Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Can Offshore Drilling Lower Gas Prices?
The idea of offshore drilling is on everyone's mind, but are President Bush and John McCain's calls to start drilling off the coast of Florida and in wildlife reserves in Alaska going to help us save at the pump?
Stephen Colbert said on his show the other night: "When I first started paying $4/gallon for gas, I didn't mind, I thought I was just getting better gas." Being the king of satire, Colbert 'sided' with the offshore drilling proponents, mostly because he hates bears.
But all kidding aside, the plan will not lower gas prices for at least 15 - 30 years. Even if both coasts, including every offshore site in California, New Jersey, and Virginia were also opened up to the oil companies, we wouldn't see 'cheaper oil' anytime soon. So why do they keep proposing it as the money saving venture we need to do?
I don't want to delve too much into conspiracy theories or political rants, but many people are left wondering if these 'offshore proposals' are meant to appease oil companies eager to get more sites before Bush peaces out for good.
The honest truth of the matter can be explained succinctly by Brian Kennedy, Senior Vice President at the Institute for Energy Research, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. In an interview with MainStreet he says increased domestic oil drilling is a long way off from lowering our gas prices. Even if it does happen, we may only see a few cents dropped off the price of a gallon. And that's not for at least a few decades, imagine what the prices will be at that point.
One NY Times editorial even attempts to explain how the oil companies already have 68 billion acres of land with oil that they just aren't using, including other drill-able areas in the Gulf of Mexico and in the non-wildlife protected zones of Alaska.
The only clear solution, which Obama has been trumpeting, is to put the money into non-oil based technologies like greener alternatives and larger electricity grids for electric cars. But as eloquent and pro-active as Obama is, we still won't be able to shake the oil habit anytime soon. High gas prices are for Americans have become the new reality. But if you think we're complaining, take a look over at Europe.
Can McCain come up with some feasible options besides do-nothing gas tax holidays and ineffective domestic drilling proposals? I hope so.
Everyone loves a good old fashioned WallStreetFighter 'gas and oil prices' post. Show your love/hate in the comments section. As if you need to be told to...
MainStreet: Drilling OffShore, June 20, 2008
Care2: Lowering Oil Prices?, June 19, 2008
AP: Obama criticizes McCain on Offshore Drilling, June 21, 2008
Comments
First, Colbert rules :)Second, I posted
First, Colbert rules :)
Second, I posted about this subject last week when it first came up. Bottom line, even if we wanted to do it there are no rigs for us. We are so far behind it is sad. Meanwhile Congress is still blocking even the piddly amount for wind and solar credits. And then the Oil Man in Chief, 7.5 years into the presidency starts bringing up these proposals. laughable. All of them in D.C.
http://tinyurl.com/4cjomr
Most of Europe's gas price is due to
Most of Europe's gas price is due to high taxes. There is no excuse for going from less than $2 a gallon to $4.50 a gallon in 3 years other than greed. Oil runs the world and our government. No one can stop it. You will see no alternatives until oil companies figure out how to control these new alternatives. There are a handful of men who run the world, all in oil. We just will be forced to suck it up, sacrifice our creature comforts, children's educations, big trucks, and smile as we get the oil hose where the sun don't shine.
The attempts to stop off shore drilling
The attempts to stop off shore drilling and the opening of anwr on the basis that it will not help in the next few months and years is laughable. Such drilling is an attempt to keep prices low for the future. Where will we be in 10-15 years? Unless the market is allowed to act with out interference it cannot correct itself. This is simple economics.
Might I add two words..."Refining
Might I add two words..."Refining Capacity". We need to be able to build more refineries.We need to open more drilling leases offshore, SURE! But we must also keep up with refining capacity to increase the amount of gasoline. Only so much will change by drilling more and more, but maybe if had been building refineries for the last 35 years instead of ceasing all new refinery construction back in the 70's we would be able to do more with our oil leases that are already open. Why are there nothing but blind idiots in Washington. Oh Yeah, because we put them there.
tradermark:"Bottom line, even if we
tradermark:
"Bottom line, even if we wanted to do it there are no rigs for us."
This doesn't make any sense. If there aren't any rigs right now, then they'll build more when it makes economic sense to do so. It doesn't make economic sense right now because US companies are prohibited from using rigs off the coast of the US. Which is especially dumb since Chinese, French, and other companies are allowed to drill off the coast of the US, and are doing so.
-- MattM
tradermark:"Bottom line, even if we
tradermark:
"Bottom line, even if we wanted to do it there are no rigs for us. We are so far behind it is sad. Meanwhile Congress is still blocking even the piddly amount for wind and solar credits."
You don't see the irony here? On the one hand, you suggest we shouldn't drill for oil because it would take years to see any benefit.
On the other hand, you support the use of solar and wind energy. These sources are so far behind in technology and manufacturing that it would ... [wait for it] ... take years to see any real benefits from credits for solar or wind energy. And before they can replace or even really supplement our oil-based economy, we'd have to completely overhaul our supporting infrastructure. How many decades would that take? And even then, we're assuming that we'll come up with new technology that will make these energy sources viable (which they aren't right now, unless you support building enough solar panels to cover 4 Western states).
So remind me again why we should not allow drilling for oil, but we should spend billions of dollars on unproven alternative energy sources?
-- MattM