Set America Free Notes&Comments

Kudos to Senator Dianne Feinstein for becoming the 26th co-sponsor of S.2025, The Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
Are your Senators on board yet?

From Senator Chafee’s editorial today in The Hill: “America consumes 25 percent of the world?s oil supply while sitting on only 3 percent of global reserves. The United States is importing 60 percent of its oil. These numbers just aren?t sustainable.
“That is why Jim Woolsey and I are both members of the Set America Free Coalition, which advocates a blueprint for American energy security [...]
“It is dangerous to be buying billions of dollars of oil from nations that sponsor or are allied with radical elements who foment anti-American hatred, or from countries like Venezuela and Nigeria, where corruption and turmoil are rampant. It wouldn?t take much ? a single act of terrorism or a ruling power?s caprice ? to cause a catastrophic disruption in the U.S. energy supply [...]
“It was a turning point indeed when our president looked us in the eye and said, ?We are addicted to oil.? Now it is time to stop talking and start acting. We must take bold, bipartisan action.”

Senator Chafee is a co-sponsor of S.2025, The Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act. He’s also co-sponsor of S.2747, which is basically S.2025 without the tax provisions (S.2747 was introduced so as to have a version of S.2025 that would be under a single committee’s jurisdiction, namely the Energy Committee. ) Are your Senators?

Click here for the latest information roundup from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) Automotive Analysis Division.

UK Telegraph reports:

“[The Islamists] came telling us, ‘You have 14 days to end this job’ and I asked them what was the problem,” said Abu Zeinab, 32, who was packing up his stall for good yesterday in the suburb of al Dora, a hardline Sunni neighbourhood.

“I said I was just feeding the people, but they said there were no falafels in Mohammed the prophet’s time, so we shouldn’t have them either.

“I felt like telling them there were no Kalashnikovs in Mohammed’s time either, but I wanted to keep my life.”

[...] Another group of traders to have felt the Islamists’ unexpected wrath is Baghdad’s ice merchants, who sell large chunks of ice for storing food and chilling drinks. In a city facing constant power cuts and summer temperatures of up to 50C (122F), the service they provide is little short of essential.

Yet in recent weeks, they too have fallen foul of the claim that their product was not a feature of life during Mohammed’s time.

Akram al Zidawi, 19, an ice seller from al Dora, thought the threats were too ludicrous to be true – until it was too late. “Two weeks ago he came back home saying that he had been threatened by the terrorists,” said his brother Gassan, 32.

“My mother begged him to quit the job, but he laughed, he thought it was impossible they would kill him. But they came back two days later and shot him dead, along with three other ice sellers nearby.”

Meanwhile, barbers have been inundated with young men anxious to shave off their goatee beards. Last month, Mustapha Jawad, 17, was allegedly killed for wearing one, which Islamists deemed a Jewish facial hairstyle.

“After Mustapha’s death I received 20 to 30 young men every day, all wanting me to shave off their goatee,” said a barber, Sinan al Rubai. “Maybe one day the mujahedeen will insist on shaving all the head – then I will be rich.”

And the biggest proliferator of radical Sunni Islam is? Three guesses.

USA Today reports:

Chemicals made from oil are used by companies to manufacture many products consumers rely on every day, such as plastic bottles, aspirin, lipstick and deodorant.

“It’s used in pretty much everything,” Wachovia economist Jason Schenker says. “I cannot look at my desk and see things that are not petroleum-based.”

Even though oil-based products are so pervasive, the direct impact of the rise in the cost of making such goods on consumers has been ? and likely will continue to be ? minimal. That’s because manufacturers, faced with strong global competition, are unable to pass along all of the added costs to customers. That means prices for most oil-derived products will likely barely budge as a result of higher energy costs.

But the impact on manufacturers and other companies that use oil-based ingredients could be significant, causing a ripple effect throughout the economy. As firms are faced with rising prices and see their margins cut, they may have to cut back on production, reduce pay increases or maybe even cut jobs or shut down.

Addicted to Oil: Strategic Implications of American Oil Policy by Commander Thomas D. Kraemer:

“Enemies in the past needed great armies and great industrial capabilities to endanger America. Today, the enemies are terrorists and tyrants, fueled by radical idealism and financed in large measure by oil money. Each of our four enduring national interests is impacted by our dependence on foreign oil.”

If this sounds familiar to you, you have probably read Set America Free’s Open Letter to the American People.

“The industry fuel bill will top $112 billion this year — $21 billion more than 2005,” said the International Air Transport Association, which represents 261 airlines handling 94 percent of the world’s scheduled air traffic.
IATA Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani said at the group’s annual meeting in Paris:
“Oil is the wild card. Prices are racing ahead of efficiency gains and robbing our profitability”

For more information on the impact of high oil prices on the air transport industry, read this report.

UK Guardian: A British oil worker held hostage in Nigeria was beaten with guns and had a gun placed in his mouth.

Every once in a while we come across a status quo advocate who believes that “the oil weapon is obsolete”. Apparently the news hasn’t gotten to Iran’s mullahs.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “In an attempt to threaten Iran, you claim you can guarantee the flow of energy in this region. You are wrong. If you make the slightest mistake regarding Iran, the flow of energy in this region will surely be jeopardized seriously. You must know this…You will never be able to guarantee the safe supply of energy in this region.”