The USA woke up in 08-09 when oil spiked to $150/bbl and had devastating effects on domestic spending
Since then it has put strategies in place and is rapidly becoming oil self sufficient. Just have a look at our ASX
listed companies who are over there exploring for and producing oil.
Why, might you ask, are these ASX companies not exploring and pumping oil here.
My hypothesis is that it is more profitable for them to operate in the USA because of access to
tenements, less exploration red tape and no Indigenous Native Title issues to wade through and
the sweetheart deal that the Costello/Howard Government handed to the Multinational oil companies
in 1997.
And on top of all that, oil is still cheaper in the USA compared to ours.
Onshore oil exploration has been put on the back burner while offshore gas and
onshore coal seam gas is being developed at a time when gas prices are plummeting
and oil is above $100/bbl.
We need to:
(a) remove the petroleum price fixing mechanism
(b) legislate to make onshore oil exploration less expensive and less red tape
(c) review Mabo and exempt oil from Native Title Claims
(d) reduce the excise duty on petroleum derived from locally produced crude oil
(e) remove all condensate from export gas and process into automotive diesel
Then we need to:
(1) vary car registration fees so that eventually our national car fleet will be
more fuel efficient
(2) Import duty surcharge on cars and 4x4s to reflect fuel consumption
in lieu of the Luxury Car Tax.
The free market in conjunction with the Government's petroleum price fix
is obviously not working* and our import oil bill (now $38 billion/year) is
rising annually causing an increasing trade deficit which all of us have to pay.
Cheers
Moorookamick
* Only working for the Multinational Oil Companies.
