Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, voted with his fellow Republicans against the (energy) bill, calling it an example of "what is wrong with Washington."Instead of addressing the interest of all Americans, Platts said the bill would continue to prohibit drilling in the locations where most of the oil and natural gas can be found. inyork.com/ydr 08/18/08
And in about 7+ years when this oil and gas hits the global market (a free and open oil market) where the value is controlled by those who have most of the oil (OPEC), the price effect will be nothing. The thirst by developing nations will continue to pressure that market and will only be more severe in following decades.
Oil is a dead end. The cry for drilling will continue until the day we run out and then there will be panic for a solution.
What is wrong with Washington is that it has allowed it's vision to be powered by whatever the monopoly is of the time.
What is wrong with Washington is that we should have been building a national resource of renewable energy decades ago so we wouldn't be so controlled by this mess now.
What is wrong with Washington is that it lacks innovative heroes who can dig through the think of the crowd, the flow of money, and look beyond the rhetoric of the day to the survival of future generations.
Congress' earlier attempts this year to renew wind, and solar tax credits, with a measure proposing higher taxes on the oil and gas industry to pay for it have been shot down.
"It's pretty remarkable. ... Wind turbines are used in political ads, yet we stand on the verge of not extending the credit which supports the growth of the largest-growing sector of the utility and energy area in the country," - Hunter Armistead, head of renewable energy for Babcock & Brown, the private-equity firm with 20 U.S. wind farms generating 1,600 megawatts wsj.com
House approves offshore drilling with alternatives, drillers revolt - greenmesh 9/08
Your basically right about the price of oil, although I think that a substantial increase in U.S. output could (along with net exporters Canada and Mexico) create a North American oversupply that would somewhat reduce prices. But you are ignoring the fact that it would also substantially reduce our trade deficit, strengthen the dollar, boost GDP, create loads of jobs, and increase tax revenues. Oil is on the way out, but it's not dead. Boone Pickens' plan is not practical (see my op-ed: "The rest of the energy story"). You'll also see that we can't yet replace most of our fossil fuels. That's why Pickens is right that we need a bridge to alternative energies. Oil must and will be part of that bridge.
I agree that there needs to be a baseline of energy and no doubt oil will be tapped from everywhere before the crisis intensifies, however, the promise of drilling lulls people into thinking that we can fix this problem with the U.S. oil reserves.
Put off until tomorrow when we can drill today.
China's demand for oil has been growing at a rate of at least 7% every year for the past 15 years, so in about 15 years China will equal the current consumption of the U.S.
Even recently while our own demand has slumped slightly with the price of gas and the economy, China's demand continues.
At some point in the not too distant future the demand becomes unsustainable even with our 3% of world reserves in the mix.
As far as jobs, and trade deficit the same could be said for investing in alternative solutions and technology to sell the world dealing with this same crisis. I don't see how adding wells to an entrenched oil infrastructure will add "loads of jobs" as production of current wells drops off.
Government should be thinking beyond the next few years or current election cycle.
I would like to see the passion in some parts of the political arena for drilling re-directed toward a place in people's brains where they can can visualize the urgency and dream of solutions.
That could be a person inspired to conserve or a college bound student who may be one day part of homegrown hydrogen production.
Heroes inspire us to want to be what we have not yet attained.
Hybrid and all-electric cars are being worked on feverishly as we speak. The reason is that oil has become too expensive and consumers demand relief. We both agree that oil will remain expensive, so the drive toward electric vehicles will continue apace. High priced oil means no one will be lulled into forgetting about alternatives. But if, beginning today, every new car sold was all-electric, it would probably take 5 years before we displaced half the cars running on gasoline. And that assumes that we would have the battery technology and infrastructure to rapidly charge or swap batteries for long trips. In reality, it will be decades before all that can happen. So oil will be needed for a long time. Opposing domestic exploration and drilling while knowing we’ll need to use oil for decades merely out-sources those jobs overseas. Some one is going to drill for the oil that we burn. If we value our economy, we’ll begin to do it ourselves.
By the way, the 3% figure is for “proved oil reserves”. There are very detailed requirements for declaring proved reserves. Generally, it requires a certain amount of exploratory drilling. With the decades of drilling bans, oil companies have been unable to add substantially to our proven reserves. And that doesn’t take into account more expensive and more voluminous options like shale oil.
If we choose not to drill it means we will continue to send $700 Billion per year (and more) overseas which could be going into our economy. Failure to drill will continue to damage our economy and prevent us from having the money to invest in alternatives. You don’t have to be an economist to know that our budget deficit is skyrocketing and paying others for our energy only exacerbates the problem. The benefits of drilling our own oil can’t be overstated. I repeat, it would reduce our trade deficit, strengthen the dollar, boost GDP, create loads of jobs, and increase tax revenues.
The bottom line is that we will continue to use oil for many years. The only question is who will do the drilling and what country will reap the benefits.
Again, I agree with you that there will be a need for baseline energy in the form of oil and as soon as people get used to having rigs along the coast, shale mining in the western states... the situation will become normal.
I also realize that it's human nature to do nothing, inspire nothing, promote what works now and is profitable; what feeds the machine at present into infinity, until people are forced to change by crisis.
That's what is wrong with Washington.