Ethanol is not imperfect, it’s insane to use it. And Peak Oil fears drives the 3rd axis of commodity price, speculation. The other 2 are demand and currency rates. By all rights we should be at 45 a barrel, reflecting consumption and supply. But the price of a barrel goes up when our dollar goes down because since 2004 oil has shifted to Euros instead of US dollars for the base price. Thanks Europe, the EU treaty was not in our best interests and the middle east figured out they could use it to hammer the US economy on energy price. The rest of the world used to see a huge increase in energy costs when the dollar went down, now not so much as before.

Really the only solutions we have in the short term is to announce drilling and production domestically to push back the speculators and raise interest rates to get the dollar back up. But until we bail out the banks and delinquent home buyers they will keep the rate low.

The Left should thank GWB, they always wanted high gas prices and work on alternatives to go forward and they are. It’s funny to watch them rail about high gas prices when they wanted high gas prices for years to spurn development of windmill powered cars. I guess they have a problem with OPEC cashing in instead of the federal government, it’s hard to spend gas taxes on useless s#it when Dubai is building Disneyland on the Persian Gulf.

Are we all going to buy a new Prius? I don’t think so.

Ethanol is not perfect, but oil importers can not be choosers. Peak Oil is here. Get real.

The car industry is on the ropes. Cut out ethanol and it’s flat on its back.

Oh wait, maybe that is what TTAC readers want.

I can tell you as a fact that the oil companies of today are better stewards of the land than either the general public, or the government.

Before you yell rape, you should do some research. Start by going to a popular national park. Look for signs of damage. Then, go to some federal lands where there has been drilling, and the pump jacks or well heads are still on site.

See how much harder it is to find the evidence the oil companies are there. Come back and share what you have learned with the group.

It’s not admirable, it’s pathetic. It’s like the luxury tax that the liberals put on yachts. They got almost no revenue, but destroyed all the nice boat companies and put their employees on the street.

As for ANWR, what is the point of making a special place that is, by designation, a preserve and then allow it to be raped for so little in return. Say a new “mega” dam could be built in the US, but it had serious repercussions on a variety of local ecosystems. It still might make sense because the payoff would be a lot of clean energy for decades. The tradeoff between environmental damage and energy production makes sense. ANWR make no sense because the energy that is said to be available is too small to make the likely damage worth the risk. This is our last major area of unmolested sensitive land. I think we should have much higher efficiency standards in place before we even think of touching ANWR. Drilling here will make a few fat cats fatter and do nothing for the average American. What would help is encouraging investment in sensible alternatives. Oh, wait, the Republicans just shot that down today, after allowing Big Oil to keep their unneeded tax breaks. The selfish shit just never ends…

But on this one, he pulled a real boner.

From O’Reilly.com-”Bill O’Reilly was born in Manhattan, and raised on Long Island. His Bachelor’s degree is in History from Marist College, and he has a Master’s in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University and another Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

OK. When does your 1/2 hour commence?

That plan may or may not work out, but it’s not unworthy of serious consideration, and it’s not from the Iowa corn lobby.

Furthermore, no oil was spilt even during the hurricanes!

Are you merely willfully ignorant, or are you actively lying? A modicum of research would have shown:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2005/sep/16/usnews.hurricanekatrina
“Katrina oil spills may be among worst on record”

http://skytruth.mediatools.org/objects/view.acs?object_id=7230
Plenty of satellite pictures

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9365607/ – 4 million gallons!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175553

http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/damaged+energy+facilities/

There’s no excuse for not being aware of the basic facts before spouting off.

He does get off track when he tries to explain oil markets. During a previous spike in oil prices he was looking for “Charley over there” who sets gasoline prices, to expose him on national TV! LOL! Best part was that he apparently concluded such a person must exist from one conversation with his local gas station owner. Nothing like an in-depth investigation, eh?

And the last time an oil derrick in the Gulf put pesticides and fertilizer into the Mississippi River was when? I don’t see how the sins of modern agriculture are the fault of oil drilling.

Not that drilling for oil is without consequences, but that isn’t one of them.

I like how his rant promoted more discussion about the issue, can’t say that about everyone.

It gets worse. If you want use ANWR as a substitute for furrin’ oil: that 12 years supply figure is at 5% demand. Replace Saudi Arabia and Venezuela with ANWR and we’re suddenly at 25%, or three to four years of supply. Wow, hardly seems worth the wholesale destruction of the environment, doesn’t it?

Oh, please…THAT tired old saw? Let’s give it a rest about oil exploration and extraction “destroying” the environment! We are getting oil from the Gulf of Mexico, and there’s no “wholesale destruction” happening there.

Furthermore, no oil was spilt even during the hurricanes!

PLEASE let’s not use the environmnent as an excuse for not getting some of the oil that is trapped underground in such a desolate, remote region of OUR OWN COUNTRY. And it IS desolate and remote. The caribou and elk don’t even live that far North, anyhow.

Intersting though that all three plug / advertise for GM….just one more thing for some on this site to hate them even more!

What? Just because I’ve sworn off GM for my own safety, that doesn’t mean that I should hate them for advertising The General’s products. I’m confused by that comment…in a free nation with a (mostly) capitalistic economy, aren’t people are allowed to advertise for whomever they wish?

As long as the check doesn’t bounce, I say more power to ‘em.

O’Reilly loses me when he goes down the populist route. I like him best when he is going after scumbags

Limbaugh lost me a long time ago

Hannity—although he is a shill for the Republican party most of the time—seems more grounded than the others—-doesn’t seem to take himself so seriously.

Intersting though that all three plug / advertise for GM….just one more thing for some on this site to hate them even more !

Grace, Oberman, and O’Reilly never let facts, truth, or logic get in the way of a good rant. Limbaugh worked his way up being a much more sensible speaker, but somewhere he got to be predictable and a bombastic. (you can actually track the conservative voting success with Limbaugh’s career. It grew when he was being persuasive, and started failing when he went from popular to a household name by being more noisy).

O’Reilly has also gotten worse over the years. I blame all of the above on ratings mongering. Idiocy sells better than sensibility. (Windfall profits tax anyone?)

Hannity, being conservative, usually has the right conclusions, but no idea why. Seriously, I often agree with the guy until he tries to explain his position, then he loses me. I blame his errors on simple lack of intelligence. Not that he isn’t bright, just that he doesn’t really think things through enough. If you don’t understand the underlying principles of why something is correct, then you are easily confused when trying to make opinions on new issues.

Your are right Keith Olberman..O’Reilly is the worst person in the world !

That said—tell that to my friend who personally experienced one of the scum of the earth child molesters who benefited from a lenient judge giving him a slap on the wrist. BTW…O’Reilly has publically gone after said judge—not bad for one of the worst people in the world.

Also—O’Reilly is no shill for the far right. That job is left for Limbaugh and Hannity.

Time and again he’s been called out for factual and errors and outright lies. He’s just another blow-hard with no credibility as a journalist. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to matter much in today’s media environment.

Bill dared to speak out in favor of Ethanol! He is lucky he hasn’t been hung from the nearest tree by the drill nothing, grow nothing, you drive a Yugo while I fly my corporate jet – crowd.

Run Bill, run! Don’t you know that Ethanol is not fashionable anymore? It’s a boondoggle I tell you. BOONDOGGLE!

I’m all for lifting tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. It would instantly lower the price of fuel in the US, ease food prices, and make Bill O’Reilly turn a slightly deeper shade of purple.

Funny thing is that some people actually watch him as and tread every word as gospel and believe every word he says. Then there’s Nancy Grace and Rush Limbaugh. What’s funny after one of their diatribes on why they are right and it is proven wrong…the pains it takes for them to admit it (which they often never do).