OPINION: Declare independence

Hey genius, it's an easy solution...You and the other 534 members of congress get off your political butts and allow the power companies to develop our own natural energy resources....On land and at sea!!!....You and your selfish rich colleagues are the reason this country is in such a mess....Yes you and your parasitical power hungry fellow morons have caused this once great oil exporting country to be dependent on a bunch of third world tin horn dictators and religious fanatics all in the name of saving the environment....Well frankly I don't give a damn about the Greenies and tree huggers!!!...All I want to is keep as many "presidents" in my wallet as I can when I fill up!!!!...

In the guise of presenting a "Common Sense Energy Plan," Rep. Rogers made some absurd and demogogic claims: 1. Venezuela is funding Cuba and narcoterrorists in Columbia (sic)." Where's the evidence that the FARC is narcotics-based, and isn't narcotics the most lucrative crime in the world. Chaves is peddling arms to Colombia's FARC, but funding them?? Prove it. 2. "Persian Gulf states are funding Al-Qaeda..." CIVILIANS in some such states (notably Saudi Arabia) are doing that, but where's the evidence that the governments are doing so? 3. Russia has doubled its arms spending "because they are charging Americans more than $130 a barrel for oil." The U.S. hasn't imported a drop of Russian oil. Rogers says we should build 40 nuclear power plants by 2015. Assuming that's possible, it would pollute hundreds of billions of gallons a year of water used to cool those plants. Not to mention create a vast amount of spent fuel to be stored ---- where and how? Yucca Mountain? Drilling the ANWR, and offshore, ;is an okay idea, but it will take several new refineries to process the crude. Better to ramp up shale oil production. Spending to speed up bio-mass energy is the best idea Rogers presented. Most of the rest of his proposal is not "common sense," but "Common Nonsense."

"nelsondeu" is right on ! But more to the point, the Democrats are where the real blame lies. They have consistantly blocked any attempts to increase our domestic oil production and refineries. It's an election year - only vote for candidates who will get on the band wagon and follow Rep Mike Rogers line of thought.

This is the most coherent approach I've seen to date.It's something I can live with

Right now the problem is mainly in Congress, who has responded to misguided environmentalists in limiting domestic production. Other forces are at work, however. There is some substantial evidence that markets are being manipulated. The Hunt brothers almost succeeded in cornering the silver markets. Today's "sovereign wealth funds" are fully capable and have every incentive to do so. The various regulatory agencies are also fully capable of blocking them. We should insist. Many say we are running out of "cheap oil", which is true to an extent. The Saudis can no longer produce at a cost of less than a dollar a barrel, but at market prices of even $10/bbl, they are still making a fortune. At current prices even the Russians with much higher costs are making a fortune. Many of the innovative technologies (shale and oil sand, deep water, "heavy" or played out wells, coal to gas) etc. are profitable at between $20-35/bbl for domestic production. If Congress gets out of it, that will happen.