Bill Lear wrote:
It's clear you have no interest in discussing this fairly, nor
answering my very clear question, and are simply intent on smearing
Palast. I made no reference to a graph, merely to your accusation
that Palast was factually wrong in his assertion about the oil being
intended for California, now being shut off.
His assertion about the oil being undeliverable to California causing
the state to face a supply crisis at the very height of the summer
travel season is false. California is in a continual supply crisis,
every day, every moment, every year. The refineries have been running at
95% capacity for years. Prudhoe won't make a bit of difference, because
by winter, when that high-sulfur oil IS in demand, there will have been
time to find other supplies. The shortfalls in THAT supply, if there is
one, will impact other parts of the US more than California.
For example: In the 30 years I've lived in California, I have NEVER
turned a heater on.
Heating fuel costs affect some Californians in the North and Sierras,
but the WHOLE NORTH EAST COAST of the US is gonna eat it cost-wise.
Again, the statement that there will be a California summertime crisis
related to the Prudhoe shutdown is untrue. It is a falsehood.
But $2 a barrel is just the beginning of BP's shut-down bonus. The
Alaskan oil was destined for the California market which now faces a
supply crisis at the very height of the summer travel season. The big
winner is ARCO petroleum, the largest retailer in the Golden State.
ARCO is a 100%-owned subsidiary of � British Petroleum.
.
How exactly is ARCO the 'big winner' out of a rise in the price of high
sulfur fuels in the summertime when these types of fuel see their high
demand in the winter?
They aren't.
If he had written exactly the same thing in the autumn about heating
fuel shortages impacting Californians, or at any time, about the
increased cost of operating refrigerated trucks and rail boxcars causing
the price of food at the supermarket to increase, or Califonia's heavy
industry being threatened (Not likely, there isn't any here worth
talking about), I would not be critiquing his statement about it's
effects on California consumers, because he would be correct, but the
effect of the Prudhoe shutdown will have NO UNIQUE IMPACT on California
that is not felt by the rest of the U.S.
Ambiguous statements and half truths should set off the B.S. detector
if we wish ethical investigative journalism to flourish. Especially with
investigative journalism... The standards have to be impeccable. Get
your facts correct, and then present them in a way that furthers the
truth, not sensationalize them to enhance your carreer or keep the
secretarial staff at BBC whispering your name.
I wonder if the management people who got sacked at BBC a couple of
years back with much todo about it over their backing of the story on
the apparent non-suicide of Dr. David Kelly would have thought that Greg
Palast was a 'hire'?
Leigh
http://leighm.net/
