RNC Chairman Priebus: “This President Has Shut Down Everything When it Comes to Energy Independence”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus, today on Face the Nation:
Republicans have been in favor of this Keystone pipeline. 20,000 jobs. If there ever was such thing as shovel ready project, here’s one of them. Plus it would get us a step closer to energy independence. It wouldn’t be the whole deal, but its a step closer. And this President has shut down everything when it comes to energy independence in this country. We’re sitting on a wealth of energy to get us to a place where we don’t have four and five dollar gas. This President isn’t there and he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Meanwhile, U.S. reliance on foreign oil is at its lowest point since the Clinton administration, having dropped from 57% of total consumption in 2008 to 45% in 2011.
For more context, see Paul Krugman’s excellent recent column: Natural Born Drillers.
Simply not true.
Cornell University Global Labor Institute, in September 2011, reported, “A calculation of the direct jobs that might be created by KXL can begin with an examination of the jobs on-site to build and inspect the pipeline. The project will create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State Department.”
Further, ALL OF THE OIL WILL BE SOLD ON THE OPEN MARKET, most likely to China. We will get the refinery pollution, and the disease and cancer associated with it, while they get the oil.
NONE of the oil companies will allow North American oil to be earmarked for North American consumption.
You want jobs – build windmills and electric cars – in the end a far cheaper and cleaner alternative to being ripped off by big oil.
The reason our percentage of imported oil has dropped is due to the economy making people unable to afford to drive. This has been aided, recently, by the explosion in gas prices. While it’s nice to show percentages to support a policy, let’s show actual volumes of imports, exports and domestic productions.
How does reduced demand translate into a change in the domestic/foreign source mix? And, how does a change in gasoline prices aid in altering the domestic/foreign source mix?
Well, there are several factors he didn’t go into about this, such as the recent (last 4 years) development into high end hybrid cars as well other such changes that allow for less fuel to be consumed.
To answer your question though, about how demand decreases import/domestic, lets use an example. County A produces 5 million tons of product A, but consumes 15 million tons of Product A. Country B supplies the other 10 million in import. Suddenly the rate of consuming drops to 10 million. Country A still produces 5 million tons, but only needs 5 million in import. Therefore they go from producing 1/3 (33%) of the needed quantity of product A to 1/2 the needed quantity.
This is how consumption can cause a decrease in import.
To go even further, this is ONLY considereding cars. Oil is used for tons of other things energy related, and recently there has been more construction of domestic powerplants for example, which lowers the need for gas power, which lowers the consumption of oil.
How far down does the price of a barrel of oil go before the oil companies stop drilling?
That’s a nonsensical question. There are two models to assume the price of oil, one of them is the free market and it goes like this:
“if the supply dries out (due to uneconomic prices) the prices will go up (due to a shortage of oil)”
Then there’s the not-so free market point of view:
“The oil companies could supply enough oil to keep a low price economically, however they’re not interested in giving away their oil cheap, so they coordinate their oil prices never to be uneconomic for them”
That latter one is what you call “OPEC”, you should look it up sometime.
How does a pipeline to move Canadian oil into the US make the US more “energy independent”. Either someone doesn’t know that Canada is not the 51st state, or they don’t know the meaning of “independent”.
During this primary season, I’ve noticed several of the candidates on the (R) side referring to Canadian resources as “domestic supplies”. Perhaps they’re planning to revive Manifest Destiny along with Christian Dominionism?
[...] http://www.energyroundup.com/videos/2012/03/18/priebus-obama-keystone-xl/ [...]
” it would get us a step closer to energy independence”
Wait a minute? How does Canada moving oil into the US to be refined (and polluting our environment) so that oil companies can sell oil on the open market move us one more step closer to energy independence? This would make is dependent on Canada / UK. Still just as dependent on foreign oil as we are now…..
The oil companies will be selling to the highest bidder, and their is nothing that says they have to exclusively sell this oil to the US. the REASON for the pipeline is so they have access to the gulf of Mexico to EXPORT the oil.
[...] American oil imports are currently lower than they were at any time during the Bush Administration. [...]