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Parties Split on How to Expand Offshore Drilling
Clifford Krauss, New York Times
The two political parties have settled on markedly different strategies for improving domestic oil supplies to help lower gasoline prices.
Republicans want to end the 27-year ban on offshore drilling along much of the nation’s coastline, while Democrats want to force companies to speed up exploration in certain offshore areas that they already control. A version of the Democratic plan may come to a vote in the House of Representatives as early as Thursday.
But oil experts say that neither approach will give drivers any relief in the short run from prices that stood Wednesday at nearly $4.07 a gallon, on average. They say the simple reality is that no one knows how much oil is to be found offshore, how difficult producing it would turn out to be or how many years that might take.
And oil companies, amid a global drilling frenzy, are stretched so thin they will be hard-pressed to take on big new projects anytime soon. More than 400 major drilling and production projects are competing for engineers, rigs, seismic equipment and steel to build platforms, and the costs of doing the work have skyrocketed.
“All the partisan ideas that are being offered fall short of producing the huge amount of barrels of oil we need,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an oil expert at Rice University. “There’s no guarantee to drilling, but it could make a contribution eventually the same way alternative energy and conservation may help.”
…The biggest problem is that much of the coastal United States, subject to a drilling ban since the early 1980s, has not been thoroughly explored for oil. Neither the industry nor the government has any definitive idea how much could be recovered.
(26 June 2008)
Contributor Scott Chisholm Lamont writes:
Is it just me, or have IQ’s just dropped sharply in Washington? Amy Jaffe’s comment that “alternative energy and conservation may help” is particularly galling, and I have heard it repeated by legislators on radio interviews.
Demand reduction is the only thing that will make a short term difference in price for consumers, yet there seems to be zero leadership on this aspect, and some local governments are cutting public transit due to fuel costs impacting budgets.
Where is Congress on this issue? Why are they not providing additional funds to support local governments under stress so that services go up, not down, thereby making options available for consumers to leave their cars in the garage?
Additionally, alternative energy needs to be implemented for homes dependent on heating oil BEFORE winter sets in, as demand for distillates is a huge part of the problem. Last but not least, there is no mention of how much oil would be estimated to be recoverable – 18 billion barrels might sound like a lot, until someone says how much might actually be pumped. The graphic accompanying the article mentions estimated reserves in the affected areas “may provide 28 months supply” if “all the oil could be recovered”.
Democrat and Environmentalist Turns Traitor on Drilling for Oil
James Kingsdale, iStockAnalyst
I’ve become a Bush Democrat. I’m so convinced, thanks particularly to the Bush years, that the Republican party is on the wrong track fiscally, internationally, environmentally, and socially in terms of judicial appointments that I would vote for a broomstick if it were a Democrat against any Republican for any office. That even includes Charlie Christ and a few other Republicans whom I respect greatly. I just don’t want that party in power any more.
But (you knew there was a “but”) I think the Democrats and the environmentalists are wrong about a key aspect of energy policy, drilling for oil. I think the U.S. needs to drill, drill, drill – everywhere. That is, assuming control by each state of the final decision regarding their respective shores. And in a safe way, to be sure. And only as part of a broader energy policy that includes strong incentives to transition to electric vehicles and produce electricity in clean and renewable ways. And I would add a windfall profits tax on excess oil company profits too, as I discussed a few days ago.
The main reason the Democrats are wrong about drilling is actually the central argument that they themselves make: that it will not produce oil for ten years. But, hey guys and gals, that’s exactly when we are REALLY going to need it.
(23 June 2008)
Election Spin 2008
Hans Noeldner, Entropic Journal
Now that the final stretch of Election 2008 is underway, Neo-Conservative spin on energy issues is becoming obvious.
(1) High gasoline prices? It’s the fault of environmentalists (i.e. DEMOCRATS.) These guys – and their bosom buddies the trial attorneys and activist judges – have managed for far too long to block exploration and extraction of vast reserves right here in America.
… (4) How much oil is really available in areas that are currently off-limits, and how soon can oil corporations get it to the (American) consumer? American companies must be allowed to produce more American oil – end of discussion. There shall be no mention of realistic estimates of recoverable reserves, the mind-boggling number of holes already poked into this highly-perforated continent, nor of the brine-laden dribble from US wells which currently average tens or sometimes hundreds of barrels per day rather than the thousands and tens-of-thousands which obtained in the prior century.
(5) What about long lead-times for new infrastructure? What about looming shortages of highly trained, experienced personnel as the aging petroleum workforce retires? Details, details! Again, acknowledging these factors will only detract the public’s 15-second attention span from the Main Point: Everything is the fault of Democrats.
(6) What about leaving some oil in the ground for future generations? Acknowledging that our heirs might have more important things to do with oil than burn it in speedboats, riding lawn mowers, and flights to Vail to play on the powdery slopes shall be Grounds for immediate decapitation. Technology and The Market – not frugality and enlightened restraint – are The Answer. Oh, and by the way, Democrats are the blackguards who always block The Market from optimizing Technology.
… Will the Democratic Party act like the proverbial deer in the headlights if/when Energy comes to dominate the campaign? Unfortunately, refuting the Supply-Side Fairytale in the realm of political “reality” requires that a voting majority must have the rudimentary ability to grasp basic scientific and geological facts. Nor does it help that the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the looming exhaustion of low-entropy, environmentally-benign energy “sources” virtually ensure that our Happy Motoring Days will sputter to a halt rather soon.
The troubles that lie ahead call for much more than “change”. They demand a truly courageous, sweeping new vision of a sustainable civilization – along with equitably-shared sacrifices, hard work, and a pervasive dedication to the common good we-the-people have not evinced since WWII. Unfortunately real citizenship doesn’t “sell” anymore. Or that’s what we – and our “leaders” – keep telling ourselves.
(24 June 2008)
