Palin's Alaska is OPEC?

Is Michael Kinsley a liar or just an idiot. That's the question I asked myself after reading this Gem:


Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2 1/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.
Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC.

Alaska has a population of just under 700,000 but is by far the largest geographically, which means it's infrastructure is stretched tremendously. This is what's known as Economy of Scale, which is something Kinsley either doesn't understand or dishonestly ignores. In this context it means that every state will have certain fixed costs that can be measured across the population. Since Alaska's population is so small relative to its size, taxes and spending and taxes per capita will always be very high.

Alaska is an adjunct member of OPEC? WTF is this clown talking about? Again, Alaska has to tax that oil because it doesn't have enough residents to support the infrastructure required to get that oil to the lower 48 states. And to compare one of our states to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela is not only slanderous, it's just plain stupid.

Even more stupid is Kinsley's suggestion that dependence on Alaskan oil would no more preferable than dependence on OPEC.

Mere Threat of Drilling will bring down Oil Prices

Don M. Chance at IBD has an excellent response to those who ignorantly tell us that attempts to increase supply will have no effect on prices. It's simple enough that even guys like Paul Krugman can understand it:

"Certainly increased drilling will not bring an immediate increase in the
supply of oil. But many people, even so-called experts, believe that the effect
on the pump price would not be felt until the oil is actually at the pump,
possibly years later.

In fact, the price will fall well before the first hole is drilled.
Even the possibility of increased drilling will bring down the price of oil. It
already has.

Almost everyone knows that supply and demand determine price in a
market. But that knowledge seldom goes beyond understanding how supply and
demand themselves are determined.

The belief that the current quantities demanded and supplied are the
sole determinants of price misses an important point. Both current and expected
future demand and supply interact to determine the quantity demanded and
supplied in the current marketplace.

That is true because oil, and indeed almost everything else, is
storable."

American Oil Hypocrites

From The American:

"If you think that the issue of offshore drilling is only a matter of
interest to American environmental groups and the U.S. Congress, think again. At last month’s World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, the blatant
hypocrisy of U.S. energy policy—demanding that OPEC members expand their oil
drilling efforts while restricting offshore drilling here at home—was a
prominent topic of discussion. Indeed, the U.S. ban on drilling in the
Outer Continental Shelf was mentioned by three of the most powerful people in
the global energy business: the head of OPEC; the chief executive of Brazil’s
national oil company, Petrobras; and the Saudi oil minister. All of them said
the United States should start drilling in its offshore areas.

During a press conference in Madrid, Chakib Khelil, the Algerian
oil minister and president of OPEC, was asked what the United States could do to
lower oil prices. He mentioned three things: stabilize the value of the dollar,
increase energy efficiency, and “open up your exploration. In Algeria, we have a
bidding round going on. We are open. The U.S. also needs to open…offshore
Florida, offshore Alaska, need to be opened to exploration.”

The environmental movement's lack of interest in these other countries is rooted in both cowardice and the common ground they find with the the heavy handed governments in OPEC. The Eco-Marxist's focus on the U.S. is has less to do with the environment than it does with crippling the American economy.

H/T to Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Another Oil Company Show Trial

It's becoming clear that Democrats are hellbent on destroying the US economy with their latest round of demagoguery, as they once again call oil execs on the carpet while doing absolutely nothing but stand in the way of increased domestic production. This is all to divert blame from themselves and appease their kook base with anti-free enterprise rhetoric

"Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

How does this jerk walk around with those big brass ones clanging around? Where is his conscience in refusing to allow more drilling and exploration within our own borders while mandating that we burn 25% of our corn. By now Durbin and his cronies must know the difference between profit and profit margin, but they pretend they don't. It's more important to score points with the economic morons back home than think about the country's security and future. What's going on here is nothing less than criminal malfeasance.

Speaking of crimes, National Review makes the point that congress is violating the very law it passed last week whereby they are trying to criminalize OPEC. That law, which I'm sure has been the source of much amusement in Ryadh, says in part:

"It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act . . . to limit the production or
distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product . . . or to
otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas, or any
petroleum product when such action, combination, or collective action has a
direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply,
price, or distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the
United States."

That's exactly what congress is doing right now.