"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
b.com...


Are they jerking our chains or what?

Alternate energy anybody?

Well, yes. It's about their $21 billion annual tax-payer-paid-for
subsidies which they dearly want to keep and for which the industry is under
fire (we get to pay twice!). It's a publicity stunt to distract highly
deserved public outrage for yet more record profits. Doesn't anyone ever
wonder why, if the average cost of a domestically produced barrel of oil is
~$30, the oil companies are allowed to sell it to domestic refiners (usually
their own?) for $100+/bbl? I thought that was price gouging.
And domestic production is on the rise. You can't swing a dead cat in
South Texas w/o hitting a drilling rig. Some people will have you believe
that the Eagle Ford Shale play down there is as big or bigger than the north
slope of Alaska. South Dakota (Bakken Shale play) has upped that state's
total contribution to domestic production from 3% to 6% in a year. Other
shale plays are ramping up in western Colorado.

Dave in Houston