From
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3484
No Drilling. No New Refineries. Get a Horse!
By Alan Caruba Friday, June 13, 2008
I keep wondering how long it will take Americans to connect the dots and figure out why the most powerful economy the world has ever seen cannot manage to drill for
oil in its own backyard and then get it refined nearby.
The news on June 10, if anyone was paying attention, was about the way the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups were able to thwart the plans of ConocoPhillips to expand its refinery in Roxana, Illinois. An appeal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was upheld because, said the EPA, its air permit, previously granted, just did not meet all the excruciating requirements involved.
For the record, ConocoPhillips was and is prepared to invest an estimated $1 billion to add a second coker, otherwise known as a crude
oil processor. The company wants to expand in order to process Canadian tar sands
oil. These days it refines approximately 306,000 barrels of oil per day to produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, asphalt and other products.”
This explains in part why ExxonMobil has just announced it will sell off its gas stations because the real money is made “upstream” as they say in the oil industry. The profits from the “downstream”, in this case at the pump, are so small as to be a drag on earnings.
All those members of Congress that want to punish the oil companies for making a profit should check the balance sheet. From 2003 to 2007, ExxonMobil paid taxes (in all forms) in the amount of $64.7 billion. This actually exceeded its U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion! You do the math. Exploration, discovery, and drilling are where the money is. Wisely, this company has diversified into chemicals and a variety of petroleum related products.
Meanwhile, the only thing that the Greens are pumping is more hot air about global warming. According to the Sierra Club, “climate change is decimating many species” and pushing Congress to pass the Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act. Another name for it might as well be the “Do Not Drill for Oil, Mine for Coal, and Build a Pipeline for Natural Gas Act.” The world is not running out of polar bears, but Americans who have to pay $4 plus for a gallon of gasoline are beginning—at last—to run out of patience.
Over at Friends of the Earth, they are very annoyed that America’s high school students studying civics might read a new textbook that raises questions about global warming and/or climate change, based on real science, not the lies they and other Greens have been putting out for decades. FOE is currently flogging something they call “climate equity.” According to them, “The next President must acknowledge that the U.S. has contributed more global warming pollution to our atmosphere than any other nation.”
Oh yeah? What about those coal-fired plants that China can’t build fast enough to provide electricity? Or comparable efforts in India to meet the needs of a growing economy? In the end, the Greens are utterly opposed to any development, i.e., modernization, anywhere and they don’t care how many lies they have to tell.
Actually, they don’t have to worry that much. The next President will either be a Democrat who wants to further destroy what’s left of the oil industry in America or a Republican who believes global warming is real.
The Greens here in America don’t want you to drive your car, your truck, your tractor or that big Harley-Davidson hog. They don’t want any oil company to drill for oil anywhere on or offshore of America. They don’t want any new refineries built.
In short, get a horse!
drill thru a caribu's belly if it helps......
Hybrid Mode
