It is a bone to the lawyer lobby. Just think of all the lawsuits now.

Actually, it really won't do much until the platforms are built, holes drilled and oil pumping which will take several years at the minimum. Some of my family members are life-long oil workers, one of whom works on the Terra Nova offshore oil platform here in Canada, and it takes a loooong time and a lot of work to turn up one of these operations properly and safely (in regards to safety, offshore rigs have so many safety rules and regs that if they were to actually follow all of them they would never get around to actually pumping any oil, go figure)

There is a good reason why the areas protected under this ban have been left alone. It's such a good reason that Bush Sr. was against it too- these areas are the "oh shit" reserve, like a secondary emergency gas tank you can switch over to if you find yourself running on fumes with 30 miles to the nearest town.

Basically, there's a big invisible dome hanging over these parts that says "do not break glass except in case of emergency"

A major war or environmental cataclysm qualifies as an emergency. A significant drop in oil production, or demand that significantly surpasses that production to the point that basic infrastructure is threatened would also qualify.

The price of a barrel of oil rising artificially due to massive speculation on the part of major banks and various international investors does not qualify as the kind of emergency that warrants tapping these areas.

Since the problem has nothing to do with the supply and production of oil, increasing it will only affect prices marginally.

Furthermore, what Bush is doing is simply the laziest, easiest option he can take. Rather than looking at alternatives, or clamping down on the mafia class investors and ban this kind of speculation, he's already decided he's going to squander these last reserves when there's not even an emergency that would justify doing such a thing!

He's decided to reach into the cookie jar and use all your "rainy day" money because there's a few clouds on the horizon and he's too lazy to reign in the harmful practices of some of the family members!

Oh please.  There is no reason we should not be drilling for all our own resources.  You are right, it might take years, but it should have done years ago, but never was approved.  Just think of all the time wasted by excuses and BS claims.

To develop and use any real of this so-called alternatives, will take even longer, decades at best.  It's time to start drilling.

Right......

Aside from that being BS, having energy prices so high, and the threat of Iran making it worse, I would say this qualifies as an emergency.

 

Maybe we should just sit back and let China do all the drilling instead?

Works for the loonies - at least the US is not poluting, and every one knows American polution is a thousand times worse than anyone elses. Even our shit stinks - but no one elses does.

Actually that isn't quite the case.

1) We eventually will have to go to alternative methods regardless, as the supply of oil is finite. The sooner we do, the more we lessen our dependence on oil entirely and the better of we'll be, and the longer we can stretch existing supplies. So, spending billions to turn up new offshore oil operations in order to provide a few more extra years of oil, after which we'll have to go to alternative energy sources anyway, is only prolonging the inevitable at great cost.

2) These alternatives are already developed and in use. In fact, by 2010 there will be 100% electric cars on the market that cost in the ball park of 30 K. If you don't believe me, check this out-

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145876

In the above article the owner of Tesla Motors explains that with one solar panel on your roof you'll be able to get enough electricity to run your car between 200-400 miles per week (depending on where you live and how much light you get is why there is such a big swing) but regardless that's a cost that'll easily more than pay for itself when you compare it to the gouging you're getting at the pump right now.

And this is just one small company. GM is also working on their Volt, for which please kindly check this out-

http://gm-volt.com/about/

As well, here in Canada Hydro-Quebec is currently working on a project to produce thousands of megawatts of power from windfarms, that several major engineering firms are currently bidding on (I believe)



The U.S is not in any declared state of war with any other nation states right now. The "war on terrror" I'm afraid doesn't count as that is a vague, abstract declaration of war against a concept. Every year nearly 300,000 Americans die from obesity related illnesses, far outstripping the number killed by all terrorist actions combined in the 20th century. Perhaps the U.S would be better off declaring war against the concept of obesity?

What is the "threat" of Iran? Most of the oil that they export goes to India and China, not the U.S. Iran has not invaded any sovereign countries and made no threat to do so. In fact, all of their sabre-rattling is in response to constant threats from the west.

I still go back to my cookie jar analogy. That oil needs to be kept in reserve until you truly need it. Right now there's no major emergencies demanding it, and using it right now would be a very short-sighted act for when a real emergency occurs (which it inevitably will)

These "alternatives" are not in wide-spread use, and it will take decades for it to make any real dent in the energy problem. 

Interesting idea, whether it can actually be done is another question.  Regardless, people aren't all going to switch over to these cars, so their impact will be minimal at best.

Whether you choose to believe or not, we are at war with islamic terrorists. 

Right, they haven't threatened to invade any countries, they just have threatened to "wipe them off the map".  If you think Iran is no threat, you should just go back to liberal land and keep playing the Obama speeches over and over.

As I said, the short term solution is to drill for our own resources while at the same time developiong a long term alternative strategy.  There is still no reason that we cannot drill for our own resources when other countries are doing it not so far off our own shores.

 

 

GLOBAL MARKET. It does not really matter if it goes to Timbuktu, as if they do not get it from Iran, they will buy it from Mexico or some other source that is now supplying other markets. Saying we dont get Iranian oil is like making a pee section in a pool - at least it is not your end right?

As for the emergency, Canada may not think there is one, but the democrats do. Does that mean drilling to them? Nope! But Reid said there was an emergency. Would he lie?

While the use of oil as a primary fuel will eventually be replaced with better alternatives, that doesn't solve the current problem. It's down the road and does need to be developed, but that's still not a solution to the current problem.

While it's handy to blame speculation for the recent rapid increase in fuel prices that's only a small factor in a very large and complex issue. World demand is rising at a rate that has never been seen before, the costs of refining are increasing, refining capacity needs to be increased, crude supply needs to be increased, and many other factors all play in to the current price crunch. There is no single cause here.

Drilling and pumping technologies have improved greatly over the past few decades and there is no valid reason to not tap into our own oil fields as this can be done reasonably safely and cleanly as compared to just a couple of decades ago. All of the cries of environmental disaster have been shown to be nothing more than paranoid delusions.

Remember how they cried that the pipeline in Alaska would spell environmental doom for that area and the elk? Well, the elk are thriving better than ever and the ecology of the area is just fine.

We need to get past all of this politically motivated gloom and doom nonsense and do what needs to be done to increase our domestic oil production in order to preserve our economic health.

Much like alternative energies, it takes time and the longer we wait the longer it will take to reap any benefit.

It's time to stop playing politics and get down to the business of actually solving the problems.

Island Dog-



Why not? Within 2 years there should be 100% electric cars on the market that sell in the ballpark of 30 thousand, cheaper than some currently available hybrids out there. GM proved this technology with the EV car in California in the mid-90's, almost 15 years ago! The technology involved since then has only gotten better and more efficient. In two years time, when gas is anywhere from (best case) 4.50 a gallon to (worst case) 6 or 7 dollars a gallon, will you buy a vehicle that gets 32 mpg (which is really good mileage for a gas vehicle) ~or~ you could get an electric car that gets the equivalent of well over 100 mpg when comparing electricity to gas costs. Throw a solar panel on your roof and unless you're going to drive more than 200-400 miles in one week (which most average folks don't go over that) then you've just got your fuel source right there, which will end up paying for itself in a relatively short period of time! And if you don't drive too terribly much then you can also use it to cut down on power costs at home!

Instead of looking forward to new ways of doing things, Bush is only looking backward and trying to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle of obsolete, inefficient machines that guzzle massive amounts of energy!




Yes, they have threatened to wipe Israel off the map, however only in retaliation if they were attacked by the U.S. They have made no threats of aggressive pre-meditated action against anyone. Regionally they have considerable power in the middle-east, but realistically the threat posed by China or India (both economically and militarily) far outstrips any threat ever posed by Iran. In fact, the whole issue with Iran and it's oil is more about depriving China and India of Iran's resources than it is about securing your own resources.

For the record, I have absolutely no love for Obama or the democrats. I do not endorse Obama or even like his speeches. And really, even if he is elected president you have very little to worry about as he will serve his corporate masters just the same as McCain would and Bush has!

MasonM-



Well said. I agree entirely that there is no single cause here. My point is this; if world demand is rising for what is undeniably a finite resource, should we not start cracking down on alternatives NOW as opposed to later? Things really aren't that bad at present- sure gas is 4.50 a gallon but in Europe they pay the equivalent of well over 10.00 a gallon. Then again they have much more mass transit so that does offset things somewhat.

Also, in terms of national defence the absolute best thing you could do would be to switch to alternatives. Why? Because your domestic oil production has been dropping off slowly since the 1970's. This has very little to do with politics, and much to with U.S domestic peak oil which was pretty acurately predicted by Hubbert in the 1950's. Sure, tapping your remaining reserves may alleviate things a little bit in the short term (short term being the next 5 to 10 years) but regardless if a major war or supply disruption happens overseas, regardless of what you're producing at home the price of a barrel of oil will undoubtedly go through the roof!

Let's look at some numbers:

U.S domestic production peaked at 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970, more than 38 years ago. Ever since then, it's been dropping. At present rates, the U.S consumes approx 21 million barrels per day but only domestically produces around 7.8 million. Right now 63 % of your oil is foreign import. The U.S currently has approx 21 billion barrels of proven reserves. Why didn't Reagan do anything about this? or Bush 1? And Bush 2 is waiting until now, when if he really wanted to he should have done something earlier when he had a congress and senate controlled by his own party! The answer isn't that difficult; if all of your oil came from domestic sources, you would have gone through your entire proven reserves in only 3 years! To his credit, Carter initiated sweeping energy reforms embracing alternative solutions. Within 60 days of taking office, Reagan cancelled almost all of these initiatives including ordering the solar panels on the White house taken down (effectively declaring war on the sun, go figure)

With these numbers in mind, it should be apparent to anyone that the smartest thing the U.S should be doing is cutting back on oil consumption as much as possible to preserve as much domestic supply as you can for the "oh shit" moment when you really need it. Like a big war or major environmental/economic catastrophe (a recession does not count as a catastrophe) Instead, Bush wants to tap the last holdouts of big, easily reached oil to alleviate a little bit of economic discomfort in the here and now. After that's happened, what will you do when a real energy emergency comes?

Now, if the pres were going to tap this oil right now with the caveat that in the meantime the U.S is going to switch the bulk of it's transportation to alternative sources, maybe I could understand and even promote this idea. But there is no plan to do this. Instead of ponying up and admitting that continuing the oil game will only hurt the U.S, he wants to squander your last bit of rainy-day money with no plan for what will happen after that!



I actually agree with you on this. Current practices and laws in north America for oil production are indeed very safe!



And I agree 100% We just disagree on what those solutions are.

LOL.  Why not?  Because people might not need a new car.  You seriously think everyone is going to run and buy these magical electric cars?

Iran has made many threats against Israel and the U.S. without the mention of retailiation.  Are you seriously defending Iran?

 

Yes, but that is not the be-all end-all solution to a huge problem.

There are two different things that need to be done here.

1. Solve the short term problem, which is oil supply.

2. Work on the long term problem, which is replacing oil with something better and cheaper.

It's not an either/or issue.

Okay, here's the low-down on the whole off-shore drilling fiasco.

1. It won't have a short-term effect (and that's fine.)

2. It "might" have a long term effect.

3. There are already thousands of miles of off-shore areas that are leased out and that could be drilled by the oil companies but they have yet to do so.

So, there's no reason to lift the congressional ban on off-shore drilling ban. The only benefit it would have is the gas prices may go down becuase oil speculators will "speculate" the price down, momentarily. Most likely, though, it will go back up because of simple supply and demand.

No, the ban PLUS the taxes and regulations are preventing them from drilling on their leases (see California vs Oil Companies).

 

Democrats have offered to help get these areas up an running to do whatever they can and republicans have shot it down.