The hearing, called to investigate whether oil majors are "profiteering" Although there were suggestions on Tuesday that one of the big companies from the Financial Talk about political theater! As show trials, these As we wrote at the height of the latest petro-frenzy<\/a>, As a result we are in the midst of the biggest capital So, other than lining the pockets of corrupt politicians, On one point we agree with Mark Boudreaux, spokesman This, folks, is what is really going on. The oil cartel, In order to protect their power, prolong their dominance Will it be nuclear? Geo-thermal? Tidal? Fission? Giant <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top executives from the oil industry are expected to stand their ground when they testify on Wednesday before Congress on the politically charged issue of high energy prices. The hearing, called to investigate whether oil majors are "profiteering" at the … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/oilmann.jpg\")
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\n executives from the oil industry are expected to stand their ground when
\n they testify on Wednesday before Congress on the politically charged
\n issue of high energy prices.<\/p>\n
\n at the expense of consumers, offers the unusual prospect of a public falling-out
\n between Republicans and their allies in the energy sector.<\/p>\n
\n might offer to hold emergency reserves of petroleum products, such as petrol,
\n the mood of the executives headed to Washington was said to be unapologetic<\/em><\/p>\n
\n Times<\/a><\/p>\n
\n hearings would rival the great Soviet-era political purge trials, except
\n that they are infinitely more boring (so that no one who doesn’t have to
\n would actually watch them), and because at the conclusion of the proceedings,
\n the subjects of the inquest will not be led out to a pock-marked cement wall behind
\n the Senate chambers and summarily executed. More’s the pity.<\/p>\n
\n there is no way to honestly account for the tremendous windfall flowing
\n to an already oil-profit engorged nexus of Big Oil companies and the
\n complicit governments of the major oil-producing states. They blame the
\n price of gasoline on the price of oil, and they blame the price of oil
\n on market factors. What they leave unsaid is that they dominate, design
\n and control the market, and have jimmied the system so that seeming random
\n but reliably inevitable factors like the weather and wars in oil-rich
\n regions set off price rises and profit boosts.<\/p>\n
\n siphoning scam since the Chinese came up with the idea of money in the
\n first place, and that includes some pretty sophisticated market manipulation
\n over the centuries. Sure, they have turned the heat down a bit (current
\n pump price on the corner $2.58<\/a>)
\n but that’s just to protect both the execs and the pols, and to make it
\n seem that the hearings are having some effect. Besides, the boondoggle’s
\n beneficiaries haven’t even collected the best plum of all – the profits
\n from all the billions of gallons of heating oil they’re going to sell
\n in the US and Europe over the next 5 months.<\/p>\n
\n propping up dictatorial regimes from Hugo Chavez to Abd Allah ibn Abd
\n al-Aziz and ensuring that Oil Industry executives can send their descendents
\n to Harvard for generations without end, where is this unprecedented cash
\n stash going? <\/p>\n
\n for ExxonMobil, who hinted at the executives’ line of defense, saying:
\n "Washington operates in terms of two, four and six-year cycles. We operate
\n on decades."<\/p>\n
\n which has dominated world geo-politics since the middle of the past century
\n and which has finally taken direct control of the most powerful mega-state
\n on the planet via the Bush-Cheney team, has come to the farsighted conclusion
\n that we are coming to the end of the era of oil. Not this year, or next,
\n or in 2008 or 2012. But in decades<\/em>, not centuries.<\/p>\n
\n and preserve their prerogatives, they had two possible strategies. They
\n could try to preserve supplies, slow consumption, increase efficiency
\n and make the world’s oil supplies, which they control, last as long as
\n possible. Or, they can go for broke, pump the oil as fast as they
\n can suck it out, and pump up the price while the dollar is still worth
\n something and the world economy is still robust enough to absorb all
\n the oil it can find. Take the quick hit, and then use the money to create,
\n impose and lock-up the next era in energy technology in the history of
\n human development.<\/p>\n
\n mirrors in space collecting solar energy for wireless transfer to centralized
\n earth stations? Whatever emerges as the dominant next-epoch technology,
\n the dudes who control the oil industry want to control it, and the betting
\n here is that they will favor a centralized model, probably nuclear or
\n space-based, putting the generation and distribution firmly in the hands
\n of a disciplined, white-coated scientific priesthood which they can buy
\n and sell and absolutely control, forever and ever. Stay tuned…<\/p>\n