The Empire Strikes Back — in the Fight for our Energy Future

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The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?

Luke: I’m looking for someone.

Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?

Luke: Right…

Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.

Luke: I don’t think so. I’m looking for a great warrior.

Yoda: Ohhh. Great warrior.  [Yoda laughs and shakes his head]

Yoda: Wars — NOT — make one great.

Not even wars, for control and mining of strategically important geo-politcal Natural Resources — that may or may not, determine the course of the world’s future …

The perpetual Gulf Gusher has given Big Oil, a big old Black Eye.

Yet the Empire of Big Oil, who prefers to work in the shadows, in closed-door meetings … they may have been shaken, but they’re not yet ready to change their ways.

Not if their excess Billions has anything to say about it. Not if there’s a Consumer Dependency that they can continue to quietly supply … far from the Media spotlights …

Big Oil STRIKES BACK, slams Obama’s drilling ban

By JENNIFER QUINN, The Associated Press — June 22, 2010

LONDON – Oil executives sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling at a major industry conference Tuesday, saying the world did not have enough other sources of oil to eliminate using deepsea rigs.

The massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and the moratorium imposed by Obama dominated discussions at the World National Oil Companies Congress in the British capital, and a BP executive standing in for embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward was heckled by protesters.

[…]

Shukri Ghanem, the head of Libya’s National Oil Corp. who serves as the North African nation’s de facto oil minister, said he was happy for BP to continue to operate in his country’s territorial waters despite the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ghanem, who said he planned to meet with Hayward while in London, said the spill is “a real tragedy, but in a way it’s exaggerated.”

“It is unfortunate, but it is an opportunity to be more careful in the future,” he said.

BP signed an exploration and production deal with Libya’s National Oil Co. – worth at least $900 million – in June 2007, going back into Libya for the first time in more than 30 years.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Darth Vader: Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.

[…]

Darth Vader: There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you.

Darth Vader: Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.

Luke: I’ll never join you!

Darth Vader: If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!

Darth Vader: No. I am your father.

We ARE already, the children of Big Oil!

and THEY know it.

Even though there are sometimes, rare brief moments, like now, where the Dark Side, must struggle to maintain that iron-grip on their Power …

Even when their is a major ‘Disturbance in the Force‘ — one that should, by all rights, usher in an Era of Real Change to shake that addictive legacy of Big Oil …

History tells us, such things probably WON’T change much, at all.  The Empire has too many wheeler-dealers in high places, to lose all that power, lightly.

Worst Environmental Disaster EVER — it’s just a blip on their Profit Radar Screens.

Just a minor “speed bump” in their ruthless Quest for MORE of the SAME. It’s all just “Business as Usual” as far as Big Oil is concerned … THEY have a Future Energy World to subdivide and dominate … to the Victor, goes the spoils …

World National Oil Companies Congress

The 4th annual World National Oil Companies Congress is the oil conference for NOC executives to meet, network and discuss the future of the industry.

June 21-24 2010, London, UK

DECIDING THE FUTURE OF THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

The World NOCs Congress is where leaders of the world’s NOCs meet each other and their partners to debate and decide the future of the oil business.

In an era of volatile and uncertain oil prices, where ‘resource nationalism’ is reshaping the terms of debate and where the need for critical investment in both production and refining capacity remains paramount, the need for effective communication and partnerships between NOCs and the wider energy industry has never been more apparent.

A prolonged ban on deep water drilling would also “be a step back for energy security”, added Chevron executive Jay Pryor, suggesting it would “constrain supplies for world energy“.

So, will that meeting of the Congress of Big Oil, being held quietly in London this week, will they ultimately Decide OUR Energy Future?  

WHO Elected these guys, ‘king of hill’, anyways?

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Yoda: Yes, run! Yes, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will […]

Luke: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?

Yoda: You will know… when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.

Knowledge IS Power.

But only if can be channeled … like wind to a turbine.

Only when the Energy-dependent People of the World, wake up from our collective nitemares, and DEMAND that those “New Frontiers” in Energy — that those Frontiers are the sources of OUR OWN choosing this time …

Oil industry attacks US deep water drilling ban

BBC News — June 22, 2010

Top executives from BP, Transocean and other oil firms have warned against over-regulating deep sea oil drilling.

Oil found in deep waters is needed because the world will need 45% more energy by the year 2030, BP’s chief of staff, Steve Westwell, told the World National Oil Companies Congress.

Consequently, the world would need new reserves from “new frontiers”, he said.

[…]

Commercially viable

Mr Westwell said BP would re-assess how it balanced risks, but he also insisted that the leak in the Gulf of Mexico would not lead to deep water production being halted.

It would be a mistake, he insisted, to create an environment in which investment in deep water would become impossible.

“The world does need the oil and the energy that is going to have to come from deep water production going forward,” he said.

Our Energy Future IS being Decided, with our quiet complicity, and with our clueless complacency too …

It’s just ‘Business as Usual’ in the Global Commodities Market, for that liquid Gold, that makes the ‘world go round’.

WHAT is a ‘Captive Carbon-Citizen’ to do ?

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?

Darth Vader: They must never again leave this city.

Lando: [outraged] That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!

Darth Vader: Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly?

We ARE already, the Captives of Big Oil!

and THEY know it.

But as any reluctant hero, is sure to eventually say, when confronted by ‘the Gulf’ between the best intentions and the grimy reality of finding gainful employment:

Han Solo: It’s not my fault.

SO, Why doesn’t Congress — OUR Congress — DO Something about all this !?

Could it be the GOBP Party, sees stonewalling a just “a condition of their agreement” with that penultimate Empire, otherwise known as, Big Oil ?

Congress, please act boldly THIS TIME, on behave of US Citizens — “you’re our only hope” …

UPDATE 1-Kerry says Obama intends to move votes on energy

Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, Editing by

Sandra Maler

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator John Kerry, the top sponsor of the climate and energy bill stalled in the Senate, said President Barack Obama intends to pressure lawmakers to vote for a bill that would put a price on emitting greenhouse gases.

“There’s no question in my mind the president is fully committed. He’s fully engaged,” Kerry told MSNBC on Tuesday. “He intends to try to move votes himself and he understands the seriousness of this effort.”

Obama is slated to meet leading Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday to discuss a way forward for the energy legislation.

[…]

Kerry said the bill must include ways to price carbon but was not “locked into any one single way of doing it.”

“The fact is if we don’t price carbon, we will create one tenth of the jobs and reduce only one tenth of the emissions,” he said. “It would essentially be an energy-only bill.”

Not locked in to any particular ‘Carbon Pricing’ structure eh, Senator Kerry?

Well how about considering income generating ‘Cap and Dividend’ Bill — how about giving the People some Real Reasons ($$$) for all the evitable pains of Going Green?  

Change is hard.

We need some ‘Economic Incentives’ sometimes you know, say a $100 a month, to spur the average consumer to kick the Big Oil habit … how about a few “consumer carrots”, please … Senator Kerry?

“Carrots” are much easier to tolerate, than “sticks”  (at that Gas Pump).

A cap-and-dividend way to a cleaner nation and more jobs

By Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins

Washington Post Friday, June 18, 2010

[…] a bipartisan clean-energy and jobs bill […] a bill that takes on this challenge, empowering America’s private sector to take the lead in the $6 trillion global energy market while shutting out Wall Street speculators and protecting low- and middle-income families from associated price increases for energy.

Our concept is simple: Instead of cap-and-trade, our approach is “cap-and-dividend,” with the dividends going where they belong: into the pockets of hardworking Americans.

[…]

The legislation would set up a mechanism for selling “carbon shares” to the few thousand fossil fuel producers and importers through monthly auctions. Seventy-five percent of the auction revenue would be returned to every citizen and legal resident of the United States through equally divided rebate checks — averaging $1,100 for a family of four each year. The remaining 25 percent would finance clean-energy research and development; [… etc.]

When will People become ‘an active Players’ in this tragic 21st Century Play? —

Players capable of moving Energy Markets, which are now being planned, by the shadowy Empire of Traditional Energy, in some hallowed halls, somewhere in London, this week.

When will People become the “Empowered Energy Investors”, fully-vested as “carbon-stake shareholders” — who will ACTUALLY reap the Dividends of OUR OWN Clean Energy local-decisions?

Breaking the Easy Energy Addiction is hard work — otherwise it would be ‘done deal’ already.  So how about providing the Economic motivations that will move us into another Carbon-free future?  How about a few ‘Nicotine Patches’ to bridge the gap, from here to there?  How about empowering us to break free of Big Oil?

Instead of ‘Cap and Tax‘  (which is an instant rhetorical loser)

how about ‘Cap and Dividend‘  (which actually ‘rewards‘ smart energy consumers)

Yes, Knowledge IS Power.

But only when it can be channeled … like wind to a turbine.

like channeling streams of photons, unto silicon crystals,

and onto and 21st Century Energy Grid.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Luke: All right, I’ll give it a try.

Yoda: No. Try not.

DO… or Do not. There is no try.

The DESERTEC Concept: RED PAPER (pdf)

Within 6 hours deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year.

There is NO try …

There is only DO … or Do not …

In the battle for OUR Energy Future, which Congress will show up, and Win the Day?  (Ours or the one owned by Big Oil)

Half the battle, is ‘just showing up’ …

Daylight is burning … as per usual, in this 21st Century passion play …