Recently in Energy Category

FiveThiryEight's Nate Silver runs the numbers as he tries to project from where 60 votes for the climate legislation may come in the United States Senate.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) puts the current political situation in the proper context. Really, do we want four more years of these policies?

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we’re in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We’re burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security and economic ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn’t seem so.

(Hat tip: dday at Hullabaloo)

Oh. My. God. My experiences of the past seven-plus years have not prepared me to process this news:

Vice President Dick Cheney's office has acknowledged that he erred when telling an audience this week that China is drilling off the coast of Cuba.

Citing columnist George Will, Cheney on Wednesday told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that "oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government."

Cheney admits an error. Shocking.

That Cheney uses a source like George Will, rather than official government sources, for his "facts" is, alas, less shocking.

Atrios points to a Wall Street Journal story that will come as no real surprise to people who have been monitoring peak oil trends and the arguments Matthew Simmons and others have been making.

The world's premier energy monitor is preparing a sharp downward revision of its oil-supply forecast, a shift that reflects deepening pessimism over whether oil companies can keep abreast of booming demand.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency is in the middle of its first attempt to comprehensively assess the condition of the world's top 400 oil fields. Its findings won't be released until November, but the bottom line is already clear: Future crude supplies could be far tighter than previously thought.

I could not agree more with these sentiments from E.J. Dionne Jr.:

Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.

The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. They have lost "confidence" in each other, you see, because none of these oh-so-wise captains of the universe have any idea what kinds of devalued securities sit in one another's portfolios.

So they have stopped investing. The biggest, most respected investment firms threaten to come crashing down. You can't have that. It's just fine to make it harder for the average Joe to file for bankruptcy, as did that wretched bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005 at the request of the credit card industry. But the big guys are "too big to fail," because they could bring us all down with them.

Enter the federal government, the institution to which the wealthy are not supposed to pay capital gains or inheritance taxes. Good God, you don't expect these people to trade in their BMWs for Saturns, do you?

If bailouts are necessary for the rich (and like Dionne, I do not fault Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for trying to keep the financial sector from collapsing), then none of us should listen to those who claim that the free market always works best and government never has a role -- and is the enemy to all that is good.

The time for these radical right-wing fictions has long past.

The Big Picture noted the price of oil at one point yesterday broke through its all-time high price, when adjusted for inflation.

It really does amaze me to see how the American automotive industry insists on using our government to help it commit long-term business suicide. ThinkProgress recounts the vice president's efforts to thwart action on the climate crisis and to fight environmental regulations.

Wishing will not make the climate crisis or peak oil go away, Detroit.

If Dick Cheney were a real leader, and not a pseudo-lobbyist for the oil industry, he would be working to provide federal support for research into new technologies to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. To make our nation's manufacturers the world leaders in alternative energies.

Alas, that would not help his oil buddies quite as much. We all know the national interest is not nearly as important as big oil.

Sometimes it is best to find the easiest-to-explain motives for nations acting on the world stage. Via the Energy Bulletin, Thomas Whipple offers this analysis of what is really motivating OPEC's members:

When OPEC gathers in a closed room to discuss a production increase, only one country (the Saudis) can do much about increasing production. Most of the rest just want to see higher and higher prices, in some stable currency, so as to get the most real return for their oil before it runs out. Thus, it is the Saudis who carry the trump card for only the Kingdom (or so they would like us to think) can increase production. The other 12 are really just there for window dressing that gives the appearance of a “group” decision.

Note that desire for higher prices "in some stable currency." United States residents may want to be a little concerned about this, since the U.S. dollar has been anything but stable recently.

This could be a very cool development. Too bad our nation is so myopic that we aren't taking the lead on developing it:

The Tesla company’s new all-electric car can go 250 miles off a 3.5-hour charge and hit speeds of 130 mph. And although at $100,000 apiece, they’re not ready for the masses, the Teslas represent a huge leap over GM’s 1996 all-electric model, and offer a glimpse of things to come.

The invaluable resource, The Oil Drum, will go over 2 million unique visitors on Thursday. Congratulations! Check it out if you haven't already.

This picture tells an important story.

Think Progress shows how oil company backed organizations like to ignore science and common sense when it comes to climate change.

You may want to avoid ExxonMobil in response.

Over at the Huffington Post, Ari Emanuel asks an important question:

I'm confused. Why isn't more attention being paid to the Vice President's 2001 secret energy task force? Gas prices are going though the roof, oil is heading for $100 a barrel, and oil companies are making a mint. Shouldn't people be making a stink to find out what happened behind closed doors when Big Oil got a seat at the White House policy table?

High gasoline prices? Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says it's Clinton's fault. Think Progress debunks this silly notion.

Given how many times Republican leaders blame Clinton for their problems, you might forget that they've had exclusive control of the government for several years now.

Professor Juan Cole wonders about the impact the Iraq War is having on oil prices, and UC-Santa Cruz economist Alan Richards sends a reply well worth considering:

The war in Iraq and, even more, the saber-rattling around Iran have deeply spooked the market. They are right to be spooked--if the U.S. persists in its confrontational stance in the region, there will be more violence, more instability, more potential oil off the market (al-Qaeda did, after all, try to attack Abqaiq...).

Even more important from an expectations perspective is that for supply to be able to keep up with demand in the future, most analysts agree that there must be much investment in oil production IN THE GULF. This is basically for reasons of geology--it's where the oil is. Violence scares this off (as, of course, does continued nationalism and other policies already in place).