Drill! Drill! Drill!: Volume II
 

Offshore Drilling Is Coming to a Vote
Democrats to Offer a Mix of Proposals

Congressional Democrats, balancing political reality against a policy they have long opposed, are on the cusp of approving legislation that would open the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil drilling as close as 50 miles offshore.

With votes scheduled this week in the House and Senate, Democrats have essentially given up defending the current ban on drilling within 200 miles offshore along both coasts. Instead, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), they are offering a mix of proposals that would allow drilling, with the waters off Massachusetts, Virginia and Georgia most likely to be the first affected.

Environmentalists and industry analysts disagree over the impact the various legislative proposals would have on oil production, with industry experts contending that the most precious reserves still would be off-limits. But both sides agree that -- because of the politics of $4-a-gallon gasoline this summer and a pending legislative deadline -- the nearly 40-year drilling ban is in jeopardy.

"It's in deep, deep trouble. I won't pronounce it dead, but it's in deep trouble," said Warner Chabot, a vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group opposed to drilling.

House and Senate Democrats have been assembling different proposals for the past few weeks after absorbing months of Republican criticism as gas prices soared. Under pressure from moderate Democrats fearful of November election losses, Pelosi took the first formal step Wednesday by unveiling a proposal that would open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling at least 100 miles offshore. If governors and state legislatures agree, drilling off each state's coast would be allowed 50 miles from shore.

Pelosi had previously suggested opening only portions of the southeastern Atlantic coast and some of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling, but ultimately offered to allow drilling off both coastlines. The eastern gulf off Florida's west coast would remain off-limits.

Under the Pelosi bill, scheduled for a vote Tuesday, the federal government would not share royalties with the states, devoting the money instead toward federal funding for renewable energy resources. Taxes on oil companies would be increased, with that revenue also going to alternative energy sources.
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A separate proposal, developed by about 20 Senate Democrats and Republicans, also would move the drilling boundary to 100 miles offshore, with states given the option to set it at 50 miles. But under that plan, new Atlantic drilling would be limited to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The Senate plan would allow no drilling in the Pacific.

In a key difference with Pelosi's bill, the Senate legislation would allow new drilling off Florida's west coast.

Some industry experts question the effect of the proposals, citing federal studies that show that more than 80 percent of known oil reserves are inside the 50-mile limit and therefore unavailable. Very little is known about oil reserves beyond 100 miles. Waters off almost the entire Pacific coast -- where all three governors oppose drilling at the 50-mile barrier -- is considered too deep for drilling 100 miles offshore.

"You would just open a door to an empty room at the end of a very long hallway," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, an organization funded by the oil industry. Kennedy also said that, without some sort of revenue sharing for state governments, there would be little incentive for states to approve additional drilling.

more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302428.html

Drill baby drill! Hatty wants to buy a Range Rover!:D

Yes, I've been dreaming of a Lamborghini LM002!

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The US Energy Information Administration says.

"Offshore oil drilling will have no effects on fuel prices or production until the year 2030."

And after 2030 ?

"... insignificant impact on fuel prices after 2030"

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But it will have and impact on your next fish dinner....



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Coming soon to your next fish dinner, even more .....

EPA: arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, barite, chrome lignosulfate, petroleum hydrocarbons, vanadium, copper, aluminum, chromium, zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, radionuclides, and other heavy metals, oil and grease, ethylbenzene, napthalene, toluene, zinc, ethylene, fuels, surfacants, biocides, detergents, corrosion inhibitors, bleach, cleaning solvents, coagulants.

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United States Government Energy Information Administration ( EIA )

Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html

"The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030."

"… any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-Albert Einstein.

:jester:
RichC

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Was it not yoy who decried the use of FEAR to motivate people in politics?
Something about distracting people while something else is being done away from the spotlight?

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Fear is the great motivator now.

I liked it better when it was sex.

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So what do you think is being done in the dark ?

:jester:
RichC

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and the reign will kill us all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5BX5VqGirM

:jester:

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Fear is a great short term motivator. Long term it just leads to cynicism--like me. My life's ambition is to be one of those 2 curmudgeons who sat in the side balcony on THE MUPPET SHOW.

It is good or bad according to him depending on his mood or what he wants to achieve.

Bipolar disorder is not a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood, clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania. Individuals who experience manic episodes also commonly experience depressive episodes or symptoms, or mixed episodes in which features of both mania and depression are present at the same time. These episodes are normally separated by periods of normal mood, but in some patients, depression and mania may rapidly alternate, known as rapid cycling. Extreme manic episodes can sometimes lead to psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. The disorder has been subdivided into bipolar I, bipolar II, Bipolar NOS, and cyclothymia based on the type and severity of mood episodes experienced.

From Wiki about people who are bipolar.

I don't know about you but I don't think fear made me a cynic. More like what I have seen people do that makes me a cynic.

Fear or not, this doesn't change the fact that by the most accurate assessment we have offshore oil drilling will have no positive effect for decades, and even then it will be negligible. Wake up people, this offshore drilling is nothing but stupid pandering just like the gas tax holiday was, except this time many more people are falling for it.

Man, that calendar gets longer every time it gets pseudo-referenced. How long will it take offshore oil to get to market?

Let's assume your calendar is right. It's too bad we didn't start that drilling back in the Clinton Administration, huh?

No, you're missing the part about "insignificant impact". I think it's a complete waste and a distraction from the real solution.

So you or them or whomever is saying that whether we drill or not, nothing will change? Or are they talking of one narrow aspect? I am having a hard time understanding how any oil we find and sell has no impact on our economy as far as jobs, income, etc, etc.

It is funny how today oil dropped to $94/bbl and they are now predicting it to head down past $75 soon... Gee amazing even with IKE once the spculator got shaken out of the market the prices are correcting themselves.