Drill Here, Drill Now And Keep It ALL Here? (global warming, legal, soldiers)

[GregW]

Onshore drilling (note post is nearly as long as a drill string)
In addition to drilling for oil within our territory with the provision that it has to all be sold and used here and in Canada we should accelerate the building of facilities to make diesel fuel from natural gas. I also think that maintaining a price of $4 to $5 per gallon for the next few years and investing the taxes in highway, rail and waterway infrastructure is an excellent idea. (FWIW – I an a socialist that believes the government should own the roads, rails and waterways and lease them to private carriers.) The higher gas prices will eventually result in an auto fleet that uses less fuel. Revitalizing and electrifying large and small-scale railways will also decrease the interstate trucking industry to specialize in the hauling of very valuable products.
We should convert our electric generation from coal, oil and natural gas to nuclear power by designing, sighting and building appropriate technology (high temp gas cooled, light water and liquid metal breeders) on the sites of existing power plants. The waste generated, principally non-weapon grade plutonium, should be recycled into reactor fuel instead of foolishly waste in some burial scheme. The uranium required to fuel this nuclear electric future has already been mined and is sitting in the fly ash disposal pits of most of our coal fired plants.
We should also stop removing old hydroelectric dams and rebuild the power generation facilities. These may be small but there are thousands of them and a lot of small does add up. I feel it is far more valuable to use a stream for electric power than for the pleasure of a few fly fishermen. The oil, coal and natural gas we are not using for electric power in this scenario should be used to heat homes and industry, smelt iron to steel and be refined into transportation fuel. In addition the rest of the alternates such as wind, solar and geothermal should be developed where and when appropriate. Large-scale wind generation of electric power is necessary both on land and just offshore. Solar is best used to heat homes and domestic water because the installations use existing technology and are cost competitive with electricity for these applications. Geothermal resources can be developed on a large-scale basis where the resource is close to the surface or appropriate for enhanced recovery. It is also useful for domestic, commercial and industrial applications as ground source heating and cooling.

We can develop our domestic and, if we remain good neighbors, continental energy resources. It will require discipline, leadership and changes to the investment strategy of our country. It can be done with a small sacrifice ($4 - $5 gasoline) from everyone and a major restructuring of the investment and ownership of our resources and generation facilities (government ownership of these natural monopolies). The latter will be more difficult to achieve than the development of the energy technology.

[jmarquise]

wow, an angry liberal calling everyone morons. you must be a very loved person.

Originally Posted by bluecountry

There should absolutely be no oil drilling offshore.
We are not going to drill our way out of this problem.

First...it will take years before we can reap any of the benefits...and at best it would be a few cents per gallon...at best...because off shore drilling is VERY expensive to do.

Then...the consequences for the environment make this not feasible. Off shore drilling weakened the shelf in the Gulf contributing to less of a natural defense for Katrina.

Is it really worth it to destroy pristine beaches you enjoy vacationing on just so Jerry Jones and other greedy wealthy corrupt oilman like King Bush can pad their kingdom?

Do you really think the endless massacre and suffering of helpless.defenseless spices is worth it just to make Bush's mansion bigger?

Maybe you should read this article.

Where Have All the Blue Crabs Gone? - AOL News (broken link)

It's about a place called the Chesapeake Bay...it once was home to billions of blue crab...but thanks to overdevelopment...pollutants have seeped into the bay and wiped out the crabbing industry.

Even without a major disaster,...the environment is sensitivity and damaged enough that offshore is inevitable going to cause similar specie and natural disaster wipeouts....while HARLDY helping at the pump.

It's time to focus on being smart about natural resources...driving less...getting smaller cars...and making hybrids more mainstream.

Is it really worth it to have your Chevy Suburban or Hummer that badly?
All a drop in gas prices will do...and off shore drilling is hardly a guarantee...is it will make more yuppies and posers go back to buying Hummers and pickups to do their shopping at Nordstrom’s in.

Yes...the Exxon oil spill in Alaska really is worth the risk because we just can't live without a Suburban.
A Trailblazer is just too small and puny...we need an XXXL SUV with a V10 that can tow 10,000 pounds to show off our manliness!

You people are so short sided you make me sick.

[domergurl]

Originally Posted by KevK

The conservative cry we hear everyday is this: America has billions of barrels of oil off our coast and in the mountain states but the Democrats do not want us to have it. Aside from the fact that is a LIE (it was actually Bush 1 that signed the order banning off shore drilling but like always Republicans never let the FACTS get in the way of politics), I have not heard any oil company say anything like "oh yes! we got our ships parked out there now just waiting for the green light to drop the drill bit in the ocean"!
The FACT is that they have not even drilled in the areas that ARE now open to them. The fact is that the big oil companies do not seem to be licking their chops to drop anchor off the coast. But let us say that they are for the sake of examining the conservative cry.
The conservative battle cry is "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less". So they are assuming that we here in the USA will harvest this oil, refine it and sell it cheap right here, right? No, what they will do is to sell the oil on the world market for the highest price that they can get for it. Which means that most of it will end up in China and Japan! And we will still be paying roughly what we are paying now. And our beaches will be fouled with oil clumps on top of that.
So I propose this- let's give in to the conservative cry. Let's say "OK oil companies, go and drill" BUT here is the deal- EVERY drop of oil you get off the shores will NOT be sold on the world market. It will be refined and sold ONLY in the USA and nowhere else. After all, it is "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" and not "Drill Here, Drill Now and Sell It To China", right? So let them drill and let's see if the conservatives REALLY want to help Americans. Not likely!

We need to renegotiate our oil trade agreements with Japan, China, India ... that's a good start.

[tinman01]

Originally Posted by tonrob

I can tell you're confused! How on god's green earth do you manage to somehow bring up guns, illegal immigration and terrorism into this discussion? I think you've posted to the wrong thread by mistake.

Not at all. The same nit wits that are anti gun, anti border security, anti- spying on terrorists also seem to be anti-american oil independence. They seem to feel anything that can help our country is a bad thing.
No don't drill here we like the view without oil rigs... News flash on a perfect day you have a 7 to 10 mile line of sight on the ocean. No drilling in the gulf of mexico? But its ok for mexico or china to drill.
No new oil refineries? We can not convert all of the crude we produce domestically because we lack capasity.
These are no brainers.

[texdav]

Where have you been/ There are no new refineries but many are in the process of doubling capacity on the gulf coast. There are like 12 billon in upgrades Motiva will have the largest refinery in the uS when completed. near were I live alone. Then look at the projects in louisana;missippi and alabama. That's not to even count the pipeline that conoco phillips and canada are putting in the will double the size just recently announced that will run fron canada to the Texas gulf coast.Don't know where your getting your iformation but it is very dated as the refinery poroject wre annponced over the last two years and keep mounting. No new refiineries because of the blocks the democrats have had in palce for a decde that no one wants to deal with. Then when you look at natural gas we have sevral new LNG reciving facilities being bult now;that can handle all that natrual gas being burnt off from no way to get it to market for years.Besides which their is alot of natural gas off the east coast. In the end with all the damnad verus supplies and 5000 billion a year going overseas for crude alone things wil heat up as peole keep paying more for our stalling and that goes for nuclear electric production as demand out strips supply in the electric grid.

[KevinM782]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

There should absolutely be no oil drilling offshore.
We are not going to drill our way out of this problem.

First...it will take years before we can reap any of the benefits...and at best it would be a few cents per gallon...at best...because off shore drilling is VERY expensive to do.

Then...the consequences for the environment make this not feasible. Off shore drilling weakened the shelf in the Gulf contributing to less of a natural defense for Katrina.

Is it really worth it to destroy pristine beaches you enjoy vacationing on just so Jerry Jones and other greedy wealthy corrupt oilman like King Bush can pad their kingdom?

Do you really think the endless massacre and suffering of helpless.defenseless spices is worth it just to make Bush's mansion bigger?

Maybe you should read this article.

Where Have All the Blue Crabs Gone? - AOL News (broken link)

It's about a place called the Chesapeake Bay...it once was home to billions of blue crab...but thanks to overdevelopment...pollutants have seeped into the bay and wiped out the crabbing industry.

Even without a major disaster,...the environment is sensitivity and damaged enough that offshore is inevitable going to cause similar specie and natural disaster wipeouts....while HARLDY helping at the pump.

It's time to focus on being smart about natural resources...driving less...getting smaller cars...and making hybrids more mainstream.

Is it really worth it to have your Chevy Suburban or Hummer that badly?
All a drop in gas prices will do...and off shore drilling is hardly a guarantee...is it will make more yuppies and posers go back to buying Hummers and pickups to do their shopping at Nordstrom’s in.

Yes...the Exxon oil spill in Alaska really is worth the risk because we just can't live without a Suburban.
A Trailblazer is just too small and puny...we need an XXXL SUV with a V10 that can tow 10,000 pounds to show off our manliness!

You people are so short sided you make me sick.

Your post made me laugh. Are you really placing some of the blame for stronger hurricanes on offshore drillers?? There is no evidence that it does any significant damage to the shelf.

I'm not really sure why you posted an article that talks about pollution from runoff and not oil... perhaps because it is difficult to find any articles about spills from offshore drilling! More than 150 times the amount of oil that leaked from offshore wells seeped naturally from the Earth into U.S. waters.

Offshore drilling is not going to destroy the beaches. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita put over 3,000 platforms and over 20,000 miles of pipelines in their direct path and there wasn't a single spill! Production was stopped and the safety valves and control systems worked perfectly. There are all kinds of regulations that drillers must follow and they are effective at preventing environmental damage.

You also cited the Exxon oil spill. Let me get this straight, you don't want us to drill a hundred miles offshore and you would rather someone else drill and ship the oil thousands of miles to the U.S. when the biggest spills in history have come from oil tankers???

I'm also tired of hearing the argument that it will take 5 years or more to get the oil into production. It isn't a quick fix but I really don't think we have any quick fix options. We should push for more forms of alternative energy but those are decades away from being feasible. 2013 will be here soon enough and if we don't start moving to drill offshore now, we'll wish we had when 2013 comes around. This same argument was made 10 years ago but people figured it wasn't worth it because it would take too long... Here we are 10 years later with oil in short supply...

I'm not saying that drilling off of our shores will solve our problems because it won't. But, at least it will lessen the impact of sending over half a trillion dollars out of our country to foreign nations every year.

[texdav]

Besides that he has to realise that 500 billon dollars per year go to foreign countries to pay for crude oil;that money comes from consumers pockets to oil to the foreigners. Of corse it takes years to bring into product but it always has and veen longer then. If we had not stopped drilling i these areas years ago they would be producing HOW. We would be getting elctricity from nuclear HOW instead of the rolling blackout coming and grid problems of the last few years. Excess capacity has alot to do with the price of oil especailly when so much of it comes from regions that very time they sneeze teh markets panic that thsi is the big blow that is likely to come. If we don't drill then think about it in the coming years when you are waiting in line for thst 5 gallon ration you get several days a week.High prices are one thing but higher price and shortages are something else. Rem,ember the 70's when they had to assign police in many cities because of trouble at the pumps because tempers will flare.

[silas777]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

Kev, I love your posts. Aside the fact you're an unabashed & admitted 100% union brainwashed liberal, you love to make things up and try and sell them as facts.

Honestly, it's part of what keeps me coming back.

You're just awe inspiring.

That just about sums it up! When the whole premise of the post is make believe, it 's kind of like, what ever!!

[silas777]

Originally Posted by KevK

Finally I would invest $100 billion into the national railroads so that we could get trains up to 200 mph and run off electricity. This would allow airlines to concentrate on people going 600 miles or more and the railroads servicing those going 600 or less. With fewer flights, less oil would be used.

now that one takes the cake kev! Amtrak is such a success story you know!

[kidicarus89]

The detrimental effect on the environment is really the big issue here, irrelevant to the question are tourists and residents who live in the area, as well as the price of gasoline.