LAT: Kerry Pumping Up Foreign Oil As Issue (gas price anger)

THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Kerry Pumping Up Foreign Oil as Issue
With his crowds angry at surging gas prices, the senator wins cheers with vows to cut dependence.

By Maria L. La Ganga, Times Staff Writer


John F. Kerry's campaign had billed the town hall meeting as a summit on the urban economy. But the woman at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn had something else on her mind: "Sen. Kerry," she demanded, "what are you going to do about the high price of gasoline?"

"The gas prices are going up, and it's an issue," acknowledged Kerry, before delivering a popular campaign line: "No young American in uniform should ever be held hostage to America's dependence on oil in the Middle East. "....

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With self-service unleaded gasoline averaging $1.74 per gallon nationally — and $2.11 per gallon in California — Kerry plans to make U.S. dependence on foreign oil a major theme of the general election....

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As president, Kerry says, he would promote alternative and renewable energy sources so that by 2020, Americans would be getting 20% of their electricity from those fuels. He also says he would create a $20-billion fund to research new forms of energy.

Democrats think the issue is an area of deep vulnerability for the Bush administration, which has strong ties to the oil and gas industry and led the nation into war with Iraq....


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-kerryoil10mar10,1,7244823.story?coll=la-home-politics

Then he went on to tell what other ways to get energy not from Oil.

this would be considered a slam-dunk issue over Bush. But with 'Big Media' pretending to be impartial and unbiased, and knowing that most of America is not getting their news from reliable sources, I would say this issue will need more play-time. Let's see if the media wants to appear credible and fair.

Damn right it's an issue for the Democrats. We're sending our kids to die in an illegal war so Americans can pay this much for gas?

Not to dis Kerry, but I think that will be too little too late.

In the meantime, the US will have to bomb Saudi Arabia and Argentina to make up the difference.


THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream
http://www.brant.net/gvmr/electric.htm

But to do better than that the public will have to embrace the fact of a serious crisis--a world threatening crisis. They haven't yet and I think Kerry is making a promise that sounds reasonable to the general public. A message of doom won't help Kerry win the election. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he is aware of the impending crisis and will take real steps to avoid it.

Greater demand as a result of more gas-guzzlers --> higher prices.

Sooner or later someone's going to have to address that. We don't have a birthright to cheap gas. I know it's political suicide to even mention it, since the Repugs regard driving an SUV as a right given us by Jeebus himself, but them's the facts.

I don't think he is up to the slamming he is going to take. Things like high gas prices can't be BSed away. They are real and in your face. Couple that with the resulting shitty(ier??) economy and you have a landslide for Kerry.

Chimp hasn't addressed any of the problems that concern the folks back home. For a short while the folks approved of Iraq because they thought it would mean cheap oil, however, chimp (of course) failed to deliver. So, he comes into this thing with only his performance on the rubble pile with the megaphone and the old fireman, nothing else, save some big money giveaways to rich people that didn't need them anyway.

You can find stations that charge $1.90 but they are right off the highways.

If we could just require automakers to increase fuel economy with technology they already have, and tax SUVs and larger vehicles with exemptions for those who can demonstrate a need to use one on a regular basis-we would not have an energy crisis-those two moves alone would fix it for at least another 50 years. In UK, they don't even sell cars that get less than 50 mpg- we are being hosed here I tell you. There are no tax incentives for weatherizing homes and low interest loans to make it feasable (Years ago I converted from Forced Air electric to GAS and saved more than enough in bills to pay the low interest loan then available which you can't get anymore) The "energy team" of Cheney's riddled with oil execs=decided to make hydrogen fuel cells with-coal and oil!!! they did not decide to put any money in making energy from trash and soy oil and other renewable possibilities for which the tech ALREADY EXISTS!!!

It is called economies of scale. We have alternative energy sources already, all we need to do in most cases is apply economies of scale.

Almost ANYTHING can be made much cheaper, by doing a whole lot of it!

The government knows that, but there is simply too much oil company influence. I am not advocating coal, but an example of this is in my own state, where millions of acres of coal reserves have always been held off the market by the owners-the oil companies! Why do you think WV has it's very own Rockefeller? And I know he has a great liberal voting record, and I'm not slamming him, except on this one issue.

I am saying that oil is more powerful than many realize! And it's face isn't always the obvious one.

I support Kerry, and I'm glad he has a plan for renewables, but we should be doing what we already know how to do NOW!

I am not so sure we have until 2020.

98% of u.s. oil wells are CAPPED. is this the truth??

or find other related stuff would be to start here
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid405.php
I'm not sure what the answer is.

I have read estimates by the former Saudi Oil minister that all known oil reserves will run out by 2050. Can't remember the details now, because it was a couple of years ago. It was in an article on the site I'm pointing you towards.

Electricity production accounts for <2.5% of total US oil consumption.

It is not possible for renewables to lessen our dependence on foreign oil unless the juice is used to power transport (private vehicles, buses, trains etc.).

No one really seems to understand this.

To truely lessen our dependence on foreign oil we must:

Enact stringent CAFE standards on new private vehicles (i.e. > 40 mpg).

Enact real tax incentives for companies to provide in-house bus service to their employees. We bus the kids to school every day - why not bus the parents to work?

Enact REAL tax incentives or low interest loan programs to allow homeowners to upgrade the insulation of their dwellings. Folks who burn oil in the Northeast really need to do this - and it ain't cheap.

The federal government should also provide grants to school districts to reduce their energy consumption as much as possible - whether this entails weatherization, solar electic/heating or geothermal heating and cooling.

Enact REAL tax incentives for the development and deployment of renewable electrical production (residential and commercial buildings, wind and PV farms).

Invest in electrical mass transit systems (light rail, intercity rail, overhead-wire local buses, etc.) that are efficient and convenient to all potential users.

We simply cannot wait any longer to act on this issue.

It seems like they hike them nationally to aid their oil loving politicians in times of need. Watch, they will increase prices while they stockpile money for the oilagarchy politicos' war funds, then drop prices near the election to hide the subterfuge.

Do you all know that Iraqi oil costs $25 a barrel less to extract than in other places? They have several hundred billion barrels at such rates. That's a mega trillion dollar difference if the oil barons fix their prices instead of passing along the enormous savings.

on how much fuel the iraq military operations have used over and above what normal use would have been? I would be willing to bet that has somehow contributed into the current shortage. And in addition, haven't the iraq pipeline sabotages decreased output compared to what it was before the war?