Do we wait for Congress to act?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Grandpa AL on July 12, 2008 at 8:14am

Come on people. Where are your ideas. Whether good, bad, whatever. Lets talk about them, please.
Thank you for your time.
Grandpa AL

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Janis Oney on July 13, 2008 at 8:28pm

I am for anything and everything that is going to get us out of this fix that we find ourselves in today because of the "do nothing" congress for the past 20 odd years.. We must do it we have no choice now what so ever... We can but we gotta get busy...NOW! I hate the fact that the Saudie bunch are holding us hostage..
I am willing to print out fliers, post notices what ever I can do to solve this deal... I am from Texas and T. Bone will not give up... we need to use wind solar, nuke and all the rest... one thing cannot solve the entire problem , but this wind is a great starte..
Best
Janis

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on July 29, 2008 at 8:47am

Hi Janis

Thats the sprit You go getem Gal.

My side Kick says Get off you Gas And get Busy America!!!

Mike Anthony

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Grandpa AL on July 18, 2008 at 11:03am

NEW ENERGY POLICY IN THE MAKING
A Bi-Partisan group of 23 Congress members have come together to form an Energy Policy, which will be voted on within the next two weeks.
This bill is called, THE PETERSON AMENDMENT.
Leaders of this group are;
John Peterson Republican Member from Pennsylvania, Web page at http://www.house.gov/johnpeterson/
Neil Abercrombie Democrat representative from Hawaii, Web page http://www.house.gov/abercrombie/
It is important that we get behind this bill and steer it in the right direction.
Another source of good information on this subject can be found on HN, Headline News, at the Glenn Beck show, which airs at 6PM Central time. He has focused on the energy crisis on his program, most of the time in the past year.
Mr. Pickens commercials are running during the program.
I think it would be great if Mr. Pickens could get a guest spot on the air with Mr. Beck to have more exposure for "The Plan".
God Bless
Grandpa AL

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by J.J. GAGNE on July 20, 2008 at 2:49pm

Sorry Grandpa Al,

Regrarding the Petersen Amendment, but I'm totally against this bill!!!! I strongly believe we need to put our energy toward finding new sources of energy instead of oil.

This bill and the result will not give us any relief at the gas pumps for 5 to 10 years while exploriation and infacstructure is being put in place.

The oil companies and their greedy CEOs are a major part of what is wrong with out country right now.

We need to rid ourselves of our independence on oil.

Grandpa Al, please know this is my opinion and I respect your opinion as I hope you will respect mine............... God bless you too.

J.J.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hal Eskew Jr on July 21, 2008 at 5:45am

The oil companies are not American companies but multi-national corporations. They have no political agenda other than increasing their profit margins. They will invest in alternate energy sources on a large scale when they see that their supply of their product is dwindling and that new products must be made available to the consumer. They know no boundries and they will fight the PickensPlan to the death unless they have control over the alternative sources of energy that they are making a half-assed effort to develop.

Make no mistake, these corporations will fight my friends on the website against the agents of change.

God Bless you all.....Hal

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Grandpa AL on July 21, 2008 at 2:24pm

J. J. and Hal, I agree with you both to a point. It will take 5 to 10 years for us to see the increase in oil production "IF" we open the Outer Continental Shelfs and An-war to oil drilling. I agree also that we need to get off the dependence on oil. Where I have a different opinion, is in blocking any and all things we as a nation can do to resolve this issue as fast as possible before the United States is forced into a depression as a result of $500 a barrel oil from the Far East.

When we have people with political clout, such as Senator Edward Kennedy blocking the installation of wind farms offshore because he would have to look at them from his waterfront mansion. Lobbying groups are opposing any type of expansion of alternative energy progress in the name of saving the environment. What do we do? Sit and play the fiddle while Rome burns?

I worked as a Drilling Rig Supervisor while drilling Gas wells in the State waters of Alabama, just off Mobile. We had barges that caught all the drilling fluids and the cuttings from the wells, and we transported these to shore for disposal. Even the rainwater that fell on the drilling rigs was captured by barge and shipped to shore. I know drilling can be done without harm to the environment in offshore waters. We did it, many times in the past and that was over 20 years ago with the technology we had back then.

If we say no to drilling then we a tying the hands of the people who can help us out of the extreme emergency we find ourselves in at this time. Yes, we need to get off oil, but until we do, until the alternatives are in place, we have to work with what we have for now.

It takes time to install pipelines, tanks, and pumps for LNG at stations for automobiles. It takes time to install hookups for recharging electric powered automobiles. It takes time, and most of all, freedom of government regulations to put in place wind farms, solar farms, transmission lines, etc. What are we to do while we wait?

We already have the infrastructure to handle gasoline. We will have to utilize this until we have replacement forms of energy in place. If we chose not to do this, then will have to face decades before we are out of this crisis. Are you prepared for that?

Back around the 1980's Exxon was trying to develop Shale to Oil Conversion Production in the Wyoming area. Exxon had investigated large amounts of money in this project even though Oil was selling for only around $28 a barrel. Exxon fought for years to develop this large resource but was tied up in court cases for yearrs by enviromentalist, until they gave up. This could already be online and providing for our Nation's needs if not for resistance. You say the oil companmies are not interested in other forms of energy? They have tried and been stopped in the past. Also, ExxonMobile is owned by stock holders and many of the retirement plans all over the USA are invested in this stock. Exxon's profits benefit all their stock holders.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Grandpa AL on July 30, 2008 at 8:36am

Well looks like I may have lost a few friends with that comment.
I know we all have our opinions about things, and I respect your opinion. Feel free to share anything that you think will help us. I know I am old and set in my ways, but I listen to everything that is said and consider everyones ideas. I am not closed minded.
I do admit my resistance to change factor is rather high just due to my age and life experiences, if nothing else. :-)

I have knowledge about what Exxon-Mobil is doing because I was an employee of Exxon-Mobil before I had to retire. I was just trying to give everyone a different view of what they are doing.
For example; Exxon-Mobil is currently working on new types of solar panels and storage batteries. Look at it from a long term Company perspective; they know oil is running out, and they will have to move to something else in the future if they want to continue in business.
In fact, Exxon-Mobil employs more than 14,000 scientists and engineers, over 1,000 of them with Ph.D.s.They are currently spending over $1 billion in R&D and technology applications annually. Just one of the results is Exxon-Mobil has developed a lithium-ion battery breakthrough that greatly improves the safety, power and reliability of larger batteries for hybrid vehicles, thereby helping promote their use to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions.
I still believe oil is not the answer to our future needs. The energy crisis is at such a critical point right now, that our nation needs to move in many different directions to meet our needs, until the alternative forms of energy come on-line. Until they catch up with demand we cannot be focused on JUST SOLAR, WIND, LNG, OIL, ETC. We need to work on them all as fast as possible before we find ourselves shut down as a nation.
God Bless
Grandpa AL

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Adamek on August 3, 2008 at 8:37pm

I agree we need to drill but I'd like to see us not need much of it and since predictions are 5-10 years, we should have some other solutions in place. It really upsets me to know that we are 5% of the world's population and we use 25% of its' oil.

All the big oil companies know we have passed the point of no return and have made heavy investment in alternatives. I welcome real innovation from anyone at this point but I really hope Big Oil can no longer control Washington with their deep pockets. Same goes for the farm lobby. Corn for ethanol is beyond stupid and congress should be ashamed.

I joined Picken's Army because I believe he knows what he's doing and he's doing something constructive. His project is also bringing attention to the woeful state of our electric grid which may be the most important part. No matter what we use for fuel, we need an upgraded grid and lots more of it.

▶ Reply to This