Offshore drilling provides outstanding artificial reefs

Most people would rather have a solar or wind farm in their back yard than an oil well. Well I know I would.

Currently the middle east is laughing at the USA and the rest of the west while we buy their oil and polute our air with the exhaust. Drilling a few oil wells around the US coast may reduce that laughter from a roar to a good belly laugh but they will still be laughing especially when demand increases beyond the additional production. With increased domestic production will come an increase in demand due to an enhanced feeling of supply security. Go ahead you can buy a massive tank without guilt, we are drilling the coast so there is plenty of oil for all. Global warming? Never heard of it and if it's real then it will reduce demand for heating fuel in the north, that can't be a bad thing.

Back soon, I feel the urge for an Escalade.

 

We have a lot of silly ads out there in the US. Like the one from the American Petroleum Institute claiming that there is enough oil untapped in the US to heat 130 million homes and power 60 million cars for 60 years. Gotta love it. Yes, there are a lot of people in the northeast US who still use fuel oil to heat their homes, but 130 million of them? And there were more than 60 million cars in the US when I was in grade school. Of course, we know their agenda.

The problem is that we use 7 billion barrels of oil a year. Put that next to the most wildly optimistic production figures for ANWR (20 billion barrels) and for offshore drilling (40 billion barrels). Okay, so when it starts it might help for a decade. But everyone knows this is not about drilling and developing alternative energy at the same time. This is about winning an election. Big Oil isn't going to go exploring for more oil (that's risky). They have no reason to do so ($100 a barrel oil and $5 gas this morning). They already told Congress they aren't building any more refineries, because they are ready to move into alternative energy. When they can make enough money they will (Pickens Plan, anyone?). All us little guys can do is try to keep up and try to be as frugal and green as we can be.

 

No, the 30-years-ago solution was to increase average fuel economy and work on alternatives. Those things actually do help. More drilling is like a fat man drilling another hole in his belt, only it takes ten years to drill the hole and he's just about out of belt.

But hey, that Repugnican Kool-Aid sure is tasty, in'nt. And of course the real problem is that we just haven't been praying hard enough. So vote McCain/Palin, everyone, and pray really really hard.

 

+1

drill drill drill, clean coal, etc. etc. etc.

60 more years of oil yet undiscovered and untapped. Drilling offshore and in Anwar.....
THEN WHAT?????


Then we have no natural resources left and we're right back where we are now. This is just not the answer. Bridge supports and ship wrecks make excellent natural reefs, offshore oil rigs do not. Shat happens where there is an offshore oil spill??? have we all forgotten the Exxon Valdese so soon?

Technological advancement is the only answer. Clinging to century ol technology is certainly no answer. The Prius and hybrids in general, as well as EV's and other advanceds modes of transportation are the only way to progress.

Respectfully,

RangerD

 

Oh my dog. You're actually serious? That sticking with oil will be our economic salvation? That it will HELP the poor? That it will help ANYBODY? We IMPORT most of our energy. We depend on countries that don't like us and have us over a barrel by the short hairs. Oh yea... domestic alternative energy is DEFINITELY the path to economic ruin.

Eeeyah. So... where do you stand on family values?

 

Hey look everyone! Polarcrew's backyard enhances habitat for seagulls!

 

Oil definitely isn't the long term answer. However, as long as there is an abundance of "dung for brains" americans out there who endorse the status quo, I'll continue to invest in oil companies. Been doing so for over the past decade. They have made money for me hand over fist. Unfortunately the environment has paid the price, and incidently so has the average american polarcrew. Personally though, this strategy has provided my hedge against the long term slow motion financial train wreck that is in store for us. Perhaps if America were not run by short sighted profiteers who are supported by religious cheeseburger eating idiots, I wouldn't have needed to support such an enterprise.

 

Speaking of efficiency, here's a interesting tidbit. Semis consume 800 million gallons of diesel every year idling (mostly to run climate control while the driver sleeps). That's 19 million barrels of diesel (not oil, diesel fuel) per hear, or about 52K bbl/day! The EIA predicts offshore drilling to increase daily output by 200K bbl/day by 2030. So we could offset 25% by installing electrical outlets at truck stops and reduce imports by 50K bbl/day.

The point of this is to highlight how much more effective efficiency/conservation is over drill, baby, drill. Our oil production is in decline and no amount of domestic drilling is going to change that. We're treading water at best, so we're going to have to look seriously at other means of reducing our imports (and we should absolutely do that for the reasons that many have pointed out in this thread).

 

C'mon mate, that's just petty.

 

Yes, but it's at about the same level as 'Caribou love pipelines' and 'drilling is good for sealife'. I took that to be burritos's point.

 

The reef issue is really not the issue, it's a waste of time. The simple fact is that relying on offshore oil production to get our arse out of the trouble we're in is a fool's errand. Yes, it may be part of the solution (a small part) but unless it's tied to stipulations that get us off of oil altogether it's just a useless handout to the oil companies, who are becoming less relevant by the day as their market shore of global production withers as their fields decline year on year.

It seems like there's a group of politicians who are developing legislation that might just be a balanced answer. Does anyone know the real details of this plan. It seems that it allows for some offshore production but that severance monies from the production will fund alternatives/efficiency.

 

Even the American Petroleum Institute admits that offshore drilling means a five year supply of oil beginning in about 10 years. ANWR is also about 10 years away, and gives us at best a 3 year supply. The issue is not "60 years" at all. Their ad says they can power 60 million cars and heat 130 million homes for 60 years with our oil (and natural gas). The latter figure makes sense. But we've had more than 60 million cars and trucks in this country for decades now. Since 44% of all oil used in the US goes for cars and trucks, I wonder how this all works out to a 60 year supply. In any event, it means switching to CNG. That's fine, except do we really want to put all of our eggs in one basket again?

I think the legislation now under consideration lets the oil companies drill off Florida and California coasts. More in the line of hurricanes and earthquakes. Sounds like a weak answer, although I think it means that more does go toward alternative sources.

 

Dave, Dave, Dave.......

I don't hate people that needlessly waste our natural resources without giving a second thought of what it's doing to our planet, or what legacy we'll be leaving our children. I pitty them, and when I can, I try to change their approach by offering alternatives. I can afford to drive a great big SUV, and I had one, but two years ago I traded it in for a Prius.

Drilling is not a long term solution for anything. Only technological advancement and long term changes in our habits and attitudes will bring about any real, lasting change.

Its actually sickening to see people interviewed in gas lines waiting to fill up. One woman actually said "i don't care what it costs, I just have to get some gas"... It's an addiction. They all look like addicts jonesing for a fix. It has to change, because it is a finite resource. It will change now, or it will change in 20, 30, or 40 years. Meanwhile, until it does, we get to have countries that actually hate us, and I mean really hate us, dictate what price we pay for gas. I for one think that sucks, and I still do not think drilling for more oil here is the answer. Its just a fix, another hit to stop the detox.

Thanks for your intellectually enlightning response though. You almost changed my mind there for a second.

respectfully,
RangerD