The price of gas

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

Do your energy companies have to abide by more and more, or less and less
environmental regulation? Is it easier or harder to drill now than it was
back 30 or so years ago?

These don't seem like useful comparisons. Many environmental regulations
came about because of eggregious pollution cases so some of the regulation
is due to their own irresponsibility in the past. I do not believe the
present corporate quarterly-results-driven culture would do much better.
Also, the push to enact legislation limiting their liability makes it look
like they want the profits without the responsibility.

There is virtually no industry which is not more regulated than it was in
the past. This is a fact of life in virtually every country. You can spend
your life complaining about and fighting it or you can adapt and deal with
it. It is left as an exercise to the reader as to which one will work out
better for you.

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...
I agree that refining capacity has been impacted by various
enviornmental
regs. These haven't affected drilling (and hence production) much
though.


Environmental regs haven't affected drilling? Are you kidding?



Let's see...where have I been. I was an energy analyst for about a
decade
and since then I have made a reasonable living investing in energy
companies. Where have you been? Listening to AM radio?


I don't get a good AM signal here.

Do your energy companies have to abide by more and more, or less and less
environmental regulation? Is it easier or harder to drill now than it was
back 30 or so years ago?

That isn't the point. The point is whether or not enviornmental
restrictions have had a meaningful effect on depressing drilling activity.
Obviously they have had some effect. The main depressent on drilling has
been the need to go deeper and deeper to find less and less.

Ask your energy companies how mush they do new drilling now than they did
in
years past.

See above. Budgets are up across the industry due to better pricing but
drilling will never reach the levels of 40 yrs ago simply due to the fact
that the resource has been largely exploited in the US.

Are you always so goddamn pompous?


Only when I am dealing with a jackass who considers himself an expert of
everything.without knowing anything about the subjects he pontificates on.
Face the facts, you have absolutely no idea what the cost or effect of
eviornmental regulations is on O&G drilling. Industrywide they are a
rounding error.


Mike
MU-2

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...

The source you asked for:

http://smartmoney.com/aheadofthecurv...story=20040521

BTW, he's doing a correction that the "Quadrillion" BTU's should have been
"Billion".

Luskin is just talking his book. A lot of what's in the article is
distorted half truths like the reserve information.

Mike
MU-2

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...

The source you asked for:

http://smartmoney.com/aheadofthecurv...story=20040521

BTW, he's doing a correction that the "Quadrillion" BTU's should have been
"Billion".

This doesn't sound right. Are you saying the "EPA and others," meaning
government regulation, reduced the oil well reserves?



I was there at the scene of the crime.

There are really two 'shortages' in domestic production.

One is the shortfall in refinery capacity. We haven't built a new refinery in
the US for 15 years, and that is entirely because of EPA regs and NIMBY
protests disguised as environmental concern.

But the shortfall in recovering domestic reserves is more complicated.
Enviromentalism is part of it, but there are economic reasons as well.

In the 70's and into the early 80's, we had a lot of domestic capability, and
the JR Ewings of the country saved our butts during the embargo. Unfortunately
for them, they made a lot of money doing it, so we destroyed them.

First was the "Windfall Profits Tax". Oil exploration has always been boom and
bust. Wildcatters made alot of money during the booms and invested in new
equipment and grew their companies during those times. During the lean years,
the capital reserves sustained them to the next boom. So, Nixon and Ford,
seeing the boom during the embargo years, called those profits obscene and
confiscated them with the "Windfall Profits Tax." Carter continued the price
controls Nixon started, then dropped them on everything EXCEPT petroleum and
health care, bleeding the Ewings with skyrocketing costs and controled prices
for their products. Then he finished off the domestic oil industry with the
Fuel Use Act, which attempted to force gas producers to sell their gas to
homeowners in the NorthEast at prices that did not justify the pipeline
capacity needed to get it there, by not letting them sell the gas to industry
in the South were they could make a profit at the controlled prices.

So, all our JR Ewings went bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of
equipment rusted away or was sold for scrap. The Arabs put the final nail in
the coffin by boosting production so the price feel for a while to 11 or 12
dollars a barrel.

Now, all the wildcatters who know how to get the oil have huge bankruptcies in
the resume and can't raise the money for new equipment. Further, the banks know
that the Arabs can drop the price any time they want to drive domestic
producers broke if they become a threat to their monopoly. So the banks arent'
going to finance domestic production so long as th Arabs can manipulate the
market to destroy their competitors.

The field is left to a few multinationals. And we're screwed.

Government meddling in the free market did it, but it was alot more complicated
than the EPA alone.

--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG

Eeeek. What a mess.

"We're from Washington, and we're here to help you..."



"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

This doesn't sound right. Are you saying the "EPA and others," meaning
government regulation, reduced the oil well reserves?



I was there at the scene of the crime.

There are really two 'shortages' in domestic production.

One is the shortfall in refinery capacity. We haven't built a new refinery
in
the US for 15 years, and that is entirely because of EPA regs and NIMBY
protests disguised as environmental concern.

But the shortfall in recovering domestic reserves is more complicated.
Enviromentalism is part of it, but there are economic reasons as well.

In the 70's and into the early 80's, we had a lot of domestic capability,
and
the JR Ewings of the country saved our butts during the embargo.
Unfortunately
for them, they made a lot of money doing it, so we destroyed them.

First was the "Windfall Profits Tax". Oil exploration has always been boom
and
bust. Wildcatters made alot of money during the booms and invested in new
equipment and grew their companies during those times. During the lean
years,
the capital reserves sustained them to the next boom. So, Nixon and Ford,
seeing the boom during the embargo years, called those profits obscene and
confiscated them with the "Windfall Profits Tax." Carter continued the
price
controls Nixon started, then dropped them on everything EXCEPT petroleum
and
health care, bleeding the Ewings with skyrocketing costs and controled
prices
for their products. Then he finished off the domestic oil industry with
the
Fuel Use Act, which attempted to force gas producers to sell their gas to
homeowners in the NorthEast at prices that did not justify the pipeline
capacity needed to get it there, by not letting them sell the gas to
industry
in the South were they could make a profit at the controlled prices.

So, all our JR Ewings went bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth
of
equipment rusted away or was sold for scrap. The Arabs put the final nail
in
the coffin by boosting production so the price feel for a while to 11 or
12
dollars a barrel.

Now, all the wildcatters who know how to get the oil have huge
bankruptcies in
the resume and can't raise the money for new equipment. Further, the banks
know
that the Arabs can drop the price any time they want to drive domestic
producers broke if they become a threat to their monopoly. So the banks
arent'
going to finance domestic production so long as th Arabs can manipulate
the
market to destroy their competitors.

The field is left to a few multinationals. And we're screwed.

Government meddling in the free market did it, but it was alot more
complicated
than the EPA alone.

--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG