Re: Motivation for the Oil Barons

On Jun 7, 11:10 am, The Trucker <mik...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Bur it is not environmentalists that prevent refining capacity.  It is
> simply the cost of constructing new refineries as opposed to
> consolidating personnel and enlarging the current refineries.

But a major part of that cost is dealing with the gauntlet thrown up
by the environmentalists - and the horrendous hurdles which the gov't
throws up.

>...The ANWR
> deal as currently structured seems to _GIVE_ the oil companies 1.3
> trillion dollars worth of oil...

That much? Hmmm...someone here was arguing that ANWR had relatively
little oil, a drop in the bucket in comparison to what we need. Which
of course is beside the point. New discoveries only have *to replace*
the depletion in existing wells.

>.... that rightfully belongs to the people of the
> United States.

By what right? The enormous investment in the billions and risks will
not be borne by "the people". It will be borne by the oil companies -
who are entitled *to every penny* they can extract as a result.

The benefit to "the people" is the increased supply of oil and the
benefit to the people of the profits of the oil companies is that they
will be able to fund more exploration and production. "The people" are
not entitled to anything else and what they get is plenty....and for
no effort whatever except pulling up to the pump and filling their
cars (even at current prices oil is a tremendous bargain).

Fred Weiss