Posted on 10/15/2004 9:25:37 PM PDT by datura
Washington has a shortage of political will to let American workers go get it
By the House Committee on Resources
As oil prices climb to record highs above $50 per barrel, some have asserted that we are "running out" of this resource. In truth, we are not running out of oil in America. We can safely increase domestic production by at least 17.2 million barrels per day by 2030.
"America has no shortage of oil for the foreseeable future," House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) said. "Washington has a shortage of the political will required to let American workers go get it. We have not increased domestic supply in thirty years. As a result, our dependence on foreign oil has skyrocketed to the point where we are sending $200 billion dollars overseas to import this resource. At least a fraction of that sum should be spent at home, to increase supply, lower prices, and create jobs."
"Increasing conservation and the use of renewable and alternative fuels must also be part of a balanced energy plan," Pombo continued. "That is why more than one half of the domestic recommendations in the Administration's energy plan - held up in the Senate for the last four years - targeted these goals. But like it or not, the reality is that America runs on oil right now. We cannot conserve our way out of an empty tank of gas. We have to produce more at home, and there is plenty at home to produce."
By combining conservation efforts with additional domestic production, the United States can close the gap between supply and demand to become more energy efficient. With current production and proposed development in North America, the United States could increase its supply by 17.2 million barrels per day by 2030. Click here to see how.
"Contrary to the claims of special interest groups, we can produce more energy to grow our economy, and continue environmental achievements at the same time," Pombo said. "These efforts go hand in hand. They are not mutually exclusive."
"Secure and affordable energy supplies fuel our economy - they are its lifeblood. In turn, a strong economy fuels investment in the research and technology that give us the positive environmental trendlines we see today. We cannot have one, without the other."
Info ping
I guess on a public forum I'd better tell the truth.
As much as I hate to admit it, I stepped over that magic line of thirty on my birthday.
It sucks that my hair and my teeth are falling out prematurely.
There are a lot of folks who can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in America.
Well, there's a very simple answer... Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical. All our oil is in Alaska, Texas, California, and Oklahoma. Our dipsticks are in Washington, D.C.
The only thing that's cheaper in foreign drilling and production is the labor, and that's where the figures become skewed.
If you factor in the initial and ongoing cost of technology and expertise imported from the United States which were and are required to develop and maintain foreign reserves, we produce cheaper than anyplace in the world, and this is disregarding the cost of transportation of foreign oil to our shores.
In most oil producing areas of the world, if assistance from the United States was eliminated, their oil would cease to exist in a very short time - at any price.
We can't wake up one morning and say we're going to stop the importation of foreign oil by producing more of our own.
It would take years to develop the infrastructure necessary to increase our production to that extent, and this is not going to happen without a clear political mandate to explore our own resources.
One point I will concede:
We need more refineries.
I appreciate the opening remark. I guess some of you aren't able to disagree with someone without first making a condescending, pejorative remark. If you will read my posting carefully I started out by saying "I believe," which is an indicator I am not positive about what I am saying. And if you follow through on my posting you may also note I posed it almost like a question. I don't know all the answers to the problem. On the other hand, and I am still asking the question, is the only thing keeping us from producing more of our own oil the fact we are politically unwilling to drill in certain areas, or is it that the cost of drilling from older fields exceeds the value of oil on the world market, or is it both? I hear a lot of mixed information about what we have in Alaska, from an additional 10% of current production to almost a doubling.
People like the security blanket of having our Strategic Oil Reserve, even though it's been a financial boondoggle since it's inception.
Topped up, we would have enough oil in our SOR to continue life as we know it for ninety days if we cut off all foreign imports, and we are not topped up.
We are hanging out on a skinny, pecarious limb, and our politicians refuse to recognize that fact.
Definitely, the biggest obstacle facing us in becoming energy independent is the resistance of environazis to drilling in what they consider to be environmentally sensitive areas.
Are you aware that oil is self destructive?
Did you know that nature takes care of oil spills with enzymes in the oil which break it down and returns the contaminated area to it's original condition after a period of time?
Are you aware of the fact that the cleaners after the Exxon Valdez spill killed more critical life forms with the phosphates in the soap they were using to wash the birds than the oil would have killed?
I'm not trying to pin you down. I just wanted to throw those facts out for any environazis who might be lurking.
Depending on the fields in question, of course, but in some of the older fields we have depeleted the reservoirs, and the only way to generate more production is through secondary recovery methods of water or CO2 flooding, always remembering that this is a one shot deal.
Once all the recoverable oil is driven to the surrounding well bores, it's over, whereas if those same wells were allowed to produce naturally, even at a much lower rate, the oil that is by-passed with secondary recovery methods would be eventually recovered.
There is a lot of witch doctoring involved in secondary recovery. The investors want as much oil as quickly as possible creating a situation where the reservoir engineers try to walk a tight wire between making profit quickly and recovering as much oil as possible in the long run.
Although there are many opportunities for increased production through secondary recovery, our best option for becoming energy independent is to explore new areas which show promise from the seismic data, wherever they may be located.
Discussing the potential of any reservoir from seismic data is like discussing our jobless rate or the economic forecast of this country. It depends on which interpretation of the data is used.
Alaska is no different. We have the data which shows promise.
The only way we will know for sure is to drill it.
Sorry, I didn't mean to write a treatise.
We'll be rigging up on a new well in a week or so.
You keep climbing those stairs. You're going to need to climb the stairs up to the rig floor!
I've been looking for a pair of steel toed boots for you.
When I find them, you'll be ready to go to work!
You are preaching to the choir when you challenge the environmentalist. They aren't actually about saving the environment, they are about putting a lot of power in the hands of a few. It's about control, and they have discovered the easiest way to control is with fear. What could be more fearsome than suggesting the planet it going to fall apart from oil drilling, or landfills, or ozone, or name your poison of the day. To me this issue has nothing to do with the environment, it has to do with economics. If a free market dictates it makes sense to explore and drill for oil on American soil then we should be doing it. My only issue was if it was more economical to drill in the US, than to continue buying foreign oil. Apparently, it is, given the right political atmosphere.
How much you wanna bet we'll eventually let Mexican and Chinese workers go get it?
Your right the EPA is the biggest cultural marxist organization we have.
bookmark
Finally.....someone with real world data...thanks..
If the US relied only on Alaska oil - Prudhoe Bay and ANWR
combined - it would last for less than three month....fact!
What happens when the energy cost of pumping a barrel of oil equals the energy from the pumped barrel???????
True. That is the ultimate difference between liberalism and conservatism. Conservatism is a survival trait.
Alaska could supply oil for up to two years if product from NPR-A, ANWR, Prudhoe, and Kenai were combined. Three months is a little pessimistic. Of course, two years isn't all that much time either.
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I'll see that and raise you ten....Funny how Dutch Shell came right out a few months ago and said that they're pink slipping their exploration teams. Their statement basically said that they felt there were no more "Elephants" to find.
Natural gas is going south....The EIA has noted that domestic production will only increase by 0.5% in '04 and '05. There were an estimated 20,000 new wells in '03 and an expected 23,000 wells through '05. Read between the lines and it tells you that production is flat even with ALL THE NEW WELLS. That means the old wells are being sucked dry at an unpresidented rate... Watch the spot price for gas to hit $7.00 mcf next year.
Yes With oil that has different chemical make-up than the original stuff.
I saw some natural gas futures at $7 just a week ago. Prudhoe has tremendous natural gas reserves and the Natural Gas Pipeline is a major political issue in Alaska. All of that product would go to the Midwest, but it would take about 7 years from the time pipe is ordered until gas is flowing. They don't even have their permits secured at this time, a two-year process from whenever they start. That means we are minimum 9 years from Prudhoe Gas.
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