borrowing. This means that even a small decline in the value of their assets can leave them underwater, owing more than they own.
- Barack Obama: My Plan for Iraq – New York Times
- Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling – Washington Post
Any oil production from new offshore drilling will come online and the oil into the market in about 10 years. This is a cynical, political ploy. The combined estimated production of U.S. offshore drilling and drilling in ANWR would barely dent our dependence on foreign oil or add enough oil to general supplies to make more than a minor dent in consumer prices. It’s past time to realize that we’re on the downward slope of the oil economy. Politicians who support this sort of drilling are either bought and paid for by the petroleum industry or offering false hope in order to get votes or create the appearance they are doing something.
- Militants breached U.S. base – BBC
- Tracker hunts Palo Alto mountain lion after attack – San Francisco Chronicle
Friday A.M. Clips - Oil moving up, State budget, Ohio Politics, Political Correctness, Obama&Clinton
Filed under: Barack Obama, Peak Oil, Presidential Campaign 2008, State of Ohio Govt, U.S. Economy
- Crude Oil Price Hits New U.S. High - BBC
- State Ends the Year in the Black, But … - Columbus Dispatch
- Dems Again Need New House Member - Columbus Dispatch
- GOP Picks Leader for Election Campaign - Columbus Dispatch
Not all the elephants are happy about this one. Rep. Bill Batchelder’s Caveman Caucus not happy.
- Editorial: No More “R” Word - Columbus Dispatch
Political correctness is oftentimes laziness. The next time you’re describing someone who is meanly ungenerous to a group of people, try tossing the word ‘niggardly’ into the conversation. People are idiots and have no idea it has nothing to do with the racial slur. So, what I tried to do is make the switch to ‘penurious’. Well, apparently anything ‘penile’ sounding is offensive. Currently, I’m favoring ‘miserly’.
- Cuyahoga County Govt Reform - Plain Dealer
- Steven Pearlstein: Wall Street’s Foundation Shaking - Washington Post
- Donors Asked to Give for Two - Washington Post
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