Posted on 09/02/2005 5:39:36 AM PDT by OESY
...Most of the focus in Katrina's wake has been on oil prices, one reason the Bush administration has waived some fuel emission standards and released oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But just as worrisome to America's economic health are rising natural gas prices. Even before Katrina, the Energy Information Administration was projecting natural gas prices of $10.50 per MMBtu. As recently as 1992, prices were about $3.50.
Fortunately, America has extraordinary reserves of natural gas located right off its coasts. Unfortunately, the environmental lobby has helped maintain a federal moratorium that puts 85% of what is known as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off-limits to oil and gas production. Now is the moment to reverse this policy, and the good news is that the groundwork has already been laid.
The recent energy bill included a provision requiring an official inventory of the OCS's assets. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander have also been pushing legislation....
According to the Minerals Management Service, the Gulf of Mexico alone is sitting on some 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, not to mention about 37 billion barrels of oil. Alaska has another 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 25 billion barrels of oil....
The benefits of this drilling would be widespread. Many Midwest manufacturers, such as fertilizer makers, have been hurt by the price surge in natural gas.... By diversifying supplies, we can also guard against a repeat of the Katrina disruptions, which are in part the result of having so much energy infrastructure in one region.
Environmentalists and their political allies will object. But extraction technology has improved enormously since Congress first imposed an annual drilling moratorium in 1981.... And each state can make up its own mind about... its off-shore resources....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
To a US Senator natural gas relief is spelled FART.
Democrats complaining about high energy prices have only themselves to blame for not passing energy legislation 5-10 years ago and for blocking conversion to nuclear energy, building of oil refineries, and drilling where the oil and natural gas fields are located. Instead, they would rather demagogue the issue. That what happens when a party is out of ideas and desperate to stop its decline.
Common sense from the WSJ which will be promptly ignored by congress.
Ditto on your thoughts BUMP!!
It is time we started telling those enviromentalist where they can go. They are a bunch of US hating socialist who want to take us back to the dark ages or be like those people in the mid-east.
The President should use Executive Authority to permanently erase years of environmental obstacles and red tape so that more nukes can be built, drilling in ANWR and offshore CA/FL, strategically located refineries and LNG terminals, wind farms (especially offshore), and increases in the CAFE standards.
The Federal Government should use thier authority to install refugee housing at decommissioned military bases and then to build refineries at those bases using labor from the refugee population -- 2 problems solved!
Not a bad idea.
No kidding. Considering that bean soup they eat in the Congressional cafeteria, it would make sense to install a pipeline from the Senate. Teddy could keep most of MA lit all by himself.
In the post Katrina world, we need to make some major changes. The recently passed Energy Bill is wholly insufficient. We need major domestic exploration, production, construction and expansion of the oil infrastructure. We can no longer afford to have the concentration of this infrastructure in one portion of the country. We need to drill off the coast of California, produce Shale oil and low sulfur coal, build Nuclear power production, and we needed these things now, not 10 years from now.
After the immediate needs of the Hurricane victims are met, the rebuilding efforts are going to be huge, energy needs and raw materials necessary for the reconstruction of the south will be a gigantic draw on the US economy. This ripple effect will upset the balance of energy usage for atleast the next couple years.
Sounds good...except what rational company would invest in such projects knowing that when a John Kerry kind of president is elected he will reverse the order and all their investment will be down the drain!
With the way COngress operates and the judicial control in the country, I expect very little will change in this country. Even if the government acted today, there would be so many environmental lawsuits and NIMBY lawsuits, it would take decades for things to get resolved. Like I mentioned on another thread, the politicians, voters, environmentalists and just about everyone in this country has not made infrastructure a priority and now this country is reaping what it has sowed. Sure, most people on this forum understand these issues, but the municipal, state and federal beaurocracies operate based on their own interests, politicians cater to the squeaky wheels, the courts tie things up because of lawsuits from a variety of political activists. The whole of the U.S. political and legal systems is a perfect blend of forces that are intent on maintaining status quo as the only compromise solution to the varying forces therein. Even the catastrophy of Katrina will not be enough to get people to realize building and maintaining a city below sea level is dangerous, that no new energy infrastructure in over 25 years is dangerous, and no exploitation of federal lands is foolish. This isn't the fault of W, or any one or two people. It is a general apathy that sits over every beaurocracy, legislature and municipal council in the Union.
If energy prices were brought down for the long-term and near independence from Middle East sources achieved, a John Kerry type would not likely be elected for decades to come.
Exactly correct!
And the ONLY thing that will change this is what we are (I believe) 6 months away from....B.I.T.S. and another American Revolution!
Only the total expunging of the entrenched and corrupt current crop of the Political Class will change this...and ensuring that we will never again have Professional Politicians! Term Limits that are Ammended in to the Constitution, and the severe curtailment of the Robed Nazgul that are the Judiciary...in fact making them responsible for their rulings and holding them accountable will do this.
It will not be easy, and there will be a LOT of rebuilding and casualties...but it is coming...and at a gallop now!
This is the money shot in this article. As long as states have control over offshore drilling, there won't be any more of it. The "no drilling" pledge is as important to politicians trying to get elected in California and Florida as the "no income tax" pledge is in New Hampshire. Even Jeb Bush felt forced to overrule the President on further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. George Deukmejian, no RINO, would not touch the issue of drilling off California. The enviros have done a massive and effective propaganda job in those two states so that even conservative voters will not vote for anyone who supports or even hints that the state ought to be studying offshore drilling.
This is where states' rights have to end. The nation needs energy and we need it NOW. Coastal areas shouodl not be under control of states. It is not right that people in the Midwest should freeze this winter or have their heating bills triple because Jeb Bush promised no more gas drilling 40 miles off the coast of Florida and the rich people in Malibu don't want their million dollar views spoiled by an oil rig.
A John Kerry type would lie through his teeth and then reverse them his first day, if not first hour, in office.
At which point, he would then add new restrictions unilaterally.
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