DISQUS

If you folks could stop whining about not getting enough subsudies and start producing competative energy, we would all be better off. If you can't compete at these oil prices, you never will. Nuclear power, coal, oil, natural gas they can deliver. Put up or shut up!

Just keep repeating that tired old lie: "It won't help prices and there's not much oil."

Whatever you do, don't google the words "offshore drilling Brazil" and find out how Brazil is becoming as rich as the Saudis thanks to offshore drilling. Don't check out Norway which is already rich for the same reason.

Don't bother to worry that imported oil in tankers is much more likely to spill on your precious beaches. Ignore the fact that offshore drilling would pay 40% in royalties, leases and taxes to the American people. Don't think about all the jobs we are losing to imports.

In short, keep your head in the sand. But, don't expect the rest of us to follow suit..

These are such tired, oft repeated misconceptions that I have given them numbers:

Misconception #2. The oil can’t be brought to the market for a long time.

The oil off California is shallow, in shallow water and close to shore. There is production that has been shut in and can be re-activated in a year or two. The seismic data (echo sounding subsurface exploration recordings) for that area of California exist. I have worked with some myself about 25 years ago. Oil is so plentiful it oozes out of the seafloor and the land (You might have heard of the La Brea Tar Pits?)

Misconception #15. The Speaker of the House says there are millions of acres of leases that are idled by the oil companies. Shouldn’t they be forced to drill?
As I said before, the lease gets you the right to explore and IF you find oil, you can develop it. Those “idle” leases are either still under exploration (which, in difficult areas, can take many years) or have already been proven unproductive. The Feds don’t give your money back when there’s no oil on your lease, despite what you may have spent on exploration. In short, you can’t drill it if it’s not there and if it is there it must be located precisely before it can be drilled.

After a set term the lease is again open to bidding, in case someone else thinks they can find something. Yes, “use it or lose it” is ALREADY the law of the land. Nevertheless, the majors are out in the Gulf investing billions in leases, exploration and infrastructure, though it might be decades before the payoff. All that lease money, incidentally, goes to the federal tax base immediately.

This is better explained in a Wall Street Journal piece by Red Cavaney, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. The 'Idle' Oil Field Fallacy By RED CAVANEY
The Wall Street Journal June 20, 2008; Page A13

Misconception #4. There is ‘not that much oil’ offshore
Tell it the Brazilians. They have recently discovered two “Saudi” sized oilfields off their shores. Brazil has gone from importing almost all their fuel to energy independence by a combination of both ethanol and oil exploration in a few decades. They now become energy exporters and will be rich beyond their dreams. There is every reason to suspect that the same sort of resources exist off our own shores, but we are not going to find out if we don’t look.
People who have not been paying attention will tell you that it was Ethanol alone. The overall road transport sector (Including trucks and busses) in Brazil uses only 20% Ethanol (2006 figures - Wikipedia). Before you say that it is more environmentally safe, ask yourself how much Amazon rainforest was burned to make room for all that sugarcane.

Misconception #9. Offshore drilling kills marine life.

Oil platforms have been proven to increase both the numbers and diversity of marine life by acting as artificial reefs. Fishermen actually seek out the rigs for that reason.

What does kill marine life is farm-country fertilizer run off that spills out into the Gulf of Mexico and has created a “Dead Zone” the size of the State of New Jersey. With more crops planted for the “green fuel” ethanol, the Zone is expanding. Attempting to replace all the oil in our economy with biofuels will accelerate this process enormously.

There is no energy source that has zero impact on the environment. Telling me biofuels are better is nonsense while farm run off is having such a devastating effect on my local environment.

Geophys55