Home prices are correcting after a false, astronomical rise, and it is much needed. Lenders have tightened up on criteria. However the economy is in the dumps because of the domino effect on new construction… which affects work contracts, which affects sales of supplies, which affects the individual workers and family income…

Add in the devaluation of the dollar, again largely tied to rate… which is fluctuating in response to the housing scene.

Oil? Not enuf to cause this. However I do agree that if the DNC really wanted to help citizens at the pump they would do a reprieve on the fed/state gas taxes. That is all that is within their power. They can’t dictate price per barrel, they can’t fix pricing, and there is no immediate cure with add’l refineries.

But they won’t… because they want the tax cash and chaos to play to their political favor – fodder as fuel for their BS. To bad we can’t harness THAT for energy!

“Except–and let’s face this honestly” We currently ARE TAXING U.S. oil and natural gas production and an increase in volume would generate much more revenue.

Oh, really? That’s your position on taxation? We’re already taxing all kinds of things; is it your position that all taxes to raise revenue are a good idea? Or is this a position of opportunity?

Um…didn’t the GOP give the oil and natural gas industries some fairly large “exploration tax credits” not too long ago? I suspect that those credits would/will take a dent out of any new production revenues.

Now, that was simple wasn’t it?

The current Democrat prohibitions against further development of U.S. resources means billions more going to OPEC nations and not to the U.S. Treasury to fund alternative energy strategies.

and take the royalties and taxes on that production

Except–and let’s face this honestly–you’d likely be first in line to rail in your bewildered, spittle-flecked manner against raising those taxes, wouldn’t you? This is a clear case of arguing a case from a position you don’t actually believe, simply in order to contradict a lefty.

But NOOOOOOOO… nasty little Dems just want to demagogue on this issue and blame the problem on someone else.

Michigan is moving forward with wind power citing EU nations…. However these same nations are pulling out of windpower as it creates fluctuations in the grid and is a poor investment. No in essense, our idiotic govenor is bolding going down the wrong path citing other nations who are abbandoning it. Solar is nice and all, but looking at even home systems, is priced out of the sky. Maybe nano-tubes will work. maybe something better will come along. Geothermal is nice in a few areas (an Army base actually runs on it and powers the surrounding community).

Also, the Russians do not share your view on peak oil and I believe they have a point. Refineries ARE a good investment as is reducing the number of expensive specialty gasses and increasing octane levels so cars run more efficiently. In my county we have a special “low emmissions” requirement for gas. This “emmission reduction” gas robs vehicles of fuel economy and forces us to buy more gas per week. Supposedly this is “good” for the environment.

Better refineries can extract more gas ber barrel of oil and give us a cushion to improve/mature technologies and infrastructures without crushing the economy before it happens. Conservatives are wrongly accused of not wanting the latter and only the former so we can “get rich” or some other nonsense. In truth, reality demands we mature systems and technologies first and in the interim improve the proven technologies we have now.

Source about Russian theory on no peak oil:
http://www.321energy.com/editorials/bainerman/bainerman083105.html

Here is the DOE site showing a lot of information on Oil and other natural resource production/importation/refinement/use in the US and the world.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm

I started The Morning Scramble over at the main blog earlier this week because I’ve got just so many blogs in my feed reader, it would be selfish to keep them to myself. I know MKH has been doing something like this for a couple weeks; indeed,……

On the other hand, we are not allowed to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, but just off our territorial waters are…. the Chinese rigs drilling away. Yet somehow that does not bother the environmentalists.

And the money we are spending mostly does go right back into the US economy in the form of contracts to Ford, GM, Navistar/International, and several smaller firms. These include some new companies making the MRAPs. None of this helps Michigan because the Democratic governor with the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the US and probably the worst business climate has only two solutions for our local economy: Raise our already high taxes on everything and make the state less attractive to business.

You want to see what an Obama economy looks like, examine Michigan.

As usual, Obama is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the Sheeple who have sipped his Kool Aid and are too stupid to think for themselves.

Really? based on what data exactly? Oh here let me answer that ABSOLUTELY NONE! Here is some real data for you guy. Pay attention these are facts not feelings.

1. No new refineries have been built in this country in over thirty years.
2. We have massive reserves off our coasts and in Alaska not just Anwar, yet we can’t even explore to find out how much is there little less actually start pumping it.
3. No nuclear power plants.
4. egregious regulations that add to the price of gas and lets see 80 cents in taxes for every gallon and now we have the Democrats calling for another 50 cents on top of that!
5. And ethanol what a bunch of crap! It costs more to produce and transport is actually worse for the environment and is one of the primary reasons I pay five dollars for a gallon of milk.

Conclusion to be drawn from the FACTS, the democrats along with the enviro’s are directly responsible for the 30 dollars I spend per week to fill up the thirteen gallon tank on my 93 Chevrolet Cavalier! And lets take what you posted at face value shall we? well lets see if we drilled and refined our domestic resources we would have a stable supply and what goes on in the Middle East would not matter much now would it? Oh and now we have the dumbocrats talking about undoing NAFTA, why is that important oh I don’t know maybe because we get something like 40% of our oil from the Canadian tar sands and the great global warming hoax another dumbocrat favorite may lead us to not be able to import the Canadian oil thus making it worse. So no I don’t think so Obama is your typical vacuous demagogue and so are you.