… growing economies like China which are going to also be using loads of coal …

ARE using loads of coal

Regular was $3.249 at my local off-brand place this morning, down from about $3.999 a month ago.

I paid $3.699/gallon today.

People are still buying and driving big ass SUVs and trucks with six wheels in the DC metro area, as far as I can tell.

Russia is negotiating to build a pipeline to the lower 48.

No pipeline will be built unless Big Oil believes they will make a profit in the long run. Palin hasn’t made the pipeline more likely. She’s made it less likely. TransCanada got their $500 million up front. They’re happy, but there’s no pipeline until BP, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil are happy.

Palin’s pipeline goes to the Alberta tar fields and ends there. Extracting oil from the tar requires large amounts of natural gas. There’s bound to be profit in selling gas for oil extraction, considering that Alberta’s oil fields are the only chance the US has of becoming independent of Middle East oil. Sources on this and a map of Palin’s proposed pipeline are at dailykos.com/story/2008/9/8/12517/55971/297/589573. (Sorry, can’t get links to work.)

If the Lower 48 want some of that gas for home heating, they’ll have to build their own pipeline from Alberta. That’s not yet part of Palin’s “US energy independence” plan for which $18 bill of US government funds are already appropriated.

A qualified emotional winner on necessary legislation? Nah. A maybe on a rational policy that won’t excite anyone at the gas pump unless it’s explained to them, like reading the tax notices from the county treasurer on the pump. Yea. Gotta have that one, momma.

What’s wrong with this man? A lot more than a little competition for his seat on the public payroll would cure. Rahm: the defects of Democrats in a nutshell; makes Al Gore of Decision 2000 look like a fire eater.

1. This country controls less than 3% of the world’s oil reserves. If you bump as hard as you can for opening up offshore and Anwar drilling, you won’t get much past 4%. So if you “drill baby drill” just what can you anticipate generating to offset the fact that we use WAY WAY WAY in excess of 4% of produced oil. You can statistically NEVER “drill your way out” of the situation we have in this country.

2. Offshore and Alaskan reserves drilling are —- EXPENSIVE AND RISKY. The only way they “pay” is if oil prices are and remain very high. If prices drop to a more normative $50/barrel or so, big oil can’t really generate the necessary $$ to make these plays pay.

3. As nasty as it has been to deal with in the past, what this country does have in abundance is coal, and if all the time and $$ going into offshore went into cleaner coal and sequestration tech, like the FutureGen project Bush tried to shut down, not only do you benefit this country on an energy front (go look at how many US powerplants are coal powered) but you also TREMENDOUSLY help the situation in growing economies like China which are going to also be using loads of coal, and using it in an environmentally suicidal way absent better tech applications and breakthroughs.