Rep. Waters (D)-Nationalize oil companies

Lurker,

I first thought the same thing. But the more I thought about it the more I became convinced that there is a real problem. Now obviously this proposal is going nowhere. But Waters didn't say this to get the oil companies nationalized. She said it because she has lots of constituents who will swallow this. The fact that she feeds their fears and delusions is a problem.
 
What an embarrassment! I have heard her on a few occasions, and she never disappoints. Its sad that such a blithering idiot could ever get elected.
 
The American public is going to get nasty as hell over gasoline prices as time goes by. Don't expect an increase in rational thinking anytime soon. There aren't that many oil producing states and we've only just begun to hear the outcry. I'm glad I live in Texas.

Anybody else remember these bumper stickers from the early 80's? DRIVE 90, FREEZE A YANKEE.
 
What exactly does congress want the oil companies to do? What measures do they think oil companies can take to lower oil prices? I know congress isn't asking them to collude because that would be illegal. Or is it only illegal when you collude in efforts to move prices up rather than down as it appears they are asking Big oil to do?
 
Yeah the rest of the world is just some wild crazy mobs...

It aint going to happen so I will just enjoy the overreaction, but will finish with this though. The current energy problem was created because people let market handle it.
 
guess it would; be in very poor taste to point out that for the consumers in Venezuela gasoline is $0.12 a gallon.

Hell at this point it's honestly hard to see the American people getting more screwed by a completely government run system than it is right now.

Open up drilling on every coast and nationalize oil production and especially refining. As even with record profits it's just too darn expensive for the oil companies to actually build new refineries. Even with the taxpayer subsidies it's too expensive for the oil companies to build new refineries. So looks like the only real answer might be to "nationalize" oil.

I wouldn't want Maxine Waters managing it any more than I would want George W. Bush managing it, neither can string a sentence together and for me that makes both of them pretty stupid.
 
At first, I thought the hysteria over this congresswoman's statements was way out of balance considering her low level of importance nationally. But then, I got it.

Don't worry, GOPs, the Dems are not electing their dumbest elective official to the highest office. You won't likely see her flying out to an offshore rig in an astronaut suit, planting a US flag and raising a banner that says, "Mission Accomplished." She won't be in charge.

Sleep well.
 
Oh, I sleep like a baby.

That old biddy Hil, an unfortunate coincidence that she booked into the Worthington the very same night as the other Disney villians and myself were attending the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners convention. Ha! She's shorter in person than on TV.

barak H has also been informed by industry voices. I don't know if the meeting was held in a dark, smokey room, but you know how we like to meet in smoke filled rooms.

I hate to break it but big oil is only slightly more republican than government employees and substantially more democrat than the teachers union. An additional unpleasant truth that fails in following the contours of established identity politics, is that democrat power brokers are inconsiderably more democratic than their republican counterparts.
 
And you are calling me ignorant, here is a clue chum your private friends only control 10% of global reserves, deal with it. and PEMEX quintupled their production as a NOC.
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I'm not talking about control, I'm talking about production, the capability to get it out of ther ground efficiently and effectively. Also, I don't know where you are getting your figures on Pemex or what is the time frame reference, all I know is that Pemex is failing miserably now. one of its faults is its constitutional charter. it does not allow for international investment or assistance. it is failing, failing for a number of reasons and more so than is actually being reported.
 
The CEO of Chevron stated last week that 75% of the worlds known oil reserves are owned/operated by Nationalized companies. As more countries begin to nationalize their own oil production (Russia and Venezuela within the last decade) I wonder if that won't force our hand? It sure seems like most of the world is trying to protect it's own energy resources as much as possible. When will the US fall in line?

I'm not saying we should nationalize but at some point it may be our best option as the oil industry becomes more a foreign policy/trade matter than free market economics.
 
Exxonmobil has over 40 billion in cash (last time I checked), they could build new refineries tommorrow if they could. The energy problems we face are caused gas guzzlers and the unwillingness of government to allow nuclear power and drilling. It is that simple we aren't energy efiicient and coastal states not wanting offshore drilling and nimby in regards to nuclear.
 
SH,

We produce 5MM BOPD and consume 21MM BOPD. How will nationalizing oil companies help? What would the nationalized company do better, or differently? Would you compensate all the retirement funds which own stock?

There are hundreds of oil companies in the US. Many are very small. Are you going to nationalize them all?

How will you compensate the employees? Let's say I'm an expat working as a petroleum engineer for Exxon in Russia at $300K per year plus benefits. Are you going to try to cut my pay? Let's say the reason the Russians have granted Exxon an interest in the field is because they believe Exxon can develop it a lot better than someone else. Do you think the Russians will continue doing business with the nationalized company? If they do what control do you think the US government has over the sale of the oil? Let's assume they currently sell it in Europe and give Exxon their share of the proceeds. (I'll tell you it would be crazy to try to do anything else.) I'll bet that expat goes to work for British Petroleum or Shell.

What will you do about the operations of foreign companies in the US?

The mentality of many oil people (in E&P) is different from government employees. How will the government do joint ventures with the Russians, or the Chinese or whomever has these fields in some godforsaken place? (This is where the real money is.)

One of the most valuable assets of our oil industry is the superior technical expertise. What will the comp packages look like in thirty years? Do you think kids will be lining up to go into that industry?

One of the reasons Exxon is a premier company is that they get real smart people - not just oil people but computer people, secretaries, lawyers, accountants, and more. Will the government outbid General Electric for good accountants and lawyers? If not do you think that in thirty years Exxon will get the premium concessions from some dictator with a lot of oil which is tough to develop properly?

This stuff sounds to me about like nationalizing the Australian movie-making business so Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman and so forth would make movies in Sydney instead of Hollywood. It wouldn't do much to create Australian movies. Mel Gibson wouldn't make Australian movies. He'd probably say "**** you". If he did he'd have to do it without lots of Hollywood people who are key. Australian bureaucrats would screw everything up. And they'd still want to buy Hollywood movies.

The bulk of "Big Oil"s value is in overseas concessions and people. I don't know how you really nationalize that.

Oh yeah, are you going to nationalize convenience stores which sell gas?
 
Unless we get the U.N. to assist us on this foray, we would have difficulty taking over oil companies, since almost all of them are multi-national corporations. Might not work out too well.
 
That's a great idea! No more squabbling about "my property", or squibbling about who ultimately controls "private property". The enlightened among us should realize that "private property" is an archaic concept that does not properly recognize the rights of Federal power, plants, animals, and waters, and those that still clings regressively to the idea that humans and silly concepts like "human rights" and the tag along "property rights" that stem from "human rights" is anything but an outmoded concept whose time is long past.
 
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