McCain credits Bush for drop in oil price

The American oil cartel still can not drill because there is a congressional ban still in place. Even if that ban is lifted, it's still up to the individual states.

No! the prices are coming down because speculators are getting nervous due to the fact the Americans are now actively pursuing alternative energy. Keep it up America continue to pursue alternative energy and see the oil tycoons run for the hills.

There are over 64 million acres of land where oil companies already have permission to drill and they aren't on any of them. Offshore drilling is not the answer - alternatie sources of energy is.

I love how McCain blames Obama for higher oil prices but credits Bush with lowering them! McCain has clearly lost his ability to think logically.

So Bush is still responsible for it being up over a dollar over his other policies, so he's still an ass.

Since Bush is such a stud, maybe he can get the oil companies to build some additional refineries. That's part of the bottleneck in the gasoline supply.

I beleive Linda is correct. The American people are fed up with balony. We want steak and potatoes. Can the politians and get some people who are out for our best interest. Continue conservation and start hydro, solar,wind, and thermal energy projects.

A stud? Bush holding hands with Arabian royal princes cannot squeeze any concession from OPEC. The price of oil fluctuates with foreign turbulence and with hurricane fears. On this one the price drop could be an adjustment in China discouraging driving to make breathing possible during the Olympics.

Bush ASKED for a lift of the ban, but it hasn't been granted yet!

the lift isn't going to help. it will be several years before we would benefit. that is a long term benefit. the consumers want relief NOW

And the ban was put in place in 1990, which means that Shrub is once again undoing the work of Bush. I have to wonder what Papa Bush thinks of all of this... but we won't know that until after Shrub leaves office. Of course, Papa Bush drives that golf cart so fast, we'll never catch him ;)

That right they think we have short-term memory :O

And I thought McCain was having a tough time with his campaign. Guess not, or he wouldn't be saying idiotic, inflammatory things like Dubya-Bubba is bringing down gas prices. He might as well go on TV and say we didn't have all this crazy weather until the resurgence of hula-hoop.

Poor John his campaign is turning into an American variation of King Leer. It's just sad.

mccain is showing his desperation this week. he will say anything. what happened to the new staffers he hired?

exactly! mccain needs to quit it. he's been seeking attention every since obama accepted his challenge

Republicans, Democrats, Big Oil, all in bed together having a nice little foursome with OUR BUTTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clean house, GET THEM THE HELL OUT---NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we should be drilling in all areas since we have nearly 3% of the world's reserves. This has to do with speculators whom Phil Gramm unleashed on the American public, and previously John mindless McCain's financial adviser. We need alternatives, not drilling to produce a negligible amount of oil that won't make a difference.

James old boy, you are the one who needs to do some research. The Democrats are not voting against drilling. They are only against offshore drilling. They do not want to approve offshore drilling that could and would damage our coastlines, especially those coastlines that are dependant on the tourist trade to survive. And please don't quote Christ in Florida, he is another flip flopper republican. Was against offshore drilling and the when mentioned for possible VP spot conveniently changed his mind. He already screwed up catastrophic home insurance in Florida (pray that we don't have a large damaging hurricane like we had in 2004) I live in Central Florida and know this to be fact. Also, they are against giving in to the Republicans request to drill offshore when they already have OVER SIXTY-FOUR MILLION ACRES they can drill on an won't, because they want all areas of drilling under their control (More windfall Profits) and you must remember that Bush is from an oil family and always will be for big oil. Even if we allowed them to drill anywhere they wanted to, it would not be available for processing for over ten or more years, where is the sense in that thinking? By that time many many families will have lost their homes, won't be able to pay for food, won't be able to put gas in their care to look for a job, if they still have a car.and and many families have already been foreclosed on and are already living out of their cars. before that time we could have put in the grid with wind, solar, and bio fuels and never again be dependant on foreign oil. Wake up my friend, don't smell the oil, smell the CHANGE.

The biggest reason right now that the price of crude has gone down, is not because of Bush calling for lifting the ban on offshore drilling, it is because of our threat and our planning for alternative fuel sources. They are falsely lowering the price of crude to keep people like you and Bush addicted to foreign oil. They want our oil companies to drill and keep us parceled out between them American oil companies and keep us under their control and if you can't see that, I really feel sad for you. As Americans, we are the largest oil/gas users in the world.

Many Repbus will try to put the blame on India and China, They are wrong. India and China are just coming in to capitalist system and possible world leaders. The average individual in China averages $1200 per month and is only now able to afford an automobile. Americans 300 million-Chinese 3 Billion. and yet a Chinese citizen only uses 1/6 of what an American citizen uses. Can you guess where they got the Technology and Capitalist system from? You bet you can, from us. Who is the blame for that. How about the free trade system NAFTA? Need to be negotiated all over again. All of the above is tied into oil. Still think you know the facts?? I seriously doubt it. Care to make a comment on the above? Do it from fact and not from ill gotten information and emotional reaction. Will return tomorrow to look for your factual comment.

Till then?

Also James, how much oil is being used to support an unjust, lied to us war in Iraq. How much out of the 12 Billion a month is used for oil and gas. And to support Chaney's buddies Hallaburton?A war Bush really started to finish the job his daddy was stopped from doing and for oil he wanted but will never get, because now the country he claims to have freed now wants him and his troops out of their country.The troops acted gallently, but Bush did not. How much to you think that is effecting the price of gas at the pumps. Give me the facts, just the real facts, not an emotional response. Can you do this?

Just remembered on other think your McCain admitted to just last week. The Iraq war was for oil. Check out those facts and then tell me you are still for McCain stating that the price of crude went down because of Bush trying to lift the ban on offshore drilling. Will be waiting for a factual response on all that I have stated and whether true or not.

Then why does T. Boone Pickens, an oil man, keep insisting that we cannot drill ourselves out of this? Have you seen his commericial on TV?

Ralph,...We are paying for the war with money borrowed from the Chinese and other moneys from the Arabs that we buy oil from.

you need to get YOUR facts! EDUCATE yourself before making such a stupid statement. drilling is a long term, not a short term answers. it will take several years. do you think the oil companies will just set up shop and start drilling?

It takes time, money and precision. you do not just drill. you have to map everything out. pin point the exact location. o you think the first time they rill, the oil companies will hit pay dirt!!

.....and don't think the oil companies wouldn't pass along the costs of all that searching and drilling to the consumer.

We could have been drilling on the acres oil companies already have the rights to drill on and have for the past 10 years. The oil companies have chosen not to.

If you mean by drilling five to ten years ago we would have gas prices down, I have to tell you some bad news. If we were to drill for oil we think is there, hit on every drilling platform and were able to refine it in country, we would probably be running out of it by now.

Maria

Nuclear wouldn't be all that bad - why don't you come up with a safe way to dispose of the waste, the spent rods, and nuclear might become a viable option. Burying the nuclear waste in the west is not a responsible option.

Fact, the oil companies already have thousands of leases they won't drill on. Fact, 30 plus fewer refineries that 25 years ago.

Fact Number 1 and I'm really getting tired of repeating this. Just because you have a lease does not make it viable. I own the mineral rights to my front yard. But that doesn't mean there's anything there. Oil Companies lease acreage because there might be something there. If they drill a well and hit nothing then they move on. You make me think of the old adage "You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip." Well, you can't squeeze oil of a non productive shale. Just 'cause you have a mineral lease doesn't mean it's there.

That line is a BS line that's being fed to us with sugar on top.

Fact number 2. There may be fewer refinery's but old ones go away and we haven't been allowed to build new, modern versions because of a bunch of tree hugging idiots.

But let's keep in mind that yes we need to conserve and work on alternatives, but we also have to take care of the here and now. I've said before it's a multi-prong problem.

Another point. We use around 22million barrels of crude per day in the U.S. That is roughly 7.8 billion barrels per year.

That 25.7 billion barrels you mentioned would last us ~3.3yrs if it was our only source of oil.

Lindsay Williams? Who's that? Another Flunky who writes a book of fiction?

Hey Al..hopefully not Gore..but anyway...your wikipedia comments don't really represent the truth...Yes you basically quoted Wikipedia but left out some stuff...so let me give my 2 cents...
We hear every day from people who say that we cannot drill our way out of high oil prices. They say there is not enough oil to go around. They say that OPEC will merely reduce their output. They say that increasing demands from emerging markets are going to swallow up the rest of our oil in the next 50 years. In fact, this is just a politically motivated misrepresentation of the truth. Let's begin with a figure, 20 million. That's how many barrels of oil the U.S. consumes in a day.
Now let's move to a small, readily available source of oil: The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
So how much oil is in ANWR? I've done extensive studies and yet the range is still fairly large between the low and high estimates. Given recent advances in oil extraction, we'll tip to the high end (which I've seen agreed upon at some environmental sites) and guess that there are about 10 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted at ANWR.
Vinay Jain, a spokesperson for the National Wildlife Federation, is quoted by EcoWorld as saying, "The amount of oil in the refuge is marginal at best. It is not going to make a difference. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is symbolic of a larger effort. It's about getting into one protected area and using the momentum to get into another."
Forgetting the slippery slope garbage, on the surface of it, his dismissive statements regarding the totality of oil available in ANWR seem to make sense. After all, if you divide the 10 billion barrels in ANWR by the 20 million barrels we use every day, we'd only have enough fuel for 500 days. Hardly seems worth the effort, huh? Less than two years?
But that is pumping all the oil out in 500 days, which is not the way things work in the real world. What if the oil is pumped out in the usual manner? What if ANWR produces 1.5 million barrels a day? Now the equation is different. Now ANWR is producing 7.5% of our oil needs for the next 20 years. That is, in fact, a huge amount of new oil coming on the market and a dramatic reduction in the amount of foreign oil we would be using.
Now consider this. ANWR is a mere fraction of what is available.
Off-shore and Rocky Mountains
So how much oil is there? Republicans recently (second week of June, 2008) attempted to lift the ban against oil exploration between 50 and 200 miles off the U.S. shores. Most offshore exploration has been banned since 1981, and Democrats managed to stop this most recent attempt to open this area to drilling. Estimates say that there are 420 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas (remember your last heating bill?) and 86 billion barrels of oil that could be mined off our shores. This could supply some 11.8 million barrels of oil a day, or 59% of our oil needs, for the next twenty years.
For those of you keeping score at home, combining the offshore totals with the ANWR totals and the amount of oil we already produce means that we would need ZERO foreign oil over the next 20 years if these sources were opened.
And we haven't even talked about the Rocky Mountains yet. On May 14th, 2008, The Senate Appropriations Committee defeated Republican Senator Wayne Allard's attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado. Estimates are that there are 800 billion barrels of oil ready to be extracted from oil shale. That's three times more than the rosy estimates of Saudi Arabia's current oil reserves. If you extract the 20 million barrels of oil we use every day, that will last us 110 years.
You may have heard people say that shale extraction was too expensive. In fact, at one time, people were saying that oil would have to go to $30 a barrel for shale extraction to be worth it. Ooops. With oil at over $130 per barrel, I think it might be worth it now. What is really behind the idea that "we can't drill our way out of it".
Sadly, as is often the case, the truth is not as important as a goal. Those who say that there is not enough oil out there are simply feeding us false information to make sure we buy their eco-agenda. It's all about the idea of anthropogenic global warming and gaining more control over a world economy. It certainly isn't about oil reserves. The oil reserves are out there. They just won't let us at them. So the next time someone is dismissive about the idea that we can "drill our way out of it", just remember these figures:

Al good job.

for matthew- what about all the land that is currently available and not being drilled on? Should we not start there? How about the over 1million barrels of US oil produced and shipped out of this country each day?

Will any of it make a difference? No, it is a global market. The only way to make a difference is to decrease our dependence on oil...not just foreign oil- all oil. And preach to us about "OFF SHORE DRILLING" AND ANWR when we have started on the 68 million acres already available. Drill all you want, but do it where it is currently available.

I don't know the truth about the 68 million acres we have...but I think to myself..If I were a businessman (which I am) and it is profitable for me to extract oil at $30 a barrel then why the hell would I not be going after every little bit I could at $130 a barrel.

Seriously people, think for yourselves and don't believe what everyone is telling you. What would you do if you could make $100 a barrel.

Now that being said I can only think of a few things that would prevent them from drilling on the leased lands. First, there is no oil there. or there is not enough to cover the initial cost of the platforms and pipes. That is my thought...
Or there is no cheap way to get that oil thus making it again not profitable to pump that oil even at $130 a barrel...
Or they are so greedy that they think the price will even go higher and then they will pump it out. But with the law of supply and demand being elastic because of price, they have to know that we will not put up with oil this high for long so I don't seeing that being an issue.

I think if you think clearly and leave politics out of the equation for a minute you would stop gripping about this leased land. Trust me..if BIG OIL is that greedy they would be pumping that oil...I would.

As for the global market, yes I agree, we need to put a tariff on exported oil...but even without that the global market would still decrease. we are not at a negative supply...Even without our extra production there is about a million barrel a day surplus of oil. So by adding our extra 10 to 15 million there would be a huge surplus thus reducing the price significantly. So much so production would have to be cut back across the board.

You are right!

They take credit for everything but not for the lies they told American to get us in to a War with Iraq. How about taking credit for that McCain.

As far as I've ever seen every politician that speaks takes credit for something he didn't do or lies. And that statement is non partisan.

...and you're the one everyone sees standing around with their hand out...waiting for their government to pay their way, and whines everytime some government program is taken away....wah, wah wah!

Lead B & SW,...Stop with the age baiting. If you're old enough to post at this site you should be mature enough not to ridicule older Americans. McCain is an interesting case. He's married to a $100 million plus wife; receives a nice stipend from the government for his Senate job; collects from veterans; collects more from Social Security. I would say he is playing the system.

hahahahaha your too funny :)

You may recall that Wall Street really punished refiners for low profits. With crude prices so high, they were constrained on how much they could increase prices. So, when crude goes down, they keep their prices the same and take the increase as profits. That is why we get little relief at the pump. It is also why short term gimmicks (lifting drilling bans, gas tax holidays) can't work.

Gary,...I have to agree with you. I've always thought the Republicans knew they would lose this time so they they threw McCain in the ring. He's expendable and they don't like him anyway.
Cindy gets to dream about a New Years Ball and Maverick gets to ride off into the sunset. They hope, and with good reason, that Obama will not live up to his exaggerated expectations. They will then run one there one of their young bulls. They've already been introduced to the public during the primaries.