The recent spike in gas prices has led me to wonder if environmentalism has gone too far. Liberals genuinely have decent motives here as nobody wants to trash the planet. Yet the extreemists who call themselves Greens but were or still are Reds push this noble intention to absurdity.
The refineries were already at near 100% capacity and a new one has not been built for twenty years. The technology involved in new refineries must have improved and be safer and cleaner.
On a human level refineries provide good jobs that are unionized. Liberals talk about good jobs but cater to the far left nuts rather then the consumers and families. Gas prices hurt rural poor who must drive to work. What does the far left say to theses families ? The far left's answer is a collective middle finger. We are going to raise gas taxes cut the supply of energy to appease a militant often anti Capatalist cadre.
The result is that when the democrats loose elections they blame Fox News, Talk Radio, Religious Christians but fail to look in the mirror. Most Americans including myself favor Civil Unions. Rather then take a reasonable compromise they catered to a cadre of radicals and got burned.
The answer of the left is that you small people do not know what is best for you so we will tell you what to do. I am sorry but the American Consumer is just more important then Swamp birds and the key is balance. Catering to extreemists is not balance.
The bottom line is that your life is far more affected by environmentalist nuts then by religious conservatives. Every time you go to the pump thank an environmentalist as we pay more and moe for no reason.
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11 comments:
Anyone wonder why home prices in California are insane? Just ask the Sierra Club.
_FJ
The Farmer is not so far off as you think. There are studies the have shown a direct corelation between environmental laws and racial segragation.
It works like this RFK and his buddies craft restrictive land use laws. This reduces the available land for building and increases price.
People in Vermont despise tree huggers as they were fishing and hunting here for centuries. Then a bunch of transplants decide to make VT there home and stick their middle finger at the traditions of those whose famlies are here for generations.
The locals like their wildlife boiled roast and sometimes barbequed. It is always served with the best wine and appropriate vegtables.
If you see someone prancing through the wilderness it is not a local. A real Vermonter would be trecking and carrying a rifle.
B,
The cause of escalating gas prices is simple, the demand for oil is greater than the supply. Far too much of our supply comes from foreign sources, over which the United States has little or no control.
The Sierra Club, et al, has consistently opposed every attempt to increase the domestic oil supply. No exploratory drilling, no off-shore drilling, (no drilling period), no pipe lines, no new oil refineries, no new nuclear power, no new hydroelectric power.
Advocating conservation efforts that use impractical or expensive methods that resemble an attempt to cure famine through starvation. And advocating ethanol which cannot be mixed in an existing refinery and is difficult to transport. Even if automobiles in the US switched over to total ethanol consumption, it would drive up the price of grain as more of it went toward fuel consumption and less for human and livestock consumption.
The Sierra Club has also advocated the use of natural gas as a fuel for new power plants, which has driven the price of it up astronomically.
You wouldn't believe how much natural gas it takes to produce electricity!
An engineer for the area power company told me, if they are ever forced to use the three emergency backup generators, (they run off natural gas), that they have in place; effectively, it would shut down all the home heating in this area, (about 80%).
So yes, I would say that the Sierra Club has had a rather large hand in high Gasoline prices as well as the increased cost of natural gas and has been instrumental in causing a problem that has affected the poor disproportionately in ever increasing home energy costs.
Keep on laughing, but at some point in time that laughter might become somewhat hysterical.
The Sierra Club publishes beautiful calendars but is not known for its economic expertise.
Various EPA and similar regulations have indeed increased the cost of housing--and not just in CA. Such is true here in Virginia as well. Complying with Sierra-type regulations which impact home-improvement projects and the construction of new homes has astronomical costs: feasibility studies, disposal of hazardous substances, inspections, etc. I hate to think of what building an oil refinery would encounter in the way of obstructive regulations. Somebody's pockets are getting lined.
Beak,
Prancing through the back woods without a means of self-defense is impossible in bear country. Never get between a mama and her cub! I myself had a close call with a bear. Had I been between mother and cub, I wouldn't be here right now. Thank God, camp was close. The bear was close behind me and looking for a handout. You never saw two people pack up so fast and get the hell out before that bear could smell the food. We started the camper and let the exhaust pour out while the campfire was still blazing. Fire is the only defense against a bear in a national park, where guns cannot be toted off-season.
Real countryfolk know the realities of the wilderness. Daniel Boone carried a gun for more than one reason.
Samwitch
It is great to hear from you. I am doing well up here in VT. The people at work are great but the locals less said the better.
The locals here have a way of life and values that do not match my own. There is often a hostility to education and people that read. The social disfunction up here is alarming.
Yet the work is rewarding and I look foward to each and every new case. It is good to see that the American dream is alive and well and that many wish to join our family. Despite what those on the far left and odd nuts on the way right America is not seen as evil incarnate.
Maybe all of us should count our blessings. We live in a country where the mindless cdan get worked up in a tizzy over Saddam in his fruit of the looms. I find it hard to worry about the dignity of a mass murdering thug.
Yet each and every day in this country is a blessing where I as a can live free. Some of us tend to take our bounty for granted in their quest for utopia that always ends up in death.
The Sierra Club and environmental extreemists have reduced the amount of land available for development. The housing bubble is larger then that alone. It would take several posts on intrest rates and financial markrts.
The anti domestic oil industry mania has led to the price increases. Lets drill in the USA build more refineries and new nuclear reactors. Environmental extreemism and NIMBY nuts are hurting the consumer.
The basic premise is that environmentalism in small doses is a good thing. Yet when the zealots set the agenda we pay. The American people are directly paying for this excess each and every day. Refineries and Oil exploration provide good jobs for American families.
B, said:
"Let's not forget that I was arguing that the Sierra Club does not have an impact on HOME prices. There is NO economic regulation that the Sierra Club have enacted that affects HOME prices."
While technically correct, (the Sierra Club does not enact legislation), the effects of its "environmental initiatives", have.
The effects of the over-reaching "endangered species protection act" as well as prohibitions against timber cutting, (resembling the prohibitions against oil refineries and oil wells), have driven up the price of lumber and all construction materials. That has also cost the lumber industry large amounts of money in litigation costs as well as time. That has a direct effect on the home construction industry costs.
"Secondly as far as gas prices, let's not forget that there is an oil cartel (OPEC) which means gas does not operate on an accurate supply and demand curve. The cartel get to set the supply regardless of demand."
OPEC would have never had the opportunity to form a cartel if US oil production had not effectively been shut down by the various "Green" organizations that seem to have Luddite outlooks on life, (Luddite, is about the nicest thing I can say about them). OPEC only gets to set its own supply, within itself. Then the various members always cheat. There are other players in the game, Russia to name one.
By increasing domestic oil production, we effectively destroy the OPEC oil cartel.
"Sure they Sierra Club has helped to prevent domestic oil drilling which decreases domestic supply, but don't you think that we would be better off putting all the money we could into looking for alternative fuels."
There are promising developments in the production of fuels from, "SHALE OIL SANDS", more money doesn't translate into good research or even economically viable alternatives. Electric and hydrogen fueled automobiles still require fossil fuels for charging batteries and cracking hydrogen from water. The laws of thermodynamics tell us that those actions cannot be performed without requiring greater amounts of energy to be spent and a net increase of fossil fuels being burned. Remember that the enviro-wienies say we can't use hydro-electric or nuclear power.
Windmills cannot produce sufficient electricity to meet our needs and the electricity they do produce has been proved to cost much more than projected. Solar cells are expensive and I doubt that the enviros would care for millions of acres of solar cell farms destroying the ecosystems of the deserts. Draconian conservation efforts would result in an economic catastrophe and depression such as the world has never known.
"The most important reason would be to get us off the dependency of foreign oil. Our enemies have us by the short hairs because the oil lobby has Congress (both republicans AND democrat) by their short hairs."
We can get rid of the dependency of foreign oil by producing our own. The oil business is just that, a business, no better or worse than any other.
The production of energy is perhaps the most important business in our country. No other business can operate without it. The place for research of energy production is in the private sector where production costs are preeminent, not in government labs where the production of ten cents worth of energy at the costs of thousands of dollars is hailed as a resounding success.
Not exactly Duck some of the money that was in RE came from a stalled stock market.
Imagine this, the laws of supply AND demand are radical right wing theories (Adam Smith). Demand is ALL important and DOMINANT with the silver duque. All the better to re-distribute the wealth with. Supply is always some other guys problem. And so an environmental lien on 1,000,000 acres of foothill surrounding Los Angeles does nothing to reduce supply, and has no effect on prices. Just how Marxian is your economic analysis senor le duque? You've claimed elsewhere today at thios very blog site (but on a different thread) that Marx's economic theories were merely "junk", but his social criticisms and love of justice were the "pearls" of wisdom that shown through. Do you deny this?
-FJ
And then you go on in the next breath that gas is NOT in short supply. Did not raising the price a dollar(+) a gallon have no effect on demand? Enquiring minds want to know. Are there any Marxian links between supply, demand, and price?
-FJ
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