House Republicans Block Democratic Effort on Oil Leases, Calling the Bill a Sham

except 26 of those votes came from “republicans”

Do we know their names yet?

The Democrats want the oil companies to drill for oil where there is no oil - Republicans want to drill for oil where there is oil.

To be fair, I think much of those existing leases has oil -- the companies file proved reserves with the FEC in order to be able to trade them on the commodities market. Now, there may be issues of cost-effectiveness, depending on the nature of the deposit, but "proved reserves" means 90% is certified to be there and technically recoverable. I think I do have a problem with trading oil that can't be feasably drilled -- if you can't make a profit actually drilling it at $140, how can you sell it on the commodities market? I wouldn't object to a required delivery deadline for oil traded on commodities -- say, five or ten years, or a mandatory buy-back by the seller. I don't think trading oil that's not being drilled is necessarily helping the price.

The Republicans didn’t block anything, they assured the current “use it or lose it” law stays on the book. I guarantee that no oil company is sitting on areas that contain oil worth getting at $140 a barrel.

“The environmentalists seem to think that drilling for oil is evil. To them, it represents despoiling or raping Mother Earth. That is why they are so irrational about it.”

The Liberals simply want to destroy our country and the fact that they, too, live in it seems not to have occurred to them.

As for being irrational - well, they’re irrational about EVERYTHING. That’s the way their teeny little minds work. If there’s a fact out there, it has to first make its way past the stupid filter they have built into their brains, and then somehow sneak past the Bush Derangement Filter, The Environment-is-God filter, and the “we-can-do-whatever-we-WANT-how-DARE-you-tell-us-what-to-do-WAAAAHHHH!” roadblock. In short, not a chance.

The only thing that can be done with them is to vote them out of office at every level possible, make sure they have no political voice ever again anywhere, impeach the infected scores of Liberal judges, and clear out the school system — oh, yeah... and get them out of the Republican party, too.

Thanks Ernest.

Opponents said the legislation... would bar oil companies from obtaining new leases if they were not actively exploring current holdings. Republicans said companies might be reluctant to bid on new sites they could then lose if they were seen as not moving fast enough. The White House expressed a similar view in issuing a veto threat against the bill. "By blocking some firms from competing for new leases, this legislation would further increase gasoline prices that already exceed $4 per gallon and result in unintended consequences due to litigation," the White House said.

The Demwits want to favor foreign companies, specifically, their terrorist-state allies from OPEC, in the development of US resources.

[Fight until we win on this - because we are right.]

We are always right.

I think I do have a problem with trading oil that can't be feasably drilled -- if you can't make a profit actually drilling it at $140, how can you sell it on the commodities market?

Oil just recently passed $100/bbl. The companies may have sunk enough exploratory wells to estimate the reserves, and the oil may now be cost-effective to recover, but just about every drilling rig in the world is booked at the moment.

What this boils down to is the battle between the global warming crowd who will come up with reason after reason to not drill and those who actually want to do something long-term to help provide energy from that evil petroleum.

Thank you for that link; it answered the question nicely.

I watched the whole debate on the floor of the HR last night via. CSPAN. Most all the demowits said was pure hyperbole and mostly simply horse droppings. Each one would get up and repeat the same dry party line they are instructed to say. The the Republicans would counter over an over again that most of the 25 pilot drills and old seismic studies indicate there simply is not the easy to get at oil some would have one believe. And the point was made there is no oil/gas pipeline grids in place, so in essence the oil companies would have to spend a lot of money to construct these within the NPR. So if one could even find easy large quantities to extract, one cannot distribute the stuff down to the lower 48 refineries. The dopes would again have the floor and repeat like parrots, the same crap how Bush has screwed things up and that the oil companies where sitting on all kind of oil. The Repubs again would try to reason, that many of the leases simply filled the Feds with lots of money for the leases that proved not to be worth spending money on attempts at finding oil. It went back and forth until finally moron Pelosi had the final say as how terrible GWB is, and of course she just repeated as most of them did, false and misleading information. It was a total wasted 1:20 hour of time, but I felt obligated to see it through. At least I did not barf all over my monitor while viewing her stupid face in those last ten minutes.
I wonder what percentage of American voters, or for that matter anyone around the globe old enough to perhaps think a little bit, ever consider the statements of how GWB is supposedly beholden to the oil companies and never give thought as how the Democratic party at large for the past thirty years or so have been beholden to the many environmental groups.
Surely the French for one must see where those that so appose nuclear power should recognize their nation's electrical grid depends on nuclear power for it's very existence.
After watching this charade, I am at least glad to see the demowits where defeated in their attempt to further cripple plans to slowly get us back on the right track.
As the price of oil and by association gasoline prices drop, surely more people will see the virtues of the US and Canada and Mexico having a close bond in keeping the oil and gas in these three countries for their citizens.
And not to forget.
Finally new figures for potential oil extraction for ANWAR where finally made clear during this debate. Think a pretty firm estimate of 10 billion barrels for ANWAR against a more then speculative (1980 seismology estimates) 10.4 Billion for the NPR.
It was actually brough out more then once during the debate. And the Democrates where the ones to actually admit it, with the argument that why drill in ANWAR that they feel is a wonderful national wildlife preserve (snicker... the dopes), verse drilling in the NPR with a few hundred million extra potential barrels to offer.
But again. It was made clear no pipeline networks are in place for either gas or oil in the NPR to link it fully up with the main pipe lines going down to the lower 48.
Every attempt the demowits made that was along the line of supposed clear thinking was countered effectively by the other side IMHO.
I sense with no dramatics intentions, that the tide may slowly changing to the favor of more clear thinking congressional leadership that are now learning a bit of what is really at stake. The politics grow old. To many people are starting to get informed. And to boot more folks are starting to realize what a sham the global warming issue really is. So if oil refineries are not responsible for pumping supposed carbon into the air why not allow new plants to be constructed to refine our oil into gasoline and the other many fractions that we need for industrial processes etc., to turn into the thousands of things we depend on from oil.
Maybe there really is some hope on the horizon that the American voter is starting to see we need lots of our own oil and gas and of course the continued supplies from Mexico and Canada, and tell the ME go to hell.
Let the US set it's own price guide lines on our oil and it's derivatives, based on only supply and demand.
Lastly. Pelosi the moron also made the point of why could we not release at least some of the SPR, to reduce the price of gas that would take place some ten days after the fact!
I don't know who is feeding her all the bullshit, but she is a sucker for bad information. It seems to be her make up. Stupid at best.
Anyway. She thinks it would drop the price at the pumps for gasoline. But NO. If we where to extract oil from ANWAR it would at best only make a few cent change on gasoline prices. They so double talk, some times it is hard to catch every one of their stupid statements.