Even Heritage Foundation Yawns At Bush Energy Proposals - WP

[hatrack]

"Industry analysts reacted skeptically to new energy proposals President Bush announced yesterday, saying they would do little to bring down soaring prices of gasoline and other forms of energy.

Bush, whose aides blame high oil and gasoline prices for his sagging poll numbers, made several proposals, including allowing refineries to be built on closed military bases and renewing consumer tax credits for hybrid vehicles. This was his second speech in two weeks devoted to energy. Bush is scheduled to hold a news conference tonight at 8:30 to press his energy plan and give specifics about his proposals for restructuring Social Security. "See, we've got a fundamental question we got to face here in America," Bush said at the Small Business Administration conference in Washington. "Do we want to continue to grow more dependent on other nations to meet our energy needs? Or do we need to do what is necessary to achieve greater control of our economic destiny?"

Some of the ideas, which administration officials announced in a briefing Tuesday night, are already in the mix on Capitol Hill, while others could result in only minimal change, several experts said. "At best we're talking about a marginal benefit over the long term," said Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

EDIT

Industry leaders said it is not clear that companies would want to build new refineries because the business historically has not been highly profitable. While demand and profit margins are high now, companies are not convinced those margins will remain high enough to justify new refineries. "When you look at rates of return for a new refinery, it would be a fairly high-risk project," said William R. Klesse, chief operating officer of San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp., one of the top U.S. refiners."

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042702066.html

[phantom power]

1. schadenfreud is such a guilty pleasure.

It's amusing that anyone would think more refineries are going to solve this problem. They require oil, after all. Where's the plan to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil?

[ClintonTyree]

2. What a dickhead...

"Do we want to continue to grow more dependent on other nations to meet our energy needs? Or do we need to do what is necessary to achieve greater control of our economic destiny?"

To bush this statement reads, "we need to drill wherever there's oil
in our own country", not,"we need to find alternative, renewable sources of energy, now".

This man isn't smart enough to be a counter-person at Dairy Queen, let alone President of our country. :banghead:

[Coastie for Truth]

3. Why The Government "Should" Build Refineries

You know the rule of Big Business

PRIVATIZE PROFIT

---SOCIALIZE RISK

Based on Ken Deffeyes' discussion of the early stages of "Peak Oil" - we will increasingly rely on heavier crudes with higher sulfur contents, and on the tarry product of oil sands and oil shale. That stuff is neither easy not cheap to refine.(I'm an engineer, I buy into Deffeyes and Lovins and Ovshisky -- not Kunstler or Zerzan). So, per the above paradigm, we will

PRIVATIZE PROFIT

---SOCIALIZE RISK

.

The margins are so low on gasoline from these sources that government construction of the refineries is probably the only way to buy a few more years.

I don't like it - I think we should be raising CAFE to Prius and Mini-Cooper and even electric vehicle levels, and moving people from personal transportation to mass transit, and from isolated, outer suburban cul-d'sacs to (regentrified) pedestrian friendly, transit friendly, high density urban neighborhoods, and moving jobs back to urban centers.

[amandabeech]

4. Expanding our ability to refine heavy, high sulphur oil

might make some sense if we don't have many now.

As we slide down the peak oil slope, more and more oil pumped will be the heavy, difficult to refine stuff that has not been exploited since we've had plenty of light crude.

I expect that refineries processing light crude will be abandoned as the "good" stuff runs out.