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Pumped about drilling-Oil town of Taft still stuggling, but rising prices fuel hope »

Posted by: cowboygrandpa 1 month, 1 week ago

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The oil men are starting to drill again now that oil prices have risen. They see the higher prices as a reason to start drilling again. It's all about the money. It always has been and always will be. "Folks are making big money around the oil patch" said Les Clark. A spokesman for the independent Oil Producers Ageny.

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Comments So Far: 41

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cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago

Try this link, the original link has changed.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/01/local/m...
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  cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
  
  I used to haul safety absorbent from the Panamint mine in Maricopa Ca. I remember Taft as being pretty busy in the 60's and 70's.
  Small towns as I remember. Good hard working people.
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  MRCOFFEECAKE1 month, 1 week ago
  
  There are many here who understand that to those with wealth, money is more important than patriotism, but they can use their money to buy patriotic propaganda.. The minority here are just fools doing their bidding for free...at their own expense...
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    cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
    
    MRCOFFEECAKE:
    Yeah, sadly there are those who believe that they will be let into the circle of greed if they play along.
    They sell their souls very cheaply. They can't see that money and power are not the treasures they think they are.
    They are the trap of the devil to those who want them more than anything.
    That is why America continues to slide down hill. The powers that be treasure money and power over freedom and liberty.
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      antibrainwasher1 month, 1 week ago
      
      The military industrial complex, private companies and public, have seen more that 100% growth over the last 8 years. The war profiteers have been given the lartgest economic (republican socialism for the rich) distribution in the history of the planet. Haliburton, up 150%, Boeing up 129%, Lockheed up 140%, General Dynamics up 138%.
      Never in the history of the world has the military industrial complex war profiteers made more money.
      Profiting by sending 4500 to their death, disabling 30,000, killing 500,000 muslims, destroying the economy, borrowing 3 trillion dollars to finance the enrichment of the CEO's like Cheney, Rumsfeld, all to protect the intrest of Israel and Exon.
      And to criticize the capitalistic warloards, daddy warbucks, and war profiteers is considered unpatriotic and traitorous.
      Onward christian soldiers!!! Fight on for Walmart and Exon and the baby jesus. Fight for Chickenhawk draftdodging CEO Cheney and chickenhawk draftdodging Bush.
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        lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
        
        Be aware that all this started right after Clinton and the Republican congress jointly cut the military budget and Bush had committed to continue cuts in the military in April, 2001.
        http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2001/010...
        Could it only be a coincidence that 9/11 happened so the military got it's big increases in spending?
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    jmarks1 month, 1 week ago
    
    they use patriotism to further their own ambitions!
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  bluetexasvalley1 month, 1 week ago
  
  Gee, Cowboygrandpa, this story can't be right. I heard from the Propellerheads with superior knowledge that the only place left in the whole U.S. with drillable oil was in ANWR and offshore. ;-)
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    cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
    
    bluetexasvalley:
    Yeah, I know. So many know so much.
    Funny when you find out they don't now half of what they thought they knew.
    I've known about the Taft Oil fields since about '68. They were doing pretty well then.
    
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baddad59Comment removed: User banned.9 Replies
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  cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
  
  baddad:
  Yeah, that is why I put it out there. They want to own us lock, stock, and barrell.
  I used to haul freight out of Maricopa, I remember the people there as being hard working. Man they had a couple of gorgeous waitresses at a coffe shop there. I made sure to stop and say hi when I was in town.
  Of course diesel fuel was around .33 cents a gallon back then. A cup of coffee was around a $.25.
  
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    not2needy1 month, 1 week ago
    
    They are very close to owning us too cbg, with the blessings of our politicians. We need to clean house, and the citizens need to be the ones asking the questions instead of the likes of Wolf.
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      cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
      
      n2n:
      Good to hear from you again.
      Yeah they are close to owning us. At least those who buy into their Bushsh*t.
      They can't own me though. I still remember how to live without all the luxuries if I have to.
      Seems to me our forefathers didn't have all of what we take for granted. But they had a lot more freedom and rights than we do now.
      I wonder why it is people sell away their rights for a short lived comfort.
      Look at what Bush has done in the less than eight years he has been in office.
      We are losing our homes, freedoms , financial security, retirement funds in the stockmarket... While Bush and the clowns bail out corporate America woking America loses more and more daily.
      Why???????? Because they are for big money and corporations that is why!!!!!
      This oil thing is just another way of Bush screwing the little guys.
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        cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
        
        baddad:
        You hit that one out of the park. Right on the money my friend.
        Great observations.
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        simonsez1 month, 1 week ago
        
        All money the government spends is taxpayer's money. They have no money of their own.
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  AntiNeoCon1 month, 1 week ago
  
  baddad59 - many people get pumping stations and oil wells mixed up. I imagine a lot of what you see is pumping stations as there are many pipelines crossing the areas you mentioned.
  The oil wells normally have derricks standing, the pumping stations are somewhat difference in appearance.
  Not defending big oil, just pointing out the difference. Good post cowboygramps. :)
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  - baddad59Comment removed: User banned.1 Reply
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      lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
      
      Traveling across Ohio you see the pumps working when the price of oil is up and shut down when the price is down. I understand that these oil wells don't pump continuously because of pressure but when the price went up they were all working. The oil companies know the oil will always be there so they just hold off pumping until the price suits them.
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DarkWizard1 month, 1 week ago

Thank you for the invite cowboygrandpa. A very telling story of how skewed things have become from making a living to trying to survive.
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MRCOFFEECAKE1 month, 1 week ago

That is what destroyed Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, China, and many empires before them. Why can't mankind learn to strike a reasonable balance?.. Money is like a drug. They never know when too much will kill them, but they don't care, they keep wanting more.
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  lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
  
  Vicious cycle. Money creates power. Power corrupts people. People kill for money.
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ML20071 month, 1 week ago

Actually, the natives of Taft seem to have a handle on things. They have been through oil booms before, and don't seem to be overdoing anything. When oil prices shoot up this high, stripper wells begin to have a premium. The stripper well industry does not affect the overall world supply that much, but it will have some effect. Good luck in Taft.
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TheRealizer1 month, 1 week ago

It is to be hoped that the working class in this country has come to the conclusion that the powers that be are not on your side. Taxpayer monies that should be used to bolster our economy are being diverted to the good old boys on Wall Street, and being used to Build Empire for the same people.
I am concerned about the future stability of the food transportation system, if it goes down most cities have at best 48 hours of grocery supplies, things could get interesting!!!!
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    lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
    
    From where I sit, the neighbor's dog is starting to look mighty tasty. ROFLMAO
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      cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
      
      I love the mountains, with their streams and game.
      Better know how to survive it though.
      I've helped hunt for the lost hikers, easy to get lost and disoriented.
      
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        lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
        
        I've never been to California and at my age I really have no desire to go there but I did spend a good part of my life in the mountains and I know what you're saying. There is nothing more relaxing than setting on a hillside listening to the sounds of a stream and bird clatter.
        "easy to get lost and disoriented"
        I always followed the streams down the mountains and didn't turn back. Always a house or cabin on the streams. Now days with a map and a gps I believe it would be hard to get lost unless you ran out of battery power.
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        cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
        
        fergie:
        Yeah, thats true. But when there is no Walmart to get batteries from and people turn mean from panic and starvation.
        One should know that those by the stream are easy targets for those who have no thoughts of kindness or compassion.
        Sad to say I've seen what war does to people, and believe me if this country goes into a major financial crisis.
        Some will treat it like war.
        
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        lfergie8121 month, 1 week ago
        
        Sad but true. Some treat it as an act of war when a person says something bad about Bush.
        My statement of following a stream was a past tense statement. People as a whole were much nicer before TV warped their mind and violence was rare unless you mess with their still. LOL
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ciera-marie1 month, 1 week ago

Thanks for submitting this CBG. People forget or don't want to know just how dirty oil really is. If people really know how much oil polluted the oceans when the tankers are cleaned out they'd be ill. Maybe things would then change. I don't know. People need to see what happens in oil towns once they stop pumping. Not that different from coal mining towns.
Time to start, really start, looking at the alternatives. Yeah some of them don't work as well as we thought. So what, we keep going until we get it right.
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  cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
  
  C M:
  You are quite welcome. How have you been?
  
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    ciera-marie1 month, 1 week ago
    
    Been well and busy. Hope you're doing well.
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  chevydog1 month, 1 week ago
  
  Yeah, this sounds like more than a few coal towns back where I came from in PA. Places like Shennandoah, Mahanoy City, Tamaqua, and others. When fuel styles change, and the companies looking for them leave or go under, large chunks of jobs leave as well. A community can live off of itelf for a while (service economy), but in the long run this doesn't work too well. One needs something to bring in money from outside the local area to offset the ineveitable money "leaks" for loans, etc.
  Not too far from here over in IL, the farms are dotted with old oil wells. Some of them are pumping again because of the higher prices. But the volumes are low, and they don't bring in much money.
  Unbridled capitalism certainly gives us some ugly stuff in resource-rich areas. But I'm not sure whether any of it is as destructive as people from somewhere else deciding whether you've go a way of life or not. Oh well.
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Justice4All1 month, 1 week ago

The article should mention that Taft has a large prison nearby which is the main reason the people who work there want to live somewhere else.
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lloydm651 month, 1 week ago

Hey cowboygrandpa, You sure throw a wide loop describing all the the problems caused by Bush.I bought my home in 1980
I made sure I could afford it,my intrest rate was 10.5%, thank you president Carter,I was able to refinance later to a lower rate.What I didn't do was to buy more house than I could afford,or refinance with cash out.Now if you know the folks across this nation,and all the circumstances concerning their plight,tell us about it.Other wise shorten your comments to,I was told by my party in 2000 to hate Bush
and again in 2004 when they ran another slug.Thats a lot of hate.
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  cowboygrandpa1 month, 1 week ago
  
  lloydm65:
  Well, first off. I don't hate Bush, I hate his actions and behavior.
  Secondly, don't ever try to tell me what to do!!!!! You are not my leader or voice of conscious.
  You are more than welcome to your thoughts and opinions, as am I.
  If you thik Bush is a great leader feel free to say so. I feel quite free to say he is not. If you have problem with freedom of speech. Tough luck bud.
  I fought for my rights as well as yours.
  BTW, I find it funny, you say your party says to hate Bush. You sound more like a Republican.
  Because you blame Carter for the mess we were in when he got into office. LOL
  These people thought they could afford their homes to. They were not aware of all the controls that were taken away.
  Greed destroys markets. Look at what both parties have allowed with their foolish inept management.
  It's OK with me if you love Bushes ways. I don't.
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  ciera-marie1 month, 1 week ago
  
  lloydm65 disagree with you about Carter.
  You have to admit that when you bought your home you are more fortunate than most. I agree that some have traded up while interests rates where low and are now in homes that they can't afford. However a starter home in the Twin Cities is almost 200,000. Some neighborhoods it's 425,000. If it's 60,000 it's zoned for destruction or it needs a 100,000 in remodeling. Most can't afford that.
  As to why I dislike this administration, it was GW and Cheney's actions before they became President and VP in 2000. I remember VIVIDLY the Regan years and S & L scandal that got a Bush off. Iran Contra?
  I vote my conscious thank you and look to the facts from all sides.
  I'm amazed that you still, after everything, support this administration.
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simonsez1 month, 1 week ago

They say 40% of all oil ever found in the USA is still in the ground. Time to go get some of it ...
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hamy1 month, 1 week ago

I thought that the only way to get us to get more oil on American soil was to drill in ANWR. In fact, A.G. posted a story that directly linked Bush OKing drilling there and oil falling $9 a barrel. Even though it's back up beyond that now. And here, there are other areas where oil can be drilled right now and they can produce right now without having to open new drilling areas.
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