Speaking on an oil derrick site recently, John McCain delivered extraordinarily good news to the beleaguered gasoline-consuming public as he explained why we must drill offshore. His information was received from – ta dah – the oil companies. Although his position is a hoax and loaded with myths, that didn’t stop him from swinging toward supporting off-shore coastal drilling.
Electing McCain as president will add four more years to the ability of oil companies to rip off and mislead the American consumer while generating more record profits. To date, his campaign – in the 2008 election cycle – has received $1,394,033 in contributions, and his campaign has been loaded with individuals who have lobbied for oil companies.
Something else that shouldn’t surprise anyone is the surge in oil industry support for McCain’s candidacy since he announced his support for expanded drilling offshore in June.
The questioner in the video uses the word “require”, so I am assuming that those who will defend McCain will latch onto that statement and argue that of course we won’t
I will repeat this again – the government’s own Energy Information Agency (EIA) indicates that drilling offshore and in ANWR would not have any impact for about 10 years. The only “quick-fix” at this point is to release oil from the reserves.
So McCain will continue to rake in huge oil company donations and continue to push offshore drilling, and, why not? The same umbilical cord that attaches Bush and Cheney to big oil now attaches John McCain in the same way.
BERRY STREET BEACON 
YOu say he recieved 1.3 mil in contributions….from whom?
What is wrong with big oil, since when is gasoline an evil empire? Gasoline built this country.
Americans still pay way less than most other countries for fuel.
What profit margin would you allow the oil companies to make in you socialist dictator world?
Oil companies dont rip people off, Lawyers like John Edwards who channel little children in court rooms cost Americans more in lost income a year than oil companies who provide an exellent product. What was Jonhies profit margin on his cases. Should we put a windfall profit tax on him, and then of course let the govt blow it.
Please answer
How much has Obama recived
Charlotte,
While the billions of dollars made by oil companies seems like a huge sum of money it us under the average return, by percentage basis, that the NORMAL investor would count on making yearly on stock investments.
Keep in mind when you “windfall profit” tax these oil companies you are taking money out of millions of people’s 401 investment growth. There retirement funds will be less as the feds grab the money and only God knows what they will spend it on.
As for BIG OIL giving money to McCain. Dahhh… Why would they give it to some guy who up until just a couple weeks ago said he would not support off shore drilling?
Using our reserves would be the biggest risk we could ever undertake. Russia has proven they are little more then a thug state ran by the old KGB. What happens if they decide to invade more of Europe or cut off oil supplies to some of those countries?
Why has not one person ask T. Boone Pickens why he is spending so much of his money promoting wind power? He is looking for a payoff on your dime like we have never seen before. He is looking for the taxpayers to pay for the power lines and equipment to move his power into the mainstream nationwide power grid. We are talking billions of dollars here people!
Yet, when all is said and done all the wind power in the US will produce maybe 20% of our electrical need. The sad thing this power will only be available when the wind is blowing. Just wait until the cold January night when the temps are below zero and the blower on your furnace won’t come on. Too bad, the wind is just not blowing hard enough in the western part of Texas.
Darn it… I got off subject again. Sorry Charlotte.
Clint:
You can go to an excellent website called:
http://www.opensecrets.org/
and see how much industries, individuals, etc. give to candidates and members of Congress.
Obama doesn’t even show up on the top 5 who receive contributions from oil and gas companies.
Let me answer your other comments as well:
I do not propose a socialist dictator government. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production and distribution. Too many Republicans scream about socialism without understanding – or perhaps they understand but it is easier to mislead – the differences between capitalism, socialism, and communism. The idea is to instill fear by throwing out the word “socialism” every time someone mentions regulation. There is a world of difference.
Ownership means taking over the industry and owning it just like I own my home. That isn’t going to happen, but regulation is a fact of life. The only entity big enough to control monopolistic industries is the government – not by ownership but by regulation.
Oil companies do rip people off. They have the ability to control through production the amount of oil and gas produced. Nearly three-fourths of the 66 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn’t producing any oil or gas.
Why aren’t the oil companies making use of these lands? Why does the Bush administration push to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development when the oil companies aren’t even making use of what they do have? The Bureau of Land Management – the agency responsible for leasing the lands – can’t even tell you how many acres the oil companies have developed. For more info on recoverable oil in the western states visit:
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html
The article about the potential oil shale is here:
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/July/NR_07_22_2008.html
A couple of months ago, the “Responsible Oil and Gas Lease Act” – a “use it or lose it” bill – was defeated in the House. The Bill would have required the oil companies to develop the lands they already lease or lose the leases to the lands. But, of course, Republicans made sure that their friends in the oil business didn’t have to worry about actually doing something about the energy situation other than keep demanding access to off-shore sites and ANWR.
The vote was 223-195 – short of the 2/3 (279) needed to pass. Of the 195 votes rejecting the legislation, 179 were Republicans. What are they so afraid of? Actually holding oil companies accountable? Helping the oil companies prove a point by allowing access to ANWR and coastal areas?
J.Q.
Wouldn’t 20% of electrical power add to the existing sources of electrical power? How can this be a negative? Isn’t that why some are advocating nuclear power? If wind power is used as a supplement when the energy is available, it seems like a no-brainer to develop it.
All sources of energy cost to develop. Geothermal, wind, solar. Nothing is free. The decision has to be made as to how serious we really are about getting off an oil diet.
The oil companies were already giving to McCain; they simply increased it after he came out in support of off-shore drilling.
The idea of the wind farms is to shut down the coal plants that are dumping so much CO2 into the air. So that takes away the “gain” factor as it is more of a replacement concept.
Currently the use of natural gas fired turbine generation and hydro electric plants are used as “topping” when demand gets maxed. Hydro is used in parts of the US 24 hours a day. Yet small hydro plants are used for “topping”
We are part of a 38 state, plus part of Canada, interlocked grid system. This allows power to be moved around as needed. Currently this is a mix of coal, nuke, natural gas, and hydro plants. Regardless to weather conditions these plants can produce power. Hydro plants do have a problem of water levels and at times their gneration ability is limited.
I think we are all concerned about the storage of spent nuke material from our nuke plants. However, most all of it could be reprocessed and used over several times if we built new nuke plants like the French have. Hence, the need for storage space of spent material would be dimished greatly.
Most of our electric companies are stock investor owned. They built their own nuke, coal, or whatever plants and all transmission lines to deliver the power. Users paid for the equipment in user rates.
Pickens plan would have taxpayers provide billions and billions of dollars in tax credits. The transmissions lines would be owned by private company. The value of the transmission lines (not including tax credits) would be used in figuring customer rates.
Also there would be a mandate that if wind power electric power was available it would have to purchased. That would require taking generation plants off line for hours while the wind is blowing. Then when the wind was not available the off line plants would be started up.
The thing is both coal and nuke plants do not lend themselves to being taken off line for hours at a time. To start spinning a turbine in these plants is costly and time consuming.
I support being serious about finding other methods of getting us off of oil because it is running out. When is the only question!
Sorry if this posts twice but the blog may be having problems
This is what scares me
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Clint:
Let me be very clear – I do not favor nationalization of companies. That is why I provided the definition of socialism. Nationalization or government ownership is socialism.
I have never advocated for a socialist society. Having said that though, I do believe, as I have said on numerous occasions, that government is the only entity that is powerful and big enough to regulate corporations as they grow ever larger and more powerful.
I saw the YouTube clip a while back. Because some favor nationalizing specific industries does not mean that this will happen. I don’t believe we will ever see nationalized industries. The push against socialization is too strong. I am a Democrat, and I don’t favor it as I believe many Democrats do not.
What I do belive though is that government will regulate the corporations, but, again, this is not socialism.
You do believe in socialism!
What is your stand on healthcare?
Did you once say everyone in America is ENTITLED to a home?
So in fact you do want some things socialized and that is a scary first step. The more the sheeple follow the govt the more they become dependant and thus the govt becomes more powerful.
So, do you believe in “a little” socialism?
“Oil companies do rip people off. They have the ability to control through production the amount of oil and gas produced. Nearly three-fourths of the 66 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn’t producing any oil or gas.”
If you really believe that oil companies rip people off I suggest you sell your car and your lawn mower. May I suggest perhaps burning wood to heat your home as well. You CHOOSE to purchase their products. Why aren’t you complaining about cable, phone and satellite companies ripping people off? More to the point, given your explanation of controlling supply/production, it is possible to say as much about many other industries which are perfectly homogenic, but by comparison pay less and charge more for the same unit of product. But making the oil companies the villan serves only to stir the little people.
Your attitude towards oil is very fashionable. A typical attitude of entitlement.
By the way…Educational Dollars are very tight these days. Public School Systems are cutting back and State Legislatures are forcing colleges/universities to raise the price of tuition. And yet, The Dems have collected $24,000,000 (Unfortunately, Obama has only accepted more than $8,000,000). And you’re using $1.3 million given to McCain by those big greedy oil companies as a basis for your disdain?
Ok..go ahead, defend why Obama has received nearly 6x as much from Education sources as McCain has from Oil. And why doesn’t that upset you?
Rory for president 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!
POWERLINE…People who like wildlife, like POWERLINE!
I have to wonder…
Are Rory and Clint Jenkins the same person posting under different names ???
Andy:
I wouldn’t be surprised. They certainly sound the same in their styles of comments.
NO. Rory can spell! I cannot.
OH S!#@, they just nationalized lending. Does this mean that if I am successful I will be charged 9.5%, while a poor person will be at 5.5% interest rate?
Now we are one step away from everyone being entitled to a home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Govt should have never got involved with F MAc F mae (from the beginning not just now). They screwed it up bad. Welcome to the begining of cradle to grave baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac messed it up themselves. They should never have been allowed to control so much of the market. They got so greedy – you know that good old capitalism – they got caught up in the subprime mess.
I guess private business and capitalism isn’t so great after all.
Government ownership on the move. YES!
You are kidding on the govt on the move yes comment right?
Because if you are not, you are a socialist. Dont be afraid, many people are they just dont want to admit it.
Did F Mac and F Mae die after govt got involved or after?
Lets do a post on this one. Ever read Atlas Shrugged? Remember I am just an slow lay person but find the book to be quite a good read for the times we are in. You should put it in your collection, right next to Rules for Radicles
Obama doesn’t take PAC money from corporations. McCain is taking PAC money from Exxon. Employees of oil companies contribute to campaigns, but it’s not the same thing as a company forming a Political Action Committee with an agenda (such as being able to help write the current Energy Plan – which they did). McCain is tied to big oil, Obama is not. And they need to be scrutinized because if McCain is in their pockets, he’s going (and already has) to do them favors. Period.