Re: DEMOCRATS AGAIN PREVENTING AMERICA FROM DRILLING FOR OIL!!

"Monkey Clumps" <spacebrain71@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:77309231-3a23-4417-b354-9ef6484980cf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sorry, thats just a red herring. Just because an oil company leased a
> parcel doesn't mean there is enough oil to be worth setting up
> production. Under the best cir***stances only a fraction of the area
> leased will be worth producing.  Do think oil companies are so stupid
> as to not bother drilling a huge find of oil that they already have
> leased?  Oil companies surely do exploratory drilling on the their
> leased parcel and then decide whether there is enough oil there
> justify the enormous expense of setting up a production platform.  If
> we want more domestic oil we have to open up more of our offshore for
> them to explore.

So, you are claiming that the oil companies have explored and drilled all
of
their present leases and that they have no more places to drill without
opening up the US coast line. Do you really believe that?  If so please
site.


> We should let the states decide that, not the feds.  Sounds like
> Florida might have change of heart.  After all the Chinese are already
> drilling off their shore,  why not let the Americans?

The Chinese are NOT drilling off of the coast of the US or Cuba. That was
a
bogus re****t allegedly from Dick Cheney and has been debunked.

> The difference is that if we keep finding more oil, we buy ourselves
> more time.  Right now alternative sources are not ready to fill in the
> gap.  Having our economy implode because of a scarcity of energy is
> going to disrupt everything, including the development of alternative
> technologies.

By all accounts it would take 10 years to bring any new oil drilled in
these
zones to production, so how much time do we buy? The amount of new oil
found
, world wide keeps dwindling. The last time drilling outstripped demand
was
in the 1960's!

\> We don't have the technology yet.  Shutting down the oil spigot right
> now will be disastrous.  Even now, American industry is struggling to
> adjust to the massive increase in oil and gas prices.  Our assembly
> lines are pumping out huge gas guzzling trucks and SUVs and you can't
> just snap your fingers and change that output to subcompacts.  It
> takes years to retool.  Ford and GM are screwed and they will need a
> miracle to survive the next few years.  What we are talking about is
> the difference between a controlled transition and a crash.  Not
> opening up new sources of oil to compensate for the ones being used up
> will be asking for a crash, and that will benefit no one.

The 10 year delay in bringing any new oil on line is plenty of time to
make
a significant transition into alternatives. Of course we won't replace all
petroleum in 10 years, but, if we could get to the 20% level, we would
control the 800 gorilla with our clout.

Also bringing new oil into the mix is just exacerbating the other main
problem, CO2 release. That MUST be addressed and now is the time to do it,
since we are running out of oil anyway.

Aside from conservation, the best thing that can be done in the short term
is to tighten the rules on speculation. One thing would be to eliminate
buying oil futures on 5% margin as can be done now. Make the speculators
put
up real money, that would change things overnight.