Al Gore: Belief that oil is a "free market" is a serious delusion....

[Junkdrawer]

Al Gore today gave a major speech on global warming. In it he gives what I see as the real reason for the current drop in gas prices, and it's not just to win elections:

...

It is, in other words, time for a national oil change. That is apparent to anyone who has looked at our national dipstick.

Our current ridiculous dependence on oil endangers not only our national security, but also our economic security. Anyone who believes that the international market for oil is a "free market" is seriously deluded. It has many characteristics of a free market, but it is also subject to periodic manipulation by the small group of nations controlling the largest recoverable reserves, sometimes in concert with companies that have great influence over the global production, refining, and distribution network.

It is extremely important for us to be clear among ourselves that these periodic efforts to manipulate price and supply have not one but two objectives. They naturally seek to maximize profits. But even more significantly, they seek to manipulate our political will. Every time we come close to recognizing the wisdom of developing our own independent sources of renewable fuels, they seek to dissipate our sense of urgency and derail our effort to become less dependent. That is what is happening at this very moment.

....

Transcript:

http://www.changetheparty.com/index.php?option=com_mamblog&Itemid=47&task=show&action=view&id=171&Itemid=47


Watch the whole speech here:

http://www.law.nyu.edu/newscalendars/2006_2007/gore/index.html

[blm]

1. How I wish Clinton hadn't muzzled this information - think how much better

off the world would be today if Clinton let Gore explain to the American people the seriousness of the problems they'd be facing down the road.

He could have tapped Gore to EDUCATE the citizenry.

Undergod knows, this country needed to know a helluva lot more than it did.

[elehhhhna]

23. Bill ran AL's campaign?

[blm]

29. As Vice-president for 8 yrs. I think Gore WOULD have given his powerpoint

presentation to the country back then if Clinton would have given him the go ahead,

[elehhhhna]

34. psychic much?

[blm]

35. You don't have to be psychic to conclude Gore WOULD have spoken out

more if he could have.

I was surprised to learn that Gore had been giving his powerpoint presentations on the environment and global warming throughout his years as VP. I couldn't help but wonder why he was never charged with the task of educating all Americans on the issue.

So....what's the point of your remark, anyway? You think Gore personally withheld information and Clinton had nothing to do with it.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Thanks for posting Junkdrawer

Kicked and recommended for President Gore:patriot:

:kick:

[KoKo]

3. This seems to fit with CNBC Crowd Yelling SELL ETHANOL!

Gore gives a speech and the screeching monkeys who follow Bushfascists all get on the dime to tell folks to DITCH THE GREEN ENERGY STOCKS ...lest you be caught with stuff that will RUIN your PORTFOLIO.

Lets see GM and FORD MERGE now that both are DOWNSIZED and getting rid of PENSIONS AND HEALTH CARE!

It works when you have an army of RW THINK TANKS AND CORPORATISTS you've given so many favors to through the years. IT WORKS when you force your GLOBILIZATION/CAPITALIZATION ON FOLKS! It works when you have FULL Power to Manipulate Markets....

It's disgusting!

[Junkdrawer]

5. It's what monopolies do..

They raise prices to what the market will bear and they drop prices ONLY to kill off competition.

I posted this Oil History clip a while back:

http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/115CH13oil.html

[Hugin]

4. You tell them Al!

:thumbsup:

[KoKo]

6. Please Read Gore's Speech from Junkdrawer's post and see what GE/

CNBC is doing to aid Bushofascists in their efforts at Manipulation, here wher the RW "Weekly Standard" says Bush will win on Torture and Lowered Gas at the Pumps...It's ALL COORDINATED!!! Read here when you finish this post...at......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2164557&mesg_id=2164557

[elehhhhna]

24. Bush will "win on torture..."? They're insane. Antichoice/Protorture ?

lmao

[hatrack]

7. Saudi Aramco . . . CNOOC . . . PEMEX . . . . Statoil . . . Gazprom . . .

What do they all have in common? Why, they're all state-owned oil and gas companies.

Funny thing, when you think about the phrase "state-owned oil company", you start thinking that maybe, just maybe, they're not totally free-market organizations, and maybe they're responding to political directives rather than market forces.

Ya think that I might be onto something here?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Our oil production should be state owned.

All natural resources, for that matter.

[Zensea]

8. He mentions Amory Lovins -- excellent

Anyone who isn't familiar with Lovins should check him out.

This is a good place to start, he founded this place

http://www.rmi.org/

[KoKo]

9. Can you give a snip of the target of your post...most

don't have time to go to site and dig...and they'd rather read a snip. Thanks! :-)'s

[Zensea]

13. Sure

Amory Lovins founded the Rocky Mountain Institute.
He's one of the main pushers behind hybrids.
Ford and GM didn't just think that stuff up on their own.
He had a lot to do with it.
20 years ago he started going around to auto companies with the idea.

He's in direct lineage from E.F. Schumacher.

Here's the beginning of the Wikipedia entry on him which can be found here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amory_Lovins

(I scanned it quickly and it looks accurate to me) I saw Lovins speak about 25 years ago.
Very impressed with him at the time and I still am.


Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947 in Washington, DC) was trained in physics and has worked professionally as an environmentalist. He is co-CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient (1994), and author and co-author of books which make arguments for and popularize energy-efficiency principles to public and corporate audiences. Lovins' works include Factor Four with Hunter Lovins and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, and Natural Capitalism with Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken. In the 1990s, his work with the Rocky Mountain Institute has included the design of an ultra-efficient automobile, the "Hypercar".

Lovins has been one of the most influential American voices advocating a "soft energy path" for the U.S. and other nations. He has been able to assemble a very impressive array of facts, computations, economic-analyses, forecasts, and arguments that appeal on a common-sense level. He has advocated energy-use and energy-production concepts based, on one hand, on conservation and efficiency, and on the other, on the use of renewable sources of energy and on generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used.

At RMI's headquarters, in Colorado, the south-facing building complex is so energy-efficient that, even with local -40° winter temperatures, the building interiors can maintain a comfortable temperature solely from the sunlight admitted plus the body heat of the people who work there. The environment can actually nurture semi-tropical and tropical indoor plants.

[KoKo]

14. thanks....n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

10. (Just playing devil's advocate) Here's an opposing viewpoint:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14891597/

[w4rma]

12. "… we can find …" (nt)

[Junkdrawer]

15. MSNBC and CNBC carry Big Oil's water, so to speak...

See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2164557&mesg_id=2164557

No surprise here.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

17. What do you make of the gasoline chart at the bottom of the webpage?

(at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14891597/ )

To me, it seems to show a sharp recent pullback in price, but way short of the decline that would be necessary to reverse a strong uptrend.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Let's see if the drop in prices spook alternate energy investors...

I remember how low oil prices killed the alternate energy markets in the 70s/80s.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. I love you Al Gore. I really do.

I hate free market, I hate free market. It's what's wrong with this world.

[texpatriot2004]

16. So true, thank you President Gore nm

[JNelson6563]

19. I can't believe only 12 votes

This is as good as it gets. :toast:

Julie

[TheCentepedeShoes]

20. " ...our national dipstick."

That's what I've been calling Bush for the last 5 years.

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Heheh.. beat me to it

[RedEarth]

21. kr

[Junkdrawer]

22. .

[Hawkowl]

26. Run Al Run

I don't think there is a position of his I disagree with. If he runs he will win by a landslide.

[KoKo]

28. "they seek to manipulate our political will......."

Gore really gets it........It's a great speech.

[Skidmore]

30. These words should be echoed by every Democratic candidate.

I've been saying this for months now. I don't understand why they don't teach the people and state the obvious in simple terms...over and over again.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Duh!

There have been published papers on the lack of a free market in oil for the last 30 years. Some have even gone to show, mathematically, just how "non-free" they are, compared to the both theoretical and actual free market applications.

Way to catch up, Al!
The Professor

[Junkdrawer]

32. I think Al has known for a while. Perhaps you would like to address...

your sarcasm to the article in post #10 (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14891597/). Because the Corporate Media is pushing the "oil is a free market and only unknowledgeable people think otherwise" idea in a big way.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. It Wasn't The Least Bit Sarcastic

It was disgust not sarcasm.

I've been sending LTTE's, every time i see this, for over 25 years. I've done my part, thank you very much.

And, i read that post. I don't agree they're pushing it in a big way. They're wrong, but it's not a conspiracy. It's just ignorance.
The Professor