The Republican Energy Drill | American News Project »
Posted By jovial 3 months ago in NewsEnergy is currently the most debated issue on Capitol Hill, and Republicans in Congress have seized the moment to stage a political coup, blaming Democratic resistance to expanded domestic oil drilling for high gas prices. Democrats have started to cave to some of the pressure. But would more drilling help anytime soon?
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jovial
Grew up In Brooklyn. Joined the Navy in 1976 stayed in 10 years. Aircraft Electronics tech. Worked for Major Govt. contractor then settled in California ...
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Comments So Far: 41
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Dionys3 months ago
Government reports on the undrilled, unexplored oil fields all agree that drilling would effect the price of an oil barrel in the neighborhood of a few cents per barrel.
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All government reports also say that drilling in ANWR and offshore would have the effect in the world oil market of adding 1/10th of 1% which would have how much impact on the price of oil? That's right. None.
Oil companies currently hold leases on 63 million acres of land that they've refused to explore or drill. Let them work with those lands before they start raping our national parks and beaches. -
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donald513 months ago
Locky, forget that the Repug "Do Nothing" Congress let the big oil lobbyists write the Bush Energy Bill that threw out all energy anti-monopoly law instituted after the Great Depression?
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Forget why Dumya has replaced his Treasury Chief at least 3 times, the last dropping 50 billion of oil futures on the stock market, while CEO for Sachs-Goldman, to drop the cost of gas just before Dumya's second stolen election.
Or, the Bush Federal Exchange Commission dropping the collateral requirements on Wall street transactions in2004 to unleash the speculators.
The Bushies have already defeated Dem proposals to take some record big oil profits and devote them to alternatives since the big oil boys have invested so little while they buy up these competitors!
The Dems have had a bill to correct all this and fund alternatives which the Repugs and Dumya have opposed. All the repugs can say is drill, drill, drill...while our refining has remained at full production and without any improvements in over 32 years.
Thank you repugs for your greed that is hurting most Amercans! Thank you for classifying the Cheney Energy Meeting minutes to hide your vice and corruptness further!
Locky, you are mentally deranged and .... so greedy (bigoted too on other issues)! -
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donald513 months ago
Locky, Pelosi has at least 59 Bills approved by her House, but just sitting under threat of Bush veto... she has done her job to correct many of the vices of the past Repug Congress. One of her first bills was to address the Repug Medicare Prescription Bill to allow drug negotiations... since our VA drugs are 58% cheaper due to ability of the VA to negotiate prices... So, The big Pharmaceutical's commecials won the drug battle not to touch the Repug Prescription bill... another example like the Repug lies and big oil commercials on oil too! Look at the big oil commercials as they tell you they now own alternatives they have hitherto not been allowed to own... and they aren't putting R&D funds into these alternatives!
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Repugs still support those Siapan sweat shops that have forced prostituton and forced abortions too!
At least give the Dems a 2/3rd ownership of he Congress in the next election to finally stop this repug evil and corrupt obstructionism!
There is a terrorist party in America and the world, and it is the repugs!
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donald513 months ago
I like the story of the GS-14 who testified to the Dems on one of the Monday's when the repugs weren't working since Hastert had declared a 4 day work week. Anyway, she had refused to approve a 200 percent higher payment to Halliburton for gas brought into Iraq from Kuwait as the contract monitor. When she went TDY for a day an Army Lieutenant Colonel approved the Halliburton request. Returning, she protested and was fired! Lots of stories like this on sole source, unaudited contracts under the Bushies,,, to raise the cost of everything!
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Remember Cheney and Wolfowitz saying the Iraq oil would pay for reconstruction ... the repug lies continue! -
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donald513 months ago
McBush, as one of the Keating 5, illegally tried to get rid of federal regulation of the loan industry.... sound familiar?
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bluetexasvalley3 months ago
I'm on a strict budget, but I am slowly replacing my plastic storage containers with Pyrex. Pyrex is a combination of glass and plastic, but it's a start.
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This was supposed to be a reply to fsev41. Another misplaced comment. ;-)
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davidhallstromComment removed: User banned.7 Replies
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alakazam3 months ago
We need to Nationalize oil and set it's value at $1.00 a gallon. Black Gold...why not?
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This wouldn't require removing speculation...profit is profit.
Then retool some factories and steel mills for general domestic production.
Then stop borrowing money from China to pay people who spend all their money on products from China we could build ourselves. America was once noted for the Mastery of it's Craftsmen. Now factory after factory sits idle.
It's just not that complicated.
We can be a clean powered Industrial Nation. We have the Technology.-
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Lurch3 months ago
It is our national resource. Ours as citizens of America.
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Why not just do what a business would do and outsource the activities of drilling through to selling at the pump? The govt should hold an online auction for all companies around the world willing and able to drill our oil. Cheapest service provider wins the contract. Repeat all the way down the supply chain.
This alone would drop the price of oil more than any Republican drill, drill, drill plan could ever possibly dream of reducing the price.
Which is exactly why no Republican and probably no Democrat would offer it as a solution.
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alakazam3 months ago
100 year leases in escrow? Isn't that the usual terms?
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Someone is trying to pad their nest. -
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Lurch3 months ago
they want all of the profits NOW. They could give a flying `f` about America or the future as long as they pocket all current and future profits NOW.
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Shadowolf3 months ago
...there's only ONE place the NeoConArtists DON'T scream "DRILL!!!DRILL!!!DRILLLLLL!!!
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...the dentists office... -
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chevydog3 months ago
Seems like we'll be stuck with a petroleum based economy for quite a few years yet; this almost no matter what we do. Wonderings:
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How many cars are on the roads? My guess is 70-75 million; this exclusive of trucks, equipment, or planes, which also need petroleum-derived fuel. If we decided today to replace all cars with Toyota-type hybrids, how long would it take? Seven, eight, or ten years in all probablity--even if all could afford new cars on that schedule (some can't).
Do we need new factories to produce these cars? Delays are possible here; plus the normal long construction times. Maybe cost- and schedule-wise they're pretty much the same as producing drilling platforms.
Maybe electric plug-ins are OK for urban areas. But what about rural or even ex-urban areas?
Has anybody even thought what kind of electric grid is needed to support say 100,000 electrics plug-ins recharging at once? Generally the grid has been designed for mixed residential and commercial loads. If the distribution requirements for recharging exceed capacity, a whole new grid may have to be constructed. Lots of potential bucks and pain here.
Then think about the batteries. What materials are needed for these, and how will they be produced? Might we be getting into a situation where instead of importing oil (with the well-noted complications) we'll be importing battery materials, with the same potential complications? Where does all the electric to charge them come from?
None of this should be construed as saying that we shouldn't do this or that. But everything, even "good" things, comes with a price attached. Here on Propeller I see lots of lively discussion on energy, usually using the same standard platitudes. But I haven't seen any serious musing posts on the implications of some of these decisions. At some point, if any of this is to be more than just talk, these kind of things will have to be approached.-
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simonsez3 months ago
Over 300 million vehicles, actually.
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People don't seem to understand the scope of the problem. We grow an ANNUAL crop of corn on approximately 100 million acres. Where are we going to grow a DAILY crop of anything that will convert to 27 million gallons of fuel. How many millions/billions of acres will be required that we can harvest DAILY to make our fuel.
But you don't want us to drill 75 miles from Prudhoe Bay in a desolate area of ANWR that would give us 1 million bpd, probably within 3 years if we pushed..
Question ... what is the difference between burning new organic material instead of old organic material for fuel. They both release CO2.
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Beau78903 months ago
1 million barrels per day?
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U.S. consumption of oil is predicted by the DoE's Energy Information Agency to be 20.08 million bpd in 2009. And that's a drop in consumption from today.
And world consumption is currently 86 million bpd. That one million bpd that you say we could get from ANWR would have NO effect on the price on the world market, which of course is where ANWR oil would be sold. The price would stay the same, and we'd get barely any more oil than we have now.
"Drill here! Drill now!" Yeah, that's gonna help.-
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chevydog3 months ago
I haven't done the calcs, but methinks that one could do a similar attempt for solar, wind, or other "alternates" and come up with pretty much the same magnitude numbers. Individually, none of these things is or has the likelhood to become significant. So we shouldn't try them? No, we should--where they work best.
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Don't think that there is ONE solution that will get us out of this mess--that includes drilling, alternates, anything. Any time that that may have been true is long gone. There are a plethora of thigs that will have to be done; and IMHO someone that doesn't recognize that is working under a delusion. We've gone too long doing nothing but talk.
Alternates like wind and solar have always been cool among a certain group of people. But engineers have tended to distrust them because they're too diffuse and not reliable enough. So now we've got demo projects that seem to be viable; great, though in the case of solar, I'd feel much more comfortable if some were in places like Michagan or Illinois. But the largest solar generator I'm aware of is a 75 MW unit now approved for Florida. This is peanuts next to the garden-variety "conventional" 1000-1500 MW power plants that are now standard. So boost solar and wind if you like; they both have their own (limited) place. But many of us live in places where conventional supplies will be necessary for a looong time; no matter what decisions we may make now.
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simonsez3 months ago
It's not about price, it's about who gets the money. If we buy it from our-self, the money stays in our economy instead of a foreign economy.
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Saudi Aramco makes on the order of $200 billion per quarter profit! We buy oil from Mexico, Venezuela and Canada. Why not buy it from ourselves?-
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simonsez3 months ago
Right you are and OPEC sets the price, so the only thing that lowers price is over supply.
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Is it unclear to you that if we buy it from ourselves, the money stays in our economy? Can't you understand that? -
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simonsez3 months ago
I mis-read you comment ... that is not how it works.
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It is priced like a bathtub, depending on quality, but it is shipped from the various suppliers and they receive payment for those shipments directly from the purchaser.
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simonsez3 months ago
It took the earth millions of years to make the fuel we use ... and you're going to replace it with an annual crop. Lots of luck.
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