Before attacking Bush, big oil, read this article

Too late for the resident Bush basher, as he's already leapt to a completely different conclusion and implies it is absolutely and personally the fault of George W. Bush that the pipeline in Alaska is in dire need to repair, but for some -- people that want facts and truth and won't let hyperbole get in the way of it, well there is still hope.

In the case of people like the Bush basher, the problems inherent with the oil business and the constant fighting against environmentalists and preservationists that abhor any potential change or damage to precious and sacred land(s) is just brushed away and ignored.

The fact that we've built few new power plants, few new oil refineries, and generally continued to use old technology with bandaids on their problems even during 8 years of the most recent Democratic presidency also escapes the grasp of people that want to attack big oil, George W. Bush and others on the right. It doesn't occur to those people that the nimby crowd, the environmentalists that are absolutely against any new drilling, any building, or progress in general (I swear many of them must have some Amish in their heritage) have kept back progress that might have helped reduce our dependence upon foreign oil (and our involvement in the middle east trying to protect vital interests there because of oil) and other sources of power/energy.

Anyway, again, before attacking the big oil companies, and especially before attacking George W. Bush, try reading through the entire article I'm clipping a bit of below. It is an eye opener.





Big Oil reinvests big profits to tap costlier reserves

By Patrice Hill
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 8, 2006



Big Oil's record profits attract attention and outrage, but an independent study has found that oil companies do exactly what economic textbooks say they should do with all that money: They invest it in oil exploration and development efforts that eventually should relieve pressure on prices.
The top 20 U.S. and Canadian oil companies actually invested 50 percent more than they earned in the past 10 years in efforts to produce more oil, but adverse geopolitical developments conspired to give them fewer opportunities to expand production while fading oil fields in the U.S. and elsewhere forced them to spend substantially more just to maintain current production, according to the study by the Ernst & Young accounting firm.
"Reinvestment is under way, and it's strong," said Charles Swanson, an energy analyst at the firm, but "average costs to find and develop oil and gas reserves have tripled since 1997, while total reserve-replacement costs have more than doubled."



... more at linked article (go read the whole thing please... it is well worth the time!)
6,320 views 15 replies
Reply #1 Top
Oh, headline is linked (as usual).

Again, please do take the time to read the whole article. It's well worth the read.
Reply #2 Top

It is not necessary.  To hear people talk about the record oil profits shows a gross ignorance of the workings of companies.  They think all that money is being stuffed in Mattresess or put into some Cayman Bank account of Hugh G. Fatcat.  When in reallity, some is paid out in dividens, and the rest re-invested into the company to make (SCANDAL) more money in the future.

But of course, it is all Bush's fault.

Reply #3 Top
It is amazing to me that lil is talked about the Gov't taxes posed on gasoline that we pump into our cars. Why is it Bush and Oil Comp fault. The lefties would scream bloody murder if they took the hit by cutting their precious gas tax.
Reply #4 Top
It is amazing to me that lil is talked about the Gov't taxes posed on gasoline that we pump into our cars. Why is it Bush and Oil Comp fault. The lefties would scream bloody murder if they took the hit by cutting their precious gas tax.


There have been some rumors of potential cuts in the gasoline taxes, but of course not much real progress in that area.

Unfortunately for most all of us, if the government did actually cut the gasoline taxes they'd just be forced to make up that money in some other area. Remember, most of that money is earmarked for transportation spending -- meaning improvements to infrastructure, new roads, expanding airports, etc. If we cut the money from the gasoline tax it would just leave a big hole for where to find those funds at, and then have the government looking for new places to gouge the money from us. (Meaning that I'm not sure that we'd ever really save any money just because the government tried cutting the gasoline taxes).

Consider this: some states are considering changing to "mileage" based road taxes, rather than gasoline taxes. That is actually an idea I somewhat support. The idea being that the government will use miles driven, plus vehicle size/weight to determine how much your fair share of the costs of building and keeping up roadways in your state really is. The states and politicians that have pushed for such a position have done so because they know that as people in this country switch to using hybrid vehicles, and more fuel efficient vehicles the governments aren't bringing in the taxes that they used to. The government literally *needs* us all to drive gas guzzlers so that they can continue to bring in enough tax revenue to pay for the roadways we would be driving the guzzlers on. People that are driving around in Toyota Prius type vehicles (some people call them Pious ) are saving gasoline, but they are still driving miles on roads in vehicles that are not ultralight. They still grove the roadways, they still need road surface to run on, etc. If those people are using 1/3 or less the gasoline of someone in a standard gasoline vehicle, they can't possibly be paying their fair share for the road up-keep, right?
Reply #5 Top
I will say it again, " I would sacrifice my life to protect the president of the USof A"
Reply #6 Top
I'm not disagreeing with you and I think that your article was good and timely, but you do know that Exxon Mobil received $2.6 billion in Federal subsidies for research last year? The industry as a whole received over $7 billion in subsidies. There is a bill to underwrite off-shore exploaration to the tune of $69 billion.

Back in March, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson called for an end to subsidies....for Ethanol! He said "We've never been a supporter of subsidies under any conditions because they distort market signals."

The Ethanol industry replied "In the face of pornographic profits being made by oil companies and the reality of higher gas prices this year, it is outrageous for an executive for big oil to actually suggest getting rid of the tax credit for ethanol," said Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol.

Source: Link

In agreement with you, George Bush has been a proponent of alternative fuels.

Reply #7 Top
America has built NO NEW NUKE POWER PLANTS OR NEW Refineries since 1979. NOT ONE.
Reply #8 Top
With “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” writer-director Alex Gibney takes a notorious tale of corporate greed and plays it as Greek tragedy, Texas-style.

The approach reveals him to be one of the smart guys, too. By focusing his documentary on the people behind the Enron scandal — their foibles, follies and moral frailty — Gibney takes a potentially dry, daunting topic and turns it into something eminently compelling.

The shredded documents, the private equity funds, the false accounting reports that contributed to the downfall of the nation’s seventh-largest company — all that can be stultifying stuff. But the filmmaker, working from the book “The Smartest Guys in the Room” by Fortune magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, instead turns his attention to the human and inhumane aspects of Enron Corp.’s 2001 collapse that we can relate to, without ever dumbing down the story.

Gibney gives us corporate cowboys like Jeff Skilling, Enron’s former CEO, who transformed himself from weakling to weekend warrior and instilled in his employees a Darwinian culture of testosterone and one-upmanship.

There are pathetic figures like Lou Pai, an ex-executive with a proclivity for lap dances who left his wife for his stripper girlfriend who had his baby (though with his Enron fortune, he also became one of the biggest landowners in Colorado).

There are the trader drones who, drunk with their own misguided sense of power, toyed with California’s energy supplies for profit and sport. (And the tape recordings of their phone conversations with each other are stunning for their brazenness. “Burn, baby, burn,” one guy laughs as swaths of the state are engulfed in wildfires. “You gotta love the West,” says another.)

Ken Lay, the leader of them all, comes off as completely disingenuous when he suggests he couldn’t possibly have known every little detail about the company he founded, the motto of which ironically was, “Ask Why.” Either that or he’s in denial. (He and Skilling are set to go on trial next year for fraud and conspiracy charges. Both have pleaded innocent.)

At the heart of the film, though, are the everyday employees and investors who trusted the Houston-based energy company with their financial security and were left in ruin, while many Enron honchos walked away with millions. One electrical lineman had $348,000 in his 401(k) and company stock, and ended up cashing out with just $1,200.

Gibney tells all their stories through a lively mix of news footage, re-enactments, corporate video, interviews with employees and insider audio recordings.

It would have been nice if Gibney had said on camera, as he does in the film’s production notes, that he tried repeatedly to get Skilling to comment and was turned down. (Same with Lay.) Supposedly Skilling wanted to talk — and is a heck of a talker — but his lawyers wouldn’t allow it.

Which ultimately leaves us asking: Were these people just greedy, and they got in over their heads? Were they truly, deeply evil? Or were they, as the title suggests, simply too smart for their own good? It’s an impossible question to answer, and Gibney is wise not to try, but he does paint a vivid, tragic, startling portrait of how the best and brightest of American corporate culture can go horribly wrong.

www.enronmovie.com
Reply #9 Top
While Enron was an "energy" company, I don't believe they were an energy producer (ie drilling), more of an infrastucture company (pipelines,etc). I could be wrong.
Reply #10 Top
Author of the recently published Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, Simmons is founder of Simmons & Company International, an investment bank that handles mergers and acquisitions among energy companies, and counts among its clients Halliburton, General Electric, and the World Bank. A graduate of the Harvard Business School, he served as an energy-policy adviser to the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.

Conservative credentials aside, Simmons has been boggling the minds of people across the political spectrum with his recent prediction that the price of a barrel of oil could hit the high triple digits within a few years. To postpone economic meltdown, he says we should be drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other hotly contested spots. At the same time, he\'s calling for a massive shift in energy policy, including radical improvements in efficiency, as well as a return to local farming and manufacturing. With his unconventional opinions, he\'s single-handedly reinventing the image of the post-oil energy crusader. He talked to us from his cell phone while dashing between energy lectures.

Let\'s start with a brief overview of the premise and implications of Twilight.

I believe we are either at or very close to peak oil. If I\'m right, then we have to assume that five or 10 years from now we\'ll be producing less oil than we are today. And yet we have a society that is expecting, under the most conservative assumptions, that oil usage will grow by at least 30 to 50 percent over the next 25 years. In other words, we would end up with only 70 percent of the oil we have today when we would need to have 150 percent. It\'s a problem of staggering economic proportions -- far greater than the temporary setback of a terrorist attack on energy infrastructure -- that could end up leading to more geopolitical fistfights than you can ever imagine. The fistfights turn into weapon fights and give way to a very ugly society.

How did this thesis evolve?

The odyssey began in the early 1980s when I realized that my firm was threatened by a production collapse in the energy and oil-service business. I thought, \"How on earth could this have happened without us even knowing?\" I started doing some careful investigation into energy data. The more I studied, the more I started to realize that so many people who call themselves experts in the energy market, including government analysts, are in fact experts in their opinions and don\'t actually base a lot of it in actual data.

Why? Because the relevant data are confidential?

Yes, what\'s publicly available is extremely vague. No major oil-producing companies or nations allow audits of the data on their reserves and production, which leaves the experts effectively playing a guessing game.

If the data are concealed, on what evidence did you base your own conclusions?

I\'ve spent years poring over hundreds of papers from the Society of Petroleum Engineers that have revealed fascinating clues. First I took an inventory of the top oil fields in the world, field by field. I was aghast to find that nobody had ever listed even the top 20 oil fields by name. I found that there are only about 120 oil fields in the world that produce half of the world\'s oil supply. The top 14 fields, which make up 20 percent of global supply, are, on average, over 53 years old. In Saudi Arabia, which harbors a quarter of the entire global supply, there are only five key fields producing 90 percent of their oil. They\'re all old.

Naturally I was very curious to find details on the condition and productivity of these fields. Two years ago I took a trip to Saudi Arabia on a government tour for business executives. They plied us with various data points that just didn\'t add up, even vaguely. I\'ve since found evidence in the engineering papers indicating that the major Saudi fields are seriously at risk of reaching their peak, at which point they will begin to see their output decline.

In this case, would Saudi Arabia\'s leadership collapse?

I want to steer away from discussing specifics of geopolitics in the Middle East because I really don\'t want to shift the focus away from the economics. It doesn\'t ultimately matter who rules Saudi Arabia. They can\'t change the maturity of their oil fields.

You made a $5,000 bet with conservative New York Times columnist John Tierney that per-barrel oil prices will be at $200 in 2010. How did you arrive at this number?

Well, first of all, the $5,000 bet was essentially an effort to be provocative and wake people up to how cheap oil still is. I started a year ago saying that we need to prepare ourselves for triple-digit oil prices -- and I don\'t mean $100 per barrel, I mean high triple digits. Will it be by 2010? We don\'t have any idea. It could be by the winter of 2006.

Oil price will ultimately be set by demand and supply. Current oil prices are ridiculously cheap. People find that hard to believe, particularly now, but consider this: $65 a barrel translates to 10 cents a cup. Ten times cheaper than bottled water. People who think that this is a really high price need to have their heads screwed back on.

full text: www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/554
Reply #11 Top

While Enron was an "energy" company, I don't believe they were an energy producer (ie drilling), more of an infrastucture company (pipelines,etc). I could be wrong.

You are correct.  Actually, they failed when they sold off their physical assets and went strictly to brokering energy sales.

Reply #12 Top
You have got one eye , by saying that Israel answers Hezbolah strike :
Israel is taking the 2 captured soldiers as an excuse to attack Iran and Syria to convince the fools of America to attack Iran and Syria to defend Israel, and expose America to more terrorism, as planned and plotted betwween the son of Jews(Busharone( Bush, slave and agent of Sharone), and the zionists who want to destroy both muslims and christians and save only Israel( pepsi= pay each penny to save Israel,not America).Not an Arab country can reach America,or is a threat to America, it is all about protecting motherland of Busharone at the expence of the fool Americans, who support their own doom.The original people of Palestine , Lebanon and Iraq are defending their lands against the out -of -land jews and the representative of Telaviv, Busharone, are described as terrorists, whereas the gangs of the jews who came from every part of the western world to occupy Palestine and destroy our civilization and economy and to evacuate Palestinian people from their own land, burning babies,houses and all infrastructures are , thru the wicked eye of Busharone and your one eyed media and your unjust support to the jewish gangs,thru weapons and vetos , are considered as victims.All what the resistance did to defend their land is legitimate and is very tiny compared to all mass destruction the Jews do at our land , and against our innocent people.In fact, the world court said that sharone is a criminal of war, but busharone is always using vetos to destroy the muslims,and make America the fool of the world,as the issue is protecting his main land, Israel, regardless,even with, exposing your country to danger because of the double measure he takes to fraud facts and reverse it to show the wicked colonists as victims, and those who defend their land as terrorists!!!!!!!!
Be just and publish the mass destruction the new hitlers, Busharone, zionists and the cursed Jews do in the Arab countries .
Wake up! I know you dare not say the right thing, as you will not only be fired from your work in newspaper, but you will be imprisoned as well, immediately, by your masters, who own everything in America, icluding your washed brains.
note: if u shade doubts about the fable of the enemy of God, Christ and humanity's, the cursed jews holocaust, you go to prison, but if you say al bad things about Christ and Muslims , it is a freedom!!!"Only in America of the jews and zionists"
By the way Israel is ready to fight the Muslims for the last " fool" American soldier.
but they can not stand Hezbola, as Hezbolla is defending his land and identity, not a terrorist group. the terrorists are those who want to kil original people of Muslim countries and export gangs and weapons from usa to do that ,securing that even un asked for 72 hours to bury the dead babies, israel has nephew Busharone to use et and threatening all other countries to be with Busharone,son of the jews,and against muslims and christians of lebenon(about 50% of lebanese are christians,so the burnt babies) but Busharone is committed to the jews,against christians and muslims,
this is not a racist to be aware of the trick of freedom: if you touch the plot of the jews , you are a criminal, but if you curse christ and muslims, this is freedom,see how the jews manipulate you and the whole world!!!!!!
Bye....
yours faithfuly,
A candid person

Reply #13 Top
You have got one eye , by saying that Israel answers Hezbolah strike :
Israel is taking the 2 captured soldiers as an excuse to attack Iran and Syria to convince the fools of America to attack Iran and Syria to defend Israel, and expose America to more terrorism, as planned and plotted betwween the son of Jews(Busharone( Bush, slave and agent of Sharone), and the zionists who want to destroy both muslims and christians and save only Israel( pepsi= pay each penny to save Israel,not America).Not an Arab country can reach America,or is a threat to America, it is all about protecting motherland of Busharone at the expence of the fool Americans, who support their own doom.The original people of Palestine , Lebanon and Iraq are defending their lands against the out -of -land jews and the representative of Telaviv, Busharone, are described as terrorists, whereas the gangs of the jews who came from every part of the western world to occupy Palestine and destroy our civilization and economy and to evacuate Palestinian people from their own land, burning babies,houses and all infrastructures are , thru the wicked eye of Busharone and your one eyed media and your unjust support to the jewish gangs,thru weapons and vetos , are considered as victims.All what the resistance did to defend their land is legitimate and is very tiny compared to all mass destruction the Jews do at our land , and against our innocent people.In fact, the world court said that sharone is a criminal of war, but busharone is always using vetos to destroy the muslims,and make America the fool of the world,as the issue is protecting his main land, Israel, regardless,even with, exposing your country to danger because of the double measure he takes to fraud facts and reverse it to show the wicked colonists as victims, and those who defend their land as terrorists!!!!!!!!
Be just and publish the mass destruction the new hitlers, Busharone, zionists and the cursed Jews do in the Arab countries .
Wake up! I know you dare not say the right thing, as you will not only be fired from your work in newspaper, but you will be imprisoned as well, immediately, by your masters, who own everything in America, icluding your washed brains.
note: if u shade doubts about the fable of the enemy of God, Christ and humanity's, the cursed jews holocaust, you go to prison, but if you say al bad things about Christ and Muslims , it is a freedom!!!"Only in America of the jews and zionists"
By the way Israel is ready to fight the Muslims for the last " fool" American soldier.
but they can not stand Hezbola, as Hezbolla is defending his land and identity, not a terrorist group. the terrorists are those who want to kil original people of Muslim countries and export gangs and weapons from usa to do that ,securing that even un asked for 72 hours to bury the dead babies, israel has nephew Busharone to use et and threatening all other countries to be with Busharone,son of the jews,and against muslims and christians of lebenon(about 50% of lebanese are christians,so the burnt babies) but Busharone is committed to the jews,against christians and muslims,
this is not a racist to be aware of the trick of freedom: if you touch the plot of the jews , you are a criminal, but if you curse christ and muslims, this is freedom,see how the jews manipulate you and the whole world!!!!!!
Bye....
yours faithfuly,
A candid person

Reply #14 Top
Author Lindsey Williams who had executive status with the 9 major oil companies on the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline has written a book stating the facts listing names, dates, and places says:

As a former Insider I know Alaska has plenty of oil, enough to supply the United States for two (2) hundred years. Why do the people of the United States allow this excellent oil to be shipped and sold to the people of Japan [over 100 million population] when we could have it shipped here to the lower 48 states [300 million population] via pipeline?

Lindsey Williams book and video \"The Energy Non-Crisis\" a revealing documentary is available for your education here.
www.cabotia.com/energy-non-crisis.html

Chapter 20
A Scandal Greater Than Watergate?

What kind of scandal would be greater than Watergate? Today it has appeared on the scene, and its ultimate objective is to get Americans to agree to—in fact, to request-socialization. Why have oil prices gone so high? I have never heard anyone reveal the true reasons before. I wondered if they would allow me to tell them ... but it\'s high time someone did, so I am going to! Remember Shylock and his pound of flesh? Well, this is close! Can you imagine what the interest would be on $12 billion?—even at the best prime rates? Let\'s even deduct the $2 billion the pipeline was supposed to cost once it got going. Let\'s just call it a nice round $10 billion in cost overruns. One company, in order to pay their proportionate share, had to borrow an amount equal to the entire net worth of the company ... to literally mortgage the whole company, as it were. Can you just imagine the interest on all that? Such staggering sums are mind boggling—and generally we tend to associate them with nothing smaller than the \"National Debt.\"

Perhaps you have read statements by the oil companies telling us that their \"declared\" profits don\'t really give the true picture. Even such articles as those in Reader\'s Digest don\'t reveal the whole story. Oil companies are not allowed to include those exorbitant interest charges as deductions from profits, which for you and me would be the usual procedure. Remember the atrocious prime interest rates that\' we face today? Well, work it out! What would be the interest on $10 billion? Now, mentally deduct those staggering figures from the highly-publicized \"declared\" profits ... then you tell me who is really the villain! Certainly not the oil companies!

Then there is the matter of that tax on \"Windfall Profits\" that the oil companies make. That is yet another ploy to weaken them. We hear a lot about windfall profits, but how much publicity has been given to their huge interest charges?—virtually none, if any at all.

By this time you are probably way ahead of me ... in fact, I\'ll bet you\'ve already guessed who is going to pay that high interest? Apart from the oil companies themselves, there is only one person who can pay for it today—you, me, the consumer, John Doe! The redblooded American is going to pick up the tab for that exorbitant interest—every time he drives up to the gas pump. The one who believes in free enterprise is the one who will pay for that interest—John Doe, who stands for the principles on which our forefathers founded this country, one of which is incentive, not socialism. (Or, if you prefer, you could nationalize the oil companies and pay instead for the government bureaucracy—but then we\'ve already seen how well that works!)

Throughout this writing so far, I have attempted to give only actual observations, and I have deliberately withheld my personal opinions as much as possible. However, I am sure you will recognize that in Watergate it was necessary to read between the lines. Likewise, in the scandal that is greater than Watergate, you must again read between the lines. This scandal not only touches the government, but it touches every minute area of every American\'s life—for that\'s the name of the game with something as crucial as energy.

Let\'s do a little imaginative \"supposing\" now. If I were a government that seemed to have socialistic trends, and apparently wanted to control the lives of every single individual living in this nation, I would first need to control energy. An excellent way to gain this control would be to cause the American people to think that prices were going so high simply because the oil companies were making exorbitant profits (or perhaps better yet, make it look like there is a shortage because they are inefficient, etc.). Of course, you would fail to mention that not all the expenses are deducted before the \"profits\" are \"declared\" (as is customary in other business reporting), because if they (the consumers) become adequately disturbed about the \"rip-off,\" they will probably even demand that these vital services be nationalized for everyone\'s best interests. Since it is
now too late to stop the flow of oil, the scheme has switched to getting the American people to believe that the oil companies are amassing great fortunes from the North Slope oil, therefore, they shouldn\'t need to raise the prices.

Reading between the lines? After all, the government has never told us what the interest would be on $10 billion, not to mention the \"small matter\" of the repayment of the $10 billion principal itself,
just to pay off the cost overruns forced on the oil companies by the Federal and State governments. I would hate to pay the bill—but I am paying it ... and so are you! The prices at the gas pumps are going up, and up, and up (in spite of regional temporary declines). We will eventually become so disgruntled with the oil companies that we will actually request the Federal government to take them over and nationalize them?

So now the push is no longer to stop the flow of the oil—it\'s a little late for that, for the oil is already flowing from one of the greatest oil fields in the world. So... today the move is price increases—regulations—cut backs—energy control\" Conserve. The world is running out.\" Why is fuel approximately $1.50 a gallon (as this manuscript is being written)? I\'ll tell you why. It is because you have to pay the interest on $10 billion, in addition to paying back the principal. And don\'t forget those who have placed themselves—in charge of \"over\"-protecting our environment, along with the many added costs they bring ... much of which is totally unnecessary!

Today, as long as inflation continues its upward spiral, the Federal government makes more and more money from every John Doe American, because as your wages go up, so does the government\'s share. By the same token, the tax structure makes Uncle Sam even richer, because they are not revising the tax structure accordingly as fast as the inflation is escalating. As inflation continues to spiral (and your salary does not go up as fast as that spiral), America gets deeper and deeper into debt and ever more dependent on the rest of the world. (One of the solutions, of course, is greater [American] production at lesser cost.) At the same time, the very ones who are the champions of free enterprise (industry) are stymied because they are not allowed to produce. Industry is struggling to survive because the thumb of \"big daddy\" government is crushing it every day it con tinues to exist.

In the year 1973, we experienced the first real so-called energy crisis per se. By the way, have you ever noticed that each of these energy crises have affected only one portion of the country at a time? In 1973 it was only the East Coast (the northern part, in particular). There was no crisis in the West. There was no crisis in the Midwest. There was no crisis in the South. Why the Northeast? Because, you see, that was the first testing ground to find out how far the government could take gullible Americans. Then about the time folks were ready to revolt, suddenly there was no longer a crisis in the Northeast. All of a sudden, out of a clear blue sky, for no known reason, it ceased to exist ... all the gas you wanted!

Next, if you remember, it was California. The lines had disappeared in the Northeast. Then they thought, \"We\'ll try the farming section of the country.\" However, that one did not get too much publicity, so that \"crisis\" didn\'t last too long.

It seemed strange to me that I was told by oil company officials a number of months in advance where the next \"crisis\" would occur.

One section after another of America has been tried, to see just how far they could be pushed before they rebel. Then, at the point of rebellion, the government backs off. All of a sudden there is no energy crisis in that area anymore.

How about the natural gas crisis? Do you remember everyone was screaming about it in 1974, and all across the country people were going cold in their homes because of the so-called shortage of natural gas? Then once more—somehow—out of a clear blue sky, there\'s plenty of natural gas Why? Because there never was a shortage—the shortage simply never existed. It was \"created\" for the express purpose of finding out just how far you and I could be pushed before we rebel.

Then, quite recently (only a few weeks ago as I write), something else quite startling happened. I was talking with a certain gentleman in the Midwest who lives near Estes Park in the center of Colorado (that is one of the largest parks in the Midwest). This man said to me, \"I live near Estes Park. My home is only a short distance away from that area, and I have noticed that up in the forest area of Estes Park there are some odd looking structures that are somehow being hauled in by huge helicopters, and they have been drilling in the national forest.\" He continued, \"I wondered about that—after all this was supposed to be a closed area, but they were drilling and then they would move. There are a number of big drills and that rig in there—they were somewhat camouflaged so that nobody would recognize them, but since I live right near Estes Park, I could not help but realize that something was going on. I kept noticing the big helicopters moving this big equipment in. As well as that, some of the workmen lived right around me, and day after day they were driving in and out, and there was drilling for oil going on, right there in the park itself.\"

The man\'s story was becoming interesting. He went on, \"You see, I am also a fire fighter, and it is my job, when a fire develops in the Estes National Park area, to go in and help them stop that fire. We have been extensively trained for working in our area, and we know every part of those mountains-and exactly how
to fight a fire in them. Last Summer, sure enough (as often happens in the summer time) a fire developed in the Estes Park forest area. The fire fighters were called out by the local officials, and everybody gathered together ready to fight the fire.\" Then he said to me, \"Chaplain Lindsey, we will never understand why, but the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] came in and said, \'cancel the fire fight. We at the BLM will take care of it. We\'ll handle this one ourselves.\' Our local officials said, \'But you\'re not trained for it. You do not have the manpower. We have men trained and they\'re supposed to do it.\" However, the BLM said very emphatically, \'No one will go into that forest area.\' \"

The man went on to say, \"Chaplain Lindsey, they did not go in. And they let it burn. They attempted to contain parts of it, but parts of it they could not. It burned a vast area, but we were not allowed to go in and fight it. Afterwards, it turned out that many of the rigs had been burned, but they started all over again. They\'re all very secretive about that—why would they not let us know what was going on in that area?\"

This is why: The man told me that he had probed very thoroughly into it and had learned that they had made a very sizable oil find. The government itself had authorized most of the drilling, but after they found it, they capped it. They said, \"It will not be produced.\"

This same thing can be multiplied in Wyoming and in other oil-productive areas all over the country. The companies have been ordered not to produce. The finds are there. They know the oil wells are there.

Recently, I talked to a certain group on this subject. Afterward, a gentleman came to me. He said, \"Chaplain, it is my job to go around to the different areas of Wyoming. I check the level of the big oil tanks and the oil that is being pumped out of the ground. I\'ve been working at this job for a number of years.\" He then related the following story. He named things that had happened a number of years ago, but I have withheld details and particulars that could lead to the identification of this man or his area. He said, \"Some years. ago we were producing X number of gallons, but in 1974 they cut back the number of actual pumping actions that our pumps make every 24 hours. That is to say, that a pump that was making X number of pumps 5 years ago, today is making only a portion of that number of pumps. They had slowed the pumps down.\"

I said, \"Why sir? We\'re supposed to be in an energy crisis?\"

He answered, \"I\'ve asked myself that many times. The same field used to produce X number of gallons, and it still has the same number of pumps and everything is working like it used to, but now they\'ve cut back on the pumping action of those pumps. Today it takes many more days to pump the same number of gallons from the identical field—it is the same field they\'ve been pumping for years.\"

So there appears to be an intentional cutback in the production of the oil fields of this part of Wyoming.

Why?

I could go on and on and on. As I travel across America lecturing, I meet people all the time. I have many speaking engagements in churches, business and civic organizations, and that story can be multiplied and multiplied. It certainly does appear that there was a greater scandal than Watergate. Why?

I am convinced that there is a definite reason, and at this point I move from observations to personal opinion. There is only one thing on earth by which every human being can be controlled, if that product itself is controlled. That product is energy. The world today has become dependent on energy—for its homes, its lights, its fuel, its automobiles, its airplanes, its trucking industry, its railroads, its delivery of goods, etc. Electricity is produced by the energy of today. Every facet and aspect of our lives can be controlled when energy is controlled. There is no other product on the face of the earth that can so control the American people—and all the people of the world. Whoever controls the energy ... controls us!

The fact is, if energy can be controlled, you can be controlled. It could not be done by money, for methods of bartering could be developed by the people. If your energy is controlled, however, then \"Big Brother\" can control how you live in your home; when you go and where you go; the products you buy; the style of life that you will live; even the level of life at which you will live. They can control your state of life and your every movement.

In the days of the horse and buggy, this would not have been so, but today we are dependent entirely on energy. Therefore, because of our complete dependence, we have become ready targets. Now, if they can brainwash the people into believing that there is a true energy crisis, when there actually is not, then they can slow down our society, they can destroy our free enterprise way of life, and they can control every area of our being. It certainly points ultimately to one-world control ... and to an evil dictatorship. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Where does it all begin? It all begins with those in high places who are willing to control you and me. Money is not the question in the energy crisis today (even though it may be hard to believe while we shell out so much for energy). The price of gas at the fuel pump and the price of fuel oil that goes into your home for heating (or gas or electricity)—those are not the real factors. Price is not what they\'re after, even though they would like you to believe that it is. The motivating force today is control, power, manipulation, the ability to regulate every area of life in such a way that you can be brought completely under the domination of the
system and, in turn, those who manipulate that system.

At one time I, too, believed the oil companies were the \"bad guys,\" until I saw the oil companies struggling for their very existence. One time I, too, thought that the government was \"of the people,\' by the people, for the people.\"

There are a few in government who still live by that creed, and I hope that one result of writing this book will be that others will return to that point of view. (If they don\'t we need to let them know that after the next election they will be out job hunting!)

However, it is undoubtedly true that the great motivating concepts today are power and control (which are almost synonymous)—and surely by now you must see that this is not only in relation to energy, but it applies in other areas of life, as well.

So what is the conclusion? It is rather startling, isn\'t it? It is the conclusion I came to after a number of years of examining the facts and putting pieces together. We are being sold down the river and we\'d better put a stop to it before it\'s too late. As Mr. X said to me at Prudhoe Bay some years ago, \"There is no energy crisis. There has never been an energy crisis. There will never be an energy crisis, but rather it is the purpose of the \'powers that be\' to produce an energy crisis. Because, you see, Chaplain, there is as much crude oil on the North Slope of Alaska as in all of Saudi Arabia. [Not to mention all the rest of the places they have discovered oil and just capped it off!] If free enterprise were allowed to produce that oil, America could be independent for energy within five years time.\"

\"Not only that,\" Mr. X related, \"The United States could be financially free of the rest of the world within five years, if only private enterprise were allowed to develop natural resources—the energy ... crude oil and natural gas—that are found on the North Slope of Alaska today.\"

Do they really want us to be free of the rest of the world, or is it total control they are aiming for? The answer has become increasingly obvious and the pace has accelerated. Soon our current inflation rate of 18% will seem trivial. Your money will be worthless. You will, in fact, be controlled by a computer, which, in turn, is controlled by a dictator who will manipulate those under his control like robots. (The truth is that because of the convenience of all those sophisticated new systems, we are even now being lulled into complacency about retaining control over our own activities, in the area of banking and other financial transactions in particular, i.e., automatic deposit of your paycheck, automatic disbursements from your account, automatic grocery checkouts [by little lines on the packages], \"telephone\" bill-paying, automated 24-hour \"teller\" [a nice word for a machine], et al. We are being very subtly programmed to do business with machines [computers] instead of people.) The dictator will bring men and women into willing subjection by his favors, e.g., homes, finances, jobs, etc. All the time they themselves are—like flies—being drawn into his worldwide web of intrigue.

Stop it! Stand up and be counted! Soon it will be too late. John Doe Citizen, himself, must take action—NOW!
Reply #15 Top
There are two problems with your conclusions:

First, BP did not invest enough in maintenance or their pipeline would not have failed. It was 4 years BEYOND its life and BP had done nothing to replace or repair it. BIG oil, after expenses have record profit and are paying outrageous salaries to people that are not doing their jobs properly as proven by the BP pipe failure.

The rate on new oil supplies HAS NOT kept up with demand. There have been NO new refineries built even though the NET PROFITS are at record highs.

What ever BIG OIL has done is not enough and their NET PROFITS which is AFTER maintenance and exploration expenses are at RECORD HIGHS!