Any way to force OPEC to increase production of Oil?

[Mr. Wyndham]

Fair enough...

Mpower, I'd absolutely love to tell OPEC to shove it. Shove their oil, shove their attitudes, shove their sand. No...they can be productive; build sandcastles.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Fair enough...

Mpower, I'd absolutely love to tell OPEC to shove it. Shove their oil, shove their attitudes, shove their sand. No...they can be productive; build sandcastles.

Yea, exactly Dragon, I really do feel for the folks on the ground in many of the OPEC countries. They never see any benefits of all of the oil profits pouring in. There are heroes and douchebags in every corner of de globe. A big goal could be to ensure that all energy consuming nations (U.S, Japan, India....) are independent arbiters and that they don't have to sell thier souls to keep thier economies running along.

[TFord]

Originally Posted by gtahvit

Splain ya self....

sorry that was some SWS humor...lol, but DGthe3 has the gist of it

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Uh lol, wow. I want to strongly state my opposition to that thought but heck, I don't even know where to begin. Well, have a good night nonetheless

I'm not promoting actually doing it! I'm just saying that the most oil-rich part of the world is monopolizing petrol by limiting production and fixing prices much like the old US monopolies did. It creates incredible revenue for mediocre, inconsistent, or low supply. The only way to force change is for a government to step in. The only reason the US government stopped monopolies in America was the strength of the democracy here. Democracies inherently protect worker rights whereas dictatorships and monarchies do not. OPEC countries all have some sort of elitist system of government that does not protect civil liberties or competition in any way; therefore, monopolies persist without any governmental reason to stop them. In fact, authoritarian regimes tend to benefit from such a system of monopolies because it reinforces their own power with consistent tax income. In the end, they get the same consistent tax money each year which solidifies their power and authority. As a result, these regimes can stay in power indefinitely. With a resource as well-valued as oil, there is no domestic incentive in oil-producing nation-states to regulate businesses that produce oil because any regulation would require prosecution of the businesses, some of which are owned by the government! Why would the government sue itself?

It wouldn't. Since no internal factors exist, save civil strife, to bring down these monopolies and create competition, only external factors in the market or political environment can end the monopolies. This can occur in two ways. The first is to bring down the regime that supports the monopolies, thus revising the whole political and economic system in these authoritarian regimes. The second is to use international pressure to encourage democracy or at least a free market in these places. Unfortunately, international pressure takes an eternity to make a dent on countries whose products are a dependency for the rest of the world. There is no way other than force to change the market forces in OPEC, so that is why I recommended invasion as a means of satisfying our goals of more oil.

[Silverado]

I like the idea of drilling and refining our own oil as a starting point, moving towards alternatives.

There's a couple problems though.

The environmentalists won't "let" us drill our own because it's bad for the environment. Well, that used to be true. It isn't really all that hard on the environment now and if given the opportunity to drill, the technologies would improve even more.

As mentioned, that shale oil is hard to get and expensive too. Given the opportunities, the technology will be developed that could make that easier and less expensive. But again, tree huggers....

.....okay, so you don't want to blame everything on the fringe nut jobs....I agree....let's put the blame where it belongs....on our elected-by-the-people-even-though-they-don't-really-represent-those-people politicians....they have jacked the prices/fees of gaining permits, building, and operating refineries here in the US to dizzying numbers. If you want to build a refinery here in the US, it will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $1B (yes, that's billion with a "B") and something like 5 years worth of studies, surveys, etc before you can even break ground. Then you actually have to pay for the physical construction of the refinery. That first billion gets you the permits and covers the upfront fees. You could easily be $5-10B in before you even get to refine your first barrel. Then you have these same idiotic politicians that want to "super-tax" these oil companies. Is it any wonder that they don't want to build here?

Sorry, but we should let US oil companies drill the oil here in the US, refine it here in the US, and sell it here in the US. Again, not a permanent solution, but if you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, do it. While we do that, the technologies and alternative fuel development needs to continue. Then, you can tell OPEC, the Middle East, Venezuela, etc to shove their oil, their sand, etc.

By the way, just the threat of doing this would drop the price of oil. Actually moving forward with the plan would drop it even more. Once we actually start producing our own, the price of oil would be ridiculously low. Oh, and as a side benefit, some of our worst enemies wouldn't be able to use our own money to fund their attacks/terroristic threats/etc against us and we would crumble their economies.

As for "using the food" as leverage. There are too many people here in the US that think we should have so much compassion for everyone else around the world. The US, even though we should, will never use food as a weapon/threat/leverage around the world. It just won't happen. Of course, neither will the lowering of taxes or the drilling of our own oil.

[Camaro_Corvette]

theres too much reading here, i'm going back to the Video....LOL

[GTAHVIT]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

...

nuke+sand=glass parking lot.

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Ah-bah-ah! We call it a Thermal Device...don't want any crazies getting funny ideas....

Originally Posted by TFord

sorry that was some SWS humor...lol, but DGthe3 has the gist of it

DUUUUuuuuuUUUUUUUhhh. If I had remember'd your background I might have put this together. Ballistic Missiles and all that good stuff...

I'm so dumb sometimes.... That's too funny!