Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: miraje who wrote (135219)	8/30/2005 12:35:54 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793563

The recently passed port laden boondoggle of an "energy bill" isn't the answer, either. This country and our economy doesn't, and never will, run on windmills and solar panels. It runs on petroleum and its derivatives and we need more. If the powers that be in this country do not quickly remove the numerous impediments to drilling, exploring and expanding (and regionally diversifying) refining capabilities, then we are in for hard times ahead. I don't think that the problem is chicken little or hype. IMO, it's real and imminent. Time will tell. Interesting times we live in... i completely agree with you...and i think mark steyn stated it best (from the piece LB posted earlier)...we want to put out fires and address political constituencies without doing the difficult, long-term, strategic thinking and re-thinking that may just lead to a whole new paradigm and a jettisoning of failed policies and ideas <snip from the article> So the real test of this hurricane is whether, after the event, there's still the will to tackle the long-term questions. For example, as further refutation of the Diamond thesis, in 1981 America had 315 oil refineries in operation; today, it has 144. Louisiana has 17 of them, operating - pre-hurricane - at capacity. Which is why petrol will be up 20 cents a gallon by the weekend. Why, in the middle of a war centred on unstable foreign oil regimes in the Middle East, is it still politically impossible to upgrade the capacity of the domestic oil industry? As the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina demonstrate, mankind has got very good at responding to acts of God. We're not so hot at responding to the acts (political and cultural) of man.