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The state's Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, asked the Interior Department to let Virginia research possible natural gas reserves. But the agency went further, opening the process for oil and gas leasing.
Luthi defends the move without hesitation. "Oil and gas are going to continue to be a major part of our energy needs in this country," he said, "for at least the next generation."
Hard to tell where Obama will stand - or will be pushed to.
But I say drill everything, everywhere possible. We need to get completely and totally off OPEC oil. Period. If that means tens of thousands of cars running on Natural Gas, all the better!
Personally, I feel these areas should be treated as reserves and avoid a situation where becomes a liability against development towards future, looking beyond a generation and not just in terms of energy but security of the nation.
We've got to be more farsighted than a generation. In fact, and don't tell this to oil companies but, we can conserve more today than we can produce with drill baby drill mantra.
But I say drill everything, everywhere possible. We need to get completely and totally off OPEC oil. Period.!
This is better said than done. Consider these realities:
- we consume 20 million bbl/day.
- how many bbl/day do we have to produce to eliminate the import?
- for how long can we go with that approach?
One is unlikely to see these put to perspective, especially by politicians who are puppets of big oil and stand to benefit from it in more ways than one.
Then you are going to have to completely and totally stop using oil, period.
Not true. Only 20% of American crude oil imports come from the Persian Gulf.
We could easily cut our average consumption (as has actually been happening after gas hit $4.00 per gallon), continue to develop alternative energy vehicles, re-activate idle American wells, and drill in Alaska.
This is better said than done. Consider these realities:
- we consume 20 million bbl/day.
- how many bbl/day do we have to produce to eliminate the import?
- for how long can we go with that approach?
One is unlikely to see these put to perspective, especially by politicians who are puppets of big oil and stand to benefit from it in more ways than one.
50% of our crude oil is imported. But only 20% of our total crude oil imports come from OPEC.
We CAN live without OPEC oil - and we should. It's high time we change the world stage, and have the middle-East come begging to us.
I'm a DEM who voted for Obama. I don't see Obama putting the kibosh on anything that creates jobs and keeps our money here in the USA, though he will be sensitive to the environmental concerns. I think we can balance both.
I'd like to see an orderly process for drilling for oil and gas; in VA, in AK, in CO, and in most any place where there are reserves. IMO, we CAN drill and NOT kill the wildlife or ruin the environment in the areas we drill. I think we can ALL get along.
I also want to see a major effort to move us to wind, solar and nuclear so we can have our oil and gas reserves for another thousand years, not burn it all up in the next 50 years. Oil is a great lubricant and though synthetics can be found, why not make our oil last for centuries and stop burning things for heat, cooking and motion. Electric cars would be so very cool, in more ways than one.
My dislike for drill-baby-drill came from it being a silly campaign slogan, as if we can say yes today and get new oil next summer. It'll be 10 years before any oil or gas come ashore, and who knows what the need will be then. If the world economy regains momentum, we will see very expensive gasoline again, and see it as fast as we saw it go up (and down) during this past year. We also need to lessen the chance of petro-blackmail by OPEC and Russia.
Not true. Only 20% of American crude oil imports come from the Persian Gulf.
We could easily cut our average consumption (as has actually been happening after gas hit $4.00 per gallon), continue to develop alternative energy vehicles, re-activate idle American wells, and drill in Alaska.
My apologies, well at least partially, so many conflate all imported oil as coming from OPEC, which in their minds is synonymous with being but having the Gulf nations. Earlier I offered my partial apologies. You are right about right that 20% of American crude oil imports are from the middle east, but, and here is where I don't apologize, OPEC is more than just the middle east. Numbers 4 & 5 on the import list are Venezuela and Nigeria, both OPEC countries.
50% of our crude oil is imported. But only 20% of our total crude oil imports come from OPEC.
We CAN live without OPEC oil - and we should. It's high time we change the world stage, and have the middle-East come begging to us.
20% is 4million bbl/day. How much drill baby drill will get us? About 200K bbl/day (1% of our daily consumption) when it is all up and running, years from now.
Conservation, OTOH, can show immediate effects, and if not entire OPEC (and don't hold your breath for it), at the minimum we can take rogue nations out with it.
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