Obama Attacks McCain on Oil

Hey, face the facts.
Obama got away with doing NOTHING about the gas tax holliday on Clinton and Mc Cain.
He got to bash their plan (and rightly so) but he offered NOTHING in reply.
So why doesnt he think he can get away with it again with drilling?
YOU DONT THINK THE CORRUPT MEDIA IS ACTUALLY GOING TO CALL OBAMA ON DOING NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT IT
do you?

It was almost inevitable that a combination of $4-a-gallon gas, public anxiety and politicians eager to win votes or repair legacies would produce political pandering on an epic scale. So it has, the latest instance being President Bush’s decision to ask Congress to end the federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along much of America’s continental shelf. This is worse than a dumb idea. It is cruelly misleading. The only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power exit the political stage.

What the REPUBLICANS refuse to admit is that 70% of the land that has been leased to the oil companies for drilling has NOT been touched by the oil companies yet! That land has been sitting idle, and the republicans know this fact, yet because we are in an election year, suddenly the republicans are ignoring the fact of the idle land, and are NOW calling for drilling in the ocean, where NOONE even know for sure if there is any oil at all.
And the republicans are NOT telling the public that drilling off the coast of California, and Florida, would cost millions of jobs in those states, which rely on tourism, Florida, and that California’s economies could go bankrupt, millions would lose their jobs, and go into home foreclosure, and be homeless, ALL that would happen with absolutely NO guarantee that there is even ONE barrel of oil in the ocean.
And when it comes to ANWR in Alaska, experts say that there is about ONE DAYS WORTH of oil available there, ONLY ONE DAYS WORTH of oil there, and that it would take 10 years to get it from there to the gas pumps because pipelines would have to be built to get the oil from Alaska, and it would then need to be refined, and millions, and maybe billions would have to be spent, all to get ONE DAYS WORTH OF OIL.
The republicans are not talking about the facts, they are just talking garbage, and hoping that people will not hear about the idle land the oil companies ALREADY have, and are not drilling, when they could be drilling it. Instead they are talking about drilling in states they know is already NEVER going to agree to do that because it would kill their ecomnomy, and cause massive job lose, and ALL that would happen without any guarantee that oil exists off the coast of Florida or California.

To Bush & McCain—what goes with the millions of acres of already approved leases and drilling rights held by the oil companies? This is another non-issue adding pollution into the energy dependency discussion. Its the depressed dollar and commodity speculators causing the high gas costs and not any lack of drilling rights!!! For the speculator impact aspect we thank former U.S. Senator Phil Graham, an adviser to John McCain’s campaign.
———————
as soon as we decide to drill the prices will come down because we trade non FUTURE markets. You don’t understand what that meens huh. Didn’t think so. Or maybe you do but you just so liberal that you don’t want it to happen because you don’t want republicans to be right. even if it’s good for our country

The offshore oil drilling ban lift, implemented by Bush is a political ploy.
Face it.
The fact of the matter is that the United States uses about 25% of the world`s oil and if we were to tap 100% or all domestic oil available, it would account for about 3% of our total usage. We would still need to import the other 22% of world oil. Not only is that “strategy” false, but the fact remains that they are not prohibited from drilling en mass and there are 68 million acres of known oil fields approved for drilling but have remained undrilled. Even if we were to go into full scale mad rush drilling, the payoff would be 7 to years off and would effect the cost of gasoline by at most 25 cents per gallon. In fact, there are over 10,000 issued drilling permits that have gone unused. It is speculation and Capitalist greed that has created artificial “supply and demand” crisis to drive the price artificially high in the same way the housing bubble burst.

John McCain is again pandering just like he did with the gas tax holiday, John McCain, knows that 70% of the land the oil companies leased from the government is sitting idle, and we could be drilling that now, 70% of the land has NOT been drilled, so how about the oil companies do that first, but of course John McCaIn doesn’t want to tell you that, because it would means that he would have to admit that he, is pandering just like John McCain pnadered with teh gas tax holiday, which he knew he would not be able to do anything about anyway, since he is not president yet, and summer started YESTERDAY.
Obama has plans which include: Obama of course will also encourage the oil companies to drill the 70% of the idle land they have sitting idly. Obama will also be developing new sources of fuel like biofuels, ethanol, as well as clean coal technology, he also said that he would consider nuclear, as well give incentives to American car companies to develop electric cars, and when it comes to clean, sustainable, renewable energy sources, Obama will also invest in solar, and wind energy, which are renewable sources of energy. Obama of course will also encourage the oil companies to drill the 70% of the idle land they have sitting idly.

Didn’t McCain’s Charlie Black support this Enron Loophole as a lobbyist?

The hysterics on this page are astounding. I can’t believe how emotional some of you people are getting. Steven, do you know that foreign countries are going to drill in those same places if we don’t? Do you know that China is already drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? How soon before they go 50 miles off the East coast or West coast and put in an oil rig?
All of you leftists need to get a grip and deal with the facts. Jeez, you people are completely out of control.

Obama did absolutely nothing before he run for president about everything he is talking about today. He criticizes everyone who did anything before he proposes his plan now. So, why all of sudden he has all these ideas to fix all these problems, but he did nothing before he started running for president?
Whatever the results, McCain did many right things before he ran for president. But the media is all become Obama’s mouth to spread the criticisms.

Drilling didn’t the man from the American petroleum whatever on ABC this morning say that the reason they didn’t drill on that 80% of lease they had was because they didn’t have the Riggs to drill with?
Well where are they going to get it for off shore? This just doesn’t add up to me.

And I’ll NEVER vote for him.

To Sean,
There are 68 million acres of land right now under the lease of US oil companies… Most of this land has been sitting idle for over 25 years. There are no legislative hurdles for the oil companies to begin drilling today if they wanted to….The Democrats have proposed a reasonable idea called “Use it or Lose it” if they don’t want to drill on a specific piece of land, then why is the govt giving them a lease……By the way the leases are FREE…paid for by tax subsidies which are paid for by OUR tax payers with the understanding that US consumers would benefit at the pump from a more plentiful oil supply….the problem is then oil companies want to drive the prices up, even more and drilling these 68 million acres may not be in THERE business agenda………..Molacai

molacai
Got any geology reports? For now I’ll assume you’re correct about the 68 million (got any links to back that up btw?). What do the geology reports look like? Who says there is any oil there? I have to wonder, given Democrats refusal to let us drill for any oil, if they know those areas have verylittle or no oil on them OR if the oil is so deep that it would only be cost effective to get that oil if oil cost something like $200 a barrel. See my point? Yes, their may be 68 million acres of land set aside, but unless the cost of a barrel of oil is $200 it’s not economically viable to go get it.
I have no idea if that’s true, but I hope you see my poin. I don’t think we have all the information and it’s likely that Democrats have left that little tidbit out of their talking point memo.

@Sean,
I see your point. Also what does the price have to be to drill off shore? Seen any reports? Will they even drill off shore? Or do they just want to hold the lease? Also on This Week on ABC this morning that Oil executive said that there wasn’t enough riggs top drill that land. So what is the tyruth here?
What I know is that this off shore is esitmated to have 3% of the worlds reserve.It will last 3 years at the current US conumption. That means at the current US consumption we are using 1% of the worlds reserve a year. So we run out in 100 years if only the US is using oil. so what time do we have, 50 years?
Then what?

Obama – blah…blah..blah… DRILL HERE DRILL NOW!!! and just stop all the bs. Your plan of taxing the oil companies just going to increase the price for the consumers. What on earth is wrong with drill off shore?? The chinese and cubans are drilling 60miles away right now!!! You said even if we drill, it won’t produce anything 3, 5 years now. So you chose to do nothing?? At least if you start now, 3, 5 years we’ll have our own oil. What exactly is your motive of not drilling?? especially off shore when other countries are doing it.

Sean — we are dealing with the facts, and that is that with all the drilling off the coast of california, and florida, we may NOT find a thing, and that we should be drilling the 70% of the land the oil has sitting idle, and find oil there first. And we must also face the facts that the amount of oil left to be found is not going to sustain us forever, and so we need to be looking into other sources of developing fuel, such as ethanol, and biofuels, and we should also be developing the cars, and other technology which use these news biofuels.

I know where some of that 70% of untapped land is located that the oil companies have not yet drilled. My house and the land I own are sitting on top of it. I own the land but as part of the ownership I do not have the rights to any oil underneath my property. The same is true for my neighbors. Statistics and details seem to be enemies.
The bigger question is: What is the impact of the recently activated domestic oil rigs pulling more oil out of the ground? The rigs in Colorado are running again after sitting idle for the last eight to ten years.

Gramm is also partly responsible for the mortgage collapse and lobbies for foreign banks. His wife is a former Enron executive who oversaw the collapse of the company and subsequent pillaging of the pension fund. Gramm deserves a close and careful vetting. Want more of the same?

danni — you mean people who have been around like McCain, and sat on his ass doing nothing for decades, except lining their pockets with lobbyist money. John McCain, is a lazy, greedy dinosaurs who for years have been doing NOTHING to solve the problems we have in this country. John McCain was more interested in lining their pockets with lobbyist money from big business including from oil companies, than actually doing anything to solve the issues of gas, and the many other issues we have like crumbling infrastructure all over our country, bridges which are collapsing because of neglect, which has been unattended to for many years. John McCain sat for decades and watched while millions of millions of jobs were outsourced, and our manufacturing industry disappear, ALL that time, John McCain sat in government doing NOTHING, but of course he made sure to collect his money from big business lobbyist.
At least we have in Obama someone who is not lazy and sitting back, what we see is someone who wants to start tackling the problems which have been piling up for decades and decades because of lazy dinosaurs like John McCain. I mean John McCain is such a dinosaur, he does NOT even know how to use a computer! How long has computers been in existence for goodness sakes.

Once again Senator Obama is 100% correct. Not only have fuel prices been driven by speculators due to loopholes he speaks of, but have also been driven by lower than normal refinery utilization. If you follow the trends from the Energy Information Administration, in their column “This week in Petroleum”, they will show you this information. Basically they tell you supply hasn’t been the problem, but refineries also haven’t produced as much gasoline as they possibly could. The reason is distillate prices have been commanding a higher price on the market than gasoline. Therefore they have been refining more crude into distillates. The refining capacity has been holding at an average of 84.7%. What this means for consumers is they have you where they want you. If they produced at 100% capacity what would happen? Supply of distillate and gasoline would grow and drive down the prices on the wholesale price market. As long as the oil companies have plenty of crude and the ability to determine output in the unregulated market, consumers will continue to be fleeced. The rhetoric spewed by John McCain shows an unbelievable lack of understanding not only of the energy situation, but economics as well. His insistance to start leasing and drilling the COS/ANWAR and his statement that it would provide relief in the “SHORT TERM”, is either incredibly stupid, or a very poor attempt to pull the wool over voters intelligence. First of all the leasing process would take most of six years, then exploration has to happen before any actual drilling could begin. Once begun a means has to be available to transport and that means is not available, either by pipeline or ship. A pipeline or more ships would have to be built. Once all this is accomplished, the consensus of all of today’s expert’s in the petroleum industry, the one’s not connected to any political party, estimate that it would provide approximately 3% more U.S. crude, if even that by 2030. Using their figures and today’s price, it would mean perhaps as much as a six (6) cent drop in the price of gasoline. Obama is correct, the most immediate method of affecting price is by closing the loopholes the oil companies have been able to take advantage of and the loopholes the traders have been able to take advantage of. My God, do you realize the top 25 traders took home an average of $823 million each in 2007. The top one, John Paulson, an ex-Enron trader took home $3.9 BILLION. Don’t believe me, do a Google. Use your typing energy for something other than putting BS you know nothing about all over the internet.

And you molacai, don’t seem to get the idea that companies like Exxon Mobil are businesses. If it costs them more to get the oil than they can sell it for then why on earth would they do something so stupid?
68 million acres! 68 million acres! 68 million acres! Good grief. It’s like talking to a door.

I wonder who it was that said to release the oil reserves and this was when gas wasn’t 3 bucks a gallon? I wonder if anyone out there remembers this, I do

So far from the searches I have found is that the oil industry doesn’t not have the drilling capacity to utilize the oil leases it has today and yet is pushing for more leases. All I can figure is that they want these leases under favorable conditions, not that have the capacity to utilize them.
There is nothing to suggest that the oil companies would even drill off shore it if was made available to them.
There is more to this story then we know.

LOL
“Barack Obama sides with consumers”. If that is true, why are over 60% of people in polls wanting the oil companies to start drilling now on already leased land/waters off our coast?
Obama is against any new drilling.
LOL

OBAMA attacks something everyday because he dislikes America and wants to “change” it to be more like the Middle East. Remember he said we can’t live the way we’ve been use to, as the other countries do not like it. Higher taxes and higher gas prices will send the US into a depression like no one has ever seen before. Yes we need to start producing other forms of energy—we needed to do this a long time ago. You need a President that CARES about the people and keeps the economy ticking while beginning to introduce new methods of energy —we can do this because we are strong, we are Americans…but we will not be able to do this with the dictator Obama at the head of the government.

alright guys time to explain the 68 million acre thing. The govt has leased a lot of land to oil companies. And the oil companies have pumped oil on some of the land. But the dems keep making this argument that they have 68 million acres of land with oil.
The reason that the oil companies are not drilling on these lands is because after surveying and exploring the land they found that there is no oil or not enough oil that would make it economically feasible to drill. In addition, even if there is oil, there are a lot of legalities and permits that must be obtained prior to drilling and they must deal in court if they are challenged by any environmental groups.

Interesting article. Phil Grahm was paid by the oil lobbyists for the Enron Loophole. Where does Phil come from? Texas!!! On the other side, Corsine was the first state governor to support Hillary. Now, according to a New Jersey newspaper, Corsine saw Obama as a future presidental candidate when they were in a meeting years ago WHILE Obama was a Illinois State Senator. And we talk about CHANGE???

Some of you need to do some research on oil leases and drilling.
Our land has been leased several times over the past 20 years. They lease an area under which they think might be oil, then send in the seismograph crews (three machines and maybe 10 men two days to go across our paltry 160 acres). Surely that’s a few hundred thousand, not counting the cost of their machinery.
They drilled a test well in the pasture next door. After a couple of months of setting up, then drilling and a million or so dollars, they hit nothing. It was another couple hundred thousand and two to three years to put that land back the way it was. The slush pit takes a long time to dry up..a year or more…then they had to fill it in and plant the grass back.
They lease a “parcel” of land…the actual acreage they think there’s oil under then several parcels around it in case they find anything. If they hit oil, if another company holds the lease on the land next to them, they’ll come in and drill at an angle to tap into the same pool. That explains a lot of the land which is leased but not drilled.
If they do hit oil, there’s another million or so to put in the pumps and the holding tanks and all the safety measures required.
Of course, there’s the problem of only so many drilling rig in existence right now. They’re booked for a year or two in advance.
There’s even more involved but perhaps it will point out this “drill for oil” demand isn’t quite as simple as some seem to believe.

Enron…closing the gate after all the live stock got out?? A group of greedy people who sold their stocks..took the money and ran.They left the hard working people that still worked for the company with nothing.Their pensions are gone.So they are like a lot of us…try to live off S.S. These people owned several mansions…and now they are crying because they are down to their last $10 Million dollars.SIC them Omama.

@Sean,
Yea your right about the cost. I would suggest that the oil companies are buying up the leases not developing the lease to keep the oil off line, to drive the cost of oil higher.
If the cost of production was prohibitive we would have heard about that by now.
For coal leases there is a certain amount of time the companies have to develop the lease if they don’t they lose it. Let’s tell the oil companies the same.

Park your car, buy a bus ticket like the progressives want you to do. Go to work, give the Washington liars your tax money and have them give it to the Global Warming crowd in the form of carbon offsets. Then watch the Global warming big shots fly off in their high fuel consuming jets and use enough electricity to power hundreds of houses. Check out the electricity Gore uses on his mansion in Tenn. We, the people, are being taken for a ride by these clowns–McCain included! People–you better stand up and say you are mad as hell and demand oil and nuclear now and the environmentalist progressives be damned.

This topic would be great handled in a Town Hall meeting proposed by McCain. All of the discussion would be out on the table for everyone to hear–pros and cons. Of course, Obama is afraid of that format. He doesn’t know enough to talk about it, much less debate it. Is that why he is putting out others, like Corzine and economic advisor Furman, to take the heat with those who question? McCain has worked to close the loophole. What has Obama done?

Oh geez…I am sorry but I noticed alot (mostly Obama supporters) that dont have a clue about oil. Let’s start with some basics—just because oil companies hold an oil lease it does not mean that 1) that there is any oil on the property or 2) that any such oil isn’t of such poor quality (you know sour)that it is worth or able to be brought up and refined (may I suggest you research things as the Canadian Oil sands and its “oil” which a nightmare to refine or even transport to a refinery due to its thickness.)

Ask McCain where the by products of the new nuclear plants will be tossed out. Look at Paducah, KY, which had an enrichment plant there for decades, run by Union Carbide. The operation created so much radioactive material that cleanup is estimated to cost more than the total income the county derived from the entire operation and no one has the money to do it, and meanwhile the streams are being polluted by radioactivity. And the parent company divested the division that owned the plant, effectively preventing the Commonwealth of KY from suing Union Carbide.

Good grief. It’s like two little toddlers arguing over “who did it.” Neither one of them are mature enough to be President. But then again, 95% of the adults in the US aren’t mature either…so I guess we’ll let the kids vote for the kids.
Our society is pathetic.

there you go penalize the oil companys–guess what—-they will just raise the price to you to cover it.they have us right where the want us.

Why is everyone so mad at the oil companies – they are in the business to make money, remember? Boo hoo hoo, 1percenter, they make too much. Well, tough luck, you go find it and drill it yourself. If you don’t want their oil then stop buying it or move to a country where it is nationalized.

The solution to energy crisis is the
republican plan.Drill,drill,drill ,build
nuclear plants,alternative fuel etc.
Competition,competition is the name of the game.It’s NOT a short solution to
the problem but we got to start as soon
as possible.
High gas prices are here to stay
regerdless who will win in november,
unless you break the monopoly named
OPEC……..

Okay, so Obama and McCain are in heated agreement over this issue. They’re both senators, so let the two of them sponsor a bill and then they can both take credit. Problem solved.

Didn’t I hear Obama and Congressional
Democrats call for the Nationalization
of the American Oil Industry on CNN,
MSNBC & FOX this week? Why the sudden
Media Silence on their declaration this
weekend. When Hitler trashed the Wiemar
Republic of Germany, wasn’t one of his
first executive orders to nationalize
the German Oil, Coal & Iron Ore sectors?

John McCain has a score of zero on environmental issues. Barack Obama has a score of 96. Has it occurred to anyone that the oil crunch would be greatly decreased if we heated our homes and got our electricity from alternative sources. We need jobs in this country and green energy is one of the best available wide spread ways to get them. Obama wants to begin large scale encouragement of new green energy sources. Closed down factories could be converted to the manufacture of wind and solar energy. We have several major problems. Fuel is too costly. We need a new supply of good paying jobs. We need to begin to deal aggressively with global warming and cleaning up the planet. We can accomplish all three if we use our resources to begin manufacturing green energy. The drilling would be a spit in the bucket for our energy needs and the spit wouldn’t happen for another 7-25 years. That way would not help our long term problem at all and it would further dirty the environment. The Obama way would begin to deal with our problems much sooner and it would deal with all three issues effectively instead of one of them ineffectively. We don’t have to choose between a cleaner world and enough energy. We just have to begin and in the process we can put Americans back to work. The famed tornado ally is also one of the windiest places in the country. We could be putting all that wind and all those people to work. If we could learn to look beyond the oil habit, we could deal with our problems. If we got more of our energy from other sources, that would also have the effect of decreasing the demand and the price for oil as long as we also close speculation loopholes. At the same time we could be building cars that get higher gas mileage and further decrease our dependence on oil. Time to get smart.

Speculation is definitly one of the reasons the price of gas remains high.
McCain had already said he was against this and would work on it before Obama addressed this priority problem.
McCain also suggested that drlling for oil on this this hemisphere and our shores be encouraged…. and further verabally supported the idea that this drilling be kept under the regime of the states rather than the federal government…
LITTLE SIR ECHO…….
PATRIOTISM BEFORE PLAGIARISM….
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY!

Once Again We Hear From
Obama the Fraud!
“For the past years, our energy policy in this country has been simply to let the special interests have their way — opening up loopholes for the oil companies and speculators so that they could reap record profits while the rest of us pay $4 a gallon,” Obama, D-Ill., said in a statement.
Sorry Barack but the price of gas has
gone up to $4 a gallon in the past
two years!
You know the past two years since
the Do-Nothing Democrats took control
of Congress!
Nice try, Barack, but we’re Not as
Dumb as You Think We Are!
No You Can’t!

But what MUST be done… and quickly… is to protect oil from speculators!
Raising taxes on the Big Oil Companies … only makes them increase their prices…. and the stockholders are makeing peanuts,… trust me!
(Of Course, no C E O needs an annual salary of billions…..)
But the speculators are the ones who are playing us like a fiddle with a squeaky string… and THEY… have got to go!
Unfortunately, Lisa TT, the Oil companies do NOT have a secret room in which they are hiding a special source of fuel which will be released only if B O wins the election…..
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY.
…. AND I wouldn’t trade a war hero who said “I did not realize how much I loved my country until I didn’t have her”, for a senator who warmed his seat only long enough to find the bathroom and vote “present” ….
how many times?

After the gas crunch in the 70′s you would think somebody would have thought about the future. If they did we wouldn’t be in this mess.
How can he criticize McCain for the same thing he has done nothing about? Oh that’s right he doesn’t have a resume of any sort, I forgot.

McCain’s policies are nearly identical to George Bush’s. Tax the middle class, and give tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. Promote increasing use of oil – foreign oil. Continuation of a war that should never have been started. A war for what? More oil, and to force a democracy onto an arab nation.
We don’t need 4 more years of Bush. Defeat McSame in ’08.

Obama is a risky and radical candidate.
He ought to step down and stop with the conning comments.
He is so embarrassing.

Interesting article – it shows both sides are bad. Phil Grahm sponsored the “Enron Loophole”, a friend of McCain. Grahm is from Texas (Surprise).
Corzine was the first state governor to support Hillary. Last Sunday’s paper in New Jersey quoted that he (Corzine) recognized Obama years ago while attending a meeting when Obama was still in state government. What a group we have to choose from.

The two OIL men in the White house are the cause of all our oil problems.
McCain has vowed to join them in pushing gas to $200 a barrel.

If both mccain and obama are against this loophole, and they are both still senators, why don’t they work together and get rid of this loophole instead of posturing..

Sid, the media seems to have been bought and paid for by Obama, and the DNC too. The campaign outlook is continued BHO propaganda machine with the media as his puppet. There is no equal time anymore, just BHO time. I guess we need to write the news advertisers that we won’t purchase their products. As SNL says, ‘totally in the tank for BHO’. I’m registered Democrat but will vote GOP 2008, we can’t afford an inexperienced candidate in the top job.

listen to new ideas .How about this one keep your car or pick up take out the gas hog engine we don;t need more cars to buy Install a air compressor & air tank small generator make your own power for air compressor When i was just a boy in the 30s Trolly cars run on air and made extra air with lots of power No new invention Just a few revisions

poster says, “Now, could someone tell me how much oil is on those lands that Democrats will allow the oil companies to drill on? What do the experts say? Not what a Democratic operative or politician says. What do the geologists say?”
________________________________________
I can’t answer the question as to how much oil is there but doesn’t common sense tell us they wouldn’t be issueing drilling permits for land where there was no oil? That would be kind of dumb wouldn’t it? Now I have no doubt the govt might be that stupid but the oil companies wouldn’t waste their time pursuing permits where there was no benefit.

I PREFER HILLARY AS A RUNNER!!!!
too bad she is out of the race. : (