Offshore Oil Drilling

[MorningGlory]

It is his fault that he prevented drilling in his presidency. He had both houses of congress, too. This could have been done before Bush 43.

Actually, kat, the Republicans took both houses in '94 and held them until 2006. Clinton had a hostile Congress or six of his eight years. Mr. Bush has had two years now to push through his energy plan...where is it? Anyway, all I hear is someone prevented drilling ten years ago.....it's time to move on. If we don't drill now, in 2018 someone will be saying that someone prevented it in 2008. This constant blame game goes on, not only here, but in Congress. But that's why nothing ever gets done; it's all politics all the time and the country be damned. This is the main reason I despise politicians. What difference does it make whose fault it is...it's time to get Congress moving to solve the problem.

[Matthitjah]

BUTERO I do believe in the Bible and the Genesis account of creation. Do you? After all, this is a Christian web-site, so that shouldn't come as a surprise that some of us actually believe scripture, and place it above science.

I agree. What is your stand on Jesus?

In short, Jesus is the savior of the world as well as my personal savior. I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. I don't believe the bible is inerrant, however and I do believe that God gave us the desire to explore, question and discover, use logic and reason which eventually led us to scientific discoveries which have improved the world. Without science, we'd be much worse off in every aspect of our lives.

Grace to you,

Would you agree with this statement;

We believe in the Messiah, Jesus, God's only begotten son, God come in the flesh.

Peace,

Dave

[Guest Butero]

This is absolutely bogus, and I don't care if McCain supports it or not. There is no way you can prove closing the Enron loophole will cause gas prices to be cut in half. If you think you can, be my guest.

Gas prices are soaring because of rampant speculation which is enabled by the Enron loophole. (More on this.)

"Half" is a speculative fraction (no pun intended), but it could be much greater than that. I could cite some economists but do you consider economists to be credible?

1) My point is that claiming doing away with the Enron loophole will drop gas prices in half is nothing but a wild guess.

2) If the Congress wants to close this loophole, they should put the issue up for a vote in a bill with nothing else in it, and bring it to the floor for a vote. I am tired of Congress putting things in bills that have nothing to do with the bill in it's original form. We almost need a Constitutional Amendment to fix this.

Even if we do vote to do this, we should still drill and refine. I don't care if it does take 5 or even 10 years to make a difference. That was the same excuse Clinton made for failing to drill over 10 years ago.

3) I'm not accepting that kind of short sighted argument.

1) Your point is not even a wild guess because you don't know if it will or won't.

2) republicans will simply obstruct by filibuster. They have used the filibuster since 2006, when they lost congressional majority, more than any time in history as a ploy to say that the democrats are a do nothing congress. It's sad that they can't just work with the majority party instead of acting like children who can't have their way.

2a) You keep acting like it's Pres. Clintons fault that we are in this mess. Umm... Bush 43 had a rubberstamp congress for the first 6 years of his presidency including while gas prices were starting to rapidly climb. Why didn't the republican party fix the so called "problem during those 6 years? In fact why don't you look back to the Nixon era and let us know how many years since then have republicans either held a veto proof majority and/or the presidency...

3) But you'll accept a stupid one from republicans who did nothing for the last 6 years?

There is no reason to believe Republicans would fillibuster a bill to close the Enron loophole. They didn't fillibuster the bill that had that in it plus a bunch of other junk. Write your representatives and tell them you want a clean bill that only includes doing away with the enron loophole and nothing else.

While it is true Bush had a Republican majority in Congress, it was Democrats that were fillibustering anything he tried to do. I guess you could say they were refusing to go along with the majority party, and were acting like children. When the shoe is on the other foot, they don't like it. Tough.

[Guest Butero]

What difference does it make whose fault it is...it's time to get Congress moving to solve the problem.

On this point, we agree.

[kat8585]

It is his fault that he prevented drilling in his presidency. He had both houses of congress, too. This could have been done before Bush 43.

Actually, kat, the Republicans took both houses in '94 and held them until 2006. Clinton had a hostile Congress or six of his eight years. Mr. Bush has had two years now to push through his energy plan...where is it? Anyway, all I hear is someone prevented drilling ten years ago.....it's time to move on. If we don't drill now, in 2018 someone will be saying that someone prevented it in 2008. This constant blame game goes on, not only here, but in Congress. But that's why nothing ever gets done; it's all politics all the time and the country be damned. This is the main reason I despise politicians. What difference does it make whose fault it is...it's time to get Congress moving to solve the problem.

But did we have enough of a majority to stop obstruction by the Dems? I don't remember. I know this administration hasn't done anything either, but at least there are some sane Repubs who want to do something now.

[MorningGlory]

But did we have enough of a majority to stop obstruction by the Dems? I don't remember. I know this administration hasn't done anything either, but at least there are some sane Repubs who want to do something now.

Probably not enough of a majority no; Congress has had a very thin majority, one way or the other since 2000. Yes, there are those who want to move forward but they're fighting an uphill battle. And some have changed their minds, like McCain, because we're living in a different time than 1995. I think that's the problem; that so many can't let go of what WAS and realize we are in a pickle. These are the ones who need to be turned out of Congress. The world changes pretty often; bloated, bellicose, unresponsive government is of no use to us.

[kat8585]

I did answer it, as specifically as I know how.

I know this happens all the time, but it's still wrong.

...So, because the measure happened to be in the farm bill, we should let the Enron loophole stay open and let gas prices keep climbing?

Like this is the sole reason gas prices are rising????

[Ovedya]

I did answer it, as specifically as I know how.

I know this happens all the time, but it's still wrong.

...So, because the measure happened to be in the farm bill, we should let the Enron loophole stay open and let gas prices keep climbing?

Like this is the sole reason gas prices are rising????

I don't believe that. I could be one reason, but usually these things are multi-faceted. We should be putting all our eggs in one basket.

[The Lorax]

Like this is the sole reason gas prices are rising????

Speculation is the main reason oil prices are rising. And this speculation is permitted by the Enron loophole. If McCain really wanted oil prices to go down, he would try and CLOSE the loophole. And he would FIRE Phil Gramm from his staff, as Phil Gramm CREATED the loophole.

McCain's hands could not be dirtier in this matter.

[JustinM]

So, when the speculators are dealt with, who will be the ugly, unnamed and unfaced gremlin? Since Congress regulates what we can seek, drill, produce and use, they are ultimately responsible for this burden, yet they have found another scapegoat to demonize.

Speculators aren't the problem. Supply and Demand is. When there's people speculating that the price of oil is going to rise, there's plenty others that speculate that the price of oil is gonna drop. It's the stock market of commodities. People are buying and selling and making money.

Saturate the market with oil and the prices will plummet.

Economics 101. Supply v Demand.