Chris Hayes: "The only hope on climate change is civil disobedience"—and the clock is ticking

This is a great watch, and Hayes does a terrific job. (My alternate title, by the way, is Hayes' great line midway: "The earth's atmosphere does not care about the filibuster.")

Our backgrounder on this BLM (Bureau of Land Management) practice is here. Do read if you can; it covers a lot.

But for the basics, keep this in mind:

• Homesteaders after 1916 never owned the mineral rights (including water rights) under their own land. The federal government does. This is called "split estate."


• These BLM "auctions" are where oil and natural gas (i.e. "fracking") companies buy and lease the mineral rights under land already owned by others (as well as on or near federal land).


• Let that sink in. If you own a farm or ranch in the west, the BLM can (and will) lease your land's mineral rights to Exxon (etc.) and force you to accept their wells on your property. Aerial views of "fracking" (natural gas) lands show these "small footprint" wells are everywhere. See below; also the google.


• You also get their fracking fluid in your water and air. Probably forever.


• Fracking destroys. Money talks. Is the government corrupt and complicit? (Do the math; you'll get there.)

Now Mr. Hayes. Please do watch if you can. This is too low on people's radar, and too important. This is the State in action (h/t Digby).

(To play this large in a separate tab, click here.)



Just one comment. Shouting "rule of law" when there is no "rule of law" for barons and their retainers is laughable, beyond hypocrisy.

There's more of this coming. Occupy was peaceful protest. This is peaceful protest. As Mario Savio said:

"One thousand people sitting down can stop any machine, including this machine."

But this time people are starving and broke, not just war-weary and draft-eligible. As the rich and the right (including our whistleblower-hating current resident) crack down harder and harder, it will be harder and harder to keep violence away from the movement that's growing.

I do not want to see that day.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
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Under what party did gasoline and oil prices reach their peak? Republican, of course.

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, not known for his analytical skills, is now claiming that gasoline and oil prices have reached their highest levels in years (if ever) under the Obama presidency.  Perhaps Jindal is too young to remember that, in fact, gas and oil prices were higher under - who? - Republican President George W. Bush.

Politico, quoting Jindal's lie:

“The reality is, gasoline prices have doubled under this president, highest prices for oil and gasoline in a 150 years. People used to think it was because of incompetence from Obama administration on energy – I think it’s because of ideology. They’re pursuing a radical environmental ideology,” Jindal said on “Fox & Friends.”

In fact, the monthly average retail price of gasoline peaked at $4.26 a gallon in inflation-adjusted dollars less than four years ago, in June 2008. It then plummeted to $1.80 a gallon in the next six months during the global financial collapse. Oil isn’t near historic highs either.

Kudos to Politico's MJ Leee for catching the lie.  In other words, gasoline prices reached their peak - wait for it - during the George W. Bush presidency, that would be the Republicans.  Note the chart below, red is gasoline prices under Bush, blue is gas prices under Obama.  Guess who wins?

Click chart for larger version.

And if you look back even further, it appears that George Bush's peak gasoline price was tied for the highest ever (adjusted for inflation, noted as the "real" price in the chart I link to), and Bush's tie wasn't with Obama, it was with Jimmy Carter (in this table, Carter's oil prices were slightly higher than Bush's, which were higher than Obama's) and Woodrow Wilson.

Oil prices were also higher under Bush - again, red is Bush, blue Obama.

Click for larger version.

Keep in mind that Jindal, like Bush, is supposed to be an oil expert because his state, like Texas, produces oil.  Yes, well the one oil expert failed to realize that the other oil expert had some of the highest oil and gasoline prices in all of American history.

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$5 gas this year?

This will certainly be a blow to the recovering US economy. At the same time, this should highlight the absolutely ridiculous handling of Big Auto by Washington for years. The country is flooded with gas guzzlers and it's that way because Washington helped create that problem. CNBC:

Get ready to pay $5 a gallon for gasoline this year.

John Hofmeister, founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy and the former CEO of Shell Oil’s U.S. operations, warned that there is a “better than 50 percent chance” the price of gas will spike on continued heavy demand in emerging markets and weak public policy at home.

Note from John: Drove by a gas station in DC next to the Watergate that's known for its usury pump prices. $4.99. Read the rest of this post...

CNBC: The $30 Billion Problem DC Is Not Discussing

CNBC often is there to act as a cheerleader for Wall Street but they also have their moments where they provide valuable information. This time, they're on the money with this problem that nobody in Washington is talking about which is the negative impact of high gas prices on the US economy. It seems as though every time the price hits a really ridiculous number, there is plenty of talk about doing things differently but in the end it's always just talk. The Democrats have made some attempts to address the issue with demanding higher fuel efficiency from the auto makers and promoting high speed rail, which is all great. Unfortunately the Republicans are so closely tied to Big Oil, they view any change as a threat so they fight it. More times than not the GOP is more forceful than the Democrats so they end up delaying programs if not defeating them. When I visit the US from abroad, I'm still surprised at the number of enormous cars and the general waste of energy that I see in the US. Compared to the much higher cost of energy in Europe, it's not possible to be so casual with energy and it's not possible to have as many inefficient cars on the road. Plenty exist, as I discovered, but there are many more efficient cars on the road compared to the US. A few years back, before gas prices really went up, I borrowed a car (in France) for vacation and it cost €130 to fill the tank. Needless to say, that was the last time I borrowed that car. The Dutch transformed their country from a "normal" car based society following WWII to the best cycling country in the world. It didn't happen overnight, but was the end result of issues including the gas crisis of the 1970's. Most people still drive cars, but they also do a lot of commuting using bikes which is both energy efficient as well as healthy for the population. Something needs to change with our energy policy and ignoring the problem is not the answer. How can we afford not to change? there are no easy or quick answers which probably doesn't help in terms of building a consensus. Look back at how painful the health care debate was or the Wall Street reform. There are a lot of moving pieces and a number of fronts to open up to build a holistic plan that will succeed. Kicking the problem to the next crisis is no plan. CNBC:

According to economist Nigel Gault, every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil raises gas prices by about 25 cents. The average American home buys about 1,000 gallons of gasoline every year, so every quarter increase in gas takes about $250 per year from your pocket. Multiply that by more than 110 million households and Gault estimates that steals about 0.2 percent from U.S. GDP. That may not seem like much, but 0.2 percent of our $15 trillion dollar economy is about $30 billion dollars per year. These are big numbers that grow if gas prices go higher. And remember, salaries have been stagnant. Using Gault’s assumptions, if gas prices rise by $1 per gallon, it would steal about 0.8 percent from economic growth, or more than $100 billion per year. Now consider all of the debate about tax cuts on the rich. One group estimates that the economic cost to the country of those tax cuts on the top 5 percent of wage earners has been about $1 trillion, or $100 billion per year, since they were enacted in 2001.

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Public blames high gas prices on oil industry

From Greg Sargent:

With a political war brewing over the effort by Obama and Dems to harnass public anger over gas prices to end subsidies for the oil industry, you’d think these new CNN poll numbers would be somewhat encouraging for Dems.

The CNN poll finds that a sizable majority, 61 percent, think that oil companies deserve a “great deal of blame” for rising gas prices. Twenty seven percent say oil companies deserve “some blame.”

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Are airfares going to drop along with gas prices?

I doubt it.  Remember when all those extra fees, like the ones we now routinely pay for baggage, were all just temporary responses to the surge in fuel prices?  Well, the prices went back down and the fees remained.  Now prices are up again and airfares have skyrocketed.  But gas, for example, will drop 50 cents by this summer.  Will the airlines, who all, oh so oddly, charge exactly the same prices for exactly the same routes, drop their prices as well? Read the rest of this post...

Gas prices hit eight-month low, and it's apparently a bad sign for the economy

Fascinating.

With the end of the summer driving season just around the corner, traders and investors on Monday drove gasoline prices to an eight-month low on U.S. commodities markets, providing the latest sign of pessimism about the economic recovery.

The surge in U.S. consumption that many refiners expected earlier this year has not materialized. Last week, the American Petroleum Institute reported that in July, U.S. gasoline deliveries (a measure of demand) were 9.3 million barrels a day, down slightly compared with July 2009. Except for 2008, it was the lowest July gasoline demand number since 2003.

A lack of consumer confidence and continuing high unemployment have kept people cautious about spending and traveling. "With unemployment high and July regular gasoline prices more than 20 cents a gallon above those a year ago, consumers likely have been shopping and vacationing less and trimmed their gasoline purchases accordingly," said John Felmy, the institute's chief economist.

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China to implement even more aggressive gas mileage

Remember to thank John Dingell for letting Detroit fall so far behind. Dingell and Congress did a bang up job of letting the industry leadership do whatever they wanted including driving GM off a cliff. Hats off to China for moving in this direction in a serious way. NY Times:

Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama last week, Chinese experts with a detailed knowledge of the plans said on Wednesday.

The new plan would require automakers in China to improve fuel economy by an additional 18 percent by 2015, said An Feng, a leading architect of China’s existing fuel economy regulations who is now the president of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a nonprofit group in Beijing.

The plan is going through the interagency approval process, with comments sought from automakers, and is scheduled for release early next year, he said.

The Chinese government tends to make few changes in automotive regulations once the interagency review process has started.

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A clear sign that I'm not in Paris

At roughly $8.40 per gallon (in France) I'd love to know how many gallons of gas this Cadillac would hold. You'd have to get a mortgage to fund the fill up at the pump. Of course, I'm not so sure it would fit on some of our roads in France anyway. Read the rest of this post...

Popular Mechanics: Obama is right about tire gauges

McCain and the Republicans tried to make a full blown mockery of Obama earlier this week when Obama said that just by properly inflating the tires on our cars we could save significant amounts of fuel. In fact, Obama said we'd save about as much oil from properly inflating our tires as we'd get from increased offshore drilling. They laughed at Obama, they mocked him, said this proved how out of touch he was. McCain is still mocking Obama over the tire gaugues on the McCain campaign home page (see photo to the left). Well, we now find out that Obama was right. Popular Mechanics did the math.

Underinflated tires on cars in fact waste a good amount of energy. How much? Exactly the amount the energy industry thinks we could get from increased offshore drilling. But more importantly, why didn't John McCain know this? Why didn't he try to find out before he launched into yet another temper tantrum against Obama? This isn't the first time that McCain has run ads against Obama that were outright false. Is McCain even in control of his campaign any longer? The media should be asking McCain why he again jumped the gun and launched an attack based on faulty information (sound familiar?) The Obama campaign should take these attacks, embrace them, and wrap them around John McCain's neck. At every opportunity they should be asking why John McCain didn't know this, and why John McCain again misled the American people.

Not to mention, why does John McCain's campaign home page still mock the tire gauge comment now that we know it's true? The media should be asking the McCain camp why they again and again lie about Obama, lie to the American people, then don't correct themselves after it's been proven they're wrong. Is McCain even aware of what his campaign is doing anymore?

The larger problem for Obama is, and I can't recall if Carville said this or who, but if you throw enough mud at your opponent, some of it sticks. Far more people will "remember" that Obama blew off the troops in Afghanistan to play basketball (he didn't) and that Obama thinks crazy ideas like tire gauges can supplant offshore drilling (they can). People won't remember the truth, they'll remember the lie. You need to paint your opponent faster than he paints you, and you need to nip your opponents' attacks in the bud by hitting him in the gut every time he mouths off against you. So far, neither of those have happened to a degree that makes the Democrats I know, and respect, comfortable.

From Popular Mechanics:

The average consumer could improve gas mileage by 3.3 percent by simply keeping his tires inflated to the proper pressure. For the average driver in the U.S. and his 15-gal. fuel tank, that's a savings of about $2.00 on every fill-up. Figure in the increased tire life from those correct pressures, and this is beginning to add up to a handy sum. Of course, if you—or your mechanic—have been diligent about keeping tire pressures set correctly, you won't save anything, which sounds like rewarding lazy people and penalizing the careful ones to me. But that's life....

According to the Department of Energy, underinflated tires alone cost the country more than 1.25 billion gal. of gasoline annually—roughly 1 percent of the total consumption of 142 billion gal. According to the Annual Energy Outlook 2007, published by the Energy Information Administration, offshore drilling would increase domestic production of crude oil by only about 1 percent.

We opened this discussion with Sen. Obama's assertion that we can offset the need to reopen offshore drilling—and save money at the pump—by keeping our tires inflated properly. He's right

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TRENDS: DC housing market slumps in suburbs, sustained in cities

The Washington Post has an excellent analysis of a large source of high gas prices today - our post-WWII transportation and housing policy decisions. From today's Post:

Cheap oil, which helped push the American Dream away from the city center, isn't so cheap anymore. As more and more families reconsider their dreams, land-use experts are beginning to ask whether $4-a-gallon gas is enough to change the way Americans have thought for half a century about where they live.

"We've passed that tipping point," U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

Since the end of World War II, government policy has funded and encouraged the suburban lifestyle, subsidizing highways while starving mass transit and keeping gas taxes much lower than in some other countries.
...
Home prices in the far suburbs, such as Prince William and Loudoun counties, have collapsed; those in the District and inner suburbs have stayed the same or increased. A recent survey of real estate agents by Coldwell Banker found an increased interest in urban living because of the high cost of commuting.

Brookings says transportation costs are now second only to housing as a percentage of the household budget, with food a distant third.

We've seen similar real estate trends here in Baltimore as well.

The current gas crisis is the impact of decades-long dependence on highway projects at the expense of transit projects. With more Americans living farther apart and commuting more, America's demand for oil started to grow after WWII and hasn't stopped. Higher demand equals rising prices. Now that China and India are joining us in our love of the automobile, you can be sure that this isn't a short term bump in gas prices, it's a long term trend that's here to stay.

There is no question that development around transit is now one of the few bright spots of the real estate market. With the advent of the zipcar and other alternative vehicle-access programs, living in an urban or near-urban environment without relying on a car is not only possible, it's now looking more and more logical. Read the rest of this post...

Voters trust Obama on energy more than McCain

From USA Today:

Which candidate would do a better job on energy, including gas prices?
--Obama: 41%
--McCain: 28%
--Neither would do a good job: 21%
--No opinion: 10%

Would you be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who supported:
--Establishing tax incentives to encourage energy conservation: 69% (more likely); 20% (less likely)
--Raising fuel mileage standards on vehicles: 68%/20%
--Imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies: 58%/31%
--Easing restrictions on offshore drilling: 57%/31%
--Building more nuclear power plants: 47%/41%
--Suspending the federal gasoline tax for several months: 46%/39% Read the rest of this post...

Judge blocks drilling in Michigan

We've become familiar with this routine, where the Bush team who is supposed to be looking out for the environment instead is focused on business interests. Anyone who thinks McCain would dump these people needs to have their head examined. In a rush to help Big Energy, Republicans always forget about nature as well as tourist dollars. It's as if they never heard of people paying good money to enjoy unspoiled nature, which is what Michigan's upper peninsula offers.

Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy's application that the project wouldn't significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.

But the judge ruled the Forest Service didn't consider how degrading the area could harm tourism, and said the agency did a "woefully inadequate" job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, sued the government to halt the drilling. Joining the suit was Tim Mason, whose grandfather, auto executive George Mason, donated the original 1,200 acres to the state upon his death in 1954 and asked that it be maintained as wilderness.

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Obama to make oil companies pay for windfall profits

Good. Very good.

Launching a two-week focus on the ailing U.S. economy, Obama drew a sharp contrast with Republican John McCain, his rival in the November election, accusing him of a "full-throated endorsement" of President George W. Bush's fiscal policies, including tax breaks for oil companies.

"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," the Illinois senator said.

Every week people pay for gas, for food, for plane tickets, for everything that is going through the roof. This is a smart move, defining the election as being about the economy - a topic that John McCain admits he knows nothing about. Read the rest of this post...

Why doesn't McCain have a national energy strategy?

John Lloyd of Drexel College Democrats wrote me yesterday, asking why people weren't making a bigger deal about John McCain not having a national energy strategy. It's a good question:

I'm trying to raise the profile of what I consider an important fact: John McCain doesn't have an energy policy. He's spoken and speechified about reducing our dependence on foreign oil and increasing renewables, but he hasn't put forward ANY specific policies or a platform that he supports, with the horrible exception of the gas tax holiday.

I think it's important because in 2000, G. W. Bush said much of what McCain is saying now, and he put forward his energy policy 38 days before the election. His energy policy never really got the scrutiny it should have, and this cycle I don't want McCain to get away with that.

You'll notice that on McCain's issue page he has no page for "energy" (its not under environment). I have scoured the internet and his speeches, and he has put forward nothing more than platitudes and rhetoric. Considering how Obama is often criticized (unfairly) as all talk and no substance, i'd really like to see people start to attack McCain for trying to run without putting forward an energy policy.

We've started a "McCain Energy Policy Watch" on our blog that tracks how long he's been running without putting forward a platform addressing that crucial issue. We made a Flash widget that counts the days, hours, and minutes that he's been running without putting forward an energy policy, you can find it at the link below.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

We're actually doing a series of posts examining specific polcies that Obama has proposed that McCain is silent on. First is the introduction/overview, day 385 compares their respective cap-and-trade proposals (McCain put his out seperately from any energy plan), and day 410 examines revenue decoupling. More will follow.

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Gas hits national average of $4 for the first time

Where's the talk of a national energy strategy? And I mean a real one.

The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, passing the once-unthinkable milestone just in time for the peak summer travel season.

Prices at the pump are expected to keep climbing, especially after last week's furious surge in oil prices, which neared $140 a barrel in a record-shattering rally Friday...

Of course, drivers in many parts of the country have already been paying well above that price for some time.

Why is that? I know that they always used to pay 4 times the price for gas in Europe that we pay in the states. But why? And now that US prices have surged, is it still 4x the price in Europe? I don't think so, but would anyone abroad like to weigh in on relative prices? Read the rest of this post...

Public transport on the rise

It's less expensive than driving and better for the environment. Too bad it's not more widely available.

Soaring gas prices are pushing more Americans to take public transit, with streetcars, trolleys and other light rail experiencing a 10.3 percent increase in ridership for the first quarter of the year, according to a report released yesterday by the American Public Transportation Association.

Americans took 2.6 billion trips on all modes of public transportation, including subways and buses, in the first three months of 2008, a 3.3 percent increase, or almost 85 million more trips than in the same period last year, the report said.

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Inflation up only 0.1% in April

Those gas prices...all imaginary. Didn't happen. Don't you feel better knowing that what you thought was a problem wasn't really a problem after all? And to think some naysayers find the US inflation reports to be complete bull.

Back in the real world, inflation is setting records not seen in years. Some say the real number is almost twice as high, possibly even higher. Read the rest of this post...

Oil prices: bubble or reality

There is certainly plenty to grab on either side of the debate. Changing policies that change consumption take time. Sure, the US is using a bit less gas now compared to a year ago though there is little reason to believe India and China are suddenly using less. The most depressing segment of this article is the group saying "$130 per barrel is high but $90-$100 is more realistic." The average price per barrel in 2007 was $64 so even if prices are in the $90-$100 range, that's a stunning increase over 2007 and that is before factoring in the rolling average for 2008.

At the moment, the Bush is desperately trying to re-make his image as a new born environmentalist. Who wants future generations to look back and point the finger at the last remaining idiot who blocked reform? The people who fell for his other whoppers will probably fall for such lies but even then, they probably will think he's caving in to lefties and going soft. The reality here is that much like other threats to America's long term security, the Republicans ignored this issue and own a lot of responsibility for the problems we face today. They all promised security but they've done quite the opposite. Read the rest of this post...

Apparently inflation isn't a problem

Wow, go figure. Another Wall Street writer dismissing record high gas prices and food prices. It's about time people get a grasp on the real world where such costs are in fact a problem. Not everyone in the world gambles trillions of dollars - paying outrageously high bonuses without any link to the ultimate end result - loses and then gets bailed out by the middle class who can hardly keep up with their own costs.

The only thing worse is that not only is there a steady stream of this nonsense, not a damned person in Congress is saying much about the bailout and it's long term consequences. I get the whole "we need to prevent a major collapse" thing but sheesh, do we really need to fund lifestyle choices for Wall Street? If they can afford to pay the likes of Tony Blair $1 million per year and keep shoveling over handsome bonuses, they don't get it. Either that or we're all just idiots for tolerating and condoning this behavior. Read the rest of this post...