Carl Larry of Blue Ocean Brokerage (a private financial intermediary specializing in the brokerage of cash–based and derivative commodity and energy products)
"Who knows where we're going to pull barrels from with OPEC at 30 million a day and our imports barely at 9 million?"
The American Petroleum Institute reported a decline in weekly crude oil and gasoline inventories
I do not believe that there is a threat of an oil embargo. I do, however, feel that there are several problems with having a national reliance on imported oil.
Of primary importance in today’s news are jobs and the price of gas at the pump. If the price of gas is not a big concern, then it should well be! The cost of gas has about doubled over the last two or three years. Even Prius owners (getting 50 mpg) are feeling the pinch.
Jobs
Everyone has been waiting to hear how Obama plans to create jobs. The idea of creating, making something out of nothing, is somewhat illusionary. The jobs are potentially there now. That bears repeating. The jobs are potentially there now. The Keystone XL Pipeline project is still languishing and will until Obama puts his foot down. There is a bill which is forcing him to do so at the end of this year. This Pipeline which would bring oil into US refineries along the Gulf of Mexico is estimated to need roughly 138,000 people to build. That does not include the necessary maintenance crews, to personnel needed at the Gulf refineries, and all the other jobs which will spawn from this one project. I understand that this nation needs to see a growth of about 200,000 jobs per month for then ext several years to recover, but this is a good start.
If Obama shifts the current US policy on oil and natural gas the projected result is 1.4 million jobs and the government would get, via taxes and fees, some $800 billion dollars. Not too bad for a start, right?
National Security
Since the US military and economy both run on and are reliant upon oil it is no leap to say this is an Achilles Heel for America. In 1973 countries of the Middle East who formed OPEC made the US subject to an oil embargo. Nothing runs for long without oil and people WILL pay, through the nose apparently, to get it. Granted, the Department of Energy was formed to lessen our dependence on imported oil, a reliance that has now soared upwards from 20% to roughly 50%. That’s right, the Department of Energy was formed to lower our reliance on imported oil and it has increased since the 1970’s. We did learn something, though. While global dependence on oil imports has generally increased since 1980, vulnerability to short-term interruptions has not. That is what I have been told. I am not in the position to believe this as I am paying $40 to $50 dollars to fill my compact car’s tank.
The situation is that our manufacturing rate continues to fall, gas prices have increased and stayed high, there are opportunities for the US to secure and use domestically available resources for security and economic growth. Why have we not begun doing this? This next step of creating American jobs, strengthening American security, reestablishing America as a premier country is now sitting on a desk in the White house waiting for Hussein Obama to give a thumbs up or down.
I think that the threat of pulling aid, as made by Kay Granger of Texas, is one we should follow through on immediately. Do it now! Sink the BILLIONS in aid money into our own aid! Why should Egypt get $2 billion of our dollars while we should be investing in ourselves?
No comments:
Post a Comment