Security tightened as fuel protests turn violent

[dgriffin]

It has begun.

Security tightened as fuel protests turn violent

www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL12573228


* Spain promises "zero tolerance" to violent strikers

* Malaysia increases security ahead of Friday protest

* Dutch truckers hold go-slow protest



By Jason Webb

MADRID, June 12 (Reuters) - Spain and Malaysia tightened security on Thursday to stop strikes against soaring global fuel prices turning violent, as well as snarling road networks and slowing deliveries of food and raw materials.

Spain promised "zero tolerance" for violence by striking truckers after a string of incidents including an arson attack on a strike-breaking truck that left the driver with burns to 25 percent of his body.

"The government is going to have zero tolerance for any act of intimidation or violence," Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

The government said it had arrested 71 picketers for offences including intimidating non-striking drivers since the stoppage by 75,000 truckers began on Sunday night to call for government help to cope with high fuel prices.

[clarencebunsen]

Dave,

The visuals that these reports evoke seem like a combination of "Soylent Green" and "Max Headroom." There are times when it's tempting to start the day with something stronger than Folger's.

I try to stay focused on "Men come and go but the Earth abides."

[Clipper]

Hell Clarence, no need to start with anything stronger than folger's. Just make the folgers stronger!!!! My classic roast in the morning has to be stirred with a plastic spoon, because it was taking the plating off of our flatware, LOL.

[dgriffin]

We may have to abide with less affordable oil. I have not seen much emphasis on the Spain riots on the US news, but I don't always watch. We're getting word of $5/gal prices for fuel oil here in Ulster County come this winter Ceiling price programs are being canceled, I'm told. I haven't yetgotten a price from the company I deal with, however. Times are going to get tough.

[dan]

I know this is a simplification of the issue, but all that has to happen to drop gas prices by .50 - .75 per gallon worldwide is for the President to go on TV on Monday morning and announce that as of 3 pm we are opening up the ANWR, Florida and California coastal sites for drilling. Not one drop of oil will flow for 10 years, but the speculators will sell like madmen.

[wilum47]

Dan,

Its simple but it will work. If we just announced that we don't intend to sit here and wait and do nothing the prices will come down exactly because of speculation.

All the other alternatives are just not realistic enough to cause an immediate relief of sorts.

He should also include the lifting of the moratorium on nuke power plants immediately. A professor at SUNY told me the sooner we say we are going nuke the better because we have a very big shortage of nuclear technicians and engineers. The career along with the classes for such dried up back in the 80's.

[Clipper]

We need to crank up the nuclear power technician programs again. Many of the techs came from the US Navy, who were trained to maintain the reactors on nuclear ships and subs.

Something should be done to push to go back to nuclear power, even without the urgency of the high petroleum prices. A nuke plant downstate would negate the necessity for the NYRI line, for one thing.

It is time to allay the fears surrounding nuclear power. People simply envision the aftermath of Hiroshima, and the meltdown in the Soviet Union, and they are terrified. Our technology and our safety programs are much more stringent and well developed than those of Russia. Nuclear power is safe, and efficient.

I would encourage anyone to visit the NY power authority plants at Oswego, and tour. It would be educational and comforting to understand the whole nuclear power thing.

Incidents like three mile island also were educational experiences that bolstered safety regulations and forced further safety features to be built into plants.

I would love to see the arabs coming to the whitehouse in a few years, begging the president to purchase more middle east oil because they were starving for customers and sales, LOL.

[dan]

The quicker we minimize that sandbox called the middle east the better off we will all be. Dry up the money and you will dry up the influence. The Navy has been running nuclear reactors since 1958 with no (0%) nuclear accidents. I completely agree, open the domestic oilfields with a long range plan in place to eventually replace oil as the primary fuel source. It's unfortunate that so many other industries rely on petrolium as a raw material. If plastics are the artificial replacements of natural products, what do you call the replacements for plastics?

[dgriffin]

Interesting article that breaks downs the cost of a gallon of gas (when it was $3) and who gets what at:
money.cnn.com/2008/03/13/news/economy/gas_gallon/index.htm?postversion=2008031404

Also, this article by Charles Krauthammer, in which he says:
"Unfortunately, instead of hiking the price ourselves by means of a gasoline tax that could be instantly refunded to the American people in the form of lower payroll taxes, we let the Saudis, Venezuelans, Russians and Iranians do the taxing for us -- and pocket the money that the tax would have recycled back to the American worker. "
At:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR2008060503434.html

And finally, the side of the story from OPEC, who in this report:
www.opec.org/library/Special%20Publications/pdf/WGW2007.pdf
state, "In the UK, for example, the government receives around 1.7 times more from taxation than OPEC gets from the sale of its oil."

The upshot of this report is that among the G7 nations, in total, more money is collected in taxes than goes back to OPEC. Something to think about.

Here's a chart from their presentation: