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My Thoughts on Oil

Crocodilian: I have to agree with Fitz on this. Chu is a loser when it comes to energy policy. His concern about diverting nat gas away from power gen, etc. is so outdated its hilarious. Has he checked the gas storage reports lately? Maybe he should start reading those EIA reports every now and then. We have estimates of QUAD's of gas in the Marcellus and Haynesville (not BCF, not TCF but QCF's). Maybe that's getting a bit frothy but the point is we have huge resources. Companies aren't even drilling them right now due to the lack of market demand and storage. Why do you think all of these companies have cut way back on their drilling budgets and some companies are shutting in wells and/or curtailing production?

Chu might be a boy wonder genious scientist, but he's just not very practical nor knowledgable.

I agree with Fitz: Fire Chu Now!! And Fire His Boss Too!!! We can only dream!!!! (sorry Fitz, couldn't pass up a "bash Bobomma" moment).

My Thoughts on Oil

jan300: leaking CO2...if it gets to the water formations we'll call it Perrier and make a killing!!

My Thoughts on Oil

Fitz: agree that Fiat's selling the NGV and that's great. Its just that their legacy doesn't give me a warm fuzzy on quality or meeting the needs. "Fix It Again Tony" was well-deserved! I owned a couple of those little Fiat's way back when. Why two?? Because you had one in the shop on a monthly basis so you needed a spare!!

I'd much prefer the Honda NGV be widely available but they seem to think limiting the market for this is a good idea???

How about Honda buys out GM and starts work on a NGV Suburban, Acadia and/or Silverado? Now there's a product line I could get behind. Of course, that would violate that new CAFE standard edict that will soon be stuffed down our throats or up some other body orifice. But maybe they could build a bunch of those toy cars that someone else could buy and even out the averages! I'm sure not buying those little junksters.

My Thoughts on Oil

Andy1234: Directionally you are right regarding US-based oil/gas companies with respect to falling dollar. However, if you look at international oil/gas companies like BP, Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, etc., they are international companies but sell a product based on the US Dollar (oil). And many of them have costs that are tied to US Dollar as well. So they tend to move in tandem with their US counterparts like XOM, COP, CVX, etc. Plus, the US-based companies all have huge portions of their operations in international locations. XOM has a majority of their income from international sources as do others.

But if you are banking on a collapsing dollar, oil should prosper. And who wouldn't bank on the collapse of the dollar? We are printing greenbacks like toilet paper, our budget has blown up and we now own that crappy company GM in partnership with the villains who put them there...the UAW. The only other more dismal partnership than a US Govt/UAW partnership is the Fiat/Chrysler/UAW partnership...crappy Italian management combined with crappy engineering combined with excessive labor costs!! And with a bunch of marxist gov't officials...can't wait to see their first product off the assembly line. It will probably be a high top tennis shoe sized little clown car that plugs into the wall, gets a bazillion miles to the gallon, but only goes 3 miles and is a rolling casket for anyone in it when it encounters another vehicle...or a bike!

The Pickens Plan Changes Its Strategy

Thanks for the education on smale scale LNG. Looked at a few of the links. I'm guessing the LNG idea would be feasible for larger transport needs but on an individual car basis, might be a bit costly. But I don't know. My experience is working with 500 MMCF/day plants that cost $6 billion, not things on this scale.

I think some of the issues expressed really are an issue of short vs long term goals and how we transition from one to the other. Getting rid of coal fired plants isn't going to happen in the next 5-10 years. Sorry, it just can't. The U.S. economy won't be able to handle it and that was true before this little depression/big recession hit us. Long term, yes we can move from coal if we are willing to accept the additional costs. Maybe we can ship our coal to other countries?? Or convert it to some other fuel that is more acceptable to our climate change/global warming/global freezing friends. Trying to be all inclusive as over the last 30 years I've seen concerns over too cold and too hot. Stop trying to keep up. Its going to be too something and we are to blame I guess.

Jack: from a security standpoint I don't have the same concern. One can do the same amount of damage with some of the rogue nuke material floating around the world. Just put the regas terminals in remote areas. LNG terminals are built all over the world. We in the U.S. are starting to lag the rest of the world when it comes to this source/supply. The Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Australians, Qatari's, Spanish, Italians, Dutch, Germans, etc. all seem to have incoroporated LNG into their energy supply chains. Why not us?

The Pickens Plan Changes Its Strategy

Please be careful with the use of LNG when discussing transportation fuels. The more generally accepted use of the term "LNG" is liquified natural gas which is what is used to transport natural gas around the world. It involves extreme temperatures/pressures and would not be a viable alternative for any transportation need.

Are you trying to say "LPG"? Liquified Propane Gas? Like we use for our B-B-Q pits??

Constellation Energy's Stars Align for Buffett

Well done Mr Buffett. To the employees of CEG, you are really very lucky to have been rescued by this White Knight, although it may not seem that way right now. But this beats the heck out of receivership! To the stockholders of CEG, my condolescences. You took a pretty good whipping! But hopefully some folks will learn some valuable lessons: 1) research the companies you own and check their balance sheets for leverage. Leverage can be enticing, exciting but also excruciating! 2) I'm sure the guys running CEG will probably get some multi-million dollar bonus or buy out. When will we as shareholders ever learn? These guys should get nothing but a swift kick but instead they get millions. Just like the boards of Fannie/Freddie who last year got huge bonuses.

I hate, no, I detest government regulation but maybe we should have something that forces the compensation committees of these Boards of Directors to be truly independent and shareholder focused. I don't want gov't telling us how much we can pay CEO's, but I'd like the BofD's to self-regulate. But to do that we must end the croneyism. Maybe the middle ground is that the compensation committee make-up can be regulated...and include everyday shareholders and/or employees! No union boss thugs, but plain, everyday employees from the bottom-third of the payroll.