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The recent comments by McCain alias McBush or McSame about offshore drilling are patently absurd. This diversion as a possible solution to our dependence on foreign oil is a nonstarter for those familiar with the problem and its solution. Assuming that the drilling started immediately, the impact of more domestic reserves would only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it would not reduce the world oil prices. Since oil and gas are fungible commodities, the price in the open market would still be based upon the so-called free market. We know that the oil cartel does not allow for a free market. There would still be a worldwide need for oil at the market price. Unless the U.S. oil companies would be willing to sell domestic reserves at a lesser price, the price of oil and gas in the U.S. would be the same no matter where it came from. This is another myth portrayed by the oil cartel and the Bush/Cheney oil administration. What is amazing about McCain's support of off shore drilling is the lack of knowledge that McSame has about the subject. He should at least do his homework since it appears that he does not have a pecuniary interest in the oil business as is the case with Bush/Cheney. I offer the following article I wrote on the Huffington Post in 2006 as a lesson to McCain and other Republicans about the Real Economics Of Oil. I have not updated the price of oil and gas that appeared in this article but the points are clear. The Real Economics of Oil The pubic has been given a story about gasoline that is simply not true. It is a major misdirection by the oil companies that does not give us the true economics of crude oil and the reason oil companies need to dump gasoline on the market. Although I am not a petroleum expert, as a CPA and former forensic auditor, I audited some oil companies while working for the IRS in the late 60s when the price of crude oil was less that $5 per barrel. During the audit I learned a lot about the refining process. Today the price of crude oil is about $70/barrel. Below is part of a report from the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Government. You can find this at http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/expertanswers.html. "What are the products and uses of petroleum?
Approximately 20 gallons of gasoline is produced per barrel of oil. If the retail price of gasoline is about $3/gallon, the oil companies are getting $60 of revenue from a barrel of oil that costs $70. Somehow the economics do not make sense if gasoline is the major economic output of refined oil. The fact is that gasoline is a hazardous waste product that is a natural output of the oil refining process. Some of the other products that come from the refining process are asphalt, lubricating oils, paraffin wax, heating oil, tar, and other parts of industrial products. Essentially, gasoline is a waste product of the oil refining process and the oil companies get rid of their hazardous waste and charge the public to do that. It actually reduces the cost of the oil refining process and at the same time contributes greatly to the greenhouse effect of global warming. If the oil companies were not so greedy, they would give it away to the public. The fact is that these oil companies have the "chutzpah" to charge us for their garbage even though at most it only yields them $60/barrel of refined oil while the other refined products yield them thousands of dollars per barrel. Before the piston engine was developed in the late 19th Century, gasoline was a major problem for the oil companies. Today it is a legal way for them to dump their hazardous garbage on us and yield enormous profits to them and the oil producing countries. On the other hand, there are lots of garbage waste products that can be used to lessen our dependency on oil including bio-diesel and other recycled waste products. And the Bush Administration knows the economics of oil better that any past administration and of course in their usual tradition have not been willing to tell us the truth about oil refining. Since most members of Congress are not aware of the economics of oil refining, we should all inform them that the oil companies are fleecing the nation by charging us such high prices for gasoline when in fact the major revenue from crude oil comes from other products. The price increase of gasoline is absolutely unjustified in light of the real economics. If the oil companies had to dispose of this garbage gasoline coming from the refining process, they would not be able to make the other refined oil products economically feasible. My proposal would be to at least take the garbage gasoline off their hands for nothing so they can continue to make their billions of dollars from the other oil products. That is conditioned upon the oil companies seriously funding technology for alternative energy.
novamradio.com Sheldon Drobny was the co-founder of Nova M radio and Air America Radio. He has supported many philanthropic causes and is currently involved in purchasing radio stations for liberal talk radio with his new company, Nova M Radio, Inc. Mr. Drobny specializes in business and tax matters and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court as a non-attorney. Less than 200 non-attorneys have been admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court since its inception in 1942. Mr. Drobny received a Bachelor of Science Degree in accounting from Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary fraternity recognizing acadamic achievement in colleges of business administration.
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Posted June 30, 2006 / 09:26