energy rip-off

[cybil]

Dear Friend of MoveOn,

Energy prices are skyrocketing across the nation, yet Washington is doing nothing. Energy producers are taking huge windfall profits. Consumers and taxpayers are given the shaft.

The energy markets are controlled by a small number of companies -Enron, Duke, Dynegy, Reliant, etc -- which supply local utilities throughout the country with gas and power. These companies are so big, they are more like monopolies than players in a price-competitive market. Their irresponsible behavior calls for a strong federal hand.

In California alone, these companies and their affiliates have already overcharged by more than $6.3 billion (1). If nothing is done, the number is expected to rise to as much as $70 billion (2). That's $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the state.

This may be the biggest scam ever to hit the U.S. -- potentially
dwarfing the Savings and Loan mess of the 80s. Yet FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Bush administration are taking no action.

A new bill sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Smith (R-OR), and Lieberman (D-CT), would direct FERC to set temporary "cost-plus" rates allowing wholesalers to charge a reasonable rate of profit, not the excessive premiums they are now charging.

Join us in voicing your support for this important bill at:

http://www.moveon.org/priceshocked/index.html


P.S. Beware myths spread by the energy lobby.
Here are two corrections:

- Rising demand in California HAS NOT created the problem. California's
monthly peak electricity demand actually declined in July, August,
October, and December of 2000 relative to the same months in 1999 (4).

- More drilling and relaxed environmental standards ARE NOT the answer.
Opening new domestic supplies takes decades and only adds months of
additional supply (5). Increased efficiency, immediate investment in
renewables, and market stabilization are the only short term answers.

Sources:
(1) California Independent Systems Operator, http://www.caiso.com/
(2) A range of $50-70 billion is cited in "No Time for Lectures,"
LA times, April 18th, 2001,
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010418/t000032667.html
(3) Severin Borenstein, Director of Univ. Cal. Energy Institute
(4) California Independent System Operator cited in
"Special Report: The California Energy Crisis" (Page 1)
at http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
(5) U.S. Geological Survey, as cited by Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/arctic.asp
__________

 

[Wild Bill]

Instead of adding more of the socialist agenda to our day to day life we should have told the Commie lib tree huggers to be quiet. Instead of listening to the "greenies" and allowing OPEC to get a tighter hold on our throat we should have been doing more exploration for oil and built more refinereies and quit worrying about spotted owls and any other type of rodent the socialist having been using to demogouge us. The time has come for the "silent minority" to stand up and say enough! Tell the wannabe hippies to go back to their communes and have another ecoaware latte.

 

[ExFedEx]

Amen Wild Bill! No one is for chopping down all the trees, or sloppy oil recovery techniques. In this day and age, with all the technological advances that have been made in the last thirty years, I do believe we should go in there & get what we need to sustain our lifestyles & our economy. If the tree hugging environmentalist whacko's want to live in the dark in caves... oh well,it's their choice. Nobody forces them to turn on their computers or lights. Or have a job for that matter. If these people were around two hundred years ago this country never would be the super-power that we are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If man evolved from monkees and apes, why do we still have monkees and apes?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[talltotem]

For those of you who have never worked in the oil industry as I have, some more education. It takes 12 drilled wells to get one marginal producer of poor grade, low specific gravity oil. Poor grade oil is full of contaminents that increase the cost of refining. When Spindletop was a gusher in eastern Texas during the 20's, the wells produced thousands of barrells a day of high quality oil...today they are lucky if they can find a well that produces THIRTY barrells a day of poor quality oil. The majority of oil pumped from the wells in this country are pumped by small independent producers. For example, in western Arkansas, most of the oil is pumped by a "spider" pump that draws the oil from up to 6 shallow wells - production - 10 barrells a day. Not enough return for the big companies, but enough to HELP support one family. Big companies backfill old wells with salt water to force the residual oil out of the rock where it rises to the top and is then pumped out. This has been done in the Sho-Vel-Tum oil field in Oklahoma for over 30 years. When this field was brought in during the 30's, it produced an average of 2000 barrells a day per well. Think of it, this field - one of the largest in the world, has been exhausted in less than 80 years! So maybe the environmentalists aren't crazy after all. We must find better ways to use the energy we have left. The demands for energy are only going to increase. Everybody in the world wants what we have and we are going to have to realize that we are not the only market.

 

[cybil]

>Instead of adding more of the
>socialist agenda to our day
>to day life we should
>have told the Commie lib
>tree huggers to be quiet.
> Instead of listening to
>the "greenies" and allowing OPEC
>to get a tighter hold
>on our throat we should
>have been doing more exploration
>for oil and built more
>refinereies and quit worrying about
>spotted owls and any other
>type of rodent the socialist
>having been using to demogouge
>us. The time has
>come for the "silent minority"
>to stand up and say
>enough! Tell the wannabe hippies
>to go back to their
>communes and have another ecoaware
>latte.

you, sir are an idiot. study the governmental systems of hybrid socialist/capitalist societies before you criticize. second thought: never mind--you'd never comprehend the economics of even a lemonade stand.

 

[cybil]

a commonsense, thoughtful reply to the anti-environmental rantings of an uninformed dummy. Bush/cheny's energy plan seems to involve the encouragement of windfall profits for oil-industry
moguls ##### Cheney and the Bush family.

 

[RichM]

This type of discussion I really enjoy so I thought I would put my 2 cents in.I was in Califonia last week,we had a run from des Moine IA to San Joose,then got luck the next day with a trip back from Hayward CA to Atlanta.Sometimes it works. Anyway when coming through Bakersfiels CA iI was listening to a NPR (thats right) radio program abour "Whats Wrong With California".
Basically the liberal leftis have stopped the state from any additional power plants from being constructed even though the demand for energy has increased 10-15 % every year.One lady in San francisco stopped the permitting for a new plant to be built in Northern California on her own.She filed numerous lawsuits and finally the company said " We will go elsewhere".
Shell Oil wanted to expand a refinery and double it!s capacity and when they announced this ,within 1 month 147 lawsuits were filed against this expansion. These people and organizations that are living ogff trust funds need to spend 1 month without electricity or gasoline for their BMW!s and huge SUV!s ,perhaps then they might face reality.In order to have the lifestyle we all want,a price must be paid.There are plenty of watchdog agencies to oversee the enviroment that minimum damage is created.
On another matter the same program talked about how the same liberals have allowed illegal immigrants to literally soak up tax dollars in benefits.Baker County is California spends more money on illegal aliens then US citizens. The moderator said "Something is very wrong when Foreign Nationals who have entered our country illegally can dicate through pro bono legal activities,how we spend our taxes".. Interestering program. Unfortunately this sort of stuff eventually causes the pendulum to swing hard in the other direction.

 

[RichM]

To continue my last post one time I was at the Grand Canyon.In my estimation it is the most magnificent place in the United States.Anyway there was a group of protestors claiming that the masses should not be allowed in.as the enviromental damge being created fom a large influx of vistors was intolerable.Who are these people that because they are there,no one else should come.absolutely blows my mind.
On another matter ,CYBIL we don!t call people idiots on this site because we disagree with their views..Garry A,where are you??