- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
The letters thread is now closed.
As long as the Bric countries subsidize oil, increasing production will only make the problem worse. If they wanted to help slow Asian demand they should increase prices until demand falls off. That's textbook economics.
Why? They import almost all of their own refined product. Prices are killing them.
They responded by giving everyone the finger before bidding up the price some more.
this shit needs to fucking stop...where's the fucking government?
this shit needs to fucking stop...where's the fucking government?
I think they're busy lending money at 2.25% to prop up the economy, and investment banks are lending the money to hedge funds to speculate on oil.
Since the US shall remain an oil economy for decades, the only solution is to drill for our own. There is no shortage of oil, only limitation in producing capacity. Even if we are able to generate an alternative fuel (cellulosic or algeaic propanol or similar), the rest of the world will continue to need oil for decades to come, at that point the US can make money exporting it. Want to beat the speculators? Immediately do everything we can to increase supply, at that point the speculators will bail on their positions and the oil price will FALL.
It's all very well demanding more drilling rights across US & Continental Shelf, but where will that oil go to be refined into useful products?
Don't forget that the US has a 17% defecit in refining capacity, so increased oil production will only end up being exported to Asia or Europe to be refined and shipped back to the US as gasoline, etc.
