Another quick hit: Gordon Smith has apparently yet to decide whether he wants to be seen at the Republican National Convention, according to National Journal. Even though his favorite candidate of the whole GOP field is the one being nominated.

I am no friend of Gordon Smith, but the proposed legislation to restrict commodity futures trading in oil is political mumbo jumbo. How do my fellow Dems propose that we operate a commodity futures trading market without "speculation"? Why is trading oil futures any better or worse than trading wheat, corn, soybeans, sugar, pork bellies, or orange juice? Do the Dems propose to ban all futures markets? Should we implement spot market pricing at the grocery store? If General Foods can't hedge the cost of oats in your breakfast cereal, they will just raise all prices to cover against price fluctuation risk.

We need a 20 year energy plan that is free from 2 year election cycle pressures. We need to figure out how to manage demand, production, distribution and conservation of energy in the next two or three decades. Absent that, the rest of this is worthless election BS - on both side of the aisle.

I've been ruminating this past week on a news item that is relevant to the topic of energy policy, and it has to do with the statement by the former US astronaut Edgar Mitchell that affirms the cover-up of extraterrestrial spacecraft by the US government since the 1940s.

Specifically, he has said the following: "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real."

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/25/more-on-moonwalker-e.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpQ281uhJWA

I'll state straight off the bat that I do not necessarily believe in the existence of such spacecraft, and that Mitchell brings nothing new to back up his claims, which amount to nothing more than hearsay and speculation. However, he is a reasonably credible person, having been involved in NASA for decades (including being the 6th man to have walked on the moon along with the longest moonwalk) and is well-placed to have access to individuals with "insider knowledge" because of his professional experience. (Also, it turns out that he grew up near Roswell, NM, where the most famous claim of an alien spacecraft encounter is said to have occurred in 1947, giving him personal connections with families involved in the original "incident"-- depending on your perspective, that may bolster or undermine his credibility).

Anyway, the connection here is the possibility that the US government is in possession of information, presumably from remnants of an alien spacecraft, that would have the potential to revolutionize our energy policy. (If one accepts the idea of space travel, there has to be an energy source that surpasses any type of technology that we can conceive of, in terms of efficiency, safety, portability, etc.). The possession of alien spacecraft could theoretically enable the acquisition of such technology by "reverse engineering," whereby basically one would take it apart and try to figure out how it works.

There are many reasons why information regarding the presence of extraterrestial spacecraft would be suppressed, stemming from religious to national security, but the idea that industrial forces would contribute to this seems like an interesting possibility. Frankly, if we had a clean source of energy that could propel a spacecraft across the universe, that would obviously make the oil and gas industries instantly obsolete.

All of this is to say that I would like to believe that a new administration, i.e. Obama, would be open to pursuing such technology, not just as a matter of solving so many of the problems facing us in the world (energy crisis, global warming, etc.) but as part of a platform of "open government." Honestly, I can't imagine a greater way to leave your mark on history and demonstrate that you really believe in an open, transparent government than to open up the vault and declassify like crazy.

This does presuppose that the President would have access to such information, which I'm not sure is a safe bet. It wouldn't surprise me for certain governmental secrets to exist in impenetrable realms in the Pentagon or elsewhere, safeguarded from the political whims of ever-changing administrations. As DeFazio has pointed out, even as a member of the Homeland Security committee he still has not been able to gain access to various governmental documents, so I wouldn't be surprised for many things to be hidden from even the President, whether he seeks them out or not.

Okay, mock away, I know it is a loony idea but it just goes to show the potential for abuse when an industry like Big Oil has such an outsized influence on the government and our national energy policy.

"Everyone that is, except Gordon Smith, who voted today to protect price manipulation by oil speculators."

This manipulation cuts both ways. For all the speculators that took long positions at $148/bbl, they are in a world of hurt at $124/bbl.

You neglected to mention SW Airlines who bought a bunch of futures last summer when oil was cheap and now they look like geniuses.

Maybe you shoudl study speculation before you make these proposals? What's Mr Merkley's solution?

Do the math. "Little oil", like those daily training excercises the Navy and tactical air wing at PDX do, and your stupid air conditioning, the "necessity of SUVs" over public school buses- these are things that have you by the energy short curlies.

Big oil is a 1200 lb gorilla that you can work yourself into a frenzy beating up so that you don't have to deal with what's in the mirror.

Yes, big oil is evil. It exploits stupid, addicted people. Just like tobacco taxes and the lottery. If you are going to save the environment in the little time that's left, you will get further making yourselves less ignorant and dependent than you will getting the predators to not exploit it.

But American politics means always saying that your constituents are total victims, never the perpetrators. Jimmy Carter will no doubt be the last elected leader, at the highest level, to say straighten up and fly right. If you want peace work for justice. Today, it's beyond to pale to say anything of the form, "if you want -fill in the blank-, then work", period.

You want immediate relief? Pay attention to what you do with energy today and you will immediately begin to get relief.

Kari,

I'm a native Oregonian who's also an analyst on futures markets. Two points:

1. Speculation determines price discovery. When everyone in the world sees Asia growing at 9% and supply growing at 2%, it seems rational that crude futures rose over the past several years. Similarly, with economic growth and US gas consumption slowing now, crude price declines this month also make a lot of sense.

2. The bill was absurd. I don't care which party sponsored it; what it intended to do was make life difficult for futures buyers. It's like setting up the Dept of the Invisible Hand, which mandates buying Fannie and Freddie stock, and shorting crude.

I know it makes for easy soundbites, but in my opinion the entire issue is a giant red herring.

Thanks.

Oh, and after reading your follow-up on "everyone agreeing," I wanted to add that I've met not a single person in the industry who agrees with that, and I'm not refering to just energy traders.

<hr/>