wishnessyly.blogr.com - Tag 'oil' (RSS 2.0)

Hong Kong shares end morning flat as inv...

wishnessyly — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:15:32 +0200

oil chemical Hong Kong shares endend a skittishmorning session little changed on Tuesday as investors weighed theimpact of another spike in oil prices to another record high near$140 a barrel overnight, which sent energy stocks soaring, whileairline stocks crashed. Continued speculation that China will raise prices of refined oilproducts drove China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (nyse: SNP - news - people ) higher, while selective interest in telecom stocks afterprevious falls helped buoy China Unicom (nyse: CHU - news - people ). 'It's another listless trading day as investors digest mixed leadsin overseas markets and the volatile oil prices,' said Peter Lai,investment manager at DBS Vickers. The Hang Seng finished the session down 1.14 points at 23,028.55. Overnight, light, sweet crude for July delivery dropped 25 cents tosettle at $134.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchangeafter earlier soaring to a trading record of $139.89.

McCain seeks end to ban on offshore dril...

wishnessyly — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:14:57 +0200

oil drawing No, we probably won't be able to drill our way out of the oilsupply crisis we are currently experiencing. It's too late for thatsince any drilling we undertake will mean a decade before the oilbegins to flow in any meaningful amounts. But it is absolutely ridiculous that we are not exploiting at leastsome of the resources we're sitting on. And one good place to startis allowing more offshore drilling. States like California have determined on their own that companiesshould not be able to drill off their coast. John McCain, to hiscredit, according to the Washington Post, wants to change some of that: Sen. John McCain called yesterday for an end to the federal ban on offshore oildrilling, offering an aggressive response to high gasoline pricesand immediately drawing the ire of environmental groups that thepresumptive Republican presidential nominee has courted for months. The move is aimed at easing voter anger over rising energy pricesby freeing states to open vast stretches of the country's coastlineto oil exploration. In a new Washington Post - ABC News poll, nearly 80 percent said soaring prices at the pump are causingthem financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade. "We must embark on a national mission to eliminate ourdependence on foreign oil," McCain told reporters yesterday.In a speech today, he plans to add that "we have untapped oilreserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But abroad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy explorationand production. . . . It is time for the federal government to liftthese restrictions."

McCain says no to "sheiks and princes"

wishnessyly — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:14:26 +0200

oil driling Sen. John McCain criticized his rival's plan to tax energycompanies today as he called for lifting the moratorium onoff-shore oil drilling to try to alleviate the nation's dependenceon "sheiks and princes" to fuel the economy and dictate gas prices.He said he still wants to remove the federal gas tax for the summerto ease high prices. "He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the newtaxes he also plans for coal and natural gas," McCain said of Sen.Barack Obama in remarks he plans to deliver tonight in Houston. "Ifthe plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President JimmyCarter's big idea too - and a lot of good it did us. Now as then,all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase ourdependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domesticexploration and production we need. I'm all for recycling - butit's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failedpolicies of the 1970's." McCain called the nation's economic policies a recipe fordependence, despite oil reserves off the coast of at least 21billion barrels. He said states should be allowed to decide whetherto allow off-shore drilling on its coastline, but he said he wouldnot allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge inAlaska. "In oil, gas, and coal deposits, we have enormous energy reservesof our own. And we are gaining the means to use these resources incleaner, more responsible ways," he said. "As for offshoredrilling, it's safe enough these days that not even HurricanesKatrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the batteredrigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston. Yet for reasonsthat become less convincing with every rise in the price of foreignoil, the federal government discourages offshore production." McCain, who likes to consider himself in the mold of a TeddyRoosevelt when it comes to the environment, said energyconservation is "no longer just a moral luxury or a personalvirtue." "Over time, we must shift our entire energy economy toward asustainable mix of new and cleaner power sources," he said. "Thiswill include some we use already, such as wind, solar, biofuels,and other sources yet to be invented. It will include a variety ofnew automotive and fuel technologies -- clean-burning coal andnuclear energy -- and a new system of incentives, under acap-and-trade policy, to put the power of the market on the side ofenvironmental protection." But Obama slammed McCain for flip-flopping his position on offshoredrilling, saying it was done in order to curry favor with the oilindustry. "John McCain's support of the moratorium on offshore drillingduring his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, buthis decision to completely change his position and tell a group ofHouston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today wasthe same Washington politics that has prevented us from achievingenergy independence for decades," Obama said in a statement. "Much like his gas tax gimmick that would leave consumers withpennies in savings, opening our coastlines to offshore drillingwould take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and theeffect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since Americaonly has 3% of the world's oil," he said. "It's another example ofshort-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-termleadership we need to solve our dependence on oil. Instead ofgiving oil executives another way to boost their record profits, Ibelieve we should put in place a windfall profits tax that willhelp to ease the burden of higher energy costs on working families,and we should invest in the affordable, renewable sources of energythat Senator McCain has opposed in the past."