Oil, Oil, Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

Then again, you probably don't want to drink it anyways! So are we running out of oil? No Is oil getting more expensive to produce? A Little. Is demand on Oil up? Very Much So. Is the price going up due to speculation? Of Course. So should we drastically change our way of life here in the United States? Naw... cause then we wouldn't have anything to complain about!

Congress is looking to play in the oil market, including legislation that would curtail financial institutions trading in oil contracts... ie. speculation. But would this solve any problems or just create new ones? Executives from the financial groups have testified before congress on how the trades allow international markets to operate efficiently and that the increases in prices are due to actual imbalances in supply and demand. Of course there is no political value in agreeing with this argument, and one democratic senator said, "We have known since 2001 that there were problems here, but we've run up against people on Wall Street who don't want to be helpful in policing the market." The real question here is if we should really be "policing the market" in the first place? Of course the industry was quick to respond, "Increasing regulation on what we do will not lower energy prices."

In hopes of expanding the available oil, President Bush urged Congress to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needs to increase its energy production. Of course those opposed to the idea were quick to point out that oil companies already have 68 million acres offshore waters under lease that are not being developed. But what is the harm to renting out more land to oil companies... that just means more money for the federal treasury. We should be open to many ideas, like nuclear... but this act won't hurt either. I find myself in agreement with White House spokesman Tony Fratto who stated, "Anyone out there saying that something can be done overnight, or in a matter of months, to deal with high gasoline prices is trying to fool people. There is no tool in the toolbox out there that will lower gas prices overnight, or in weeks, or probably not even in months."

Speaking of fuel... Boeing successfully protested the refueling tanker contract that the Air Force gave to Northrop Grumman and its European partner. Many have protested that the $35 billion dollars would be going to a foreign company when Boeing's proposal was just as good if not better. This tanker deal has been on the table for many years and there was a lot of pressure to just get it done. The Air Force Assistant Secreatry Payton said, the service will select the "best value tanker for our nation's defense, while being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar." So this is yet another black eye for the already tainted Air Force. Expect this to cost the taxpayer in the end... and I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the contract would support 44,000 new and existing jobs with more than 300 U.S. suppliers.

In Space News

A new computer model suggests that there maybe a Planet X beyond the orbit of Pluto. Of course, much like pluto, the object would actually be a plutoid. "The interesting thing for me is the suggestion of the kinds of very interesting objects that may yet await discovery in the outer solar system... We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us with the future deeper surveys." Perhaps we will even find a planet full of oil... or some other fuel source we can harvest!