{"id":29131,"date":"2008-04-29T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:55:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:55:24","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:55:24","slug":"the_four_horsemen_of_the_energy_apocalypse_caused_this_oil_mess3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/04\/29\/the_four_horsemen_of_the_energy_apocalypse_caused_this_oil_mess3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse Caused This Oil Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: I want to start with President Bush\u2019s press conference today. It was basically about oil, basically about energy prices and so forth. We have a couple of sound bites from the president and then a response, an irresponsible response from New York Senator Chuck Schumer. Here\u2019s the first of two sound bites from President Bush. Well, actually, this is an answer to a question from a reporter. ‘You have said that we need to wait until the first stimulus has taken effect to act again, but since it was passed, gas prices have gone up, foreclosures have gone up, there have been layoffs, news just this morning that consumer confidence is down yet again. Isn\u2019t it time to think about doing more, would you support a summer moratorium on the federal gas tax?\u2019<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: First of all the money is just now making it into people\u2019s bank accounts. I applaud the speaker and the leader of the Senate and minority leaders there for working together to get this done.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: After, you know, a period of time, the money\u2019s beginning to arrive, and we\u2019ll see what the effects are. And we\u2019ll look at any idea in terms of the energy.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m getting sick and tired here, especially with seven months to go in the presidency, I\u2019m sick and tired of praising Democrats here. They\u2019re the problem! They\u2019re the problem! Nancy Pelosi\u2019s the problem. Chuck Schumer is the problem. It\u2019s time to stop praising these people. There\u2019s no point in it. There\u2019s no value in it. Wendell Goler of Fox News said, ‘Mr. President, you just said there\u2019s not a lot of excess supply of oil out there.\u2019 There actually is. It\u2019s not been brought out of the ground, and we\u2019ll get to that in just a second. He said, ‘Some energy experts think that we may have already passed or be within a couple years of passing the maximum oil pumping capability. In other words, we may be close to tapping all we\u2019ve got.\u2019 Folks that is not true. I\u2019m just here to tell you that is not true, and stand by for the details on that. ‘Mr. President, do you think that\u2019s the case, and if you do, why haven\u2019t you put more resources into renewable energy research, sir?\u2019<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there are reserves to be found in ANWR. That\u2019s a given. You know, I just told you that there\u2019s about 27 million gallons of diesel and gasoline from domestically produced crude oil that\u2019s not being utilized. And not only that, we can explore in environmentally friendly ways. This is a litmus test issue for many in Congress. Somehow if you mention ANWR it means you don\u2019t care about the environment. Well, I\u2019m hoping now people, when they say ANWR, it means you don\u2019t care about the gasoline prices that people are paying.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So Chuck Schumer today said the following about ANWR.<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: What does the president do? He takes out the old saw of ANWR. ANWR wouldn\u2019t produce a drop of oil in ten years, and it\u2019s estimated that if they drilled in ANWR, in 20 years, it would reduce the price one penny. We\u2019ve been pushing for a long time for energy efficiency. We believe in a price-gouging bill —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Stop the tape. I want you to recue this, because the important thing about this bite is not what he says about ANWR because I\u2019m going to nuke that here in a minute. What you\u2019re going to hear Chuck Schumer say here is the Democrat solution to the price we are paying for gasoline, the Democrat solution for the problem of supply, the Democrat solution for energy altogether — after he talks about the old saw of ANWR he\u2019ll get into what the Democrats really believe and that\u2019s what I want you to pay attention to.<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: What does the president do? He takes out the old saw of ANWR. ANWR wouldn\u2019t produce a drop of oil in ten years, and it\u2019s estimated that if they drilled in ANWR, in 20 years it would reduce the price one penny.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now.<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: We\u2019ve been pushing for a long time for energy efficiency. We believe in a price-gouging bill so that the big oil companies can\u2019t collude. We believe that there\u2019s too much speculation in the markets, and we believe that ought to be reined in.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Nothing that he just said would produce an additional drop or however you wish to measure it, of energy. Not one thing. We\u2019ve been pushing a long time for energy efficiency. Mr. Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and her buddies in the House of Representatives, after winning the House in 2006, had this program called Six for 2006, six things they were going to get done. One of them was lowering gas prices. We haven\u2019t seen their plan. The Republicans in Congress last week asked for their plan. They don\u2019t have a plan. There isn\u2019t anything Congress can do. You can have a windfall profits tax, it\u2019s not going to have an effect on the supply, it\u2019s not going to have to an effect on the price, it\u2019s just going to go after and punish Big Oil. Yip yip, I mean you may feel like doing that but it\u2019s not going to help you at the pump. A price-gouging bill so that big oil companies can\u2019t collude? Are you going to include in this OPEC? Are you going to include Hugo Chavez in this? Are you going to include all of these producers that are not Big Oil? What\u2019s this going to accomplish anyway? Too much speculation in the markets? You guys have got a plan to start messing around with the commodities markets? We do want to hear this. <\/p>\n

He then later attacked the president. The president said he was open to the idea of a gasoline and diesel tax holiday during the summer driving season, such as from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The president said he was open to that. McCain says he\u2019s open to it. Hillary says she\u2019s open to it. Obama says he\u2019s not open to it, even though he supported it in Illinois. This is the thing that just frosted me. There\u2019s Chuck Schumer up there saying, ‘We\u2019re for it, too, but we think Big Oil ought to pay for it.\u2019 Mr. Schumer, Senator Schumer, one of the big problems that you Democrats have with a lot of people in this country is that this government\u2019s out of control. Could we talk about windfall government profits, Senator? You guys never do with less. You are siphoning $3 trillion a year from the American taxpayer, and you won\u2019t give back 18.4 cents per gallon of it for three months unless Big Oil pays for it, and you have the audacity, Senator, to say the president doesn\u2019t care about the average American\u2019s pocketbook? You go tell Big Oil to reduce their prices 18.4%. If you\u2019re able to do that, then you go tell everybody to lower their prices on what you think they ought to be if you guys really think you can manipulate the market that way. <\/p>\n

The federal gasoline tax is a federal tax. If you eliminate the federal gasoline tax, Senator, you eliminate revenue to the federal government. It\u2019s about time you guys learned to deal with less up there like all of us have had to learn to deal with less during these economic cycles. This is insulting, it is outrageous, and it is indicative, ladies and gentlemen, the Democrats don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s rear end about helping you out economically any more than the oil companies do. They are in it for a political power play to get reelected. They love the economy being in the circumstance it\u2019s in. They love prices being high, because they think that\u2019s going to make you mad at the existing administration, the Republicans. But there\u2019s also a problem, Senator Schumer. You guys run Congress. The American people know it. And by the time we\u2019re through with you today, Senator Schumer, everybody is going to have heard what you said about all of this. Big Oil should pay for the gas tax holiday? He also said something else, and you heard him in that sound bite. He said it would be ten years before a drop of oil came from ANWR. Senator Schumer, who first vetoed ANWR? It was Bill Clinton. <\/p>\n

Had we been drilling in ANWR when it was first proposed back in 1994, guess what? We\u2019d be 14 years into it, and we would have that supply. Every little bit counts. Every little bit hurts. It certainly would not pose a problem by drilling in ANWR. You know the old story The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse, I\u2019m going to tell you who they are: Bill Clinton. He vetoed ANWR, and he did everything he could as the leader of the Democrat Party to prevent any new exploration, discovery, and drilling of oil within the continental United States or Alaska. Mario Cuomo is the second of The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse. He shut down the nuclear plant in New York State. Just a total waste of money. It was ready to go online, he shut it down. The third member of The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse is Jane Fonda. The movie The China Syndrome is the single reason we don\u2019t have nuclear power, because of a scare tactic movie about a meltdown at a nuclear plant, that\u2019s why we don\u2019t have nuclear power here. The fourth member of The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse is up for grabs. You could throw John Muir in there, founded the Sierra Club, but I rather put Algore in there. <\/p>\n\n

I would rather make Algore the fourth member of The Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse. This is the man who warned us the average temperature in the next hundred years would go up one degree or go down one degree. This is a man who broke the tie vote on ethanol that has seen rising food prices, food shortages. It\u2019s gotten to the point now where even Prime Minister Brown in the UK is saying, we gotta stop this, we gotta roll it back. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas senator, has written a piece, Investor\u2019s Business Daily, we have to freeze current levels that require ethanol in gasoline. This is an unintended consequence. Exactly right. Unintended consequences always are what we end up with when liberals prevail in their policy ideas. Folks, this is very simple. We, as the American people, need to decide whether we want lower gas prices or whether we want to keep oil deposits off limits, \u2019cause we can\u2019t do both. I have talked \u2019til I am blue in the face. There is nothing out there to replace oil, nothing imminent, nothing on the horizon, nothing for decades to replace oil. It isn\u2019t there. It is being worked on. That\u2019s what happens in the free market. There are all these little inventors and so forth, they\u2019re playing around in their basements, in their laboratories, and they\u2019re working on these things, but it isn\u2019t going to be wind power; it isn\u2019t going to be solar; it isn\u2019t going to be batteries. Whatever it is, probably someday, you know what it\u2019s going to be is water. I\u2019m talking about seawater. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re never going to have a shortage of seawater. Somewhere down the road, this is what\u2019s going to happen. They\u2019re going to find a way, somebody will, as long as someplace on this earth remains free enough to allow that kind of invention and experimentation and so forth and so on. There\u2019s nothing to replace oil. It is not there. Oil is not filthy; it is not dirty; it is not in and of itself a pollutant. It is the fuel of the engine of freedom, pure and simple. Now, if you want lower gasoline prices, you\u2019re going to have to accept the fact that we need more oil. We\u2019re going to have to drill for it; we\u2019re going to have to bring it up; we\u2019re going to have to refine it. You cannot have both. If you want prices lower, there has to be more supply. Chuck Schumer and his energy efficiency ideas and his windfall profits tax and his gouging bill, zilch, zero, nada effect, nothing. It\u2019s embarrassing to listen to him speak about this. I am tired of having my intelligence insulted by these wacko Democrats who screw up everything they touch. We have it in ANWR. It\u2019s probably going to be available from some mosquito-infested peat bog somewhere. We\u2019ve got it in North Dakota. Talking about oil. We have it in the Gulf Coast. <\/p>\n

You have China and India growing rapidly, folks. The supply has to grow in proportion or these prices are going to keep rising. The only people getting what they want out of this are the environmentalist wackos. They are the only people happy about this. Have you seen these stories, these scaremongering, fear-oriented stories? Some people predicting $200 a barrel per oil. Somebody out there saying $10 a gallon gasoline. Now, let\u2019s not get carried away here and pile on the panic, but for heaven\u2019s sake, can we look at the real world? Not at the windmill wackos and how they would like us to see the real world. Let me give you some reality, and this is from Bloomberg: ‘Brazil may be pumping ‘several million\u2019 barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world\u2019s seven biggest producers.\u2019 Several million barrels of crude daily by 2020. They\u2019re talking about pumping oil 12 years from now, folks. How can that be if we\u2019re running out? That stupid question that Bush got about we\u2019re reaching our peak, asinine. Absolute BS, undiluted, pure stinky BS! <\/p>\n

They\u2019re pumping billions of dollars into developing the Caspian Sea for oil 20 years from now. We are not running out. Do we have the courage to go get it, or are we gonna sacrifice freedom and manageable prices for the agenda of the far-left environmentalist wackos who have willing accomplices in the United States Congress in the name of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and every damn one of them? I am sorry to yell, but I watched this this morning, and there is such an absence of common sense here. You don\u2019t want to drill, fine. You don\u2019t want to refine, okay. You don\u2019t want nuclear, okay, good. You want to wait for wind and solar and you\u2019re willing to wait for it, fine and dandy. You willing to put your money where your mouth is, you\u2019re going to be doing that at the pump. If you want to wait for wind, if you want to wait for any alternative, if you want to wait for nuclear, you go right ahead, you\u2019re paying for it every time you drive up to the pump. Wake up, people!<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Don\u2019t misunderstand me, ladies and gentlemen. I\u2019m all for conservation. I\u2019m all for not wasting things. I do that in my daily life. However, conservation does not equal growth. We can conserve all we want and that\u2019s not going to produce any more — and whatever we save by conserving is minuscule, especially with other countries out there developing and growing. There\u2019s no question what has to be done here; there\u2019s none. And once again, the people standing in the way of the growth and progress and prosperity of this country are your favorite, you-can-count-on-them-every-damn-time, liberal Democrats. Here\u2019s more from Senator Schumer today in his press conference following the president\u2019s Rose Garden press conference.<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: Shell and BP announced record profits for the first quarter in 2008. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: Shell earned nine billion. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah<\/p>\n

SCHUMER: BP earned 7.6 billion — and we ask to know, on whose side is the president? Which side is he on? You can\u2019t be on both; you can\u2019t be both for Big Oil and for lower prices — and we believe that things have to change. Some have argued for a gas tax holiday, but they don\u2019t want the oil companies to pay for it and that means we won\u2019t build for — build our highways. We believe that there ought to be a gas tax holiday, but Big Oil ought to pay for it. Take some of the money out of the royalties; take some of the money out of the windfall profits and reduce that gas tax. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is so dangerously asinine, stupid, and ignorant. In the first place, all of you need to understand — I don\u2019t mean to sound preachy here, but this just gets frustrating to me because I know the impact of high prices causes people to say, ‘I don\u2019t care how it gets down, Rush. I want the price to come down. I don\u2019t care how it happens.\u2019 I understand that. But you need to care because it has long-term effects, how you do it. The idea that we are going to take Big Oil and make them pay for this rather than the government — the government\u2019s profit last year was three trillion, and it\u2019s your money! And they took it from you, and they don\u2019t do a damn thing to earn it! They are sitting around. They are nothing more than panhandlers that are wiping your windshield and demanding 35% of what you make for the privilege! ‘Our precious infrastructure will suffer,\u2019 says Senator Schumer, with the gas tax holiday. Our infrastructure is suffering anyway because liberals don\u2019t know how to manage all the money they\u2019ve got now! We\u2019re not going to build one damn new bridge; we\u2019re not going to build one damn new road with the money that would be saved from this gas tax holiday. Another little added benefit of high prices. I know it\u2019s not good but at some point these prices will make getting oil tough to get profitable, meaning there\u2019s even more going to be found.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: One more oil item and then we\u2019re going to get into Operation Chaos. There\u2019s a story in the New York Times today: ‘Oil Price Rise Fails to Open Tap.\u2019 Now, one of the theories behind rising prices, or one of the theories of the benefits of rising prices is that oil in shale and in other hard-to-get places will become more profitable and therefore it\u2019s more likely that people that do this for a living will go out and get it. The New York Times story here laments that this isn\u2019t happening; and (crying) that the economists are totally concerned and they\u2019re confused by: Why, the laws here aren\u2019t being followed, the economic laws. Let me see if I can help the New York Times. ‘As oil prices soared to record levels in recent years, basic economics suggested that consumption would fall and supplies would rise as producers drilled for more oil. But as prices flirt with $120 a barrel, many energy experts are becoming worried that neither seems to be happening. <\/p>\n

‘Higher prices have done little to suppress global demand or attract new production, and the resulting mismatch has sent oil prices ever higher. ‘That has translated into more pain at the pump…. A central reason that oil supplies are not rising much is that major producers outside the OPEC cartel, like Russia, Mexico and Norway, are showing troubling signs of sluggishness. Unlike OPEC, whose explicit goal is to regulate the supply of oil to keep prices up, these countries are the free traders of the oil market, with every incentive to produce flat-out at a time of high prices. But for a variety of reasons…\u2019 Stick with me on this. ‘But for a variety of reasons including sharply higher drilling costs and a rise of nationalistic policies that restrict foreign investment, these countries are failing to increase their output. They seem stuck at about 50 million barrels of oil a day, or 60 percent of the world\u2019s oil supplies, with few prospects for growth.\u2019 What do you think the key here is? Nationalistic policies? ‘A rise of nationalistic policies that restrict foreign investment…\u2019 <\/p>\n

Can I translate that for you? Communist\/socialist countries nationalizing their oil businesses kicking out the experts, the oil companies in drilling, producing, and refining. Could I mention Hugo Chavez? Hugo Chavez just nationalized all the oil in Venezuela. He kicked out the oil companies. The oil companies, say, ‘Fine. Screw you! There\u2019s no reason to be in business with you. There\u2019s no profit here. You\u2019re on your own, pal.\u2019 So he makes contracts with other oil companies and they just work on salary; like employees, little percentage of things. So output is restricted. Whenever you want to find an interruption and something that doesn\u2019t make sense in economics and the laws of supply and demand, I guarantee that somewhere at the root level of it; you\u2019re going to find a liberal or a socialist or a communist attempting to manage the market or steal all the profits for him or herself and for the little country (meaning for him or herself), using it as a weapon. It\u2019s no wonder that Norway and Mexico and Russia — Russia\u2019s got its own political upheavals going on right now; they\u2019ve got their own political problems, too. <\/p>\n

So what it boils down to here is there\u2019s not a shortage of oil. There\u2019s so much out there, it\u2019s incredible. There\u2019s a shortage of production — and guess what? The Chuck Schumers of the world have targeted the producers as the enemy! Who have got to be taxed into oblivion, who have got to be punished, who have got to be brought up to Congress every now and then and made to sit in front of these blowhards explaining themselves. As I have always said, ladies and gentlemen: It seems to me that what ought to happen is that Big Oil CEOs ought to convene their own hearings and bring up the people like Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi; sit them down and point a finger at them and say, ‘What the hell are you doing getting in the way of the way we run our business? What are you doing impeding our output and production?\u2019 I\u2019m telling you, when you find laws of supply and demand interrupted and not making sense; somewhere in the mix, you\u2019re going to find a bunch of liberals who think they can do it better or just want control of it for the hell of it. Let me grab a couple phone calls on this, because when I go to the Operation Chaos, I don\u2019t want to come back to this, because Operation Chaos is big today. So let me grab some phone calls on the oil business here. We\u2019ll start in Perham, Minnesota. This is Keith. Nice to have you, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you, professor. As I recall — and correct me if I\u2019m wrong — but late nineties, early 2000s, the liberal Democrats thought we were all paying too little for gas.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I remember that. They always have said that, in fact. In my lifetime they\u2019ve always lamented, ‘The British are paying far more than we are. It\u2019s not fair; our prices should go up.\u2019 Now they\u2019ve gone up. The same people who are for high prices, now take advantage of this to start making political points, trying to score political points. Look, the only people winning in this are the environmentalist wackos. They\u2019re getting everything they want. They\u2019re getting their ethanol. They\u2019re getting high gasoline prices. They\u2019re getting the notion that we\u2019re running out of oil. Now people are going to have to get rid of toilet paper, start using tree leaves after they use the bathroom. This is where they\u2019re headed; this is what they want. They\u2019ll take us back to some Stone Age-type life. They\u2019re the only ones getting what they want. They\u2019re standing in the way of progress like the communists used to do in their own countries. There\u2019s no question about it, here. If you want the gasoline price to come down you have got to become the biggest supporter and friend of oil there is. That\u2019s the only way. You\u2019re not going to bring the oil price down, the gas price down by letting Chuck Schumer have free rein with legislation. You\u2019re not going to do it with conservation bills. You\u2019re not going to do it with windfall profits taxes. You\u2019re not going to do it with Big Oil being forced to pay for a tax holiday on the federal tax. That\u2019s the silliest, stupidest idea I have ever heard of. Let\u2019s see. Rick in Decatur, Illinois. Nice to have you, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh. I would just like to say that you apologized earlier for something that you had no need to apologize for when you were raising your voice about this. Your voice is being heard loud and clear. And it\u2019s about time that somebody raised their voice loud enough for the left side to understand that they are absolutely the demise of this country. And you are the prophet you say you are, sir. I hope you continue this forever, and I absolutely appreciate you taking my call, because I wanted to talk to you for a hundred years, sir.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, thank you. I didn\u2019t know you\u2019re that old, you didn\u2019t sound that old.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I\u2019m not quite. Not quite.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I hope you make it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I certainly do. And like I say, I\u2019m going to subscribe to your website just because I\u2019ve listened to all these years and I know that I\u2019m missing things that I need to know and you\u2019re the one to tell us.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do. Sometimes I wonder if I lose effectiveness out there, Rick, by raising my voice, because I don\u2019t want, ‘There goes Limbaugh on a rant again and people not listen to it,\u2019 but the passion is what it is. So I\u2019m happy to hear that it was an unnecessary and unneeded apology. Jim in Manheim, Pennsylvania, you\u2019re next on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. Hi, Rush. Mega dittos.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, you really hit my hot button when you talked about Cuomo and the nuclear power plants on Long Island. I was the nuclear regulatory commission\u2019s project manager for both of the plants that were there.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah?<\/p>\n

CALLER: And I went through thick and thin in the licensing process; and I\u2019m telling you, the one plant was in operation. It got up to well over 1% power.<\/p>\n

RUSH: My memory is fading. Which plant?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That was Shoreham.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That was Shoreham.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And the one that was shut down was…?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, that\u2019s the one they shut down. They made \u2019em drill holes —<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s right. That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: They made \u2019em drill holes in the reactor vessel so it could never be used again. And it was the first plant that had been built under the new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, and it took them years. It cost them well over a billion dollars.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, just wrote it off.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yep.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Your state government, led by Mario the Pious —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — drilling holes in it, throwing a billion dollar reactor away. Make Mario Cuomo pick up —<\/p>\n

CALLER: And they also had another one.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — the gas tax holiday costs!<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. And they also had another one further out on the island, actually two. They had construction permits for that they paid, which were exact copies of one in Connecticut. The regulatory commission had a deal that, if you copied one, you could get through faster. Well, that fell apart when they said, ‘Well, we didn\u2019t do a very good job when we built the first one so we\u2019re going to make you do a lot more things,\u2019 and the utility said, ‘Forget it.\u2019 So they scrapped that. That island could have had 3,000 mega watts of nuclear power operating. One of the funny things on the Shoreham plant was they made \u2019em redesign the canal that takes water in, because the submarines used to test torpedoes. They were afraid one of them would go up the canal and blow it up.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughter) <\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughter) I kid you not.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The Navy would fire —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — torpedoes on the Shoreham nuclear plant.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, right. And then another one was on the discharge of the water going out. They didn\u2019t like the conventional way of just dumping it. They made them put huge pipes with holes in it like a huge sprinkler system under water so the ‘fishies\u2019 wouldn\u2019t get harmed. I mean, I could go on and on and on.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know, I know. The problem is there\u2019s no public outcry over any of this.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ll tell you why. I\u2019ll tell you why. People may think I\u2019m overemphasizing this, but you cannot — you cannot — underestimate the impact the movie The China Syndrome had on the public\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I know. I was the government expert testifying in front of all the public there on the island for both of those plants, and going through all the crazy schemes. I had an attorney who got so mad because — I can\u2019t tell you the whole thing because it would take too long — leading me down the garden path asking wrong questions he came up to the table and pounded his fist in front of my nose.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because you were answering the wrong questions?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, I answered his questions, but they were —<\/p>\n

RUSH: The wrong questions.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — the wrong questions. And it went on for a whole hour until the licensing board caught it finally, and I sat there and laughed my ass off. (chuckles) But I\u2019ll tell you, it was an absolute disaster. <\/p>\n

RUSH: It still is. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: We got the same kind of thinking, stopping the building or expansion of refineries. Look it, it\u2019s very simple to see the people that demand us to be energy independent are the very ones standing in the way of it. It\u2019s just that simple. You know, you people, you go out there and you can change your lightbulbs all you want. (whispering) It ain\u2019t going to bring the price of gasoline down it\u2019s not going to save planet it\u2019s not going to do anything. You go out and drive your hybrids, fine and dandy. Feel good; be happy. Isn\u2019t going to make a difference on anything, Jack Spratt, it ain\u2019t going to make a difference. Do you people realize how close I have been to profanity today? <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Say, as long as we\u2019re talking about windfall profits — and, by the way, I understand that this is going to anger some of the supporters of this program, some of our good friends out there in farm country. But, you know, the corn farmers of this country, do you think they\u2019re experiencing windfall profits right now? Not only are the corn farmers experiencing windfall profits, they are getting subsidies! They are being subsidized while making windfall profits. Senator Schumer, should perhaps we have windfall profits taxes and gouging taxes on corn farmers? I\u2019ll tell you, Rachel Carson, the lunatic that succeeded in banning DDT led to the death of millions of Africans because of malaria. Fifty million people worldwide have died from malaria and other related diseases thanks to good old Rachel Carson, who\u2019s a Democrat liberal icon, for banning DDT. And, you know what? We\u2019re close to having people die from starvation around the world because of the cost of food. That\u2019s via ethanol, and that\u2019s via taking corn products and other agricultural products out of the food chain and converting them to energy, and then subsidize the people that do it. <\/p>\n

Now, I know every time I bring this up I get calls from Republicans in Iowa and other places who are in the corn business, and they say, ‘Do you understand where Republicans get their votes?\u2019 Yes, I understand that totally. But I just want to be consistent here. If we\u2019re going to have windfall profits taxes on Big Oil, let\u2019s have windfall profits taxes on Big Corn, because they\u2019re also being subsidized. By the way, you guys in the corn business, you know, Big Oil\u2019s prices have gone up and everybody\u2019s transportation costs are higher. I\u2019m sure chicken feed\u2019s not chicken feed anymore. Chicken feed\u2019s gone up, so it\u2019s costing you more to produce that corn. Then after the corn is produced, that\u2019s what makes chicken feed, a lot of other things, it\u2019s an endless cycle here. But with the subsidies that the corn farmers are getting, they may not notice the high transportation costs and fuel costs. I\u2019m not trying to make, seriously, those of you in the corn business mad. I\u2019m trying to illustrate a point here. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re targeting Big Oil because it\u2019s a favorite target of the Democrat Party. Those of you in Big Corn, don\u2019t think you\u2019re immune from this. If the Democrats, if the liberals in this country ever get it in their heads that there is a political gain to be made by demonizing you guys, they are going to do it. They demonize every successful capitalist enterprise in this country, from retail to Big Drug to Big Tobacco to Big Oil. You name it, they demonize it. If this were a sane political world the Democrats would not get more than ten or 15% — well, that\u2019s not true because, hell, half the country is dependent on them. That\u2019s the frustrating thing. I was going to use another word there. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Pat in Long Island. Pat, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello Rush, this is Pat.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m calling you because I have a wonderful article from 1918 from National Geographic talking about the world shortage of oil and how we were going to produce its replacement with shale.<\/p>\n

RUSH: 1918, huh?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Pat, can you tell me, when was oil discovered? People don\u2019t realize how really —<\/p>\n

CALLER: I know it was discovered in Pennsylvania in the 1840s or something.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s right. The oil business is still a new business.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s not old at all. This is why some people say, ‘How can oil be responsible for global warming, when we didn\u2019t bring it out of the ground at all \u2019til 1840?\u2019 We\u2019ve had ice ages. Hell, it\u2019s been so hot out there sometimes the polar bears are sweating, all without any oil coming out of the ground. Pat, I appreciate the call. I got time for one more before we have to go. It\u2019s in Manhattan. This is Ralph. Next up you are. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush, always a pleasure. Listen, you know what, I want to thank you personally for amping up your voice, because, you know what, people out there mistake anger for passion all the time. I got into a heated exchange on the same subject the other day. A guy was telling me the Republicans are to blame because they let the oil companies go unchecked and they let the speculators run wild. I told him, listen, besides not letting us drill, not letting us build nuclear power, not letting us build refineries, I said, how could you — and listen, I make $36,000 a year — I said, listen, how could you blame the Republicans? I said oversight is not the answer. They said, well, what about the speculators? And I said, is it any coincidence that oil prices went up after the Democrats took the House and Senate? Don\u2019t you think maybe the price of oil —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Since they don\u2019t like the speculators, let\u2019s start a new speculation market, and that is just how ruinous is the country going to become if Democrats are elected to the White House? Let\u2019s start speculating on that and sell prices on that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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