OldTrader, You make some great points and my intention was to broad brush my ideas as briefly as possible. As a general rule, I believe the government should stay out of the way. That includes both roadblocks to current energy sources (i.e. our ridiculous aversion to nuclear power) as well as pushing a pet alternative (i.e. my ethanol comments above). The problem is that the people in government who make these regulations and promote various alternatives are not motivated by the best economic outcome, but rather by lobbies and getting re-elected. That results in bad policy. Nuclear is a great example. It is one of, if not the, most efficient source of energy and congress simply ignores or flat out opposes its use. Why? Because it doesn't work? Nope. Its because the environmental lobby has them huddled in the corner in fear for their elected lives. I also do not oppose tax credits in most cases, versus direct subsidies and/or tariffs. That is solely due to my opposition to taxes in general and the appropriate role of government. I realize that a tax credit is no different economically than a cash payout, but at least its applied to money already paid to the government, which is something I favor reducing as much as possible, but that is for another discussion. As for things like transmission lines, of course the government has to be involved, just like they do with electrical lines now. That is what government exists for. But they shouldn't be determining which alternative source is going to be used. Let the market decide what people want. People keep mentioning that it costs a lot to develop new energy...of course it does, which is why we still use oil at $140 a barrel. But as oil has gone up, more investment is driven to these other ideas. When one pans out, it will be developed by private means. It is the only efficient way to do it. If Pickens thinks wind is the answer, then he will find the money to do it because it will make a profit. Profit attracts capital. Government subsidies on the other hand simply attract bad idea after bad idea because there is the lure of the public trough. It is only when capital can chase "good" ideas (and that happens by letting the bad ideas flop as quickly as possible) that they come to market and help people in the fastest time possible. We can't stop using oil just for the sake of not using oil, as the environmental religious zealots would have us do...we have to have a cheaper alternative to achieve widespread adoption of it. So to try and sum up my scattered thoughts, I am not opposed to Pickens ideas, nor am I against his "profiteering" from them. I just oppose his assertion that "we can't drill our way out" or that wind is the best option. Let the risk takers do their thing...there are plenty of them because the reward at the end is so immense. There is a "Bill Gates" out there somewhere that is working on the alternative energy that will be more efficient than oil...and someday he will be richer than Gates, which is what insures a constant flow of cash into promising ideas. Time and capital, not government, will tell.
=============== Neat points.Odtrader. And for business readers/even occasional watchers of CNBC,FOX news; Boone Pickens positions have been disclosed many times. Actually USA seems to have more problems with people who dont have a conflict of interest or much interest at all- like a manager of the state of TN drivers license renewals. He was fired for a lack of interest in his work
"On the other side you have the OP, a condescending elitist that uses a barrage of supposed "facts" and insults to try and bully the opposition into submission. Things like simply accusing you of having "logic fallacies" or inferring you haven't graduated from high school, without any real substance to back it up. This is the modus operandi of the left.." Actually it was BUllalert who threw the logic concept into the fray.BA also was the first to start the insults and bullying with calling pelosi an a-hole and blaming everything on clinton and other right wing conspiracy nonsense-hence my g.e.d. suggestion. Please re-read his post before starting your baseless accusations. "To say we can't drill our way out of this problem is simply rhetoric that can not be proved or disproved until its tried. " Its Pickens that says we cant drill our way out of the problem.Listen to the end of the ad. " I say let the companies that make a living from drilling decide if its worth it. If it is, then thanks to the pursuit of profit they will get the oil...if its not, then they will quit when it costs them more than its worth." I dont want them making any more decisions on our behalf because they have already proven how incompetent they are with their influence on this govt in the last few years. "And the argument about "ugly drilling" is simply outdated. That was drilling 40 years ago...the technology is cleaner and safer than ever before."". Drilling is not clean nor will it ever be.They ignore laws and bury the sludge and equipment straight into the pits.Look at the tar sands in canada. "The OP mentioned a "fact" that gas prices would only drop 2 cents if we drilled in ANWR. How does he (or the DOE that he claims is the source...although I have only heard Chuck Shumer say it) know this?" Ok i would think the DOE would know a little more about this than you.But again the right wing always dismisses science or fact in lieu of hyperbole and opinion whether its their fight in ignoring global warming,stem cell science, or whether the world is flat or round.Your supposed to base your beleifs on reality NOT conform your reality to your beleifs-a classic symptom of the right wing. "Just the knowledge of our intentions to get our own oil would immediately cause prices to fall. OPEC knows that there is a price level at which it is not profitable for us to drill new wells and would increase production to get prices to these levels so that they can continue to make money from us. It would not simply be the new supply available from ANWR that would cause prices to come down. The "evil" speculators know this and would adjust their bids and offers accordingly. You would think this would be second nature to a community full of traders. " And you think this is fact?Please tell me what happened to the price of oil since that major oil field was discovered off the coast of brazil? "The free market .... I am not talking about conservation, that is fine and dandy, but we can not stop the engine of progress that requires an ever increasing amount of energy..." You call melting polar caps,changing weather patterns,declining species, -progress?Free markets are great but they are not free and the whole concept of deregulated markets is being proven a fallacy in the mortgage meltdown,currency crisis,energy crisis. You need rules and regulation in free markets or things fall apart. Lastly,the demand and supply of oil is unsustainable.Its a doomsday scenario.We use 20 million barrels a day while china uses 7 million a day.They have 4x our population and they are growing their gdp at 8x ours. Now look at India.Same demographics except they currently use half as much oil as china.These 2 countries alone have nearly 10x our population and are just entering their growth. Todays supply cannot meet the demand.So what about tomorrow?Whatever oil we find today is going to be negligible by any metric. "Liberty, not government, is the solution to the human condition. Its worked everywhere its been tried." Hmmm,like countrywide or enron couldnt have used a little more govt regulation?Talk about bumper sticker slogan.
Well helloo ? you thought people appearing on CNBC didn't have a hidden agenda. You don't think they go on TV because they have nothing else to do , do you ?
Is Boone any relation to Slim Pickins? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb_enh-lores-720p.jpg
Unless your last name is Clinton or Pelosi, who on ET did I bully? Also, stop exagerrating. I blamed only one thing on Clinton, not "everyhting." I stated that Clinton was the biggest land grabber. Can you disprove that?
I propose the government immediately cease funding medical research. This research will not produce any results for years, perhaps decades. Maybe never. In any event it will not eliminate disease. We can't research our way to health.
dsq, I am not going to argue with you, because we will never agree. I do not care to take the time here to debate man made global warming as you have obviously made up your mind. But your last point proved mine. The Countrywide and Enron's of the world should be allowed to fail, not bailed out by the government. The mortgage issues are not from any failure of the free market, but because of government interference in the free flow of capital. You can't tell banks they have to lend to people that are not credit worthy and then throw your hands up in disgust when those people default on their mortgages. And you certainly can't ask all the people that made good decisions with their money to bail them out. Capitalism can be tough sometimes, just like life. If you make a bad decision you have to accept the consequences. But its a heck of a lot easier than communism, which is where the left is headed.
Actually its the right that is headed to communism.They are the ones that are supporting fraud schemes(the mortgage meltdown,artificial interest rates,etc..) and then when they fail give companies govt BAILOUTS. I was not talking about govt action after companies have tanked I am talking about action BEFORE they tank via REGULATION...A CONCEPT DERIDED BY THE RIGHT.In fact deregulation has been the main mantra of the right since reagan.If we banks were forced to verify stated income none of this garbage would have happened.How in GOds name can you be allowed to make a loan for 500k to somebody without collateral or background check into their income?What idiot would do that?It defies logic or common sense.Yet now we the taxpayers have to pay for it??? It is the right that demanded deregulation of energy markets in california and enron got what it wanted.Without rules in place ,they proceeded with their huge fraud scheme. If we didnt allow banks to make liar loans to undocumented dishwashers we wouldnt be in this current mess.But thanks to the anti regulation agenda of the right and freemarket puppets banks were allowed to run a ponzi scheme.It is the right is for corporate socialism-they want the bailouts. I dont support any bailouts for bear,countrywide etc...they should fail if it is a free market. I think we have all learned that freemarkets arent free through these devastating financial collapses and bailouts. We need regulation.Desperately because after 3 decades of this deregulation we have endured more massive financial collapses via a lawless freemarket than at any other time in history.Deregulation equals fraud and imminent collapse.
Larry Kudlow should be shot and pissed on... to, "Drill, Drill, Drill" ... is just putting a short-term bandaid on a long term problem. This is a serious long-term problem. The province of Ontario has several wind farms around S.W. Ont. The farms have had to shut down ( discontinue the installation of new farms to be more precise) due to the surplus of energy flooding the grid. The infrasturcture around this grid needs to be rebuilt in order to handle the future requirements of incoming electicity. In other words, there's more coming in than we can handle. We need to seriously look at the supply of energy from wind as a viable option to becoming more (energy) self-sufficient. B