Blood for Oil?

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate Energy policy and push us to invade Iraq.

-How come US Oil companies are not getting the contract to pump and explore for oil in Iraq?  So far, I have not seen any US company receiving any of these coveted “oil for blood” drilling contracts.  Correct me if I am wrong. And to think that Bush and Cheney would send young men and women to their deaths for some additional money goes beyond the pale.  I think you have been watching too many James Bond movies. While there is no question that evil people do exist, to put Bush and Cheney in the same group as Hitler and others does nothing to further the conversation.

-On the subject of oil policy, you might actually have a basis for an argument although probably not along the lines that you are trying to push. Bush and the other wanted to open up areas now closed area for drilling and exploration. I personally think this is a great idea. We need more oil, lots of it. Places like ANWR and deep drilling in the waters off the California and Florida coasts makes sense to me (yes, even after the BP disaster). But there does need to be a focus on what comes next, after oil. Research needs to continue on alternative means of generating the power we need to run the nation’s industries and homes. All of the alternative “green” power sources are still much too expensive to be useful.

--Solar power is 10X more costly for generating an equal amount of energy. There are other concerns. How many wind turbines does there need to be to replace a coal fired plant? 100’s?  1,000s? And while a coal fire plant might be pretty ugly, how ugly would thousands of wind turbines be? Just think about turbines all across the landscape that would be needed to replace the coal fired plants.

--Solar power presents the same dilemma. How large would the panel field have to be to generate the same amount of power as one coal fired plant? There is a huge solar field in the Mojave Desert right generating power, but I have not heard of any coal plants being torn down or dams being breached since it began operations.

--Bio-fuels are not the answer just yet. Right now farmers who are growing corn for bio-fuel production and the producers of bio-fuels are being subsidized with taxpayer money. A gallon of gas with bio-fuel additive is just too expensive to compete with the price of straight gas. With nearly 40% of corn grown in the USA going towards bio-fuel production the price of near everything associated with corn has gone up.

--While I think nuclear power is the way to go, it has its own problems, mainly what to do with the waste. Especially since Prince Harry shut down Yucca Mountain. Another point to consider with nuclear power is that we have come a long way since Three-Mile Island. Plus, we you get right down to it, the events at Three-Mile Island were actually a success. The fail-safe systems worked. The plant shut down, and it appears there was minimal damage to the surrounding area.

We still have a ways to go before we can replace fossil fuels with renewable energy unless we are willing to pay a steep price in how much we pay for the production and use of the power generated via renewable sources.

-Before you go off on how Cheney made Billions off of the Halliburton contracts I just want you to know this is a non-starter for me. While serving as Vice-President Cheney was required to put his interest in any business in some sort of stewardship/trust that he was unable to touch. I am not so naïve to think that he didn’t exercise some sort of influence but before you go all ape-$h!t over that, keep in mind that nearly all politicians have their hand in the cookie jar. Harry Ried was barely worth $1M when elected the Senate 12 years ago, now he has moved past $10M.  How did he do that on his salary? Even if he saved every penny form his paycheck ($174,000.00, 2010) for the past 12 years he’d have only $3.3M. He is getting that money from some place/someone. I will remind you that most of that money paid to Halliburton was spent on the troops. As someone who has deployed several times over the years, we are well taken care of in the deployed environment. Comfortable trailers to live in, good exercise facilities, outstanding food. All of this costs A LOT of money. And Halliburton is not a charitable organization. They have share holders to answer to. They need to make a profit just like every other private business. And those linked to the federal government make better profits than those not linked to the feds just do to the inherent nature of doing business with the government (massive waste).

-In my opinion we should continue to drill for oil where we know it located and let the free-markets develop these renewable sources. If there is money to be made in renewable energy you can bet there will be people willing to take the risk to develop these sources. Wind and solar farms can be successful once the costs are reduced to a level that doesn’t require taxpayer funding.  Nuclear power can be successful as it has been in the past. We just need to cut through the red-tape during development and have strict guidelines established and ENFORCED once the plant is in operation.