[Vision2020] Building and development planning

[Phil Nisbet]

Tom

Mark is a very serious environmental activist, so I am not sure why you 
would direct such a comment to him.

As for who benefits from increased crude costs, the answer is the people who 
hold or own crude oil reserves.

1.  Saudi Arabia 261.9
2. Canada 178.81
3. Iran 125.8
4. Iraq 115.0
5. Kuwait 101.5
6. United Arab Emirates 97.8
7. Venezuela 77.2
8. Russia 60.0
9. Libya 39.0
10. Nigeria 35.3

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html

Or if you prefer that on the basis of production rather than reserves

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922041.html

You can also look at the top ten oil importers as countries.

So the top dogs, the Saudis, are making money quite nicely.

But it might interest you to note that Norway is the third largest exporter 
of oil.  Canada has the second largest reserves.  So if invading countries 
for their oil was the idea, invading Norway would look pretty good as would 
invading Canada.

Heck, Mexico produces and exports more oil than Iraq and they at least have 
a great local beer.

So who is 'making money'?  The big winners are the top exporters, Saudi 
Arabia, Russia and Norway and the big losers are the USA, Japan and China 
since they import the largest amount of fuel.  In the US thats four billion 
barrels of fuel a year at a current cost of a quarter of a trillion dollars, 
but the Japanese are not far behind us.

The real clue on it all is per capita oil consumption and each and every 
American is using over 20 barrels of oil a year, compared to a Japanese 
using 15 Barrels or a German using 12.4 Barrels.  The differences are 
related to life style in industrialized nations and also to production of 
alternatives, like Nuke power.  Our actual BTU consumption of energy is only 
slightly higher than other industrialized nations.  But they take the train 
and tax gas to almost twice the price of US prices.  Its interesting to note 
that Canada has as high an oil consumption as we do per capita, largely due 
to their similarity in life styles.

Now I know you want to lay claim that the bulk of all that cash is flowing 
to the hands of 'giant oil companies', but its tne national oil companies of 
a few countries who are the ones making the killing.  PEMEX or Aramco are 
doing one heck of a lot better than Exxon or Chevron, because they simply 
own more oil and produce more oil than do the down streamers like the US oil 
firms have become.

So rebuild our trains and do not turn them into trails.

Start supporting local production rather than trying to stop every mine and 
every timber sale and every other bulk commodity from getting into 
production.  Don't be a NIMBY.

Support Nuke plants, like the Japanese and Germans do.

And get behind programs like this one;

http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/

Because its right in our backyard, the INL program on hydropower is worth 
looking at, especially the low head site program they initiated over a 
decade ago,  http://hydropower.inel.gov/

Because, Tom, when they blocked every Nuke plant, blocked every low head 
hydro development, stopped every natural gas development, blocked geothermal 
drilling, protested windmills and a whole lo5t more, while at the same time 
keeping up the same old life styles, yes, a good many environmental 
activists stand as guilty as the rest of us and perhaps more that we are 
seeing the price of oil leap.

Chance how we supply energy and change how we demand it, that is whats 
needed, the demand side is up to you, not the oil companies.

Phil Nisbet

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