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On OffShore Oil, Obama Offers the Audacity of Ignorance ( Deroy Murdock )
humanevents.com ^ | 08/08/2008 | Deroy Murdock

Posted on 08/08/2008 5:40:37 AM PDT by kellynla

To plan a long and challenging journey, would you reject Mapquest and GPS and only consult an atlas from the 1970s? Unlikely. But to pinpoint America’s offshore oil deposits, Congressional Democrats, starting with Senator Barack Obama, love disco-era maps. Despite his conditional, latter-day support for limited offshore drilling, Obama is the sole sponsor of legislation that would block geological research to locate offshore oil.

Federal officials currently employ estimates based primarily on two-dimensional maps that oil-industry surveyors produced in the 1970s and furnished to the Interior Department. Since 1981, Congressional appropriations amendments effectively have barred Interior from financing or permitting survey expeditions.

In 2005, Congress mandated new, quintennial inventories, then gave Interior six months and $0.00 to assess how much oil and natural gas undergird the 1.76 billion-acre Outer Continental Shelf -- a laughably impossible task.

“They couldn’t even board a research vessel,” explains a congressional staffer who studies these issues. Interior’s “paper inventory,” the aide adds, “examined Canadian and West African coastal data, imagined where those sediments pooled before the Continental Drift, then extrapolated to guesstimate what’s off our Atlantic coast today.”

The resulting document states: “Resource estimates are highly dependent on the current knowledge base, which has not been updated in 20 to 40 years for areas under congressional moratorium…” Translation: “We have no idea what’s really out there.”

Obama’s “Oil SENSE Act” would repeal the 2005 Energy Policy Act’s authorization of these inventories. S.115 would leave decision makers with Carter Administration maps drawn with pre-PC technology. This is like engineering a Space Shuttle mission with slide rules.

(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; democrats; drillheredrillnow; drilling; elections; energy; obama; obamatruthfile; offshoredrilling; oil; politics

1 posted on 08/08/2008 5:40:37 AM PDT by kellynla
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To: kellynla

We may not know how much or where our Oil is, but our tires are inflated to the proper level.
If you like $4/gal, Thank Congress in Nov.

Pray for W and Our Troops


2 posted on 08/08/2008 5:43:29 AM PDT by bray (Drill Congress!!)
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To: kellynla

I’m looking forward to Freep’s photoshoppers doing a number on “The Audacity of Ignorance”

:-)


3 posted on 08/08/2008 5:50:05 AM PDT by Canedawg
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To: kellynla
A geophysicist who I work with did the seismic survey in the ANWR back in the 1980s and he knows exactly how outdated those surveys are in terms of seismic technology and imaging today verses back then. It's the difference between looking through a coke bottle bottom and a microscope today.

He estimates that the original estimate of 10-16 billion barrels in the ANWR is most likely 4-5 times that amount. Oil is literally seeping out of the ground up there and in some areas it is producing smoke coming from the ground due to internal pressures and heat.

The ANWR needs a good 3D seismic survey performed today.

4 posted on 08/08/2008 5:55:16 AM PDT by avacado
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To: kellynla
I made this graph. Says it all.


5 posted on 08/08/2008 5:56:13 AM PDT by atomicweeder
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To: atomicweeder

We need a vote
Nazi Pelosi AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

We need emergency session
President Bush comments@whitehouse.gov
202-456-1111

John Boehner invited McCain to join them
McCain needs to get to Washington where he belongs
It will bring the much needed media attention
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/


6 posted on 08/08/2008 5:56:56 AM PDT by mouse1 (GO JOHNNY GO!!)
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To: kellynla

“In 2005, Congress mandated new, quintennial inventories, then gave Interior six months and $0.00 to assess how much oil and natural gas undergird the 1.76 billion-acre Outer Continental Shelf — a laughably impossible task.”

This is dreadfully stupid on so many levels, one hardly knows where to begin!

It would be interesting to find out how much money the Pelosi/Reid Congress gave ‘Big Green’ last year for comparison.


7 posted on 08/08/2008 5:59:23 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
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To: penelopesire

But, but, but....

I thought Cheney and Bush were Big Oil! Why don’t they know where the oil is?! Oh, I know! They do know where it is, but they are keeping it from Americans because they like the high prices for their Saudi friends!!

/sarc


8 posted on 08/08/2008 6:14:36 AM PDT by maica (Peace is the Aftermath of Victory)
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To: maica

You definately know the moonbat vocabulary....lol


9 posted on 08/08/2008 6:26:48 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
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To: kellynla

The Democrats’ policies will only make the price of gasoline go up. They plan to limit the resource to force acceptance of “alternative energy”.


10 posted on 08/08/2008 6:30:19 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: kellynla

Not God, but Obama ‘damning America’ to 40 year old technology simply to appease the environuts.

Read the whole thing, copy it or attach to an email to all your friends.


11 posted on 08/08/2008 8:36:13 AM PDT by wildbill
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To: atomicweeder
Marking to grab later when I'm home!!

(thanks)

12 posted on 08/08/2008 9:22:14 AM PDT by the anti-liberal
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To: Canedawg

13 posted on 08/08/2008 9:45:45 AM PDT by PsyOp (Truth in itself is rarely sufficient to make men act. - Clauswitz, On War, 1832.)
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To: kellynla
"Obama is the sole sponsor of legislation that would block geological research to locate offshore oil."

"Naturally, it's hard for Big Oil to generate more petroleum when they cannot open new refineries, develop the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, broaden offshore production, nor even modernize their underwater maps. This is like screaming at Mom because dinner is late - while blocking the kitchen door."

In the meantime:

Brazil's Petrobras finds more light crude offshore (Brazil-Oil)

"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil. Brazil's state-run oil company announced a new deep-water discovery of light crude in the Santos Basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, extending a string of offshore finds that could transform Brazil into a world oil power.

The newly discovered field lies about 230 kilometres offshore from Rio de Janeiro in pre-salt reservoirs about 1.4 miles 2.2 kilometres below sea level and contains 30-degree API light crude, which means it is easier to refine than heavier oil, Petroleos Brasileiro SA said late Thursday."

=====

Who knows how much oil we would find offshore, if we would be allowed to look for it.

14 posted on 08/08/2008 7:27:24 PM PDT by FocusNexus ("Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." -- Vince Lombardi)
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