Posted on 05/27/2008 10:27:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
So if congress believes 70,000 BPD not going into the SPR is going to help up, how much help do they think 870,000 BPD would provide?
Good question. I must add that question to the ever growing list of questions that will NEVER be asked by a DBM reporter of a Congresscritter or presidential candidate.......
The lib mindset is the same, top to bottom. That is, incremental improvement isn’t tolerated. All or nothing.
At the bottom:
“That $10/hr job isn’t going to help me, so I’ll just sit here and whine about how little welfare pays me!”
At the top, (or higher up, anyway):
“Drilling ANWAR won’t solve the problem, in and of itself, therefore, it’s not worth doing.”
Or as Wasserman puts it:
“We can’t drill our way out of this!”
Morons all.
If the US increased the use of clean coal, nuclear and alternatives the 3 million barrels a day would actually reduce further the amount of petroleum imports. If we could get down to just 35-40% imports then we as a nation could select who we buy from based on their friendliness to the US.
Interesting that half of the 10year wait is due to bureaucracy. I’m sure we can cut that by 4yrs 6mos if we really wanted.
Just like I’m sure we could probably drill in the winter.
Given that we are an oil-poor country (only 2-3% of the world’s reserves) and that ANWR’s maximum production would have a negligible effect of oil prices, IMO the best way to look at ANWR is as the ultimate “strategic petroleum reserve”: better to pay the extra $.75, pump someone else’s easily extractable reserves dry, and leave this to our children and grandchildren as a backup for truly critical liquid petroleum needs.
Interesting that half of the 10year wait is due to bureaucracy. I’m sure we can cut that by 4yrs 6mos if we really wanted.
Just like I’m sure we could probably drill in the winter.
That is a very low number. If the US showed we were really serious about oil production in ANWR and in the Gulf, oil prices would plummet.
I think they have to do the drilling in the winter.
“That is a very low number. If the US showed we were really serious about oil production in ANWR and in the Gulf, oil prices would plummet.”
BINGO!
OPEC is a drug dealer, oil is the drug, we are the junkie. OPEC wants our habit to hurt us, but not kill us, or make us want to quit. OPEC watches us, and if it looks like we are moving toward viable alternatives, then OPEC drops the price. OPEC doesn’t want to have their best junkie weaning itself.
That’s why the shiek visiting Ecuador last week said OPEC wasn’t happy with gas prices. They truely aren’t. Not because they like us, but because they need us to stay hooked.
Perfect analogy.
How about a quick list...
It will need to be a multi-facetted action plan. It is a real crisis and it is in our faces and ignorant government policy and inaction let it happen. The real solution lies in attacking the problem from various directions. Allow me to provide details...
Explore and drill, east and west coasts and Alaska. And yes, that includes YOU Californians. You ain`t nothing special, except maybe "special-ed." Besides, you need the money because your state is going bankrupt from all the illegal aliens you won't get rid of.
Develop the rather massive oil reserves contained in the Bakken Formation
Build modern technology refineries
Build modern technology Nuke power plants
Build modern technology clean-coal power plants
Open the clean coal deposits Klinton “closed” which contains 62 BILLION tons of environmentally safe low-sulfur coal from the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah.
Slowly but steadily increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)
Tax breaks to companies developing bio-diesel techniques that create fuel from cheap waste.
Tax breaks and investment perks for moderate temperature geothermal ORC power plant technology that operates off industrial waste heat / geothermal applications to generate power directly and run at 90% efficiency, without impacting oil and gas production.
At 400kW per unit you just line up as many as you need for a small community. Quiet and extremely clean.
Just how can we do this the simple, easy, smart way? How do we get away from the ignorance of ethanol? And from CORN no less?
The President must lead.
If the President were to announce this program tomorrow and clearly state that due to the necessity of averting a disaster to the economy and a threat to National Security he will emplace Executive Orders that will not only immediately initialize this overall program but exempt it from excessive or unnecessary environmental regulatory agencies rules where do you think the hedge fund speculators will go, thus dropping the market price of crude by roughly 50 bucks?
They will go straight to that new market of energy production and the companies that will build it, the new technologies that will emerge, as a well functioning "new energy industry" SHOULD be that inviting. Not only will the price start to drop immediately, the very nature of new industry gains and emerging technologies will keep the price down. And, as always, when other nations began to utilize the new and more efficient (higher profit margin) techniques the overall demand will slow.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think we need to leave our reserves in the ground. We should squander all the rest of the world’s oil before tapping our own.
That has been proffered before, but a “reserve” is to be made available quickly. To even start drilling will require sever years of exploration. All that must be done in advance........
Most Alaskan North Slope Construction and exploratory drilling is already done in the winter.
I saw these stats & the graph about a week ago while doing some research on the issue. I came to the conclusion that we cannot pump enough oil domestically to meet current demand, and never will be able to.
The only way out of our current foreign oil dependency, and yet maintain our standard of living, is a comprehensive multi-faceted plan.
1. Drill everywhere now to soften economic impact of plan below.
2. Shift all electric generation to nuclear.
3. Build refineries capable of converting coal into gasoline.
4. As nukes come on line, shift coal production to conversion to gasoline in the liquification plants.
I think it is foolish to fund our enemies and give them the monetary resources to develop the next economical method of fuel. We didn't stop using sails and smokestacks on our ships because we run out of wind and coal.
While we do that, we'll be pumping our wealth to terrorist-funding states, who will be our undoing long before we get to the point of being able to use that untouched domestic oil.
From a global supply perspective, the more aggressive we initially appear, the more oil futures will pop. And if we follow thru to the actual drilling/refining part, we'll do ourselves and western civilization a favor to boot.
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