Drill for more oil (Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Tribune ^ | August 4, 2008 | staff

[kellynla]

If you could boil down the ideal U.S. energy policy to a few words it would be this: We have to stop buying foreign oil. U.S. dependence on it creates too much political, economic, environmental and national security vulnerability.

The nation needs to find alternatives.

Gasoline at $4 per gallon seems to be concentrating the mind on this. In April, 20 percent of the cars sold in the U.S. were compacts or subcompacts. The sales of gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles were down 25 percent. Higher gas prices have pushed more people to use public transit; the trains are packed.

The run-up in prices has also accelerated talk about alternative fuels. Those ideas have been percolating for years, though they got a welcome boost recently from oilman T. Boone Pickens, who is bankrolling a campaign to promote wind energy and substitute propane gas as a fuel for cars.

And then there's oil.

We can treat our oil addiction, but it's not going to disappear. U.S. consumption has started to ebb, but the U.S. still accounts for 24 percent of the 86 million barrels of oil consumed in the world every day. We buy about two-thirds of the oil we use from overseas. Much of it comes from lands that are engulfed in political turmoil.

It's critical to reduce the U.S. dependence on oil. But it's most critical to reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

[maryz]

I don’t know the Chicago Tribune — what’s their general stance? (I kind of assume they’re not a true moonbat paper, but chances are they’re liberal, at least compared to
FR!)

[combat_boots]

We have to drill for more oil? You mean we don't have to let the Communist Chinese drill for our oil, sideways into OUR OWN GULF COAST--just past our border? You mean we don't have to buy oil on the black market at Cuban/Venezuelan/OPEC prices? The US can produce its OWN OIL?

What a thought.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

And if $4/gal at the pump doesn’t concentrate the mind, ordering home heating oil in October at about $500/month ought to do it.
Draining the radiators and resorting to unsatisfying alternatives to oil is going to be happening in a lot of American homes this fall.

[steve-b]

Ultimately, the best reason for development of alternative fuels (and plastics recycling technology) is to depress the price of oil on the global market. When the main use Islamic Fundamentalist regimes have for their oil is to process it into KY Camel Lube, they’ll be a lot easier to manage.

[Squantos]

IMHO Per 1 million in population a nation should have;

1 nuclear power plant
1 refinery
1 desalination plant along coastal areas

Such cheap energy and water would free up present levels of oil used for other than transportation like heating oil etc . As well add the solar and wind systems and other greener ideas as they may fall after the fact .

Tighten the purse strings of national labs and other research facilities that get their funding from government energy grants until they actually produce a solution in the form of vehicles with better mpg ratings, systems that can actually USE the solar and wind generated power. Also go with more hydroelectric projects . Desalination along coastal areas would create such reservoirs that would allow such as a byproduct possibly.

But above all .....stop the reliance on foreign energy. Cheap energy IMO will bring prosperity to all in the US.

Just my opinion......nothing more.

[Vigilanteman]

They are liberal, not quite as bad as the Washington ComPost or New York Slimes, but they were the ones who ensured Obama would be handed his senate seat in 2004 by sliming his only viable opponent just a few months before the election.

[Obadiah]

So Republicans ought to quit trying to make the argument that a vote by Congress to expand drilling will have a quick effect on gas prices.

When have "Republicans" ever said this? Ever? Or is this a throw away line put in for bipartisan street cred?

[calex59]

How can we reduce our "dependence" on oil. It isn't as if oil is something we can do without, we can't. The only so called "cure" is to find alternatives but they won't come about anytime soon, so we must drill for our own oil and quit trying to limit the use of it, at the same time we give companies the go ahead to develop alternatives and remove any road blocks that would hamper that development(government regs, etc.)but we must not let the government drive the search for alternatives, that way lies failure and collapse of our economy.

When an alternative will make money that is when you will see it on the market.

Government interference is the reason we have Ethanol. Also, the reason for the idiot blends Gas companies have to come up with at different times of the year. Let the free market run and we will get our alternatives when they are financially viable, meanwhile we need oil.

[MrB]

I don’t know that any republican (politician) ever said this,

but it is true.

Even the hint of increased supply will drop the speculative price of oil.

[maryz]

Thanks! So this editorial would seem to be a sign that the more sane of the liberals are seeing the light anyway!

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" The nation needs to find alternatives. "
Our " Alternative Fuel source " should be, Drill on our own soil.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" And if $4/gal at the pump doesn’t concentrate the mind, ordering home heating oil in October at about $500/month ought to do it. Draining the radiators and resorting to unsatisfying alternatives to oil is going to be happening in a lot of American homes this fall. "

Yes, that may be true, but, in spite of this, women , children, and the elderly will be most effected.
There will be a lot of elderly people who are living on fixed incomes this winter will have to make a difficult decision this winter, either starve ( maybe this is the communist/socialist plan after all for population control ), or live in the cold.
The Democrats and Environmentalist are to blame.
The Dems excuse and blame ? " Blame it all on the greedy oil companies " ... however ?
How can you blame it on the greedy oil companies if we have not been able to build any new nuclear power plants in the last 30 years ?

[Impy]

Traditionaly a Republican paper. Been drifting left where it currently is. I’m shocked they’ve taking a conservative position.

[Condor51]

*** I don’t know the Chicago Tribune — what’s their general stance? (I kind of assume they’re not a true moonbat paper, but chances are they’re liberal, at least compared to FR!) ****

Well .. my family *had* a direct relationship to the Trib going back to the 1920's (no other paper was allowed in our house). It *was" a very conservative newspaper (ownership hated and I mean - HATED - FDR and his New Deal socialism). Now the editorial page still endorses Republicans (Dubya twice).

However the journalists and editors have went to the dark side, EXCEPT for John Kass. But I couldn't take it any longer and a few years back finally sold the last stocks our family had in Tribune Company.

The new owner Sam Zell is hard to peg. He is a real estate magnate in Chi and is for sure a capitalist but that's about all I know.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

What can we do? Simple.
1. Build smaller—gas sipping cars. The Brits had a Three wheeled car called a Morgan Supersport that had a two cylinder engine and could get 100 miles a gallon and not only that it was fast and fun to drive.
2. Build more electric cars for the day to day driving we all do—most don’t do 40 miles to go to work. The electric would be a second car. They could be made to look and drive well.
How to power them? See Number 3.
3. Build Nuke plants—in the European style as well as clean coal. Build 50 a year for the next ten years.
4. Rebuild the American Railroad system. Use illegal aliens, convicts, Chinese imported workers, what ever it takes to rebuild and establish a modern rail line with some high speed trains (like LA To Vegas—New York to Chicago— New York to Washington DC— etc. Some of these too could be electric.
5. Drill, Drill , Drill for Oil, natural gas, etc... Put everything on the table for drilling. What good will the National Parks be when the Red Chinese take over?
Those are my ideas—maybe you have some better ones.

[calex59]

Yes, I am all for building nukes to power electric cars because nothing less will do it. I actually don’t see a need for electric cars yet, as long as we drill. However, when the time comes when we will have to use them we will need lots of electricity to run them and the only viable solution are nukes. I also would like to see nukes powering desalinization plants on both coasts and on the gulf coast also. We need the water and there would never be a need for drought to affect us ever again. Drill, build nukes, build refineries to handle the increased amount of oil we would be seeing when we drill.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Those are my ideas—maybe you have some better ones.

Yup, some guy named Hussein Obama does, got an air gauge and tune up kit?