OPEC declared war on Texas ...

Krsto

Well-known member
Anywho, back to the topic at hand:



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-crude-in-mid-20s-if-opec-doesn-t-take-action


So, once they became collateral damage in OPEC's war on Texas, Venezuela wants to hop in bed with Russia who spurns their advance claiming to be champions of a free market economy ... that's "communist" Russia folks. Are any of you would be political ideologues paying attention to this stuff?

Yeah, I'm paying attention. Interesting stuff.

Russia is bound and determined to regain their stature as a world power and using Syria as their new petri dish for world domination. If we are smart we would just let them do what they want. We don't NEED to be controlling the world any more than Britain does. We need to bow out gracefully like they did when Eisenhower ordered them out of Egypt.

Has fracking actually made us energy independent? If not why are we not taking advantage of the $2 drop in gas prices and taxing ourselves $1 and putting all that money into incentives for energy efficiency in our homes and cars and getting a new wave of nuke energy up and running, like the kind we have already been building for our Navy fleet?
 

Krsto

Well-known member
One of the more sober and well balanced looks at this situation I've seen yet. Saudi Arabia is in danger of breaking up OPEC pursing their own self interests (i.e. control of the world oil market) and will wish they hadn't as they later come to need the partners they are in the process of offending as their OPEC partners are now beginning to reconsider the wisdom of following Saudi Arabia's lead in this endeavor. It's not working out quite the way they were told it would.


https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/13/behind-the-saudi-oil-price-gambit/

That's interesting because the Saudis will go bankrupt before any of the other Gulf States. Their willingness to engage in this gambit shows they are desperate.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
Has fracking actually made us energy independent?

Potentially, but at what price? In an international market no one country is truly independent in that market price, the cost of production and the percentage of the total economy that said production accounts for all play a huge role in just how “independent” any one country really is.

And then there is the matter of what you call a “country”. Whereas most other oil producing countries do, the U.S. has no overall game plan as it concerns oil and gas production as it has little control over production other that the EPA and other such marginally effective tax wasters. Then factor in the mutual antipathy that exists between the current administration and Texas and it is not surprising there has been no effort by the feds to address the regional suffering caused by Saudi Arabia's attack on Shale Oil production there.

And then there is the matter of the technique for extraction. Let's just say the jury is still out on fracking and its effect on our water supply.


If not why are we not taking advantage of the $2 drop in gas prices and taxing ourselves $1 and putting all that money into incentives for energy efficiency in our homes and cars and getting a new wave of nuke energy up and running, like the kind we have already been building for our Navy fleet?


The only folks that have enough money to make alternative energy a viable option (were talking investments in R and D and production on a truly massive scale) are the ones whose purses are lined with oil and gas profits and they have no great interest in that pursuit at this point.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
That's interesting because the Saudis will go bankrupt before any of the other Gulf States. Their willingness to engage in this gambit shows they are desperate.

Yes. When you have ruled the roost as long as they have they don't want to share power now. It's almost like a case of a kid with a turtle and when the parents tell the kid he has to let his little brother play with the turtle too the kid kills it rather than share.

I think Saudi Arabia will step back from the precipice in the not too distant future. If not, the effect will be global and profound.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
... why are we not taking advantage of the $2 drop in gas prices and taxing ourselves $1 and putting all that money into incentives for energy efficiency in our homes and cars and getting a new wave of nuke energy up and running, like the kind we have already been building for our Navy fleet?


I've got a better question. Why haven't we seen a significant drop in consumer prices with this reduced cost of shipping?
 

Krsto

Well-known member
The only folks that have enough money to make alternative energy a viable option (were talking investments in R and D and production on a truly massive scale) are the ones whose purses are lined with oil and gas profits and they have no great interest in that pursuit at this point.

I would think some of these young tech industry instant billionaires WOULD get into it if the regulatory mechanisms for safety were in place, and states weren't in the way. Just heard on the radio our state of Washington has a law against factory produced reactors even though the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is making available a 1200 acre site for manufacturing which would be ideal for both manufacturing and proof of concept. Crazy stuff.
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
I would think some of these young tech industry instant billionaires WOULD get into it if the regulatory mechanisms for safety were in place, and states weren't in the way. Just heard on the radio our state of Washington has a law against factory produced reactors even though the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is making available a 1200 acre site for manufacturing which would be ideal for both manufacturing and proof of concept. Crazy stuff.

After Fukashima I don't think there is going to be much support for a nuclear anything and while we are on the twin subjects of Washington state and the entrepreneurial spirit of newly minted tech billionaires I have only two words for you ...


Bill Gates
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
I had foxfire
but
it kept getting corrupted

what do you have?

Firefox. Opera is another free alternative. Most of the computer VD out there is developed to attack Microsoft stuff because it is so ubiquitous. While we are on the subject of free, AGV and Malware Bytes are two good free programs to protect your computer. All these may be had at www.download.com. If you get it there it will be clean and bug free. They will both offer you a free 30 day trial for their upgrade. Decline these offers and stick with the full time free stuff. It does the job and the upgrades will run out in 30 days and then you'll be looking for another program.
 

TomO

Get used to it.
Hall of Fame
Firefox. Opera is another free alternative. Most of the computer VD out there is developed to attack Microsoft stuff because it is so ubiquitous. While we are on the subject of free, AGV and Malware Bytes are two good free programs to protect your computer. All these may be had at www.download.com. If you get it there it will be clean and bug free.


Malware Bytes is awesome. :plain:
 

fzappa13

Well-known member
My beloved wife keeps telling her friends I know how to work on computers :sigh:. I usually keep a CD with Malware Bytes and Firefox on it. I'll do a recovery on their computer and take the registry back to a time before it was corrupted, then install the software, update it and then leave with an admonishment to resist the temptation to use Bill Gates' stuff ever again.


I usually don't get a call back.
 
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