oil, politics

House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today that she might be willing to inlcude offshore oil drilling in energy legislation. The Dems are going to try and tie it to other energy strategies that Republicans have shot down.

Offshore drilling is not going to bring prices down. Offshore drilling will just make the oil companies richer. Gasoline consumption in the US is down from last year, yet gas inventories are smaller. That points to less refining aimed at creating less supply.

The only positive benefit, unless you own stock in an oil company? Less greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere. Nothing short of these skyrocketing prices could drive down demand. I just wish that the oil companies were not profiting so much from JQ public.

An interesting note here in Maine. The first registered all electric vehicle owner has had his registration plates revoked. The car, which costs $12,000, has three wheels, and the owner registered it as a motorcycle. It took the state three months to realize their mistake, and the state says that since it has three wheels and a steering column, instead of handlebars, it is illegal to drive as it would be easy to over-turn it, causing a rollover.

I guess a motorcycle with two wheels and handlebars is safer than a three wheeled car with steering wheel and an enclosure. Yeah.

Next, politics. I don't care for the spin I am hearing here in the US about the recent situation with Russia and Georgia. One has to pay very close attention and dig very deep to find out that Georgia started the whole thing, and that Russia moved in to stop them. The news here is trying to make it sound like the Russians are totally at fault.

Then Poland and the US have agreed to let the US use Poland as a missile base, with Bush and Rice posturing threats at the Russians, to hell with cold war-pretty soon we are going to be in deep trouble. Scary stuff.

Upcoming elections: while some of us are still deciding who to back in the next presidential election (not me-I'm voting with the Dems) , which nominee Americans want to be our next president might not really matter. Remember all the trouble during the last couple of elections, with folks not being able to vote, and votes not being properly counted due to machine error? That is all supposed to be fixed by touch screen voting machines-none of which have been yet certified to be error and hacker free. Yet 30% of voting Americans will be using those voting machine in November.

The worst part-they offer no paper back up, so there is no way to prove if they are working correctly, or not.

My ballot will be handcounted-once nice thing about living in a small town. At least I hope it will-if I walk into the auditorium on Nov 4 and see electronic machines, I am NOT going to be happy!