Letter to the Editor
Fed up
Published Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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Stumble It!June 29, 2008
To the editor:
Why is the government allowing the oil companies to rape the American public at the pumps? What has changed so drastically in the industry that has caused the barrel price to double? As far as the public can see, nothing!
Just who is running/controlling the government?
And this Exxon Valdez decision, what a slap in the face to the environment, animals and citizens who suffered from this devastation.
Exxon whining that they have already paid out $3.5 billion for cleaning up the environment they destroyed and for fines which were not nearly heavy enough as far as I’m concerned. And now they are whining once again that $2.5 billion was way too much to pay to all the individuals whose livelihood they destroyed. So of course they got their way and it was reduced.
All this from a company that boasted profits of over $40 billion in a year. Give me a break!
Like I said, just who is running/controlling the government?
People! We need to stand up and shout, “We are not going to take this any more.”
Community Discussion
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It's not an isolated thing, it's worldwide.
Demand, and weak dollar.
Thomas-Nail on head buddy. And by the way, if you own any mutual funds that have oil companies in them its not such a bad thing!
40 Billion in profits on 400 Billion in sales. Go figure out that profit margin and then compare it to other industries. I will save you the trouble, its low. Oil companies are also taxed more then many other industires.
I am not a rich oil company exec. I do understand the principle of supply and demand. There has not been a new refinery built in the US in 30 years. Attempts to build nuclear and (getting more "green" every day) coal power plants have been blocked in OUR government for years.
You cant have it both ways. You want cheap gas, you have to allow drilling and the refining capacity to go with it.
Seems to me that the NP refinery could be run for the benefit of Alaskans rather than a few (3) people. How expensive can it be to use royalty oil straight from the pipeline, refine it into the fuels we need here, build in a small profit margin, and sell it for 2.89 a gallon or less?
They managed nicely at that level for a very long time.
Governor Palin, I hope you're listening.
With the resources Alaska has, no one should be suffering and we should have the cheapest fuel in the nation.
When are we going to be allowed to develop our petroleum, coal, natural gas, industrial grade gemstones, gold, platinum, forestry and fishing resources? Doing that for the benefit of Alaskans using our most advanced and green technologies in the country would solve our energy crisis in this state.
We need to do it all, and we CAN do so if the federal government would quit treating us like recalcitrant five year olds!
How many people have to suffer or die before we stop saving the planet and start saving people? Is there a number? Can we start counting or do we have to suffer through this winter first?
Alaskans, stop and think. If Alaska has the lowest prices on everything, how long do you think it would take before another stampede of people to hit the state. It would be like the old gold rush days but with more people. It would be nice to have lower prices again but what price are you willing to pay for it?
This letter just goes to show the ignorance of the voting public who looks to the government to solve every problem.
First, I'll address the Surpreme Court's decision on the Exxon Valdez case. The original case was tried under federal maritime law. That is where the plaintiffs brought suit - maritime court. Now there were several types of damages (money awards) available to the plaintiffs in the case. However, under federal maritime law, punitive damages (money award designed to punish the defendant) are not be any more than a 1 to 1 ratio with regard to actual damages (the actual dollar amount loss suffered by the plaintiffs). In this case, the plaintiffs were awarded $500 million in actual damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. This was an illegal award. When the appellate court reduced the punitive damages award to $2.5 billion, this was still an illegal award. Under federal maritime law, the most the plaintiffs were allowed was $500 million in punitive damages. Now, if the plaintiffs had sued, instead, in Alaska's state court system, they could have been awarded punitive damages of up to 9 times the actuaul damages because our State allows for a punitive to actual damages ratio of 9 to 1. It is nobody's fault but the plaintiffs that they sued in federal maritime court, rather than state court. (Assuming that state courts even had jurisdiction to hear the case). So, please don't blame the Supreme Court for this one. They followed the law - the law that said no more than a 1 to 1 ratio. If you don't like the law, then guess what? Learn it and talk to your elected official. Don't be quite obvisouly igorant of the laws around you then complain when you don't like how they work.
With regard to the price of oil, it is being driven up by speculators. They're afraid there isn't going to be enough oil in the years to come and they're driving up the price as the good gets more scarce. If you want to do something about that, then learn about economics and come up with an intelligent plan on how to prevent speculators from doing so and present it to your elected official. It is our government and we have to make it work for us. Active participation in government is what our founders expected. They did not expect chicken-hawks to write letters to the editor about "the government should do this" and "the government should that" without the writer having ideas of his/her own to present.
Whos running the government? Same ones that run all the governments...the Central Banks. They control the economy, they control the media, and they control the people.
The only holdouts left on the planet are (guess who?) countries like Iraq and Iran...named 'evil' in the extreme and our enemies.
Now you know the awful truth.
gopking-
I haven't been in to federal jurisdictional issues much lately, but I wonder if the federal court of claims wouldn't have been a better venue...
I couldn't agree more with the letter writer on the "We aren't going to take this" bit, but for different--and many more-- reasons.
Yo! DenaliGuy! I know you were game for a limited riot/storm the Bastille party! That so-called rally was the lamest thing ever. Begging (instead of issuing directions as the bosses we are) the mighty legislators for help and money.
It was disgusting. People are so sedated with...I don't know...political correctness and ignorance and...too much.
gopking is correct about the making our gov work for us. The problem is most people are too passive, don't have a clue, don't want to "get involved" or commit civil disobedience when necessary (and I think it is), on and on...
As I've said before, it takes numbers. Without the numbers, we have acquiesced, ceded, our authority as the bosses. And when that happens, as it has, more of our--the peoples' power, gets usurped.
Clio,, I do think the North Pole refinery was for sale a while back, why dont you buy it and sell us fuel at your cost ? Or do you really think the State could run it at a profit? Why do you think the CEO's of the oil companys make more money than all the elected officals put together? Look at Alaska's "officals" they sure are for sale cheap.. just keep re-electing them,, you get what ask for,,,
It amazes me to actually be able to watch the mainstream media, and the environmentalists, and the Congress manipulate Pavlovian responses from the people. They hint, they report, they preach, and they convince people that the problem is "Big Oil". Not government restrictions on development and not prohibitive government taxes (which are more than "Big Oil" profits).
I've heard many people say, and write on these pages, that the government should do something about it. The government has done something about it, and that's why we're in this situation. Some say the government should take over the oil companies, or at least the North Pole refinery. God help us all on that day.
I dont know if it is the fault of the speculators. Probably a combination of factors creating the "perfect storm". But if it is speculators manipulating the prices, who is most likely to come out ahead in terms of power? And who has, as it's sugar daddy, one of the most successful speculators of all time?
Mmmmmm.....
Here's a clue. The group uses a donkey as it's logo, and the speculator's name is spelled the same both backwards and forwards.
I aint saying, I'm just asking.
i was just down in valdez. we even took the stan stephens cruise. the environment didn't look destroyed to me at all. if prince william sound is an example of a place that is destroyed, then i think we should destroy lots of places. i guess if i got out a shovel and dug down under the rocks in some places i might find old oil. but i don't think i would have had time before i was attacked by a bear or a sea lion.
All right glacierles-
I have this BC strip on the fridge.
It's the ants.
So, the boy ant comes running up to the ant hill where Dad's on top.
Boy says "Hey Dad, there are Santas all over the place!"
Dad: "Those are Saint Nicholas' helpers."
Boy: "Why are they all ringing bells?"
Dad: "It triggers responses that cause shoppers to drop money into their kettles."
Boy: "Who thought THAT up, Saint Pavlov?"
Dad: (thinking) "Now THAT was good."
Well, at least I think it's funny!
And it causes kids to ask questions as to what the heck it's all about anyway...and that's good!
Oil companies don't set the prices.
Reader1, just so you know there has not been an application filed to build a nuclear power plant in over thirty years and it had nothing to do with the government blocking it. It became uneconomically feasable to build new plants after the regulations put in place in the aftermath of three mile island. On the plus side an application was filed in Sepember of 07 and due to soaring oil prices a total of 28 nuclear power plant applications are expected by the end of this year. In addition coal fired plants have been built, but generally in areas with a nearby coal supply. The cost of mining and transporting coal to plants without a local supply has always been prohibative until recently.
CORPORATIONS CONTROL MONEY CONTROLS GOVERNMENT CONTROLS YOU!!!
icerider---
I wonder who put those prohibitive regulations in place after TMI. I mean the regulations that made it uneconomically feasible for a capitalist energy company to build a plant.
Well i have been told the weak dollar is part of the high price of fuel also china and india are pushing the price higher. Lets not forget the tension in the middle east. Exactly when has there been peace over there.Is The war that we really need to be out of part of it. One of my favorites is when alot of storms are predicted for the gulf so investors get paraniod and the price goes up have always loved that one. Oh yeah supply and demand i have read reports on msn.com that america actualy used less gas this year than we did last year and on a cnn i found one that said usage was up so i dont know which to believe. I dont know of any shortage going on have we dipped into the reserve off the coast of mexico and i didnt hear about it cause there is a shortage. Will the price go down cause saudi has once upped production by 300,000 barrels a day according to msn, and have agreed to up it another 200,000 a day by the end of this month. Would it help to drill in anwr so we are less dependent on saudi oil no dont do that. Would big oil like it if the price went down i am betting no will they help it go down not likely. Why is it the national average is forty cents cheaper than us i have never got an answer that i really believed on that one. Oh well now you all can tell me what i am wrong about just hurry up cause its almost dinner time.
Newsreader. Who do you think the coorportations are? They are made of you and me. Not you exactly, because you probably put all your spare cash in a tin can buried under the floor boards with your rifles least the govt. comes to get them too.
FACT:
Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds.
(like the funds that our teachers, cops, firefighters, etc have)
Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds.
(and our Alaska PFD account)
Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. (Like in Newsreader's IRA) (NOT Irish Republican Army!!)
For more information read the news release that accompanies the study, including quotes from Shapiro, undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs under President Bill Clinton, and Pham.
http://www.energytomorrow.org/economy/Do...
I swore I wouldn't post anymore, but here I am. Again.
Rush hour on the NYC subway trains. People show their truest colors when under duress. That's what rush-hour at 5 pm taught me years ago. Between 5 and 6 pm, on NYC subways, you'll see people acting at their lowliest common denominator. *Everyone's* had a long day. *Everyone* wants a place to park their butts after a long day at the job, and on the long, timely commute home. Grown, healthy men will run down pregnant women just to get a seat, a place to park their butts. Problem is, there's only a limited number of seats. You get to sit down, and take a load off for your 1-2 hour commute home, or you get to fight for your chance to do so at every next subway stop, when more passengers leave the train than come on it. Or so you hope.
We, in Alaska, are facing similar circumstances. Yes, the underlying reasons are drastically different, but the human behavior it inspires is all too sadly, similar.
We find ourselves, as Americans, competing for supply, for resources that have only recently been in demand in developing nations, i.e. China, and India.
Go to NYC on any day of the work week, and watch how people *really* behave when resources are scarce, a prime example being the availability of subway seats during the rush hour home.
We're vicious. Vicious, vicious creatures, when it comes down to it. From all the various comments I've read on this newsminer website over the last few months, we Fairbanksans, we Alaskans, aren't too far away from a NYC commuter trying to park his or her butt on the train ride home. We've demonstrated that we can be ruthless. Nothing less than ruthless.
No blame there, mind you. Ya gotta do what it takes to ensure that you can do again tomorrow what you've accomplished today. But remember, it's all a choice.
I moved here almost 20 years ago because it was *so* not in my life plan to treat other humans ruthlessly.
And now, here in Alaska, it seems to me that the proverbial issue of finding a seat at rush-hour is being revisited all over again, but in an entirely different region, under an entirely different context.
An incredibly wise friend of mine once said that, "if we all don't make it, in a way, none of us makes it." His words ring no truer than here on this newsminer website.
People . . .
People of Fairbanks, of Alaska . . .
People of America, of all across the globe . . .
What we're facing now . . .
We're all in this together, like it or not.
The proverbial s--t has finally reached the fan, and we're all equally getting smacked in the face by it. Big time.
glacierless, gopking, corinne, etc., you're all against citizens whining about government handouts. And in my most objective reasoning, you have every grounds to do so. The more we expect handouts, the less reliant we become on our own abilities to take care of ourselves. That's just plain human nature, that has proven itself over and over again for the last few centuries of our planetary history.
I'm a liberal, a tree-hugging greenie, but even that lesson isn't lost on me. Nor on others like me, I suppose.
newsreader, me, and whoever else, we've got to really listen to people who aren't automatically inclined to agree with us. It's in our best interests to do so - *and* it's in their best interests to hear us out. But when our state constitution promises the right for all us citizens to share in its bounty, by God
. . . State of Alaska . . . fork up the goods already. Haven't we suffered enough already?
We're all in this together, and it's really going to take all of us, combined, to figure out the best way forward.
Personally, I don't want to shout anybody out of a discussion as important as this.
Remember, it'll take all of us, all of our input, to see us through this, this crisis that engulfs us on a planetary level. In my very soul, I have absolutely no doubt that we're dealing with now is of monumental importance to both us, individually, and us, as a civilization.
Left-wingers, right-wingers, in-between-wingers, anti-partisan wingers - let your voices be heard. And let the rest of us not denigrate what you choose to say.
I think that all of us have a partial solution. But, we'll only reach a real solution for us, as a whole, if we act as a whole.
This partisan bickering back on forth that I've been reading on the newsminer lately is killing me inside.
Stop it! Friggin' stop it, already!!! It isn't solving anything at all. And what we have to deal with, collectively, is far, *far* too important to denigrate into who's political/economic perspective is right, and who's is wrong.
What's facing us now is ***far*** too important than that.
Let's have a real discussion among equals, shall we?
If not, we'll certainly face the consequences.
glacierles, the federal government of course, but the regulations involved safety checks and construction requirements. Prior to TMI there was very little actual government regulation and companies were left to develop their own safety standards and practices. At that time nuclear energy was still in its infancy and a speculative market at best. In addition there were many powerplants built after TMI on applications approved before the incident. Those plants were built based on the new regulations and most are still in operation today. Another reason for the decline in nuclear power plant construction was the end of the gas crisis, when oil was once again a cheaper, easier alternative to any other form of energy production, it is what has kept the oil industry going all these years. Low sulfur coal and nuclear power have always been cleaner, but nuclear is inherantly dangerous and requires expensive safe guards, coal is more difficult to store and costlier to transport than oil. There were other contributing factors to the demise of civilian nuclear facilities, at the time there were many environmental groups who made power companies lives a living hell, using any means available to stop plant construction, including sabatoge and terrorism. On the plus side of this discussion it did make nuclear research and power production readily available to the Navy and the fact that the civilian plants have operated safely and cheaply for the past thirty odd years. I would say that makes nuclear energy a very viable alternative for the future.
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