Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Good job. /sarcasm
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Senate GOP blocks windfall taxes on Big Oil
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
Yahoo.comWASHINGTON - Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have ( Read more... )

I'm a little ambivalent on whether or not it's good that the price of gas is sky-rocketing. On one hand, those evil oil companies! They're making out like bandits. On the other hand, I don't own a gas guzzling vehicle, so it's hard to be sympathetic to people who willfully bought one and continue driving them just as much. And then they bitch about ( Read more... )

I did this quick look at the front page of Yahoo and had to shake my head at these two news headlines linked one above the other in the "In the News" section:

Gas consumption strong despite high prices
Trees could grow in Antarctica within century

Gee. I wonder why.

I watching this CNN video on how there's imbalances between the U.S. and Mexico and I found it interesting that a big part, a large part of the video talks about the fact that Mexico's oil is nationalized and therefore does not allow for foreign (U.S.) investors. Also, the U.S. can't own property within a certain distance from the shoreline (I ( Read more... )