Oil Policy: Stupidity on Steriods

Can anyone hazard a guess as to why our illustrious government has been pumping oil out of the North Slope, transporting to Texas, and then pumping right back into the ground? That is essentially what the Bush administration has been doing for the last 7 years as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been filling up.  I suppose it must be the Republican version of a jobs program moving the oil from one US storage facility to another. I don't see any new infrastructure in place but that, of course, is the beauty of it.  The continuing success of the Republicans in their war to impoverish the American government and all it stands for.

It never got on the radar until the high gasoline prices finally got the Senate, on a vote of 99 to 1 to tell the moron in chief that the game was over.  But this is merely the tip of the stupidity iceberg.

The movement of the oil from Alaska to Texas is the reality when oil is traded on a world market.  The oil being put into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is oil from anywhere and the oil being sucked out of the North Slope is oil sent to the same nebulous anywhere.  The real United States strategic petroleum reserve is all the oil within the sovereign control of the United States government.  It does not matter if it is stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or the North Slope or in the ANWR or in the Gulf of Mexico or offshore or, when push comes to shove, under some Texan's ranch.  But for the undeniable fact that it takes time and bucks to "develop" an oil field, all of this oil is American oil and that is what "dependence on foreign oil" and "strategic" is all about.

And this brings us to the real point of the discussion:  I Do not want anyone to be caught flat footed by the tap dancing righties when it comes to responsibility for the current price of gasoline. Pride yourselves on being rational and somewhat apologetic for the moratorium in the Florida Straight and the gulf of Mexico.  But do it while sticking it to em about the ANWR and the deregulation of the oil futures markets.  It is the futures market deregulation and Republican destruction of the dollar that are major contributors to the oil bubble. In point of fact, the delivery of oil from the ANWR at best projected extraction rates would reduce the price of gasoline by an estimated 2 cents a gallon, and that is at the current ridiculous bubble prices. Drilling the ANWR is/was not a solution to this problem even if it had been started 10 years ago.  (the discussion of dollar devaluation and market speculation will wait).

As the Republicans prance around screeching about the ANWR it is important to understand that the oil that exists in the Florida Straight (estimated at 4 billion barrels) is as much Cuba's oil as it is America's oil. The stupid stuff is the refusal of the Bush regime to talk to the Cubans so as to pursue a proper development of the these shared oil fields. Such a joint venture would be in the interest of both parties but Republican rightardedness stands firmly in the way.  Speaking strategically, while Bush moves oil from Alaska to Texas, the Cubans cut a deal with the Chinese to suck that oil right back out of Florida and a lot more.

The Republicans wave the "Green Environmentalists prevented drilling the ANWR and caused the price of gasoline to soar" flag. But you never hear a peep about the Florida Straight where Cuba is about to tap in to our "strategic reserves".  The Greens are guilty of forcing a moratorium on drilling within 50 miles of the coast.  It is time to eat a little crow and make an exception to that while dealing with the Cubans.  The Cuban problem is why the righties will always flail the ANWR distraction.  Believe me, the oil in the ANWR is not going to jump up and run away to Cuba or disappear as the City of Atlantis. Yet all you will hear from Republican apologists is ANWR, ANWR, ANWR.

On closer examination this is because the Alaskans and Ted "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens are going to get a 50% cut on the "Alaskan oil".  It's time to rethink this entire deal, kids.  Time to ask who really owns the oil that lies in the American Public Domain; in the American Commons; in the non private REAL strategic reserves.  That is OUR oil.  It doesn't belong to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alaska or the Republicans or the Oil Companies.  No more Three Card Monty, please. Let the real games begin.  Who really owns the oil?