Russia is now the world's largest producer of crude oil (see the latest issue of National Geographic). Let's run a pipeline across the Bering Straight and get our oil from them. They could use the money since they are re-arming for another cold war now that we are surrounding them with missiles. And with another cold war with Russia we could let go of the boogey man of Iran as a threat to our security. See...it's a perfect circle. We pay the Russians for their oil. They use the money to re-arm. We then have to expand our own weapons production which gives our economy a shot in the arm. The Chinese pay for it all by accepting our IOUs. The world would be back to normal. There is a solution for every problem. No applause, please.

The Saudi's are like every other OPEC nation. They've been lying about their oil reserves for so long, they probably believe the numbers themselves. The fact is, Saudi Arabia doesn't have any surplus to provide. They are likely pumping over capacity and will reduce the life of their own wells by doing so. I doubt that the conversation above took place, but that Faisal simply told him they were doing all they could.

"Instead of pointing out that the Saudis could easily open their spigots in gratitude for our keeping them in power, the president threatened the Saudi king not with an invasion but with a U.S. recession"

I'm not so sure the Saudis can open their spigots much more than what they are doing now. According to what I read the Saudi oil fields are past their prime (no one really knows) so they may be near maximum output now and have to find some excuse not to produce more oil rather than admit they can't.
Of course that is not the thrust of the article and Scheer's point, that Bush was in Saudi with hat in hand mumbling nonsense like a moron is disgusting.

I think the author is missing the point. McCain cannot go against his corporate backers or else he will be banished to the badlands of ignominy by the Mainstream Media and immediately replaced with a corporate friendly sycophant. The same can be said for any mainstream candidate of either party. Rhetoric rules the day with an emphasis to avoid the real issues at any cost.
The fact that Iraq is a costly quagmire that costs primarily the middle class taxpayers (after all the rich don't pay a fair share of the taxes!) is irrelevant to the candidates. This is because a handful of corporations who 'elect' our leaders are making obscene profits from these misadventures. The consequences, such as our collective insecurity, only manages to feed the climate of fear instilled in the general populace which in turn justifies corporate America with their need to spend more of our taxes to defend us against these so-called imminent and apocalyptic threats.
Meanwhile these same corporations dictate to their cronies on the Beltway that increased gas mileage for our fleet of dinosaurs, the importation of efficient vehicles or the switch to alternative energy (i.e. electric or hydrogen) must be rejected and ignored at all costs. A pliant public blames the government or 'market forces' rather than the true culprit (the corporate puppet masters) as the ministry of misinformation (the MSM) reinforces the myths surrounding Iraq, the price of oil and increased poverty at home.
The only way out of this mess is for the public to realize where the blame really lies and follow suit by wholeheartedly rejecting the establishment and their hand picked officials. This is a massive undertaking due to the fact that the establishment has control of the airwaves, the printed media and a brainwashed citizenry, but the Internet (for now at least) still may provide our only hope of reversing this destructive course we're on.

When cars hit the roads first, they got their fuel from the drugstore, and dodged trains and trams and buses. The Fifties saw that killed off.
Now 30mpg is considered adequate, and people won't ride in tiny cars like Aveos Metros, Suzukis, Daihatsus and the like that you see through the rest of the world. The Tata Nano is probably our future as well, if we're honest, and that'll spread out the time when we have to look at alternatives like short run electrics and longer run public transport.
The private BIG car is a bit like the fuel that powers it: a dinosaur, dead and soon to be gone

I'd just like to point out that we're not just paying for it at the pump. My monthly electrical bill has nearly tripled since this war began.

The answer it out there. Buy small cars, develop public transportation and until we get it, suffer. Bush's idea to give enriched uranium has got to be one of the stupidest I've heard yet. If only we had listened to Carter

The real reason oil has gone up is the DOLLAR is DEAD! The dollar is the what oil is priced at. The less the dollar is worth, the more dollars it costs.

TurnoffyourTV - I can't find the article from CD a couple days ago. The gist was that Bush&Co actually engineered the devaluing of the dollar so that oil prices would rise. We all assume an american president would want to help americans by easing gas prices, etc. Not a good assumption to make.

We're paying more and a lot of that gas money is going directly to repressive petro regimes. The Republican answer is to use our military to liberate the Iraqi oil fields. That is a poor and illegal example to present to the world. We're spending billions of dollars on the military strategies while the Republicans deny benefits to veterans and decrease the percentage of money being spent on sustainable energy research. All short term thinking with private profits as the driving force.

...and like every retiree and baby boomer my retirement savings buys only half as much...

I think I posted this yesterday: "and now we are finally sacrificing for the war at the pump, and the same ones that have those insipid little ribbons on their SUVs delaring support for the troops are the ones screaming about gas prices.

The right is trying to empty the coffers into their pockets while there's still something to empty, all the while calling anybody that opposes them "unamerican." Then they will abandon this country, and they won't care that maybe then people will call them unamerican, they'll be riding it out in Dubai.

We should make sure they can never return.

But first we should try to nationalize energy and health care before it's too late. But I'm sure we'll debate about that until it is, with the right laughing at our inability to decide as they always have.

Scheer makes it very clear he has no clue about what is happening in the global oil patch, no more than Congress did in trying to regulate OPEC through anti-trust laws. An old capitalist dictum comes to mind--Charge whatever the market will bear. Exceept that Saudi does NOT set the price of oil on the international markets--buyers set it through the process of bidding for the product. Thus Scheer also shows us he has no understanding of how markets work. What is even more revealing in this screed is how deeply entrenched the entitlement of cheap energy is in the psychology of people from Scheer's generation. Peak Oil is giving people a rather cold slap in the face.

Expect petroleum and its products' prices to keep rising. Crude futures are now in contango instead of the longstanding backwardation, which means that each successive contract's price is higher than that cronologically previous. This report shows the daily change in average fuel price. Remember, the oil currently being refined was bought at much lower prices several months ago, which means diesel will likely be well over $5 and gas over $4.35 by 4 July. I also expect several more US airlines to have closed shop by then. I invite folks to come to Theoildrum where much more info on Peak Oil and our overall energy dilemma is discussed. It's a place Scheer needs to go to get educated before he writes another screed like this.

Is price-fixing illegal? If so, then all the oil execs should be jailed. I guess it's just a coincidence that gas prices rise before big travel holidays, then go back down afterwards? I still get sickened (or laugh like hell, not sure which - maybe both) when bush said to a reporter a month or so ago, "Gas going to $4/gal? I hadn't heard that." Maybe dick should keep him more up to date on happenings in this country and others.

If we've "conquered" the second most important pool of oil in the world after five years, Robert, why don't we just pump the oil out of Iraq? Possibly because we're using so much oil to sustain our occupation of that country there isn't any oil left to pump out for the rest of us.
Also, may I remind you, this war was acquiesced to by a third if the people in this country and was and still is still supported by an additional third, many of whom drive around town or to and from their homes in the exurbs every day, making gasoline more expensive for everyone who would rather drive less and/or drive smaller cars.
Lastly, what about the negligent and possibly deliberate devaluation of the dollar as a consequence of the economic and fiscal policies of this administration, which would make a barrel of oil infinitely more expensive?
Sure, Robert, the Arab sheikdoms and the oil companies are making a killing, but that's like blaming the drug cartels and the dope dealers for an addict's addiction.
How about taking some responsibility for the demand, instead of just blaming the suppliers?

Robert Scheer is certainly correct when he says "The argument that [US] troops on the ground [in Iraq] have made us militarily more secure is absurd on its face."

Yet isn't this exactly the argument underlying George Bush's repeated claims that occupied Iraq is the central front in the global war on terror, and that we've righting them evildoers over there so we don't have to fight them over here?

Isn't this also the argument underlying General Petraeus's surge strategy, and underlying John McCain's bold pledge to double down the committment for five more years - when victory, peace, and stability will surely be in sight at the beginning of his second presidential term?

How absurd it is that so much of what gets passed off and goes unchallenged as gravitas, realpolitik, and tough minded political leadership when it is reported in the mainstream media upon closer examination turns out to be based upon this same, common, recurring absurdity.

Gas at the pump is destined to be expensive, and inevitably will become even far more expensive, when you keep on mindlessly trading blood for oil.

Bill from Saginaw

If paying a high price for gas at the pump, is the ONE sacrifice all Americans have to make for this illegal, immoral war.

For the families of 4,000 plus, and the rest of the men and women in country......

It's damned too little, and much damned too late.

It doesn't matter what response our leader receives in Saudi Arabia.

He will earn speaking fees from middle east 'talks' at $200k a pop much like Clinton did when he left office.

See the following link:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2007/clinton-speeches/list/

Don't we get it? The brass ring is earned after you leave office, not while you're in it.

dennisj May 21st, 2008 1:58 pm -- 'If we've "conquered" the second most important pool of oil in the world after five years, Robert, why don't we just pump the oil out of Iraq?'

They're trying, but those nasty uncooperative "insurgents" keep blowing up the pipelines. Besides, there's that little matter of profit distribution to be settled and put on some kind of irrevocable legal basis.

The gas price hysteria seems to be hitting new highs this week as Chicago rose above $4. The arrogant SUV'ers with their "Support Our Troops" stickers must be grumbling bitterly these days. They have supported the Chimp with a love only seen between a mother and her young. (See- "What's the matter with Kansas?") Petro has risen to over $130/bbl and airlines are about to charge $15 to check a single bag.

After 8 years of stagnant or falling wages, even genetically republican Amurkans have to be feeling the heat from from $4 loaves of bread and gallons of milk. It doesn't bode well for McSame, who only promises more and worse of the same. Not even Appalachia is likely to fall in love with him seein' as he has considerably less charm than a bleached road apple. (Fruit of the Osage Orange tree) Some things are negotiable, but cheap gas ain't. There will be hell to pay out there in Dukes of Hazard country!

Check this out:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3964957.ece

Now it says was the Iraqi Deputy PM who said that, but maybe the story came from Saudi -- after all, THEY don't want to be invaded, I mean liberated, I mean democratized, aww... have their oil stolen.

But if it is true, here are some numbers. Big ones:

350,000,000,000 (350 billion barrels of oil) multiplied by $130 per barrel = $45,500,000,000,000. Take away the $3 trillion cost of the war and it still leaves $42 trillion ($42,000,000,000,000) and change. Of course, it wasn't the oil companies that had to ante up the $3 trillion for the war, so even at $10 a barrel it was still a good investment.

"The real reason oil has gone up is the DOLLAR is DEAD! The dollar is the what oil is priced at. The less the dollar is worth, the more dollars it costs"

This factor is only a small part of the total picture. Convert to Euros and oil is still *way* up.

peacecoup, 1:25 pm: We're paying more and a lot of that gas money is going directly to repressive petro regimes. The Republican answer is to use our military to liberate the Iraqi oil fields. That is a poor and illegal example to present to the world. We're spending billions of dollars on the military strategies while the Republicans deny benefits to veterans and decrease the percentage of money being spent on sustainable energy research. All short term thinking with private profits as the driving force.

Exactly. Short term bottom line this quarter is ALL that matters. Gotta pump those stock prices. Meanwhile the rest of the world sits back and laughs as we spend ourselved into the oblivion of third-world status on occupational quagmires. Three trillion dollars for the Iraq war would have bought a LOT of oil at $22/bbl, the price when Bush took office in 2001. Our militant interventionist efforts have driven the price to $133 today with no end in sight. This is said to be driving the stock market down, something like 400 points over the last couple days. So, of course, the FED decides the remedy for this is to take interest rates down again and create yet more inflation so as to bail out the stock market. Meanwhile the price of food doubles and triples. Good job Federal Government. Great job.

WAKE UP JOE SIXPACK!! WAKE UP DONNA CAMARO!!

Our out of control consumption culture pushes people to buy oversized burgers, cars and houses and glorifies these overconsuming habits as examples of winners. Until our society sees the urgency of reversing this, our government will be starting wars for resources which will be paid for through the deaths of innocents.

I hate to make this comparison, but you are starting to word
your articles in the same manner as many I read on GOPUSA,
and you're not expected to take that as a compliment.

In the instance of the paragraph describing the war in Iraq
as an inane effort, the implication is made that that is Sen.
McCain's opinion, although he is not quoted as saying so. You
take exception to the fact that he aptly criticized it which
was not the case. He has never strayed from the Bush/Cheney
Iraqi policy but only hurled criticism at the incompetent
manner in which it was conducted when Donald Rumsfeld was
Defense Secretary; mainly an allegation that more troops being
used earlier may have had different results (which is why he
so strongly supported the recent surge)

Whether that would have made a difference earlier would be
for military experts to decide but since it's "water over
the bridge", it of relatively little significance at this time
unless you just want to make Rumsfeld the scapegoat.

Scapegoats have been very fashionable during this current
administration; as witnessed by "Scooter Libby" taking the
bullet for Dick Cheney after our glorious VP "outed" Valerie
Plane but leave us not dwell on that.

In the final analysis, McCain will say what he thinks will get
him elected because that is how the game of politics is played
It doesn't really matter if you're a Democrat or Republican.
On either side, you have political advisors whose primary
function is to know what the voters want to hear and then
have their candidates tell them that; if there is any truth
in the matter, you can chalk it up to coincidence, nothing
more.

With the job the news media is doing on Barack Obama; first
with dragging out coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright matter
(who will probably be remembered in history longer than those
2 brothers who took up flying at Kittyhawk) or now their
present hashing over his recent defeats in Pennsylvania, West
Virginia and Kentucky, McCain has little more to do than just
show up at some rallies, town=hall meetings, maybe ride on
the back of a pickup truck and then just have his best pressed
suit next January 20.

Does anyone honestly think these three most recent primary
wins by Hillary Clinton would be given the amount of attention
that they are had they been held at a different stage of the
primary process? No Ph_________way (I'm so classy, I don't
spell that word with an "F".

Since it is occurring at such a time that she is considered
the loser and he is being hailed as the presumptive Democratic
candidate, her decisive victories in those states are nothing
more than hype, BUT enough hype that if enough unsuspecting
souls swallow it, Barack can kiss the presidency goodbye.

Slit a vein or vote for McCAin

I'm looking at a picture of an Iraqi mom weeping over her dead child and I'm saying
" i'm not sure you know how much americans had to suffer at their gas pumps so they could do do this"

scheer can put this where the sun don't shine

Read Greg Palast's "Armed Madhouse". Greg explains that the war in Iraq is about oil, but not to turn it on, but to turn it off so that OPEC can keep its monopoly. The war in Iraq is a huge success. It has acomplished its mission, to raise the price of oil and increase the wealth of OPEC and the oil companies lie Exxon. Neocons believe that a war with Iran, would help raise the price of oil even more, generating more wealth for the wealthy. So in a sense when George Bush stood on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln and announced Mission Accomplished five years ago, he was right.

~KANE JEEVES~ Perhaps you don't know how to get past the first page of Common Dreams to read all of the articles? That article is still here. Click on the words "News Center" at the bottom of the screen. Or the word "Archives".

Why did the Saudis give Billy Clinton $10,000,000.000
for his Trust or his Library in Arkansas, Do they owe him?
Where is Obama on this issue? The faliure of our presidential candidates to address these issues is the scandal. Will Obama rebuild our industrial base?

This constant effort to blame the Saudis (a nation I would not defend on any other level) is pure bullshit.

Of the 60% of our oil we import, the majority comes from Canada and Mexico. We get 11% of our imported oil from the Saudis, the rest coming from Venezuela and Nigeria.

How many Americans know this? Ask a few. Ask them who our 2 biggest oil suppliers are. I guarantee you they will mention some Middle East country.

No serious person can blame the Saudis for our problems, when they provide such a small amount of what we consume, and amount which could be eliminated with something as relatively painless as higher mileage on our cars.

Stop repeating this bullshit. It is simply another way to start more wars in the ME.

Stop this train to nowhere I want off!!!

Excellent comments from alexnosal. Presidents really only appear powerful when they are towing the corporate line.

I think this article raised some good points, but overall, I disagree with the implication that we need lower oil prices, or that the Saudis owe it to us.

We can't seem to get it through our heads that it is not our oil. Let them price it wherever they like. The best thing for us would be for oil to be so high that we actually pursue alternatives and conservation in a meaningful fashion.

The decline of the dollar is certainly contributing to rising oil prices. The Federal Reserve is certainly contributing to the decline by lowering interest rates. However, I don't think the dollar is declining by design (as one CD article stated). I think it is way off base to consider the president as a mastermind who is trying to collapse our economy to gain more power. Instead, think "incompetent". The economy is staggering under the weight of war. The President is desperate to prevent total collapse on his watch, so he's doing the only thing he knows how which is to lower interest rates.

Probably the biggest reason for climbing gasoline prices is supply and demand as China and India enter their period of affluence, while the world enters peak oil.

You say:
"And how did the Saudis thank us? "
But what has Bush/USA done that deserves Saudi thanks? It was Israel - not Saudi Arabia - that supported Bush's stupid war/occupation of Iraq. Saudis were not very concerned about Saddam, in fact Saudis have always been more concerned with Iran than Iraq, though Saudis were not really very concerned about either.
Remember 1973, when Kissinger went begging for oil to Saudis? USA was out of oil needed to fight its stupid war against Vietnam. Kissinger played his fear card, claiming that Saudis need USA protection from USSR, and Saudis actually provided USA enough oil to continue the stupid war against Vietnam. But today is very different, Saudis do not need protection from USSR, and if they need any protection or weapons, they can buy them from China or EU. And they can buy mercenaries just like the USA does in Iraq.
I had to laugh at Schumer's threat that USA would not sell weapons to Saudis unless they provided more oil. In fact USA needs to sell weapons MORE than Saudis need to buy them. As we used to say in the 4th grade: "is that a threat or a promise?"

The Iraqi occupation is the worlds biggest oil theft scam. The terrorists are the troops and mercenaries, their role is to clear out the local population by any means. The really big bucks going to the military support companies and the costs of shipping the oil out. The oil companies take the big profits on top of that. It all costs at the pump in US dollars, since that is what the US government keeps printing out to pay for it all, in depreciating paper money. The fool McCain wants to go and do it again to Iran, so it must be paying for his friends.

If one of our Presidents had told us the truth, which is that the oil isn't going to last forever and we're going to have to voluntarily drive less and drive smaller cars and tighten our belts, we wouldn't have voted for him. Look what happened to Carter.

So it's our fault. Our leaders told us what we wanted to believe and now we're going to have to drive less and drive smaller cars and tighten our belts, anyway. It's just too bad so many people had to die before we could get it through our thick skulls that they were lying to us.

Of course, if ALL our politicians had gotten together and told us the oil was going to run out and we would have to drive less and drive smaller cars and tighten our belts, it might have been a different story. So it's their fault, too.

The trouble is that we tend to believe our elected leaders when it comes to stuff like this, instead of the people who really know what's going on: the scientists and economists. Global warming is another example. Too many Americans have a strong distrust in intellect and knowledge, which is why George Bush got to be President for two terms.

We just believe the wrong people. We always have. And they (the wrong people) have always lied to us, in one way or another. And now it's hurting us and it's hurting them. The fact that it's hurting them may be the only thing that can save us. Even if they won't listen to us, they have no choice but to listen to the scientists and economists now. At least I hope so.

How do we know how much Oil there is? This information comes from those who control the Oil.

There is a huge gap between proven and probable reserves. It takes money to convert the probable reserves to proven reserves. Yet if the proven reserves can meet current market demand, and a low figure for proven reserves can justify higher prices, what is the motive to increase the number?.

Consider the oil flows. You invest in drilling to discover a new well (discovery). You invest to remove it from the ground (production). Store it and transport it to Buyer. It then gets Refined (by refineries). The end product gets distributed.

Increasing supplies at current levels of reserves requires investment in production capacity and refinery capacity.

The oil within it's borders is controlled by national oil companies in most countries. Most of the national oil companies have contracts with Big Oil to assist in the exploration (discovery) and production (extraction). Big Oil also controls much of the distribution and subsequent refining. Depending on how much Big Oil is required to do for the nations having the oil, this dicates the price Big Oil has to pay to the nations having the Oil.

Exxon does not pay market price to Nigeria for example. In fact, the reason most of the oil tankers are registered in places like Panama are to hide the profits. Say company "X" is set up and controlled by Big Oil in Panama to buy oil from Nigeria at 60 dollars a barrel, and then sells it to itself in the US at 120 dollars, then 60 dollars of profit, tax free, is locked in in Panama. Big Oil will take the profit made by the refinery that it controls in the US, and that is what gets reported. What they report sounds like a lot, but as indicated, most of the profit from imported oil is off-shore and hidden. Thats why Big Oil prefers imported oil to oil produced in the USA (Michael Hudson has a great article on this, google it if interested).

So Big Oil would like you to think they are dependent on the nations having the largest reserves, and most people blame the Saudis. In fact, these nations are utterly dependent on Big Oil. Even if they have the equipment and refineries, and their own tankers, much of the equipment and parts required for oil production and refineries are controlled by companies controlled by Big Oil.

So lets look at proven reserves, production capacity and refinery capacity. As indicated, increasing reserves, and increased capacity to remove these reserves and refine it, costs money. Demand is relatively inelastic. The world is dependent on oil. It's essentially a monopoly. There are not a lot of options (gas is also controlled by Big Oil, and the environmental scare mongers have eliminated the nuclear option, and Big Oil now controls uranium supplies now anyways).

So you have inelastic demand and a monopoly or cartel increasing prices by controlling the amount of proven reserves, and the supply of oil relative to demand by limiting the growth of production and refinery capacity. The consumers will pay what it needs, otherwise it will starve. If they can't afford it, they have to borrow it (international bankers, and also the World bank/IMF are happy). They may use less of it, say 10% less in a recession, but if the price increases 50%, so what, they still make more money.

Spending money to increase proven reserves and production/refinery capacity
would increase supplies relative demand. Price would go down, and not up.
Who wants to invest in something which will devalue your main product? Monopolies and cartels do not do that. That only happens in competitive markets when you want to eliminate your competitors by driving prices down.
Thats how Big Oil became Big. Little oil has been crushed, extinct as the dinosaur.

Who profits from not investing in finding new proven reserves, or proving probable reserves as proven, and in not investing in the added capacity to extract and refine the oil? This is clear. Big Oil, and the nations having Oil are willing to go along for the ride.

Also, assuming oil is a finite resource, and country B will run out of oil in 25 years at the current production rate. Would it make sense for this country to double it's production rate, by investing its own money to do so, which would help keep oil at 60 dollars a barrel, and then run out of oil in 12-13 years. Or would it make more sense to keep production rates constant, supplies become tight, and then sell it's remaining oil at whatever price the market will bear, be it 130 dollars, or even 200 dollars a barrel. If I am country B, I take the last option. Much more profitable. Of course, I can only take this option if Big Oil is ok with it.

So blame the oil producing nations all you want, but the current price of oil is dictated by Big Oil, and Big Oil would only dare to jack up the price of oil from 20 dollars to 130 dollars with our governments permission.
In fact, last June oil was at 60 dollars a barrel. All we would have to do is whisper in their ears "How about we nationalize you?", and oil would be back to 60 dollars a barrel in a jiffy. If Saudi Arabia protested, we whisper to the House of Saud, "Osama would love to be King, maybe time for regime change". Instead, Bush whispers to Big Oil, "ain't this great, how about going for 200 dollars a barrel, and really do some damage".

So don't be naive. Oil is at 130 dollars a barrel because Bush and his Big Oil buddies are making out like bandits, and it is a great weapon for the elite to be used against the oil consuming nations resisting globalization and free trade, and it keeps up demand for the USD since dollars are needed to buy oil.

Im glad that most CD'ers got it already. The Saudis have been already pumping the oil too fast. Pumping the oil faster than the optimum rate ruins the oil well to some extent, reducing the final amount that can be extracted from each oil well.

" Legendary Texas oil billionaire Boone Pickens says President Bush was wasting his time traveling to Saudi Arabia to ask for increased oil production.
"The Saudis claim they have more oil," Pickens told CNBC. "They don't." " :-
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24723260

At the end of the day, the Saudis take their orders from Washington. The US does not
have to invade Saudi Arabia in order to effect regime change. All they need to do is withdraw troops from Saudi Arabia. US troops are needed in Saudi Arabia in order to prevent the overthrow of an unpopular government by the masses.

No doubt this was ex

Why all this hostility toward Saudi Arabia? Last time I checked, we got more oil from Canada than from the Middle East. This article shows ignorance about the oil markets, which were altered after the embargo in the 1970s to reduce the influence of OPEC.

Also, this blaming of oil producing nations lets oil companies, many based in the West, off the hook. They are making HUGE profits.

What did the US ever to for Saudi Arabia and why are they supposed to be so grateful to us? We colluded with a corrupt regime to our mutual benefit, and at the expense of the Saudi people. They owe us NOTHING.

Americans seem to think they are entitled to everything, including cheap oil. Saudi Arabia's oil belongs to the Saudis, not to us. They are under no obligation whatsoever to overpump or sell oil to us for less than market value. The dollar is going down in value and rising stars like India and China are competing for oil. This will naturally drive prices up.

America was short-sighted to base the entire economy on cheap oil. Blame your own leadership, not the Saudis. They have every right to sell THEIR oil at market value to whomever they please!

Western Europeans were paying the liter equivalent of $3+ per gallon for gasoline (mostly derived from middles east petroleum sources) 25 years ago! That price reflected European governments' gasoline-tax policies, which in turn recognized several non-debatable realities:

[1] W. Europe's access foreign petro resouces and pricing could no longer be controlled politically or militarily, as in the manner of the post WW II USA's new influence in the prime petro region. [2] Given the non-renewability and the inevitability of increasing demand-driven prices for this crucial resource, high taxes on gasoline could and likely would compel European auto manufacturers to build smaller, more fuel-efficient carriages and engines (which, as we can all see, W. Europe has now had for decades;)

[3] high gasoline taxes could also be used to build and maintain not just safer automobile transport infrastructures, but also far more efficient sass transport systems (another social and ecnomic feature we also see well developed in W. Europe; utterly lacking in the USA.)

Where the post WW II governments of W. European (governments which our once- nobler government helped to rebuild after the war) quickly came to recognize this eco-petro calculus, and formulated polices based upon it, we Americans went thereafter piggily along our way. We glibly elected, for decades, national, corrupt leaders who hypnotized us at our invitation into believing that we could take by deceit or outright force whatever petro resouces we might need then or in the furture. Apparently we came to belive that having saved human civilization from the Nazis at first, and the Communists later, we could proceed to behave as our enemies had, if only we underwent enough domestic flag waiving and enough self-puffing rhetoric to cover the recapitulated governance deception.

By any objective measurement, we Americans are certainly not paying 'too much' for our beloved, stinking gasoline. But we are finally beginning to pay the price for our mindless cockiness; by our demand to be comforted by political liars whom we choose, quite consciously, to hypnosis us; and finally by our implicit national willingness to manipulate and/or kill other human beings in foreign lands, in order to get what we need to feed our gluttonous American addictions.

If we Americans ever were a decent people, we sure as dirt have shown ourselves to no longer be so.
And it's anybody's guess, at this point, as to whether our sick culture can ever regain any kind of sane existential ground.

I'm not saying we can't or should try to save our nation. But if we fail to turn ourselves around in the next few years because truth can no longer penetrate us, no decent person would say that our country doesn't deserve to pass from history, nor that we should mourn its passing.

Yup, Bush's Oil friends are happy happy happy. They got what they bought the Presidency for.

The numbers of posters who understand what's happening is getting bigger; then there are those still blowing smoke out their asses, and they know it. The IEA is going to publish revised figures for reserves, which will likely cause oil to break $140 tommorrow.

How much oil is used by the military to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? How much of the military budget goes for oil? And totally off the subject, how much does war contribute to global warming? To the production of acid rain? To contamination of fresh and salt water supplies?

It would have been a much better plan if the US had invaded Canada and Mexico first. Secure those oil fields, then form a simple sea blockade around the oil rigs of Norway and the North Sea, and THEN move on to the Middle East. They got it all ass backwards.

Also plans should be made now to plant a US flag on the surface of the sun, it's wide open territory, a pristine source of energy waiting for exploitation. But they better act soon before the sun falls into the hands of eco-nutcases who think it's energy is available to everyone!

Okay all true, but the lament seems to be the price of gas and lack of getting a monarch to bow TO THE IMPERIAL-MASTER OF THE WORLD more than anything else.

How ABOUT AT LEAST ONE SENTENCE ABOUT THE HUMAN TOLL AND THE IMMORALITY AND ILLEGALITY OF IT ALL?

Of course the war with Iraq was illegal, immoral and utterly stupid. Bush cannot see past the end of his nose and even if he could he's friggin stupid and McCain is perhaps stupider. __ That a good word, "stupider"?

Even if I can't spel good I know one thing for certain. The current price of gas, fuel and food is gonna cause the
depression here and that will be the end of the United
States as we know it.

The big problem there is, the current price won't stay current. The cost of everything is going to keep going up. It is not just
Gas, fuel and food, try buying materials to upgrade your house.
Copper has risen 150% in two years, lumber and plywood are sky high as is roofing, etc. Even the cost of Chinese made junk is
now going way up.

Now here is the strange thing for me. It gives me reason to believe the majority of us Americans really are selfish and stupid. We have cut my driving by near two thirds this last 12 months. We live five miles from the nearest road to town, then another 20 to town. That's a 50 mile round trip, or about $6
bucks to drive to town. When we have to go to town, we check
with three of our nearest neighbors and if they need anything we pick it up for them. We all share in doing that.

What's strange to us? The speed limit is 65 mph all the way to town on the two lane main highway. We have cut our speed to 58 max. We go 50 if there is no other traffic. That's a gas saving of 9% to 10%, which is significant at even $3.00 a gallon and now it's $3.78 here. We get pssed by every car on the road and most are doing 70mph or more, about half are SUVs or large pickups with a single person in them. __ They don't care, it's strange.

Remember when the national speed limit was reduced to 55? What happened? We Americans cried like spoiled kids and now speed limits are 75 in many states, 80 in some. That was a damn good idea, how much time does one actually save driving 65 or 75 on a forty mile run? How much money would they save over a year with a 10% less fuel usage?

If I were one of the Arab oil guys running OPEC, I'd tell Bush to shove it. I'd say, "Hey Hot-Shit, if your people want to waste gas like they do, they're gonna pay for it. When you dumbbells go busted and your citizens are killing one another for food, having riots and burning your cities down, we'll sell our oil to China, Japan and india. We don't need you and never liked you anyway, besides your damn dollars are worthless, fuck off Tex." That's what I'd tell him.

Hydrogen is still the answer and if we were smart or had smart leaders we would have an Apollo type crash program to develop it ASAP.

Lobo Gris

Kem,

At the speeds you mention, and if we assume a flat terrain. Most of the physical energy of the car is taken up by windage. The force of windage, and the energy needed to cover a distance is preportional to the square of the speed of the vehicle in the air.

The following are calculations for an electric vehicle, but the bottom line will
be the same for a petrol driven vehicle:-

http://www.cameronsoftware.com/ev/data/EVDrivePower.xls

Of course what we're seeing on Capitol Hill is more political theater, with Dems pretending to be irate with oil executives. Oil prices are allowed to go this high because the White House and congress gladly allow it.

And by the way Mr Scheer, can we ask Hillary and Obama the same questions you're asking McCain?

Can we ask them why Democrats authorized Bush to go to war? And why they keep funding this carnage?

Bush & Cheney could NOT have succeeded in their war crimes without Democrats, who have gladly assisted them for 7 years now.

Congress, brought to you by Shell---Yesterday the big oil executives were in front of Congress "explaining" why oil prices are so high. They listed all their "expenses and investments" etc. for an hour. Guess what: PROFIT means AFTER expenses. So, why are they making record profits? Congress: ZZZZZZZZZZZ......Bought and paid for just like our "choices" in this "election"....

IRAN:
announced last week it was cutting production in the next 30 to 60 days. Bush fucks with IRAN and tries to hurt them with sanctions screwing with banks, threats to countries who want to trade with them and guess what? If IRAN is not allowed through these threats to openly trade with other countries I would do the same if I was IRAN. You know your product that makes its way to American cars or China or around the OPEC oil world is sold no matter what the price. USA tries to hurt IRAN ( lovely country by the way.) So IRAN stops using the US buck as the bench mark for selling oil, and cuts production. 150$ a barrel is what I heard 3 months ago by mid summer and guess what I can see much higher before Bush is removed from office