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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73712)	5/5/2010 11:42:26 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

When 4 of the 5 (and 6 of the 10) of the largest companies in the World (according to Forbes 2009) are oil companies there is an uneven playing field for buying influence. If every renewable energy company in the U.S. today (ethanol, biodiesel, wind, solar voltaic, passive solar, mass transit, etc) combined budgets to put out a dedicated message about non fossil fuels I doubt it would equal Exxon's PR budget alone. And then we must consider how much money the Big Oil firms like BP, Exxon, and Chevron spend on lobbying in Washington...;-)

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73712)	5/5/2010 11:48:05 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

You might not want to admit it, but those guys drill for oil cuz we demand it. Outrage always gets trumped by $5 gas. == John Hofmeister: Our Energy Predicament Viewed from an Oil Company's Perspective Posted by Gail the Actuary on May 5, 2010 - 9:35am a comment ROCKMAN on May 5, 2010 - 2:00pm I agree lenny. The posting serves to follow the old philosophy: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." If folks don't like what Mr. H says then you better find yourself a cave. As we slide deeper into a PO world such statements will fill the airwaves IMHO. I'll take much upon myself to offer an oil industry view from someone who is not a spokesman for a public company. First, the energy future of the country is not our responsibility. No one offered us the job. The people, through their elective representatives, are responsible. We just adapt to their plan in any way that maximizes our profits. Taxes and regs are just the cost of doing business for us. We'll figure out a way to minimize them and just carry on. Second, we don't really care what you think about us. We've been those "dirty lying bastards" forever. Go ahead...try to hate us more. Can't be done. Na na na na. Third, we are 100% behind the fact that less than 5% of the world's population uses 25% of the energy resources. Without such greed there would be much less demand for our products. Again, we didn't make the rules. The American consumers did with their never ending desire for more stuff. But we're so lucky you're like that. Thank you very much. Fourth, we'll risk as much environmental damage as you allow us. Just like your energy future the environment is not our responsibility...it's yours. If we follow the rules and still spill oil in the water it's because you gave us permission to take that risk. Your call...your responsibility. Fifth, as reserves decline and the country can't meet even basic needs our value and power will increase. You might bitch and scream but you can't do anything about it. Oh, yeah, nationalization. Then the gov't can do for the oil industry what it did for the Post Office and Social Security system. After that fiasco you'll be on your hands and knees begging us to start up biz again. But we'll just laugh. At that point the folks left in the oil patch will have taken theirs to the house and won't care to play this silly game anymore. So we'll just sit on our retirement accounts and watch you tread water in the crap pool of your own making. We might even feel sorry for you but you set the system up so now you deal with it. And finally, the only honest remorse we feel over this whole situation is for those who have and will continue to sacrifice themselves in foreign lands to support our country's effort to maintain BAU. A very sad abuse of our military but, again, we don't get to make the rules. Message 26513097