The point being if our demand on a global market is reduced because of increased domestic supplies, either the price will drop precipitously or OPEC will throttle back on their production levels, in order to maintain a steady price.
It really is not realistic to not be on that global market, unless we can be assured that we would be 100% self-sufficient for petroleum for a long, long time. Even if we were, it is not reasonable to assume that the oil companies would not control their production levels to assure that our domestic prices for crude oil would pretty closely track to the global price.
Remember, if we have a resource that we are hoarding, the rest of the world can punish us in other ways.
The primary advantages I see are twofold:
#1) We would be insulated from interruptions in supply as the result of hostile actions elsewhere in the world (embargo, war, terrorism, etc.). Our prices might rise, but at least the oil would flow.
#2) As balls pointed out in #13, the wealth would not be transferred overseas. As balls didn’t mention, though, it would be a huge cash cow to our federal and state balance sheets, from royalties paid on the production.
If OPEC throttled back on their oil to try to keep the price high, it would only mean more profit for America in return. Even if oil was higher, as long as it was less percentage of our GNP going out the door, we would be more competitive compared to other nations.
Now if we got serious, we could produce more oil than we use, and pay off our national debt, thereby reducing the tax burden on Americans by half.
Not producing oil at this point is pretty stupid, it does not take science to know that.
>>The primary advantages I see are twofold:
#1) We would be insulated from interruptions in supply as the result of hostile actions elsewhere in the world (embargo, war, terrorism, etc.). Our prices might rise, but at least the oil would flow.
#2) As balls pointed out in #13, the wealth would not be transferred overseas. As balls didn’t mention, though, it would be a huge cash cow to our federal and state balance sheets, from royalties paid on the production.<<
Good summary. I have another concern though.
When the leftists say that, if the federal drilling bans are lifted, it will take longer than we think to get oil to the market, they may be right, but not because we are being optimistic about new technology speeding up the process, but for reasons they don’t mention:
1) They will try to use leftist and RINO politicians to make it as difficult as they can. For example, even if California has the right to drill offshore, will the governor and legislature allow it?
2) The good old ACLU and their allies will file lawsuits which will delay, or maybe even stop, exploration and drilling both on land and offshore. Just the threat of lawsuits could cause an oil company to reconsider its business plans. We have already seen what happens when DHS tries to get employers to check immigration status.
The question is: Do the voters have enough good sense and determination to stop them? Given the number of rogue judges we already have, is it too late?