(Photo of offshore oil platform from Flickr and photographer absolutwade/Beau Wade)
Washington Report: Big Oil has won, at least for now. After spending millions on lobbying, and taking advantage of the rise in gas prices to win over two powerful advocates, President Bush and John McCain, it has two-thirds of the country believing we need to drill offshore – and drill now. Not to mention those omnipresent American Petroleum Institute ads of an annoying woman of indeterminate age in a black pantsuit who strides across the U.S. map as if she owns it, telling us Congress has put most of the oil reserves in the U.S. off bounds. Well, they aren’t anymore. For the first time in 26 years, Congress has let the moratorium on offshore drilling expire. Starting Oct. 1 oil rigs technically could spring up just 3 miles offshore, except within 150 miles of Florida’s Gulf Coast, which was placed off-limits by a 2006 law. Also gone is the ban on oil shale in the West. It’s a huge step backward for the environment and a win for fossil fuels. Not satisfied, some lawmakers continue to push their drilling agendas. Republicans want to give the states a portion of the royalties (which some gulf states had and lost) and speed up leasing and permitting. Democrats from Massachusetts want to make sure to protect the Georges Bank fishing grounds (“shellfish, not Shell Oil”) and national marine sanctuaries from drilling. A new president and Congress could reinstate the ban. (E&E News PM)
32 comments:
Hurray! The PEOPLE have won this round (or, have they?). Reed is still slithering around looking to promote destructive mischief.
The next front on the battleground is the parasitic enviro-lawyers funded by the politically (and/or generally) naïve.
Do they not realize that this will not increase local oil supplies for many years? Offshore ban was enacted for very good reasons. It is time for us to pursue alternative energy production instead.
People have been fooled into thinking that gas prices will go down because of this. They don't realize they've been fooled. The lobbiests have payed of the Republicans, and they scared the public.
At current oil prices, the cost of gas was less than 2 dollars a gallon when prices were increaseing. why arn't they two dollars now? beause the oil companies are not lowering prices. This has nothing to do with supply. It has to do with payoffs and greed.
Stephanie,
1) Many years? Jay Leno commented on that.
2) The offshore ban resulted from a single spill that happened decades ago (1969) in an area (Santa Barbara) where Mother Nature contributes FAR more petroleum products into the marine environment every year than that spill ever did.
Rational environmentalists KNOW that MORE offshore drilling in the Santa Barbara area, like ALL such areas, would be GOOD for the environment!
Today, the technology is such that offshore rigs routinely endure major hurricanes with NO environmental damage!
Find the objective and quantitative facts here.
3) Alternative energy? Like wind? Like Ethanol? Educate yourself! Start here.
PrimalNation,
Try taking an economics class. These are the facts on what drove gasoline prices up (and then back down). If you want to pay $10 for a gallon of gas, continue to place your faith in Democrats.
The U.K. has been paying much higher gas prices than the US is, even at this time, paying a conversion of roughly $7/g.
This drilling will not help us. It will give us a few more years worth of oil, but will result in using up what little we have left. We're trying to avoid the inevitable, people just don't want to accept the truth.
Alternative, renewable, energies are the only thing that can truly save us right now. We should not be putting our money into drilling for more oil, we should be trying to find the technology for something that won't run out in a decade or so.
god fucking damnit
SBVOR: I would just like to point out that you are a ignorant moron. Please refrain from posting your opinions. Oh and do call me in 70 years when the Oil is gone.
It was going to eventually happen. Oil will be used until a cheaper or at least as cheap alternative fuel arises.
You need to think before you post. This is a great thing! Sure it won't solve our problem, but every little bit helps. I don't understand why they entire world can drill when and where they want, but we have to be the most PC country in the world. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
"Every little bit helps," but every little bit is a new chance for environmental catastrophe.
We're talking 1.8 percent of U.S. demand by the time those rigs come online, and by then internal combustion engines should be obsolete. This is the height of shortsighted stupidity.
Interesting, too, that the same companies that control gas prices can use them as an argument for more drilling.
Oil is still necessary for almost every mode of transportation and is going to have to stay that way for a long time.
Yes, we need to create better forms of energy, but you have to understand that until it becomes affordable, we have to continue to rely upon oil for our energy.
We need to get off of our dependence of foreign oil if oil prices are to come down. Gasoline prices will also drop.
Understand four things:
1) Private enterprise will, in a few decades, move us beyond petroleum for transportation. But, as the Ethanol debacle proves, we will get viable solutions ONLY if government bureaucrats refrain from artificially selecting winners and losers through subsidies, tax credits, taxes, etc.
2) We will need oil for a WIDE variety of products LONG after we move beyond petroleum for transportation.
3) The USA has, as a mean estimate, more than 5.5 times as much oil (and oil equivalents) as the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
4) “Peak Oil” is real, but not eminent (and, that analysis does NOT include either Coal Liquefaction or Oil Shale).
What about refineries?
sbvor, you are a complete clown and an idiot.
Oil is controlled by the few, profitted by the few, enslaving the many.
Alternative energies gives us choices and knowledge.
We also create a sustainable way of life.
SBVOR, the PEOPLE have not won this round. The OIL companies have won this round.
Your ignorance of the situation is insane.
Now that China and India will use more OIL than the US, what will you do now? Bomb them? Where will the oil come from when we start run out?
Educate yourself SBCLOWN.
www.zeitgeistmovie.com
SBVOR: Nature contributes petroleum products into the marine environment? Sure, I can see pockets of oil leaking into the sea. However, since when does nature burn billions of barrels of oil per day?
As for alternative energy, you would pick two of the worst sources of alternative energy. Do not forget solar, or even nuclear energy. If we could find some safe process for either reusing or disposing of spent nuclear fuel, I'm sure you'll find many people would be happy driving electric cars charged with energy generated by nuclear power plants.
"Continue to place your faith in Democrats"? Way to play party politics! For all of your blubbering, do you actually think for yourself? Or do you not listen to someone unless they're wearing an elephant pin somewhere? Lets play party politics then: We have suffered under the last 12 years of a Republican Congress, and did not finally get a reprieve until last year. For six of the last eight years, we have been subject to a lethal combination of a Republican Congress and Republican White House. Thanks to that combination, we now have a boatload of Republicans shoehorned into the Judicial branch. As a result, it has been reported that your party affiliation, or suspicion thereof, is now considered in determining your continued employment with the Department of Justice, which is great. There is nothing better than when a purposefully neutral party chooses a side.
All of that being said, we now pay $3.50 to $4.00 dollars a gallon for gasoline. Previous to George W. Bush's administration, the average price for a gallon of gas was $1.50 from 1980 to 2000. That 20 years of price stability went out the window when George W. Bush took office. Oil prices have doubled, we've gone to war with Iraq when the majority of our troops should have been chasing down Osama, and now we are on the brink of a second Great Depression.
Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about cheating on his wife. George W. Bush has not been impeached for running the United States into the ground and urinating on the remains. What this moron of a President has done to our country is just plain criminal; a Federal Enron, as it were.
If the Republicans represent all that is good and moral in this country, at this point I'd rather let the heathen Democrats take another stab. Hell, bring back Clinton, Bush Sr. or Reagan. At this point a junior college graduate would be better than Dubya.
yay cause oil goes in my minivan!!1
You liberal wine bags make me sick.
LOL, the big question is WILL it lower prices at the pump? I doubt it!
Jiff
www.privacy.es.tc
"If you want to pay $10 for a gallon of gas, continue to place your faith in Democrats."
This isnt about the partys, stop bringing it down to that level.
It has been shown offshore drilling will only produce at MAX 200,000 barrels.
"Even by 2030, offshore drilling would not have a significant impact on oil prices, according to Martin, because oil prices are determined on the global market. "The amount of total production anticipated—around 200,000 barrels a day—would be less than 1 percent of the total projected international consumption."
Page 2. Read your facts. REMEMBER THEM. Stop making shit up.
This is a good thing. Do you realize how may people are employed by the oil and gas industry? With increased drilling comes increased job opertunities. This will pull more students into math and sciences because there will be more demand for geologists and engineers.
I always thought more jobs would be good for the country. Does anyone agree with that?
This is all well and good but they're not going to drill more anyway. They have millions of acres already they can drill on, but they don't. And why don't they, they already have a blank check what's the point of pumping more oil and selling it cheaper? Not to mention all the upfront cost and liability.
Anonymous (11:45 AM)
You are touting the long ago debunked and abandoned “Use it or Lose it” tactic.
If you are going to rely upon dishonest rhetoric at least get current.
And - Take an economics class!
Drop the emotional rhetoric and examine the quantitative facts.
1) Click here to review the quantitative facts on the sources of the “Total Amounts of Petroleum Inputs in The Worldwide Marine Environment”. Click here to view the page that chart came from.
2) Of all the dishonest arguments against domestic drilling, the argument that we don’t have enough to matter is the most dishonest of all (with the possible exception of claiming “this is not about the [political] partys”).
A) This chart, which I created, demonstrates that ANWR alone is estimated to increase our domestic proven reserves by a whopping 48%. The sources are cited. Verify them yourself.
B) Again, start here to understand ANWR and follow all the links to understand all the rest.
C) This chart, which I created, gives perspective on the contributions of ANWR and OCS. Each source is listed on the chart. Check it yourself.
D) This post gives perspective on a broader range of domestic hydrocarbon resources and addresses virtually every concern expressed by anybody.
E) This post exposes the dishonesty of the T. Boone Pickens TV ad.
Not to worry about the environment mates. The folks in Georgia are already getting a big jump on the green movement. They have no gas at some of their stations, and everyone seems to really be enjoying it. Bring on the drilling ban, and soon the whole country can enjoy the same benefits.
Some of the Georgia joy, from CNN:
"Hello. I am a correspondent with CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. My family and I are also residents of Atlanta, Georgia. My question for you: Are Atlanta and nearby regional cities such as Charlotte and Nashville part of America?
The reason I ask is this: We have almost no gasoline, while almost all other cities in the United States have all the gasoline they want.
We are spending hours cruising the streets and highways looking for gas. Only a small percentage of stations have fuel and you never know who will have it."
Bring on the drilling ban!
Anonymous,
Your point is reasonable in that if we do not step up domestic production, Georgia IS a vision of our future where we either pay MUCH higher prices or we have no gas when we really need it.
But, the shortages in Atlanta, Georgia are also a lesson in the folly of price controls.
Gasoline supply was diminished by virtue of refineries getting shut down by hurricane Ike. But, it was politicians forbidding what they call “gouging” that resulted in no gas to be found.
Had the politicians allowed prices to rise in response to the diminished supply, people would have paid more, consumed less and been able to find gas when they really needed it.
But, demonizing the “gougers” is always much more emotionally satisfying than explaining economics 101. And, the politicians know that CNN will NEVER cause the politicians to have to take responsibility for their economic follies.
Sbvor your links are complete crap. The one that shows the world oil reserves doesn't show Saudia Arabia, Iran or Canada's oil reserves which just happen to be 1, 2, and 3 in the world oil reserves.
Anonymous,
Lie much? Troll much?
See the link in section 2.D of this comment (time stamped 1:56)
If every chart showed every entry, perspective would be lost, not gained. The point is that:
1) ANWR alone is estimated to have almost as much oil as the entire proven reserves of Brazil.
2) ANWR alone is estimated to boost our proven reserves by 48%.
3) The combined mean estimates of our proven reserves, ANWR and OCS give us more oil than Iraq.
4) Add ANWR, OCS, Coal Liquefaction and Oil Shale to our proven reserves and we have more than FIVE TIMES as much oil and oil equivalents as Saudi Arabia!
Everything is documented and substantiated in the previous link.
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