So if we are so low on oil WHY are we are shutting down wells in Colorado??!?  

So why can't we subsidize oil production? Wouldn't it pay better to take care of our own than to get it from foreign countries? That's something I think would make a lot more sense....

I totally understand...and you are right about the oil reserves in Alaska. There are others in our great country too but we will probably never see it though...
And if that is true about the pipeline it's also true that Alaskans get a nice little check in the mail each year for being citizens of that state...so why can't we just get the oil we need for ourselves and quit playing this stupid politcal game?

Isn't that the truth? I would love to use a little "home boy" economics on these bozo's!

I'm sure you probably understand this better than most of us here at mylot but I guess I just would love for SOMEONE to have more common sense than to let these crooks get away with this...and it's the politions too....I mean if they really wanted to put a stop to it they would be ear marking monies to help this problem instead of millions to study the effects of pig manure.....seems like the smell from Washington would be what they should be working on instead....

I forgot to add, domestic oil always used to be more expensive than foreign oil. That's why we don't send it via pipelines all over the country. Most areas are supplied with foreign oil. Now that domestic oil is actually cheaper (I heard a report on Texas mentioning this), the national demand for it isn't really going up, because there are no pipelines in place to get it where it's needed. They said, it would be too costly to build a pipeline to supply the whole nation with the now cheaper Texas oil to just have it to be more expensive than foreign oil again in a couple of years. Go figure!

I have to differ with you on whether it's cheaper than using foreign oil over ours...for one thing they wouldn't have their finger on us for favors etc...and for another we could find a way to make it cheaper if we didn't have the oil companies playing the money game...I don't have a lot of sympathies for the filthy rich.....

Well, that is your right to differ in opinion. While I agree that the oil companies play the money game and are filthy rich, it is, however, a fact that oil production here is indeed more expensive than for example in the Middle East. And for both we pay political favors. The domestic producers get all kinds of tax breaks and other special treatments. If at this point it wouldn't be cheaper to put alternative energy measures in place, they would even be able to negotiate being subsidized because those 'poor' oil millionaires have to pay the high wages in the US and drill harder to find more oil and it's oh so more expensive to get it out of the ground (as if that wasn't factored into the price for years). The wanting to stay competitive card would have easily been played.
Although we are not ready yet, the days of the oil profits are numbered. They are doing their best to prevent it. It's another perk they have been given. Why do you think the US is so far behind in alternative energy resources? With so many brilliant scientists around, shouldn't we be the leaders with the cutting edge alternative energy technology? For years politicians have given in to the oil lobbying. There hardly were funds for research into alternative energy. Slowly but surely things grew stronger in that market only because oil became so much more expensive and we needed something to fall back on. I have do give Obama one thing, he is finally making a major push into that direction and away from oil. Oil is a limited and non-renewable resource. The people in the business knew it for decades. They took their profits when they could. They were the most expensive producers around, because they could. They could still sell their oil. Now they are all sitting on it and went down in price, because unlike those foreign producers, domestic producers have an extremely limited market. They simply have hit the point of market saturation and are not willing to make the investment to spread out. They shut down and bite their time.

Well a crisis like this is definitely the right moment to pay more attention to other sources of energy. In my country wind energy had peaks this winter of 25% though on average it covers at least 12%.

I agree with you as fas as the alternative energy goes...we have wind turbines that are supposed to be going up around our area and the company was turned down by the feds on it last year...we are still waiting on this coming year.
But I don't believe and I think a lot of others don't believe that we are in dire straits with the amount of oil we have in America. I think that's a smoke screen made up of liberals and big oil companies trying to get what they want.
I will say that we can cut down on production and would be a good thing for a lot of business but their are some businesses that simply cannot run on alternative fuel/energy. We have to up production for them alone...

I agree with you jonesy123.
I have nothing more I could add to what you have said.

Actually Alaska has enough oil to last decades underneath it's surface and we have tons of the stuff off shore...it is politcal in the sense that people don't really want us to be independent .....they just spout crap like that to make us think that they are trying to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem...

This still doesn't make sense....if people really want oil then there should be a way to subsidize or help us to get more oil. I don't think it's that it's so expensive to produce but that the rich aren't as rich as they used to be.

As usual Destiny you made my day....but maybe it's just the "other" little discussion we are on that is making us both crazy?
I love it when you are your outragious you....thanks for the smile my friend!!!

I believe your totally right...we need to look ahead instead of living hand to mouth so to speak. We just keep digging a deeper and deeper problem here in the US and it's only going to get worse!

I think half the time, that people just don't stop and think things out in their busy, busy lives. Time to sit down and assess these things, methinks.

Isn't that the truth?! If people would just slow up even a little I think they'd find that their world doesn't have to be so harried and hassled....

Quite right but I think nowadays, people get to panicked and stressed, unlike years ago, when they just more or less took things in their stride and as they reared their heads.

Well for one thing we haven't lived in a war in our countries for a very long time. And without that direct kind of hardship I don't think people feel like they can put things into perspective as well...you know like it was in America in the 30's when we had the dust bowl. Everyone was in it and it affected everyone so they all just worked together to get through it and it made them appreciate the little things and it helped them to learn to do without...to take care of themselves.

Yes, you're right! I remember how long after the Second WW rationing went on here. It was a treat to have something other than jam on our bread at times. lol. It did make us appreciate what we had though.

Exactly! I think even my generation didn't have to work as hard as our parents and I would venture to guess that most kids wouldn't have a clue how to live the life we had as kids....

No, I guess they wouldn't. They have everything so easy and don't realise what their forefathers went through to give them that status in life, but I guess if those times were to return, people would have to learn to adjust and adapt, just the same as they did in those days.

That's true...we haven't given them the tools but the human spirit will prevail and they would learn...they may have to sooner than they'd like too. I heard the other day that their are a lot of people in the world think that the problems here in the US are going to go worldwide with devastation everywhere...sounds a little out there for me but you never know!

We already have the problems here my friend, and I think possibly several other countries do too.

But that still doesn't make sense. If we need to be free of other countries we need to find a way to make this work. Why couldn't we subsidize this business so that we could profit from the oil we have? If stands to reason that we keep talking about other ways of energy but we can't really be free of all oil. It has too many uses. I don't mean we should all be driving SUV's but some people like farmers and truckers need oil for their business.....