BP still in business

BP is not yet in danger of bankruptcy, says one financial analyst.  I'm in agreement, BP does have a large amount of cash reserves.  I also agree that investors are the ones who are really killing BP.  Consumers have short minds, and BP could always rebrand as Amoco.  But as an investor right now I'd put my money into Total (TOT), which has a juicy yield without any of the baggage.

Why is BP solely responsible?

The massive oil spill off the cost of Louisiana is likely going to cost tens of billions of dollars to cleanup.  For some reason, the US government has said that BP is solely responsible for the cost of cleanup.  Why?

A large company called Transocean (ticker: RIG) actually owns and operates Deepwater Horizon.  BP has laid the blame on them (while promising to take all responsibility).  I think at the end of the day, RIG has a higher likelihood of going down over this incident.  While the US government may be blaming BP for everything, RIG will likely be named in a number of lawsuits over this disaster.

Also, to all of you who supported the Palin/McCain ticket, how's the mantra of "Drill baby drill" feel now?

Middle east conflict benefits OPEC

Oil prices have climbed 38% in recent weeks, mainly due to the Gaza conflict.  What is ironic about this, is that as Israel, right or wrong, continues to press into Gaza, the source (oil) of the money that funds Hamas continues to grow in price.

McCain, Obama, and Tire Pressure

Already this week, McCain is bashing Obama for correctly stating that Americans need to check the pressure in their tires.  Underinflated tires are not just a safety hazard.  They lead to wasted gas; a large amount.  

In fact, if everyone checked their tire pressure every other time they filled up with gas and topped it off accordingly, that would save more oil that would be found through off-shore drilling.  By the numbers: we waste 61 million barrels of oil due to low pressure tires.  Offshore drilling may bring us 18 million barrels.  Even George W. Bush could understand this math, but then again, he's not 72 years old, and he's sent an email before.

McCain's ignorance, and his mocking of Obama underscores a deep division between those Americans who refuse to spend 2 minutes doing something that can help us all and save some money.  

Here are some gas saving tips:

1. Make sure your tires are properly inflated.

2. Drive at 55 mph on the highway where possible, any faster than that will impact fuel economy.

3. Accelerate smoothly, do not "floor it".

4. Use cruise control as much as possible.

So, is Obama's argument for tire inflation a "left wing conspiracy"?  Hardly.  What other organizations agree that inflating your tires will lead to real savings?  

Try these:

NASCAR

Edmunds

The US DOE/EPA

Who will benefit from this?  Everyone.  

Who will benefit from McCain's plan of offshore drilling?  Click here.  

Oil prices down 15%

Oil prices have dropped by over 15% in the past 2 weeks.  While this is good for the stock market (my 401k is up by thousands in the past couple days), we can't ignore the fact that oil is still 4 times the price it was just a few years ago.  

Gas my be under $4 now, but its not time to buy a new pickup truck.  

Offshore Drilling is not the answer

Today George W Bush lifted the mortatorium on offshore drilling put into place by his father.  Oil companies cannot yet begin drilling offshore until Congress passes a similar law.  As always, the whole issue of offshore drilling is BS.  Here is why:

1. More oil will not lead to cheaper gas.  Our oil refineries, which turn oil into gas, are maxed out.  Oil companies have been closing them, and none have been opening.  Even if we had a lot more oil, we could not product much more gasoline and this is why the prices of gasoline are so high.

2. Even if oil companies choose to drill offshore (and most won't) the oil won't be produced for at least 5-10 years, so there is no short-term fix.

3. We are now hearing about shale rock in the Rocky Mountains, which could outproduce Saudi Arabia.  

Oil shale, offshore drilling, and arctic wildlife refuge drilling are not the answers.  Everytime we burn some type of fossil fuel, we are slowly fucking over the world.  We have seen changes in our lifetimes, which are comparatively small to the 5 billion years that our Earth has been here.  We've done so much damage that ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic is melting at a rate that has never been seen.  While I disagree that our coastal cities will be flooded soon, it is not outside of the realm of possibilities.  

We need to harness cleaner form of energies such as wind power, an idea advocated by an oil man, T Boone Pickens.  See www.pickensplan.com