Bush to discuss oil prices with Saudi king

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Yahoo

President Bush said Monday that when he meets Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah later this week, he'll bring up the effect that high oil prices are having on the U.S. and global economies.

"Of course I'll bring it up to him," Bush said in a CBS News radio interview. However, he added that the capacity of the Saudis to raise production — and thus help lower prices — is limited.

"When you analyze the capacity for countries to put oil on the market it's just not like it used to be," Bush said. "The demand for oil is so high relative to supply these days that there's just not a lot of excess capacity."

However, Saudi Arabia has considerable additional production capacity. It's pumping a little over 8.5 million barrels a day, compared with about 9.5 million barrels a day two years ago, and has acknowledged the ability to produce as much as 11 million barrels a day.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_interview

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Bush In 2000: Bush Blamed Clinton Administration For High Gas Prices; Promised "Immediate Relief" By Using His "Capital" With Saudis And Kuwaitis. "Campaigning for president in a state particularly hard-hit by high gasoline prices, Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday blamed the nation's predicament on the Clinton administration, which he said is operating without an energy policy. "This is an administration that is hoping the issue goes away,' Bush said. ... 'The vice president seems to forget who's been in office for seven years,' Bush said. 'This is an administration that has been in charge, and the price of gasoline has risen steadily since they've been in office.' Asked what he would do as president to address the price at the pump, Bush said he would confer with oil-producing allies and ask them to pump more crude. 'I would use the capital my administration will earn with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, to convince them to open up the spigot,' Bush said. 'That's where we will get immediate relief.'"

http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/04/bushs_ever-chan.php

[Andy823]

1. The Saudi's have already told him

That it's not supply and demand that is causing the high prices, it's the investors who are trying to make a killing on the oil markets. They said they won't raise production because it won't do any good as long as investors are buying it up and stock piling it in hopes of making huge profits when the price goes up. Bus is a joke, and his buddies are making billions with him in office, He is all talk and no action.

[downindixie]

16. string them up

the whole lot! Anyone who promoted bush and his plan.Let god sort them out.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Let's keep screwing the American proles. This is so rich. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

[ToughLuck]

3. More posturing by King asshole Bush

[Nitrogenica]

4. They have been such a cute couple together for quite some time.

[Phred42]

5. So with 8 months to go - he's finally going to "jawbone 'em"

He's been boning us for 7years

[Botany]

6. Saudi Arabia has hit "peak production"

They can not just produce more to meet demand and lower prices ...
the # of wells has gone up but the production hasn't increased.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. Oh, hell- as soon as he opens his yap gas prices will go up a buck

Minimum.

Which is what he wants.

[Jacobin]

8. Oh goody. Another make out session

[Supersedeas]

23. photo ops while the backroom deals for guns and jets continue

[Bluebear]

9. "How can we help ratchet prices up further, Your Majesty?"

[Tight_rope]

10. I'm only going to say this once...

Fuck that lying piece of shit motherfucker Bush.

[Jersey Ginny]

11. Lowering prices is not the answer. Govt needs to push energy efficiency and conservation

Yes, I know it won't happen while * is in the WH. I still see many SUV's on the road.

[jwirr]

12. What is he going to talk to them about - how much higher they can

go without a backlash?

[DogPoundPup]

13. The Why of Chokingly High Oil Prices: Bush Together with Saudi Arabia Spells Disaster for America

> The high sign came in our oilman president's 2007 State of the Union
address when he announced his plans to double the size of the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve to 1.45 billion barrels thereby signaling that the
administration would do nothing of meaningful consequence to counter
OPEC's tactics. In terms of restraining the price of oil, in terms of the well
being of our economy, this policy shift has been an unmitigated disaster.
All was further exacerbated by President Bush's stated opposition to the
NOPEC legislation, Congress' attempt to remove the sovereign immunity
exemption which placed OPEC's collusionary tactics outside the reach of
American law, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commision.
He made it clear to one and all that he would veto he such legislation
if came to his desk. Reasons? You would probably have to go to a pretzel
maker to untangle the twists and turns sorting out the reasons why. Perhaps
it has much to do with a predilection to being helpful to his oil patch
comrades in arms. < http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080512/cm_huffpost/101262;_ylt=A9G_RnmYwShIUCsAChr9wxIF

[onehandle]

14. discuss = congratulate nt

[RamboLiberal]

15. Blast from the past - check the prices in 2000

Gas prices have soared this week to a national average of $1.64 a gallon, and to well over $2 a gallon in the Chicago and Milwaukee area, setting off a frenzy of finger-pointing involving the Clinton administration, Congress, oil companies and refineries, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In 2000, the Republicans used the spike to $1.64 as a campaign issue to bash the Clinton administration and Democratic candidates in the election that year, especially Al Gore:

In June 2000, Republican politicians urged President Bill Clinton to fire his energy secretary, Bill Richardson. Richardson, Michigan Sen. Rod Grams explained, was presiding over an “energy disgrace.” Clinton, many conservative commentators urged, should be raked over hot coals for vetoing congressional measures that would have opened up much of the Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling.

Meanwhile anti-tax think tanks such as the rightwing Heritage Foundation, rushed into print with reports advocating massive rollbacks of federal and state gasoline taxes and clean air standards for gasoline. Finally, anti-environmentalists jumped into the fray, lambasting Vice President Al Gore for implicitly condoning an OPEC supply squeeze that would drive up oil prices and thus, the conspiracy theory went, force Americans to drive less — which Gore, with his wacky ideas about global warming, was apparently salivating at the mouth about.

In the 12 months from June 1999 to June 2000, as oil prices on the world market climbed to a shocking $34 a barrel, at-the-pump prices had jumped by over 40 percent, averaging a hard-to-fathom $1.71 a gallon by mid-2000, according to the Heritage Foundation. Even more disturbing, in some parts of the United States gas prices were over $2 a gallon. A concerted message went out: Democrats, in hock to extreme environmentalists, were manipulating the oil market to bash small-town Americans where it hurt most — their pockets. You want low gas prices for your big SUVs? Well, you know who to vote for come November. Classic slash and burn politics…

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/03/08/in-2000-gop-trashed-dems-over-gas-prices/

:rofl:

[JerseygirlCT]

17. So... gas at $4.50 a gallon by next week? nt

[dipsydoodle]

18. That's the problem with having your head up

your arse. In his case not helped by being born that way.

[olddad56]

19. They are probably just getting together for sex.

[Sam Ervin jret]

20. His meeting needs to be with the war profiteers he calls his peers and pals here in the USA.

A nice war windfall tax on oil profits.

A complete stop to all and any programs that assist in the development of fossil technologies and

A great tax break for alternative energy development.

We need a "Manhattan Project" type investment from this country in alternative energy developments.

Geothermal energy and the new drill bits that burn their way through rocks,new urban turbines that make city wind power safe and efficient, ocean current energy development and use through underwater turbines, and the new exciting solar energy paint breakthrough are just a few of the areas of study that show extraordinary hope for our future energy needs.

This is where our future lies in respect to our energy needs. The one good thing that may come out of the fiasco of the Bush administration is that the extraordinary price of oil is making the world of non-fossil based energy development paramount.

[ohio2007]

21. bomb the oil fields....... that'll fix the price of oil

They need to build their indoor ski resorts in the desert. We will pay for it at the pump

[happygoluckytoyou]

22. WAX MY LIPS AND LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!!!

[Roon]

24. LOL!

I was just going to ask, did he smooch him?