Tuesday, April 01, 2008
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Congress and the Muppets Take on 'Big Oil'
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
11:05 AM
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Oh noes! The Congress has decided it can command the energy economy again, bringing down oil prices with the sheer force of its ill-informed nagging.
Big Oil is once again being called on the carpet.Senior executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies were to appear before a congressional committee Tuesday where they were likely to find frustrated lawmakers in no mood for small talk. Ooooh, watch out. If you need a preview of the ignorance this questioning will entail, the head of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (thank you, Nancy Pelosi) provides it in this very article:
Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said he wants to know why, with such profits, the oil industry is steadfastly fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks, stretched over 10 years. He said the executives would be asked to explain how they can get energy prices down in the short run and "in the long run what are they going to do to shift the focus to a renewable energy agenda." "We have to move beyond this oil economy," Markey said Tuesday on CBS' "The Early Show." "We have to move to a renewable energy economy. ... We can never get out of this trap as long as the oil companies want to hold us hostage to this old agenda."
Sigh.
One of the things that might actually encourage a move "beyond the oil economy" are high oil prices, which discourage unnecessary consumption by motorists through perfectly logical self-interest instead of government-imposed conservation mandates or whatever heavy-handed measure it is Markey wishes for. Making gas prices artificially respond to your whims makes the process of buying gas artificially painless, thereby removing all indicators for the consumer that he should have any concern at all about an oil economy.
Second, oil companies pay taxes through the nose, and have done so at a rapidly increasing rate over the last couple of years, thanks to rapidly increasing profis:
According to publicly available data on the top 27 energy companies tracked by the EIA, the total current income taxes paid worldwide by these companies nearly doubled between 2004 and 2006, increasing from $44.8 billion to $81.5 billion.” Third, unless there are large profits for reinvesting in very expensive alternative energy research, and a financial incentive for being involved in the energy business at all, the best chance at finding a new energy source will be crushed. The oil industry is not obligated to carry Markey and his energy dreams on its shoulders like a whipped Atlas.
I guess the good news is that a potentially more informed critique of the oil industry is on its way, from the Jim Henson Company:
News has leaked out from the folks at Muppet central (The Jim Henson Company) that the next Muppet feature film will sport a story line that attacks oil companies. According to CHUD.com, the story will center around all our favorite Muppets producing a show to raise money to save their old theater. They need the money, of course, because an "evil character" is trying to buy the building so that he might tear it down to "get at the oil underneath." If you have no stomach for either of these events, I imagine the YouTube below is a perfectly good stand-in for both:
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If Congress really cared about high oil prices, they should push laws, budgets, and policies that promote a strong dollar.
Inflation is killing us right now, not necessarily greed. |
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MKH wrote;
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"According to CHUD.com, the story will center around all our favorite Muppets producing a show to raise money to save their old theater. They need the money, of course, because an "evil character" is trying to buy the building so that he might tear it down to "get at the oil underneath.""
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What a storyline.
Truth is, many theatres struggle to make money because nobody actually goes to the theatre.
If there's oil underneath the Muppets' theatre, it certainly would generate a heckuva lot more revenue for the owner of the building than leasing it out to the Muppets to keep the theatre open.
(And I love the Muppets...I have them on DVD, and even have several puppets of my own.)
You know how lots of big city folks say they could never move away from the 'big city' because they'd miss going to the symphony, the theatre, et al ?
If everyone who claims they would 'miss' the symphony or the theatre would actually ATTEND the theatre or symphony in the first place, then those organizations would not be struggling...and the owner of the building would not be sniffing around to see if there's oil underneath it. |
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At $100 bucks a barrel even a sock puppet could make money in the oil business.....let the muppets drill for oil themselves and save the theater and the day!!!...no wait the select committee on muppet energy independence won't let them do it..why should the muppets get to make profits when conditions are ripe...when oil dips back to $30 bucks the committee will let them drill as long as no muppet fish or muppet caribou are harmed.... And by the way I thoght CHUD was that reaaly bad movie I saw as a kid Cannabalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers!!!! |
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Kimberly wrote;
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"Don't worry, loyal peons
Won't happen. Oil prices reflect to a penny the amount the shares are on the stock portfolios of the big oil. Do we actually think the big oil guys are going to sit well with lowering their obscene income to a reasonable level just to appease the lowly American people? And why should they when they've got a fiefdom that is oh-so-willing to write columns, yammer ceaselessly on talk radio and basically do their bidding for the sake of delusional thoughts that trickle-down will actually bring them a fraction of their greed-based wealth?"
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Miss Piggy, is that you ? |
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Big oil is us.
A large percentage of these "corporate monoliths" is owned by the average guy, the stockholder. It's in your portfolio; it's in your 401k; it's in your mutual fund. The dividends? They're paid to you? The profits? Yours too. If not you personally, then your employer or your bank/credit union, the company handling your IRA.
When people rail against the so-called "big oil" companies, they are railing against you.
In capitalism, the goal is to make a profit for your shareholders. Why should these companies be taken to task for doing their jobs?
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Oil is the lifeblood of the American lifestyle. We need to drill wherever we can find oil. The Chinese are going to pump the oil out of the Gulf right under our noses. |
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if there is a Big Oil, where's lil Oil? And medium oil? |
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I am quite interested in Frank Pastore's comments, Monday, March 31, 2008.
I have written and published a biblical theological work on the question that applies to world views dealing with this basic Frank talks about. It is entitled "The Covenants in Creation, the History of Salvation, and the Continuing Significance, Part I The Beginnings to the Fulfilment, Part II, The Development of Covenant Theology, Historically, Its Relevance, Application, and Implications." A revised version is complete now also but as yet not published which is very applicable.
Arising from this another smaller work published is entitled, "'Channels Of Blessing', The Expanded Role of the People of God, An Implicit Message of Genesis 12.1-3".
The main study (380,000 words) goes back to before the Beginning to what the Bible says of the 'time' before Creation and the counsel of the Persona in God's 'decision'to create. Created in God's image He gave us our culture and our world view. Sadly Christians ignore this and accept the concoctions the world dreams up based on the philosophies of the fallen mankind and the culture it seeks to mould us to.
I agree with Frank's remarks with this truly basic approach. It is good to see some truly biblical thinking appearing. Society is being fed on these false ideas and too many Christians are falling it.
Bruce Hosking, BD., MTh., Fellow Central School of Religion (Eng. & USA)
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got a "bright idea",.....DRILL IN ANWAR!
DRILL OFFSHORE, tell the commie/AGore/liberals to go to hell! |
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And Remy can't even skat! |
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"where's lil Oil? And medium oil?"
Largely bankrupt, or sold out to the big guys through a combination of regulation that imposed expenses only the big guys can afford and predatory monopolistic behavior by the big guys back in the 19th/early 20th century. |
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With all due respect to Mad Magazine, a Scene I'd love to see (even though it would hurt me seriously in the pocketbook):
Cut to: House chamber, congressional testimony in progress
Pompous Congress Criter: "How do you justify the obscene and outrageous profits your company has been making in oil?"
Oil Company Executive: "You're right. We can't. Since we've made more than enough profit for the year, we're going to suspend operations until Congress in its wisdom tells us it's OK to start making a profit again."
Exit, stage right. |
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To assume that "Big Oil" is responsible for the high oil prices is to assume that the tooth fairy can eliminate cavities. Oil comes out of the ground, ground mostly owned by sovereign nations and in many cases government owned operations. Supply and demand has an effect on prices doesn't it? Has anyone noticed that oil consumption is rapidly growing in China, India, and other Asian nations. We have oil reserves and do not use them, we can expand our refinery capacity and we don't build any additional refineries, we still heat millions and millions of homes with oil - why? To encourage alternative energy, it has to be priced competitively with oil and a revision of our tax structure might be the carrot here to encourage development of comparable alternate energy. Congress is about as proactive as a tree stump. Read more about our oil problem at:
brokengovernment.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/energy-and-us-stability/ |
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Conservative hypocrites..... you all complain about government spending, but don't seem to mind the millions in subsidies paid out to Big Oil, taxpayer bailouts of airlines and Bear Stearns, and the trillion dollar ill-conceived quagmire in Iraq. You're all a bunch of pawns in neo-con/Big Oil/Defense/Multinational/Int'l Banking's agenda to use our taxes to bankrupt and annihilate any competition that gets in their way. But I suppose it's all ok as long as you get to drive your gas guzzlers to the gun store, and leave the debt and environment catastrophe for the next generation to sort out. |
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