Defeating OPEC

Mr. Samuelson offers no real solutions in this article and we could pull the plug on OPEC anytime we got a backbone. The oil cartel is illegal for starters.

Further, the U.S. energy bill that was recently passed only makes things worse. Nothing in that bill is going to change our dependence on foreign oil. Suggesting higher gas taxes at a time when people can not even afford to drive to work is totally moronic.

there are several ways we could deal with this problem. One is to increase oil and coal production but we have handcuffed ourselves with our stupid environmental laws. We could also help Canada develop their oil reserve - which is the largest in the world - instead we say we cannot use their oil because it violates junk science CO2 restrictions.

China is the main reason for the present tight oil markets. We could stop buying the $400 billion dollars of products we buy from them each year. We have no reason to be buying from a communist tyrannical nation that is arming to the teeth against us. We should be buying from the America’s and making friends in our own region of the world. Ending trade with China would stop their expansion and oil would become plentiful.

We could build new oil refineries and coal slurry refineries and we could start a go-to-the-moon like project on solar energy. Deflating the balloon of the oil speculators will cut the price sharply.

We could tell Saudi Arabia that we saved their butt from Saddam and they will increase output until oil gets down to some defined price or we will go in and do it for them. They are now using much of the huge profits that they are taking in to fund every anti Western and anti American radical Islamic agenda. They and their OPEC buddies are also putting the West on the brink of economic collapse. Why should we put up with their extortion ring?

Those are only a few of the things we could do. What we should not do is allow this to continue to go on and to act like making cars to get a few more miles to the gallon is really going to solve any energy problems. We have a problem because our own stupid polices have made us become our own worst enemy.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Triumph of OPEC

We are paying for past shortsightedness. Dependence on oil imports, now almost 60 percent of U.S. supply, is inevitable. But we could limit OPEC’s market power by curbing our demand and increasing our supply. As the worldwide gap between supply and demand rises, it’s harder for producers to control the market. More have spare capacity; more are tempted to increase production to raise revenues. Today’s surplus is concentrated in a few countries, especially Saudi Arabia, which can adjust production to influence prices.Americans rant at foreign producers on the silly presumption that they should subordinate their interests to ours. But we refuse to do much that would actually limit their freedom of action. It was only last year that Congress raised fuel-efficiency standards for new cars and light trucks. We have steadfastly rejected higher gasoline taxes to curb unnecessary driving and strengthen demand for fuel-efficient vehicles (better to tax ourselves than let foreigners tax us through higher prices). And we have consistently restricted oil drilling in Alaska and elsewhere.

By doing so little to check its own thirst for imports, the United States has contributed to OPEC’s present triumph. The extent of that triumph will be tested this year and next. Non-OPEC oil supplies — from Brazil, Canada and Kazakhstan, among other places — will increase. Meanwhile, a weaker global economy may dampen demand. Even OPEC may be unable to hold prices at today’s high levels. Whatever happens, the long-term threat of a global oil cartel will remain. We should be taking the hard steps to limit its power. Considering our past complacency, we probably won’t.