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The Independent Voice for Conservative Values and the Conscience of the Conservative Movement Less Government is the Best Government |
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From a Bully Pulpit to the World's Biggest Bully
Is the World's Only Superpower becoming the World's Biggest Bully?
By Scott Rohter, February 2014 - Updated December 2014
After more than forty years of importing foreign oil to fuel our cars and trucks and power the worlds largest industrial economy... and after decades of being held hostage to the rising prices of O.P.E.C., the United States now finds itself in the enviable position of having more domestic crude oil and gas reserves than it actually needs. You might be inclined to think that this would lead to a corresponding drop in the price of gasoline and oil here at home but the decrease in prices has been slow in coming and it has not kept up with the increase in supply. (Editors Note: Please keep in mind that this article was originally written in February of 2014).
As of February 2014 the price of gasoline is still at record high levels. Economic theory teaches that a surplus in supplies should result in a lowering of prices. A surplus in domestic energy supplies should result in a corresponding lowering of price at the pump, but so far it has not. It has not released America form the grip of those who would manipulate our fuel oil prices so as to inflict real financial pain upon our country. As of right now the price of oil still remains at over ninety dollars a barrel and the price of gasoline at almost four dollars a gallon. Those who control our energy prices and are enjoying record profits have no intention of letting domestic energy prices fall. Of course this was before ISIS captured the oil fields in northern Iraq and began selling its newly acquired black gold on the Black Market at substantially lower prices than those set by the Saudis and OPEC.
American oil companies don’t think any more highly of American customers than the hostile foreign interests that control the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. American consumers are “just another udder on the cow of crony capitalism to be milked for all we are worth, whether by the Saudis or by our own American oil companies makes absolutely no difference. It looked like the milking was going to continue, but then ISIS militants took over the oil fields of northern Iraq near Mosul. Then everything began to change. The Saudis dropped the price of crude oil to keep ISIS from selling oil on the Black Market. If the Saudis can prevent ISIS from selling oil they can keep these militants from taking over the rest of the Middle East. Otherwise the Saudi Royal Family might lose their heads the same way that anyone else does who opposes ISIS. Everyone in America who drives a car or pays an electric bill is benefitting now from the lower cost of fuel because of ISIS.
Instead of using our newly found domestic oil and gas reserves here at home and letting our abundant supplies lower the cost of gasoline, propane, and heating oil even more, our U.S. corporations are building huge liquefied natural gas export terminals and planning on shipping much of it overseas to Europe and Asia.
These export terminals were originally intended to be used as import terminals just a few years ago when America was still experiencing energy shortages, but since the discovery of vast amounts of shale oil they have been modified into export terminals. On the West Coast some companies are in the process of building natural gas export terminals to ship our energy from Montana and Wyoming to China and Japan. These export terminals will satisfy an ever increasing international demand for American natural gas and they will create market conditions here at home which will allow the cost of domestic energy to remain at record high levels for well into the foreseeable future.
America's domestic energy supplies should not be sent abroad to Europe and Asia. They should be used here at home. America doesn't need to be a source of raw materials for other nations. Our domestic energy should be used to support our own manufacturing and industrial economy. Our domestic energy supplies should be used to help lower the cost of energy here at home, not exported overseas in order to drive prices higher here.
There is however at least one unfortunate consequence of the fracking frenzy here in America. It is the political unrest going on in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine ever since unruly street mobs overthrew the government of President Viktor Yanukovich and replaced him with a government that was more to the liking of the European Union and the United States. If Crimeans and ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine are upset by all of the lawlessness of their new American backed government in Kiev they have a right to be. We are meddling in Ukraine over the European oil and gas markets. The Orange Revolution is petro-politics at its worst. America is trying to replace the Russians as the primary natural gas supplier to Europe while providing a source for our surplus natural gas in order to keep prices high here at home.
Our State Department supported the coup that drove Victor Yanukovich from power because he wouldn't acquiesce to E.U. demands. The reason we are imposing sanctions on Russia over Ukraine has nothing at all to do with democracy. If we were trying to encourage democracy then we would have supported the referendum that in Crimea which resulted in re-unification with Russia.
The reason we are meddling in Ukraine has everything to do with our domestic fracking revolution here at home. That is why the Obama Administration and our State Department supported the government created by an illegitimate coup in Kiev after mobs of U.S. backed street demonstrators overthrew their legally elected government. That is why the United States and European nations keep imposing tougher and tougher sanctions against Russia and why we are trying to dictate to them what their foreign policy should be in Ukraine. Frankly its none of our business. Russia isn’t the biggest bully in the world... We are !
Currently Europe buys most of its natural gas from Gazprom, a Russian monopoly, but if American oil companies get their way there will be a new kid on the block. Our confrontation with Russia over Ukraine is totally unnecessary and it is entirely precipitated by the European Union and multinational oil companies. Did you know that Ukraine currently owes Russia over 2 billion dollars for oil and gas which they have received and used, and that Russia has been continuing to ship supplies to them on credit? The Russians finally decided to stop supplying Ukraine with any more gas on credit. They actually have the nerve to expect to be paid for their oil and gas just like we do. Just who in the heck do these Rusians really think they are?
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"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth. A journalist has no better friend than the truth." - Scott Rohter |
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Selected Reading
Don't Crimea River Over Ukraine - A Referendum in the Former Soviet Republic Strongly Favors
Re-unification with Russia
Beating a Dead Crimean Horse into a Ukrainian Trojan Horse just Meant for the Kremlin.
The Amazing Hypocrisy of the Democratic Party
Podcast interview on Ukraine with Mark Goodwin at PrepperRecon.com
The World's Biggest Bullies are Vying for Influence in Ukraine over Access to European Energy Market
© Scott Rohter, Less Gov is the Best Gov .com. All rights reserved.