http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/john-mccains-oil-scam.html
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
John McCain's Oil Scam
McCain is arguing for offshore drilling to lower US petroleum prices
in the "short term."
By Juan Cole
It is all a big lie, and a dangerous one at that.
Our marine environment and our fisheries are already at risk.
And the devastation in Wisconsin, Iowa and Mississipi from extreme
weather events like flooding is where the US, and the world is going
if McCain wins this argument.
And McCain has the gall to say he is worried about global warming!
The world uses on the order of 86 million barrels a day of petroleum.
That figure is expected to veer sharply upward as China and India go
in for automobiles and trucking in a big way.
The United States uses nearly 21 million barrels a day of petroleum
and liquified hydrocarbon fuel, or nearly 25% of everything the world
produces daily.
The US has 5% of the world's population.
The US produces about 5 million barrels a day of petroleum and another
3 million barrels a day of liquefied fuel.
That 8 million barrels a day is only about a third of what we use, so
we im****t the rest.
The lower 48 states produced about 4.4 million barrels of petroleum a
day in 2006.
If all the known offshore fields were drilled and panned out, the
lower 48's oil production would be increased by 7%.
That would be 300,000 barrels a day.
0.3 million barrels a day would make very little difference whatsoever
to current oil prices even if it could be brought online right now.
It would be a matter of a few pennies.
And, in fact, if there were to be any impact of all of offshore
drilling on prices, it would not come until 2020 or even 2030.
You will note that the Saudis just offered to increase their
production by 0.5 million barrels a day, and the oil futures market
just yawned.
And that is in the real world, right now, not in some decade or
two-decades-out in the future drilling scheme.
Moreover, US consumption of petroleum is increasing over time, so the
extra 300,000 barrels a day would quickly be used up and then some.
McCain is cynically wooing Big Oil in Texas in order to get campaign
contributions, while lying to the American people about his offshore
drilling plan having a quick impact on oil prices and their quality of
life.
Bringing the 300,000 barrels a day on line would make somebody a lot
of money.
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Now who do you suppose that "somebody" might be, eh?
Harry
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