Clipmarks | Oil diversion Clips

Analyst Warns of $200/Barrel Oil*

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:50:29 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: *One barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons (or $4.76 per gallon)
In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Is There an Oil Price Bubble?" Cato senior fellow Jerry Taylor writes: "The most recent Fed actions to combat the deteriorating state of the macroeconomy added even more fuel to the oil price fire. With market actors increasingly convinced that the Fed is willing to entertain inflation in the course of injecting liquidity into the market, investors are looking for investments to hedge against inflation. And what do you know? Returns on commodities have historically been better during inflationary periods than during non-inflationary periods. Ben Bernanke thus sent another strong infusion of cash into commodity futures -- again, largely into oil and gas futures.

Clip Source: www.cato.org

"Crude oil prices could surge to $200 a barrel in the next two years, according to the Goldman Sachs analyst who three years ago correctly predicted a price 'super-spike' above $100 a barrel," Financial Times reports. "The warning by Arjun Murti came as oil prices hit a fresh high above $122 a barrel, boosted by supply disruptions in Nigeria, lower output in Russia and continued robust demand in China ahead of the Olympics."

"The increased demand for oil futures drives spot prices because it diverts oil from immediate use into inventories. The stepped-up infusion of oil into public inventories (the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the emerging state inventory maintained by the Chinese government, for instance) has also contributed to the diversion of oil from immediate use and thus, has further increased prices."

Tags: goldman sachs, super-spike, arjun murti, strategic petroleum reserve, china's emergency inventory, oil diversion

Biofuel Crops Supplant Food Grains

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:20:24 GMT

clipped by: hlimjr
clipper's remarks: Give a man a fish; Teach a man to fish. What could be more basic? All the good will and charity in the world cannot overcome the curse of evil and corrupt leaders, who have guns.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.

The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year.

Existing grain yields are 2.4 tonnes per hectare in Ukraine, 1.8 in Russia, and 1.11 in Kazakhstan, com-pared with 6.39 in the US.

Indonesia imports two thirds of its rice and it has seen a population explosion. Should the US suffer so Indonesia can buy cheap food and increase its population? They export oil. The days of cheap oil are over and the days of cheap food are over. This should give countries like Africa a big incentive to get its agriculture sorted out rather than rely on free food from the US.
We should remember the world population is growing 70m every year. This is causing food shortages and global warming.

Tags: biofuels

Top British Scientist Warns Against Biofuels

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:29:53 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: This now threatens to reverse a half century of gains not only against world hunger, but also in holding the line against conversion of undeveloped land.

This is partly due to the diversion of corn to biofuels. ... Meanwhile, European demand for biofuels to replace gasoline is fueling plans for massive clearing of rainforests for palm-oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. ...

Ironically, much of the hysteria over global warming is itself fueled by concerns that it may drive numerous species to extinction and increase hunger worldwide, especially in developing countries. Yet the biofuel solution would only make bad matters worse on both counts."

Clip Source: www.cato.org

"Gordon Brown is preparing for a battle with the European Union over biofuels after one of the government's leading scientists warned they could exacerbate climate change rather than combat it," reports The Guardian. "In an outspoken attack on a policy which comes into force next week, Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel before their effects had been properly assessed."

In "Unintended Consequences," Indur M. Goklany, author of The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet, writes:

"Global warming hysteria -- a boon for the ethanol and other biofuel enterprises -- has boosted demand for crop-based fuels worldwide.

The cost of food has jumped over 10 percent in India over the past year, and 6 percent in China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Tags: gordon brown, eu, ethanol, biofuels, global warming hysteria, food inflation, environmental destruction, species extinction

The Hidden Agenda Behind The Bush Administration's Bio-Fuel Plan

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:15:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: VERY DISTURBING REPORT Big oil is also driving the bio-fuels bandwagon. Prof. David Pimentel of Cornell University and other scientists claim that net energy output from bio-ethanol fuel is less than the fossil fuel energy used to produce the ethanol. Measuring all energy inputs to produce ethanol from production of nitrogen fertilizer to energy needed to clean the considerable waste from bio-fuel refineries, Pimintel's research showed a net energy loss of 22% for bio-fuel—they use more energy than they produce. That translates into little threat to oil demand and huge profit for clever oil giants that re-profile themselves as "green energy" producers.

So it's little wonder that ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP are all into bio-fuels. This past May, BP announced the largest ever R&D grant to a university, $500 million to the University of California-Berkeley to fund BP-dictated R&D into alternative energy including bio-fuels. Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Program (read article)

Clip Source: wiccaboy-2.livejournal.com

As a result of the diversion of record acreages of US and Brazilian corn and soybeans to bio-fuel production, food reserves are literally disappearing. Global food security, according to FAO data, is at its lowest since 1972.

The Great Grain Robbery, sale of huge volumes of US grain to the Soviet Union in exchange for sales of record volumes of Russian oil to the West. Both oil and corn prices rose by 1975 some 300-400% as a result

We are now in a new economic era where oil and food are interchangeable commodities because we can convert grain, sugar cane, soybeans—anything—into fuel for cars. In effect the price of oil is beginning to set the price of food."

In the mid-1970's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a protégé of the Rockefeller family and of its institutions stated, "Control the oil and you control entire nations; control the food and you control the people."

As the popular saying goes, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Tags: oil prices, corn subsidies, food cost inflation, energy legislation, biofuel, ethanol scam

Which Dictator Are You?

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:24:13 GMT

clipped by: cniq_cniq
clipper's remarks: A fun diversion. Click the link.

Clip Source: www.poisonedminds.com

1. How did you win your "election?"

By holding free and fair elections where a policeman stands behind people in the voting booth and beat the shit out of them if they don't vote for me!
I lost my election, but luckily my public are too stupid to count!
By skilfully eliminating my opponents until there were no one else to vote for but me!
By waiting and letting my opponents become more and more useless until there were no one else to vote for but me!
Election? What's that?
Elections are for sissies! I fought for my damn place!
Compared to the others, my election was almost fair!

6. Who are your "friends"?

A fat guy and a thin shifty guy with funny glasses.
A spiteful old cripple who has sillier facial hair then I do!
Whoever doesn't like Americans is my friend!
I was friends with this Austrian midget before he turned on me!
Friends? I think I had them all shot!
Shady oil companies.
Other tin-pot dictators.
Everyone is my friend!

Tags: quiz, humor, parody, spoof, satire