Rusted Sky

T. Boone Pickens' new TV ad for his Texas wind farm says we're sending $700 Billion abroad every year to pay for our petroleum addiction.

What's worse, large chunks of that money are being sent to countries fundamentally antagonistic to America and to the human values America stands for.

Pelosi and company may not have created the energy crisis but they are doing everything in their power to make it as bad as possible in the hopes they can blame it all on the Republicans and gain total control of all three branches of government in November.

Nuke Denver, its the only way to be sure!

otpu

There are no limits or requirements on domestic oil drilling. Oil found in ANWR could be shipped to China or India -- it can be sold to anyone anywhere.

The idea that drilling in ANWR will reduce domestic oil imports is total BS.

Well, if anyone knows BS it's you, Lee. Increasing the total supply of oil in the world will do what -

A - raise the price of oil
B - lower the price of oil
c - keep the price the same

Which party is most invested in keeping the total supply of oil less than world demand?

Thanks.

J.

By the way, Lee - last I checked ANWR WAS domestic, part of the 50 United States, ya know.

But on another point - oil companies want to drill where the oil is easiest to find and extract. If they thought they could profitably drill elsewhere than some god-forsaken stretch of frozen tundra, you think they wouldn't?

J.

I know that ANWR is domestic -- but the oil found there, if drilling was allowed, is not "domestic oil" -- it can be shipped anywhere. There is nothing that says it will come into the US and reduce gasoline prices here.

"oil companies want to drill where the oil is easiest to find and extract. If they thought they could profitably drill elsewhere than some god-forsaken stretch of frozen tundra, you think they wouldn't?"

I think the oil companies are (1) interested in more profits, and (2) interested in grabbing more land leases.

Both of those interests are being served by higher oil and gasoline prices today.

Republicans are not interested in the interests that serve Americans, they're interested in protecting and furthering the interests of oil companies.

One look at the price of gasoline and the record BILLIONS in profits for the oil companies will tell you how successful the 8-year Republican Bush administration has been at protecting the oil companies' interests.

According to http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Programs/oilandgas/leasing/CO_leasing_information.html - the lease term is for 10 years, and then it expires if it isn't producing gas or oil.

I believe the process is that they lease the land - THEN do their testing to see if oil's under it. If the tests show an oil dome is underneath, or a promising formation - they drill. If it's dry, they chalk up a loss. If it produces, but not economically (1-10 bbls/day) they shrug and cap it. I don't know the flow rate per day that makes a productive well - I'd imagine that varies from company to company. 3 or 4 dry wells, and the lease is abandoned and reverts back to the BLM.

You can't get oil if the oil isn't there. The lease expires after 10 years if you aren't getting oil or gas out of it.

Seems simple enough to me - as I said, the oil companies want to drill where there's oil. And if a lease is dry, they won't hold onto it.

If you want to see the truth behind the Democrat's claim that the oil companies are just sitting on 68 million acres of leases and refusing to exploit them just Google the term "Destin Dome".

Here's one article: http://www.cumber.com/commentary.aspx?file=062908.asp&n=l_mc

Five years after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, Congress amended the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to give states, local governments and environmental groups more leeway to challenge drilling in federal waters off their coasts, and they did just that with the enthusiasm of terriers chasing rats.

Those bans didn't cover the Destin Dome, which went on the block in 1984. Chevron and partners Conoco and Murphy Exploration & Production drilled three exploratory wells there in 1987, 1989 and 1995 that found an estimated 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. But to actually produce gas, Chevron needed federal and state approval.

Chevron proposed drilling 12 to 21 gas wells. Florida bureaucrats took their sweet time before nixing the application two years later. Chevron appealed to the Department of Commerce, which can overturn state decisions. Reluctant to upset anyone, Commerce simply stalled. Under the law, there is no deadline on appeals. Chevron sued the federal government in 2000, claiming it had been denied a timely and fair review of its plans. Clinton stepped down, and Bush II was sworn in. His Commerce Department twiddled its thumbs, too. Meanwhile, Bush met secretly with Florida's then-governor -- his brother Jeb -- a foe of offshore drilling. They agreed to have the federal government buy back the leases for $115 million and place a moratorium on drilling at the Dome until 2011. There are now 140 actual leased tracts there that can’t be drilled, reports Lisa Flavin, a senior policy adviser at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington

Read the whole thing. Its a cautionary tale of how governmental bungling and special interest politics can come together to serve the worst interests of the public.

otpu

John -

It's becoming very apparent the Democrats know they've screwed up. You can see it in their changing message - first, we couldn't drill because it wouldn't make any difference in the price of oil in the long run. Now, after oil drops $10 a barrel after Bush announces he's rescinding the drilling ban - the mantra is "It won't make any difference tomorrow if drilling is started!"

They keep trying to justify NOT drilling, NOT going to oil shale - all as if we're NOT going to be needing oil.

I guess they're right - if they can collapse the economy to 1930s levels, we certainly won't need as much!

J.

There's also a problem due to suits by environmental organizations. According to a Fox News report yesterday, there are at least 100 lawsuits to prevent drilling presently in the courts, and if one is settled, they start another one which prevents any action until that one is settled. In other words, they're suing to prevent the drilling by keeping the oil companies in a legal limbo. It doesn't matter whether the suit has any basis, the oil companies are prevented from drilling just simply because a suit is in process. And that's where they'll stay until the enviromentalists run out of suits.
Someone somewhere asked where the money is coming from to finance all these legal manuvers - I started searching, and couldn't even find the names of the organizations involved other than the Sierra Club.

One article mentioned that "Two groups filed suit..." in Alaska, but I could only find one name in the article. I figure first a list, then look at financial sources.

I have a feeling that Soros is behind much of this...both the speculation and the suits. He wants to bring down the USA, and if oil will do it, he'll go for it. I was astounded to learn that only 5% of the futures price is required to buy the commodities for speculation. That isn't much for Soros - he can buy one heck of a lot on that basis. I wonder how much of the oils futures he owns...