This post is fascinating. I had no idea we were scaling back our futures and contracts with Saudi oil producers. This has all been done very quietly and it started in 1991. The trend continued unabated during both of Clinton's terms and, I suspect, will continue even further now that Iraq is producing oil for US consumption. The author does not point to any other market forces that may account for the decrease in US consumption of oil. I know China has been consuming massive amounts of oil (along with everything else) for the past 5 years. A trend that will doubtless continue for the forseeable future. What I don't know is where they get most of their oil. I imagine most of it is from the Former Soviet Union. They are also ramping up production of pebble bed reactors in hopes of reducing oil consumption in favor of domestic energy production. If they do, it's a boon for the US because the world price will drop accordingly. If, however, pebble bed reactors do prove to be the small, stable, safe powerplants they are hyped to be, it may well be the next step forward for energy and a great leap away from fossil fuels.
Feds eye Stevens' home remodeling project
Feds eye Stevens' home remodeling project . Thank God they're going after this guy. He's been so brazen with his porkbarreling and the whiff of corruption around him has been ripe enough to smell from here. I'd rather have a 100% democrat run Congress if they were ethical. Term limits. One term for Senate, two for the House, one for the President. Some fear that would increase the power of lobbyists. Simple, ban any former members from being lobbyists and limit lobbyists to terms as well. (I'm not sure how that would work. Just a thought.) The other answer is transparency. No earmarks without a floor vote. No spending of any kind without a floor vote. All spending committees (intelligence aside) open to the public and recorded and available on the web.
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