|
The US House of Representatives is expected to pass legislation Friday that
provides new tax breaks for new refineries to be built and would weaken
protections against air and water pollution to save those same refineries more money
at the expense of the public’s health. With record profits, it doesn’t seem necessary to give them
either tax breaks or cheaper ways to build at the public’s expense. Since the industry hasn’t been banned from building, their reason for
no new construction has been that it would not be profitable, just as the major
oil and gas companies have not increased drilling aggressively in the face of
growing demand because they don’t find the geological evidence sufficient to do
so and are now diversifying into renewable energy sources. Refinery capacity
has decreased largely due to industry mergers, not external prohibitions. In the rush to capitalize on public vulnerability to market scares, another
target of the Katrina carpetbaggers is the ‘opt-out’ some states want for new offshore
drilling and ‘opt-in’ for public financing. Florida’s Representatives blocked California’s Pombo from including
that in this legislation, but it will be back, probably in a budget omnibus
bill that protects it from scrutiny. By comparison, it should be noted that China, the emerging global giant
energy consumer, is looking to California’s tighter controls, not an
unrestricted, unregulated energy marketplace, to address its supply and demand
burdens: “Last month, officials from the [California]
Public Utilities Commission, the Energy Commission and Pacific Gas and Electric
Co. signed a pact with Jiangsu province, a booming coastal region of 75 million
people, and informal agreements with Shanghai province and the central
government in Beijing, to provide expertise and training to Chinese regulators
and utility companies. Californian and Chinese officials said the agreements were important
components in helping to fight China's abysmal air pollution, its surging need
for energy -- which has helped drive up international prices for petroleum,
natural gas and coal to record highs -- and its fast-growing output of the
greenhouse gases that are linked to global warming. "The Chinese realize they can't
drill or mine their way out of their energy problem," said
Susan Kennedy, a PUC commissioner who participated in the China talks. Kennedy
said officials in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere were planning to adopt an approach, long used in California,
known as "demand-side management," in which regulatory agencies and power companies use pricing
mechanisms and subsidies to reduce energy consumption. California's
credibility among Chinese energy officials rests in large part on the success
of the state's conservation and efficiency programs, including its
application of demand-side management techniques to help resolve the state's
energy crisis in 2001. Last month, state regulators went further, imposing
tough new efficiency standards on everything from light bulbs to home air
conditioners to power plants. It is always cheaper and faster to conserve energy consumption than
expand energy production. Yet even
after 9/11, the instability of OPEC geopolitics, war and natural disasters that
have constricted our already overwhelmed capacity supply line, the Bush administration
can only weakly suggest a few voluntary measures. Whose interests do they represent? It is deplorable that this administration is now being urged by the
CEOs of Ford and Toyota USA to convene an energy summit, and the subject of
raising CAFÉ standards, which would by far reduce our oil consumption the most,
is only now being discussed seriously.
As with the misinformation the industry provided through politicians in
Bush’s first term about drilling in ANWR, the general public doesn’t get the
full picture. In the interest of
checks and balances, here are some numbers for review from non-industry sources.
kwc By the Numbers: America's Energy Supply and
Demand Sierra Club Press Release, October 6, 2005 GAS
PRICES
§
$2.80: Average retail price for regular gasoline, up 88 cents over the
last year. [1] §
$2,873: Amount average family of four will spend on gasoline this year
[2] §
$64.67: Price per barrel of crude oil on the New York Mercantile
Exchange, up $15.81 from last year. [3] OIL DEPENDENCE §
58%: Total U.S. dependence on net imports of foreign oil in 2005, up from
44.5% in 1995. §
25%: The percentage of world oil production consumed by the United
States. §
3%: Percentage of world’s oil reserves located in the United States.[4] §
130,000: Additional barrels of oil consumed per
day by the United States as a result of the energy bill extending loopholes for
the auto industry that weaken federal fuel economy standards. (Sec. 772) RECORD PROFITS §
$25.3 billion: Exxon Mobil's record-setting profits last year. §
$3.4 billion: Fourth-quarter 2004 profit for Chevron-Texaco Corp, double
the profit for the same quarter of the previous year. §
218%: Exxon Mobil profit increase last year. §
145%: ConocoPhillips profit increase last year. §
51%: Shell profit increase last year. §
39%: ChevronTexaco profit increase last year. §
35%: BP profit increase last year. §
22.8 cents Amount of money U.S. oil refiners made in 1999 for every
gallon of gasoline. §
40.8 cents Amount refiners made in 2004 – an 80
percent jump. [5] §
99 cents Amount refiners were making during September 2005 price
spikes. [6] §
$228 billion Combined profits for the five biggest refiners from
2001-2005.[7] OIL SPILLS §
8,000,000 Gallons of oil spilled in southeast Louisiana during and after
Hurricane Katrina.[8] §
11,000,000 Gallons of oil spilled from Exxon Valdez tanker off the coast
of Alaska in 1989. §
285,600 Gallons of oil spilled from Trans-Alaska pipeline in 2001 when a
hunter shot a bullet into it. §
3,000,000 Gallons of oil spilled from offshore oil and gas operations in
73 incidents between 1980 and 1999. [9] ARCTIC REFUGE, PUBLIC LANDS AND
COASTS §
1 cent Amount of savings for consumers at the pump if we drill for
oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. §
20 years When consumers would see the penny savings.[10] §
6,052 Amount of drilling permits the BLM issued on federal lands in 2004
– a record number.[11] §
2,702 Number of new wells the oil and gas industries actually
drilled.[12] §
80 Percentage of the nation’s undiscovered Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
gas that is located in areas already open to the oil and gas industry.[13] REAL SOLUTIONS §
4 million The number of barrels of oil per day that the United States
would save if fuel economy standards were raised to 40 miles per gallon within 20
years. This is more oil than we currently import from the entire Persian Gulf
and could ever take out of the Arctic Refuge, combined. §
$2,200 Amount that the average driver would save at the gas pump
over the lifetime of their vehicle if fuel economy standards were raised to 40
miles per gallon over the next 10 years. [14] §
6 Percentage by which we can reduce natural gas consumption by getting
20 percent of our energy from clean sources like wind and solar. §
$26.6 billion Amount this would save consumers by 2020. [15] §
12.6 Percentage of natural gas (projected to be used in
2020) that we could save by using technology available today to make homes,
buildings and industry more energy efficient. [16] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Energy Information Administration (EIA) – www.eia.doe.gov [2] Consumer Expenditure Survey from Bureau of Labor Statistics and the
Energy Information Administration [3] Energy Information Administration (EIA) – www.eia.doe.gov [4] ibid [5] 1988-2003 Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Marketing
Annual, annual reports and 2004-Energy Information Administration, Petroluem
Marketing Montly (April 2005) [6] Washington Post "Gas Profit Guzzlers," 9/25/2005 [7] United States Securities and Exchange Commission Annual Report
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [8] http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8944 [9] MMS, 2000. Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sale 181, Draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), pp. IV-50. [10] http://www.tws.org/Library/Documents/upload/PennyaGallon20yrs1.pdf
[11] BLM, “Number of APDs approved by Year on Federal Lands”
(unpublished table, 1/31/05) [12] BLM, “Number of Wells Spud During the Year on Federal Lands”
(unpublished table, 1/31/05) [13] U.S. Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS),
2000. Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Assessment, 2000, page 5 and Gulf of
Mexico Assessment Update [14] Friedman et al. "Drilling In Detroit: Tapping Automaker
Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles." Union of Concerned
Scientists & Center for Auto Safety. June 2001. [15] Union of Concerned Scientists fact sheet “Renewable Energy Can
Help Ease Natural Gas Crunch.” [16] Nadel, Steve. “A Choice of Two Paths: Energy Savings from Pending
Federal Energy Legislation.” April 2005. American Council for an Energy
Efficient Economy. http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1006-09.htm |
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
