More "Change" at work for you!

[Billybob]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling


You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.

But look on the bright side. If President Obama has embraced offshore drilling in Brazil, why not in the old U.S.A.? The land of the sorta free and the home of the heavily indebted has enormous offshore oil deposits, and last year ahead of the November elections, with gasoline at $4 a gallon, Congress let a ban on offshore drilling expire.

The Bush Administration's five-year plan (2007-2012) to open the outer continental shelf to oil exploration included new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. But in 2007 environmentalists went to court to block drilling in Alaska and in April a federal court ruled in their favor. In May, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department was unsure whether that ruling applied only to Alaska or all offshore drilling. So it asked an appeals court for clarification. Late last month the court said the earlier decision applied only to Alaska, opening the way for the sale of leases in the Gulf. Mr. Salazar now says the sales will go forward on August 19.

This is progress, however slow. But it still doesn't allow the U.S. to explore in Alaska or along the East and West Coasts, which could be our equivalent of the Tupi oil fields, which are set to make Brazil a leading oil exporter. Americans are right to wonder why Mr. Obama is underwriting in Brazil what he won't allow at home.

[Deezl]

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm.

[Chas H]

Sounds good to me. Let's buy our oil from friendly countries, and save our own oil for the day when it will be much more valuable than it is now.
The Bush brothers, Jeb and Dubya, substantially reduced the size of the Gulf leases let by the Clinton administration because the oil and gas drilling could jeopardize the lucrative tourist trade in Florida.

[tankdriver]

There's plenty of available offshore areas for them to drill here. They just don't want to. They don't like the cost.

Originally Posted by Billybob

The Bush Administration's five-year plan (2007-2012) to open the outer continental shelf to oil exploration included new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. But in 2007 environmentalists went to court to block drilling in Alaska

god I love the WSJ. Can Alaska be any further from the outer con. shelf of Gulf of Mexico and still be on earth?

[Emmerich]

Friendly today is not friendly tomorrow. It takes YEARS to develop offshore fields and get them online, especially deepwater.

Both Bushes sold out the industry. The oil biz DOES NOT operate on the premise of the oil being worth more tomorrow and therefore we won't start programs to develop it. You go for it NOW. Stockholders won't wait.

You have to remember, it has to be discovered first.

Originally Posted by Chas H

Sounds good to me. Let's buy our oil from friendly countries, and save our own oil for the day when it will be much more valuable than it is now.
The Bush brothers, Jeb and Dubya, substantially reduced the size of the Gulf leases let by the Clinton administration because the oil and gas drilling could jeopardize the lucrative tourist trade in Florida.

[Chas H]

Originally Posted by Emmerich

Friendly today is not friendly tomorrow. It takes YEARS to develop offshore fields and get them online, especially deepwater.

Both Bushes sold out the industry. The oil biz DOES NOT operate on the premise of the oil being worth more tomorrow and therefore we won't start programs to develop it. You go for it NOW. Stockholders won't wait.

You have to remember, it has to be discovered first.

It's a matter of national security to use the oil of others before our own. So is buying it from friends. Right now we are buying oil from countries that are not friends. Stockholders can go screw themselves.

[POS]

Originally Posted by Chas H

Stockholders can go screw themselves.

You, of course, realize that the stockholders are tens of millions of Americans who own mutual funds, IRAs, 529s, pension funds, and stocks in these large corporations, and those large corporations are funding their growth and the American lifestyle/retirements by paying dividends to those stockholders who "can go screw themselves"? If you have mutual funds, or your parents have mutual funds, then they are more than likely owners as well.

[Chas H]

Originally Posted by POS

You, of course, realize that the stockholders are tens of millions of Americans who own mutual funds, IRAs, 529s, pension funds, and stocks in these large corporations, and those large corporations are funding their growth and the American lifestyle/retirements by paying dividends to those stockholders who "can go screw themselves"? If you have mutual funds, or your parents have mutual funds, then they are more than likely owners as well.

National security comes before profits in my book. Not so in yours I guess.
Besides the oil companies are making record profits without using up our domestic supplies.

[Honus]

Originally Posted by Billybob

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling


You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil....

It is sad to see how far the Wall Street Journal has fallen.

Take the following sentence from the posted article:

...The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro...

If the Journal had any interest in giving the whole truth, it would have added that the reason for lending the money is so Petrobras can buy the equipment FROM AMERICAN COMPANIES. Even Fox News gave a better account than the Journal:

...In fact, the Export-Import bank receives no appropriations from Congress and thus does not rely on American taxpayer dollars and is also not "sending" $2 billion to the Brazilian company but offering lines of credit to U.S. firms so they can compete to land contracts as part of Petrobras' drilling operations...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/20/loan-brazilian-oil-company-riles-conservatives-favor-offshore-drilling/

And I'd love to hear them elaborate on the national security angle. As if the United States could achieve energy independence by drilling offshore.

Good grief. These people never miss an opportunity to make the President look bad. They have no integrity.

[jplinville]

Originally Posted by dculkin

It is sad to see how far the Wall Street Journal has fallen.

Take the following sentence from the posted article:If the Journal had any interest in giving the whole truth, it would have added that the reason for lending the money is so Petrobras can buy the equipment FROM AMERICAN COMPANIES. Even Fox News gave a better account than the Journal:

And I'd love to hear them elaborate on the national security angle. As if the United States could achieve energy independence by drilling offshore.

Good grief. These people never miss an opportunity to make the President look bad. They have no integrity.

And they media took it easy on Bush? It's a double edged sword...

[tankdriver]

Originally Posted by jplinville

And they media took it easy on Bush? It's a double edged sword...

How can it be - there's only the wacko liberal media.

[Honus]

Originally Posted by jplinville

And they media took it easy on Bush? It's a double edged sword...

Apples and oranges.

For about the first 5 or 6 years of his administration, the media did more than take it easy on Bush. They printed his propaganda on their front pages as if it were the gospel truth. Once they figured out that it was in style to bash him, they jumped to the other side.

Bush earned his bad press. Obama is getting his for free, right from the start.

[Mistress]

Originally Posted by Chas H

Sounds good to me. Let's buy our oil from friendly countries, and save our own oil for the day when it will be much more valuable than it is now.
The Bush brothers, Jeb and Dubya, substantially reduced the size of the Gulf leases let by the Clinton administration because the oil and gas drilling could jeopardize the lucrative tourist trade in Florida.

X2. and then there is all that oil in Africa....

[Billybob]

Originally Posted by dculkin

Good grief. These people never miss an opportunity to make the President look bad. They have no integrity.

How is this not a surprise? The world viewed through such a prism results in such analysis!

“Americans are right to wonder why Mr. Obama is underwriting in Brazil what he won't allow at home.”

Clearly the theme of the article is that the US Government supporting the development of foreign hydrocarbon infrastructure and capacity while at the say time failing to do the same here. The fundamental question is should the government of the US expend it’s energy to develop better competitors domestically or in foreign places? How is this not more of the same "exploitation of little brown people for their natural treasure" liberals’ harangue about every day? How is facilitating the development of "the global warming industrial pollution complex" off the beach at Impanema "responsible"? Green? Not killing polar bears by proxy?

The IEB loan guarantees while benefiting some specific US firms in the short term are counterproductive in the long term. If there was an expanding hydrocarbon exploration and development industry domestically not only would the aforementioned firms be benefitting but many others would as well.

Lao Tzu- quoted, "Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime", which has a wonderful analogy with the modern world of management
today.

Oh yeah, Roger, Bill and Glen send their thanks for the props!

[Honus]

Originally Posted by Billybob

How is this not a surprise? The world viewed through such a prism results in such analysis!

Only from people who put their agenda ahead of the country's best interests.

“Americans are right to wonder why Mr. Obama is underwriting in Brazil what he won't allow at home.”

That's a fair question. Why don't they just ask that question? Why give such a slanted report?

My guess is that Brazil will drill regardless of what we do. Might as well steer the business to our companies. IMHO.

...How is this not more of the same "exploitation of little brown people for their natural treasure" liberals’ harangue about every day?...

Is that what Brazil is? "little brown people"?

How is facilitating the development of "the global warming industrial pollution complex" off the beach at Impanema "responsible"? Green? Not killing polar bears by proxy?...

So, you're saying that the Wall Street Journal objects to these loans on environmental grounds?

The IEB loan guarantees while benefiting some specific US firms in the short term are counterproductive in the long term. If there was an expanding hydrocarbon exploration and development industry domestically not only would the aforementioned firms be benefitting but many others would as well.

Lao Tzu- quoted, "Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime", which has a wonderful analogy with the modern world of management
today.

I'm no expert, but that makes sense to me.

Oh yeah, Roger, Bill and Glen send their thanks for the props!

What a great bunch of guys.