Do you folks think we get some kind of price break on oil drilled in this country?  The owners of oil here in Kern County benefit just as much from high oil prices as the ones in Saudi Arabia.  

All this talk about reducing "reliance on foreign oil" is just nonsense.  Presidents and presidential candidates have been using that line for decades though...

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"Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving."

Just throwin some information out there. I grew up on a dairy, my family has been in the dairy business in CA for the last 80 years, my family has several dairies and farms in the Central Valley.

PD, apparently you are not comprehending what I and others have said here. Let me try to state it more clearly to you.

True change will only happen when the American people speak up and demand it!

So, when is the last time you wrote a letter or sent an e-mail to your elected official?

I just wrote a letter to the white house a couple of weeks ago exclaiming what a dirty, rotton scoundrel I thought Mr President was and asked if he could sleep nights?  Now...do I go back and apologize after seeing that he hand delivered the Purple heart to Justin?

Joty,

Yes ther are alternative fuels out there and some have been around for a while. So why hasn't the automakers built them? Then when they do build them, can you afford one?  I would love to own a diesel truck instead of the gas one I am driving. I would then have the conversion done to burn bio-diesel, but the added $5,000 prevents me from doing so currently. I aso owned a Ford Ranger that was Flex Fuel before the current hip. ut where was the Ethanol for me to purchase it? The fuel pump went out on it and I had to pay $50 more than a normal striaght gas fuel pump was.

Do some of the oil compnay deserve the blame for the current prices, sure because some like Exxon don't want to search for alternative fuels. As for the profits go, are you still buying it and allowing Congress to prevent drilling? The key is to allow drilling to put more oil on the market, force the automakers to start building more and cheaper alternate fuel cars, and push for more filling stations that deal in alternate fuels.

Job, it must be comforting to you that the cost of oil is my fault - and that if I had only sent an email to Senator Boxer, everything would be better now....

So beyond that I apparently haven't been writing enough letters to suit you, what exactly am I not comprehending?  Perhaps it would be helpful if you would outline exactly WHAT change I am supposed to be demanding - I wouldn't want to risk contradicting the message this "everyone jump-up and down and stamp their feet together" exercise of yours is supposed to send.

But since you are apparently not comprehending what I said, let me try to state it more clearly to you.

Domestic oil sells for the same price as imported oil.  Political demogues have been doing an "energy independence" con job on us for decades. 

Oh - and before you sputter too much at that, how about explaining to me why it is of such importance to be "energy independent" anyway? 

We're not "machinist independent" as we off-shore every decent-paying tool and die job to China....we're not "vegetable picker independent" since we insist on importing cheaper foreign labor for that.  We're not even "doctor, dentist, or engineer" independent since we import them from Asia, India, and every other foreign country.  We're not "graduate student independent" since imported foreign students have been outnumbering native-born students, especially in technical fields, for decades now.  These are the things for which I would be more interested in "demanding change" .

So, why is the simple extraction of unimproved raw materials - which undeveloped countries have traditionally supplied the developed world so important, again?  Next you'll be announcing we should be "rubber-independent" and advocating for rubber tree plantations up and down the Central Valley...

Well, PD, you have really inlightened me. Thanks.

You’re wrong. Let’s talk about Oklahoma. Oklahoma has consistently had some of the lowest prices for gas in the country. Why is that? Answer: Most of the gas sold in Oklahoma is pumped, refined and stays within the state. Today it is still under $4.00/gal.

PD, really now, devils advocate once again.  We need to get off foreign oil because they have us by the you-know-whats.  I don't see vegetable pickers, doctors, dentists, engineers or graduate students gouging us for every dollar we have.  

Well Jer, if you had invented an alternative fuel that would cost just pennies, and big oil companies offered you a gazillion dollars to NOT market it, I'm willing to bet you'd take the money and run too, just like the auto builders. You think for one second big oil hasn't paid them NOT to produce smaller, more fuel efficient automobiles/trucks? Ironically, auto dealers are now loosing money and shutting down plants, and considering omitting certain makes like Saab and Saturns. There goes all those jobs now. C'mon, wake up and smell the gas. 

No, I do not want our coastline or the pristine tundras of Alaska to be drilled and spoiled because Americans are too complacent or even lazy to do anything but bitch.

My family owns mineral rights to property in Mississippi. There's oil down there..."it's too deep to try to drill for" but they keep trying to buy those rights from us!

And Olivia...no, you don't owe an apology to Mr. President. And I'm sure Justin would much rather have his legs than a medal...

Oklahoma is 10% cheaper than California?  Wow!!  And this is because the oil is produced there?  You haven't noticed that oil is produced and refined right here in Kern County?

Gee, maybe there are some other reasons why gas in Oklahoma might be 50 cents less than here...like maybe the gas tax collected by the state, which is 7 cents less.  And the fact that Oklahoma doesn't collect sales taxes on fuel sales, which California does at the cost about 30 cents a gallon.  Oh - and Oklahoma doesn't require the use of oxygenated gas which is more expensive to refine, and maybe because Oklahoma truck drivers and gas pumpers get paid less, the minimum wage in OK being $6.55/hour compared to California's $8/hour, or because construction costs and lot rents are less, or because delivery trucks don't spend hours a day sitting in traffic between stations.... 

These are just a few of the reasons why there is a difference in price....all of which are lot more reasonable than your notion that the oil companies give Oklahoma an especially great deal, which is laughably idiotic...

GregL, what makes you think I'm being the "devils' advocate"?  I never play the devil's advocate, and certainly wouldn't do it here where there is so much danger of being misunderstood.  

Why do "they" have US by the "you-know-what's" while and not Europe and Japan, who seem to be perking along even though their oil and gas production is much more anemic than ours...

Its because nations become wealthy by adding value to products - it is the conversion of iron ore into steel and steel into cars that adds the most value, not digging up iron ore.  Making raw materials into valuable products requires technical savvy, and our falling production of THAT, not oil production, is the big threat to our wealth. 

It just cracks me up to see the same politicians who claim that "free trade" agreements that force American workers to compete with third world countries and have led to the loss of millions of jobs formally held by highly trained American workers are good, then flip around and say that the minimum wealth creation exercise - basic mineral extraction - must remain here.  You see they're either really dumb, or they think you are.

heh. forget it Job.  Don't strain yourself trying to make sense out of what you said.  I just wanna know

WHAT True change will only happen when the American people speak up and demand it? 

What am I supposed to demand?

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This change?  I've heard a lot about change from this guy....