Posted on 07/19/2008 11:29:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
With oil prices hitting record highs, the question arises: Why aren't we drilling for more oil?
It seems simple. And yet, a Democrat-led Congress still opposes opening any new lands to drilling.
"We can't drill our way out of our problems" is a common mantra.
Polls show most Americans favoring opening federal lands and offshore areas to energy production. As it stands, 97% of our offshore areas and 94% of our federal lands are off limits.
President Bush raised the likelihood that that could change with his lifting of the federal moratorium on offshore drilling.
But he's been opposed by Congress, which argues it will simply take too long — as much as 10 years or more — for the new oil to come to market to do any good.
That doesn't appear to be true.
To begin with, industry analysts note, much of the drilling delay is self-inflicted — a result of excessively stringent environmental and land-use regulations.
Scrap those, or modify them, and new oil can be produced in far less than 10 years.
Producing oil from new sources has three stages, which can take years, notes Marilyn Crockett, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association in Anchorage. First, comes an environmental impact report, then bidding on leases and, finally, drilling.
The environmental impact statement alone can take two to three years. The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service manages those studies for federal offshore holdings, after input from local, state and environmental groups, according to spokeswoman Robin Cacy.
After that comes bidding.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I invested in a drilling well, and it took about one year for it to produce.
Ping.
If you are an ignorant Democrat, devoid of any science, math or engineering knowledge yes.
Rats are the low end of the American productive engine. They have lawyers and socialogists and teachers and other such groups that ride the bus but have no clue as to how to make it run. The illiteria in the Rat house are screwing around under the hood but can’t really tell what they are doing.
Generally speaking, we don't drill for oil at all. Those in the oil business drill for oil.
How is that possible? The liberals keep telling us it will take eight to fourteen years before the first drop of oil reaches the pipes. /sarcasm
This from the same fools who believe we can tax ourselves into prosperity.
According to Democrats, $4.00 or more for gas isn't a problem.
they claim it is he refining process that takes that long, but I still don’t believe it.
That is an interesting question. Like how long it takes for a chewed up squirrel to pass through a dog.
Can the Democrats’ constituents persuade them to do the right thing and take advantage of America's vast sources of coal, oil, and gas? If they do you can be sure that ever delay tacit available will be employed to justify their dire prediction.
probably 24 hours, sarc.
Let Daniel Day Lewis (”There Will Be Blood”) do it. He seemed to be able to get oil in about 2 minutes.
She'll play 'chicken' with the spineless RINOs, and win -- my fearless forecast.
I should LOVE to be wrong here.
then why do we have such a problem? sarc
Longer, once the liberals throw up even more roadblock in order to force us to use less oil.
Dear Senator Brown,
Instead of repeating the liberal talking points on oil why don't you think out of the box a bit. If there are almost 100 million acres presently available to drill, but the key reserves are on other lands why not trade the leases acre for acre, in that way your still get to please the environmentalists by protecting land.
Why not enact laws requiring that all oil found on federal lands only be used in the United States. Why not put a time limit on the leases, produce it or lose it.
Since the Federal government get 25% of the revenues off all oil pulled from the ground on Federal land take 10% of the revenues out of the Federal share and 10% of the oil companies share and ear mark it for alternative energy research.
The minute that our government announced the opening up of ANWR, the coastal areas, the Bakken fields and other areas speculators would be insane to bid up the price of oil futures. Shell oil says they have the process to extract oil from shale, we have enough oil in this form then all of the Saudi resverves.
I disagree with you assesment of how long it would take to bring oil to market, in fact the argument is so weak you should be ashamed to write it down. Using the same logic someone that is 40 years old shouldn't bother saving for retirement or parents shouldn't save for college for their kids, because you will only have 20 years so why bother. The previous adminstration said the exact same thing, why bother drilling it will take 10 years, that was more than ten years ago.
The American people are growing restless with $4.00 gas and with an election in the near future anyone who is not proposing way to produce more oil will be a very visible target. This nation runs on oil for better or worse the leaders of your party promised to reduce the price at the pump when they took over the congress, as of now it is a promise unkept.
PS I didn't even get around to asking why the congress isn't fast tracking nuclear power plants!
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