Home > The Clock is Ticking, Mr. Bush

The Clock is Ticking, Mr. Bush

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 31 August 2005
5 comments

Governments Energy USA

I’m confused.

The news report today, that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said that five million people in the Gulf states would be without power for 6 to 8 weeks, was followed by an advisement that gas for your car, home heating oil and natural gas prices would rise.

Maybe I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, but aren’t we still in a free-market, supply and demand economy? And with five million people not using much of our precious energy supplies - not driving, not using electricity, not heating or cooling their homes - shouldn’t there be more gas and oil for the rest of us.

Shouldn’t the prices of these things be going down instead of up?

The media keeps telling us that there’s a supply disruption because the refineries and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico may not be fully operational for some unknown time and therein lies the leap of faith by which we buy into the oil company logic. Given supply disruptions, shortages would occur. There have been no shortages reported, only the continued warnings of higher prices at the pump and in our homes.

If one is so inclined to buy into the oil company argument of supply disruption, leading to shortages, resulting in higher prices, then a couple of questions need to be answered by our inestimable leader, President Bush.

First, if there are going to be supply disruptions, when are you planning on drawing down the strategic oil reserves?

The strategic oil reserves are meant as a protective measure in times of crisis. The devastation in the gulf states is a national catastrophe with many lives at risk and many already surely lost. The President should be acting swiftly and with directness of purpose to lead our nation out of this crisis. Instead, Mr. Bush was in California making a speech and playing a round of golf.

According to the official government Department of Energy (DOE)web site, "The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil in the world." There are 727 million barrels in the reserve, enough to knock world oil prices for a loop, commit enough to the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana to help them through the next few difficult months and give the nation a break at the pump (we could use the money saved to give to the Red Cross or other charitable organizations). The average price paid by the government for this oil is $27.25 per barrel.

Drawing down the reserves makes so much sense, two US Senators even suggested it. New Jersey’s Jon Corzine and New York’s Charles Schumer called on the President to release the reserves.

The other question we must ask the president is, the longer we wait for your decision, would we be correct in assuming that you are really working for Exxon-Mobil instead of the American people?

After all, the Labor Day weekend is upon us and the oil companies have promised an increase in gas prices because of hurricane Katrina, so...

While you’re back in Washington, "monitoring" the relief effort, the clock is ticking, Mr. Bush.

Judy Stillson writes the Daily Drift every Monday through Friday for Downtown Magazine. -http://www.dtmagazine.com

Forum posts

  • Loans are going to be made from the SPR. That’s what it’s there for. What did you think the energy department was going to do? Empting it out would ony leave us unprepared for the next interuption in the oil supply. "Drawing it down", as you state, does not make sense. We need the reserves in place to cover for any long-term oil shortage.

  • You’re right- you’re not the brightest bulb in the drawer. "Drawing down the reserves" would not help when the refineries in the Gulf Coast are out of commission. We would have crude, unprocessed oil but no gasoline.

    I’d also like to point out that the 500,000 people displaced from New Orleans will still be using oil-based resources in the next 6 to 8 weeks. Even if those people were completely cut off from fuel and electricity, it would not make a dent in the country’s fuel consumption.

  • Yo, dumbass:

    We need refinery capacity, not crude oil. And Bush did open the SPR, although it won’t help gas prices in the short term, since all the working refineries are running at maximum capacity.

    • Excuse me, 165.***.204.*, but when did Bush draw down the SPR? The only thing I’ve found about Bush drawing down the SPR, is a little story from MSNBC, dated 8-29-2005 stating that he ’might’ draw down the SPR in order to help the South East recover from Hurricane Katrina. That’s it. Nothing on Google or Yahoo about this newsworthy story, if it’s true. Where did you, 165.****.204.* get this information? By the way, the price of crude oil has been rising steeply these last 2 years, so releasing some of the reserve would help to offset this trend, regardless of refinery capacity. It’s called law of supply and demand. The SPR was conceived to help the nation in times of economic crisis, which is where we are now. All I’ve read about on this issue is saying the opposite, that Bush is adding to the SPR, at about 177,000 barrels a day, and not drawing down.

      Note: it is amazingly easy nowadays, to tell neo-con sympathizers from more intelligent American bloggers. The more intelligent American blogger, regardless of political affinity, is only concerned with the facts and cold hard logic, and is loathe to use derisive terms like, ’moron’, or ’idiot’ or ’dumbass’ simply to get a point across. Such crass behavior might be acceptable at a frat-party, or a crack house, but never in an earnest discussion of the issues between serious adults. You neocons ape your President’s arrogant and crude language so well, and speaks volumes of who you are and what kind of intellect you actually possess.

  • "We need refinery capacity...".

    Somebody should emphasize this fact moore. On the other hand Americas oil industry has already announced they will not increase refinery capacities, because investments would be to high. So far that is no help even Bush promised billion to his oil friends they are not going to spend it in America.

    The hurricane showed another thing: disability of the econmic system to deal with that case before and after such a catastrophy.

    1. They knew that the hurrican would hit - so why didn’t the evacuate all people in N. O? Where is the equipment besides of these ridiculous sandbag approach to repair the levy system?

    2. The infrastracture in all American staates is so lousy build f. e. electricity on poles and not leak proof sewage systems. Money has been squandered everywhere, but there seems to be no common sense.

    3. The National Guard system was created to deal with emergencies, but the Bush Administration decided to put them out of area in Iraq.

    Finally the hatred this Administration generated around the world is know showing off: there wasn’t any offer of help to made to the U.S. so far.

    We ask for withdrawal of all American troops deployed around the world, America need help now!

    Freedom, humanity and human rights for all Americans.