It doesn't really matter where the oil is from.
that is not true for two reasons:
1. the cost of transportation, which spikes with peak piracy seasons (which we are currently in), and
2. the increased volatility due to the larger percentage of supply subject to removal by a geopolitically fractured and unstable region.
The fact is domestic production is up three years in a row after dropping eight years in a row
yes. It is also a fact that that higher domestic production is
despite the current administration rather than
because of it.
it didn't have any affect on global prices one way or the other.
that is incorrect, it was simply insufficient to
maintain oil prices, as it is too little increase, both in raw and as a percentage.
"Drill, Baby, Drill" while you ignore belittle options for the other half of your statement - "demand increasing faster than supply"? *shakes head*
:shrug: if you really want to reduce demand, you are free to advocate the detonation of multiple strategic nuclear devices over China's Eastern Seaboard.
Here are a few basic key facts:
Despite year-to-year fluctuations, global demand for oil is going to continue to increase.
Despite rising demand, oil remains more efficient, more effective, and cheaper than the alternative forms of energy, despite
decades of subsidy to that field.
Recognizing that alternatives are not going to be replacing oil as a
fuel (and, by the way, that is hardly the breadth of our economic dependence on oil. Oil is in everything from crops to plastics to the computer screen you are looking at) any time soon, if we wish to reduce the
price, then we need to increase the supply of oil.
Because of the heavy impact of commodities and futures trading in the international oil market, any perceived potential future increases or decreases in the supply of oil will have highly exaggerated effects on the price of oil.
I don't belittle alternate energies; I like 'em. I think some of them are cool as all get out. If it was cheap enough, I would be putting solar cells on my roof and setting up little watermills by my gutters. One day that technology will be developed enough to be plausible, and I think that will be great.
What I
do belittle is the
religion of "green", of "green technology", of "sustainable population growth" of "alternative fuels". The people who seek to support alternative energies
for their own sake and seek to do so
with others money get my derision for doing so, and deserve it.