What are people's opinions on offshore drilling to reduce the price of gas? Is this better than developing alternate energy sources and technology for personal transportation?
The oil companies have little financial incentive to start expensive new drilling. Their goal is to make money, not conduct foreign policy on behalf of the government.
CHECK OUT the Steam Engine "Batmobile" from England that is now being tested near Salt Lake City.
Will it change your thinking and Detroit drawing boards! (re: Popular Mechanics)
Today, there are 1941 drilling rigs in operation in the United States. Every rig able to turn a drill-bit is in operation. Trying to find MORE OIL is not the answer. Using LESS OIL is the answer..
Any oil found and extracted from deepwater, offshore locations will be $150/barrel oil.
Try this on. Any motor vehicle that gets 50 mpg or better is exempt from Federal safety and emissions regulations. Lets see what a free marketplace can produce if turned loose. We can clean it up later if need be..
caddyman?
Try this on. Any motor vehicle that gets 50 mpg or better is exempt from Federal safety and emissions regulations.
You got a link for reference on that? Never heard that before! If true I still don't see it helping much. Most states wont allow vehicles under specific qualifications on the interstates. Some states require these little compact low horse power electric and/or fuel vehicles to follow the licensing and regulations of mopeds while some class them as motorcycles. Each state has it's own regulations and I suppose a lot of it involves a minimum horsepower to weight ratio or similar.
I know In SC they are only allowed on city and neighborhood streets. No interstate use. I think the hi-ways are ok if the vehicle is capable of at least 45 MPH. Full size EV/hybrids are allowed on the interstates but must follow all the same safety and emission standards of the federal regulations.
If you are converting a US produced vehicle you must maintain the regulations of that production year. A guy in Rock Hill, NC runs a bussiness doing just that. I have noticed most of his work is on older vehicles that have less equipment to simplify the conversion. A recent production can be done but will cost you much more than it's worth. The heavily equiped current production vehicles have a tone of stuff to deal with.
I think Caddyman means "try this idea on for size." It isn't true currently. I think it is a good idea. Look at all the motorcycles being run without catalytic converters. They don't require ABS, airbags, or crumple zones. If we relaxed these same standards for cars that get more than 50 MPG, we would save a lot of fuel. You could buy an economical small car that gets fuel economy as good as or better than the average motorcycle. Just make sure there is enough room inside for me to wear a helmet.
Buy someone else's oil until we really cant afford it anymore.Keep the domestic supply in reserve,something like saving for a rainy day. I say dont panic that rainy day is not here....yet.
We need additional resources, including off-shore drilling and mining of oil shale and tar sands. The latter two are economically feasible at over $100 per barrel of oil, as are deep ocean wells. The folks who do that are on the case, but it takes a while to re-open the mines and ramp up (and build new) extraction facilities. Alternate energy sources are a great idea, too. I suspect that plug-in hybrids from GM and Toyota might be here before the oil shale/tar sands projects have a meaningful impact.
If you want to have an immediate impact car pool, take public transportation, and slow down. If everyone who goes 75 slowed to 65, they would save 10% to 20% in fuel use. Fat chance of that happening, but it just goes to show you that many people would rather pay more at the pump than slow down and pay less even at over $4/gal.
I agree that we nee dto open up offshore drilling as well as ANWR. Our government is doing us no favors by limiting access to significant known reserves, allowing the middle east to plunder our wealth. We're also allowing the middle eastern countries to move in to dominate other expanding world markets such as China while we sit idly by.
The oil companies hold drilling leases on 64 million acres of federal land. They should drill there first. It is like my parents always said, "Clean your plate first, then you can have seconds."
There has been legislation proposed to this effect, however the reality is that this land is leased to protect reserves that are already being tapped. One are of drilling can be pulling from a reserve of enormous acreage.
Requiring drilling of already leased land will not increase supply. Only drilling in untapped reserves will do that.
If all these areas were being drilled, U.S. oil production could be boosted by nearly 5 million barrels a day, up from about 8 million barrels a day currently.
That compares to an increase of maybe 2 million barrels a day experts say opening up other coastal areas and the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge might yield....
...But fearing oil prices will eventually fall, the industry is leery about making too many investments in the fields it has - many of which are in deepwater areas that can be pricey to develop.
Instead, they're holding out, hoping the government will open areas closer to shore that would be cheaper to work on.*
If all these areas were being drilled, U.S. oil production could be boosted by nearly 5 million barrels a day, up from about 8 million barrels a day currently.
That compares to an increase of maybe 2 million barrels a day experts say opening up other coastal areas and the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge might yield....
...But fearing oil prices will eventually fall, the industry is leery about making too many investments in the fields it has - many of which are in deepwater areas that can be pricey to develop.
Instead, they're holding out, hoping the government will open areas closer to shore that would be cheaper to work on.*
According to the news show I saw...there is no legislation action needed for the oil companies to drill in these 64 million acres. The legislation action I heard about is to open NEW areas for drilling.
Glad somebody brought it up. Its about time we start doing some long range planning. We would have been there if Clinton hadn't scrubbed the plan 12 years ago.
1. Yes, drill off shore and ANWAR. That's what it was set aside for in the first place.
2. Yes, change the leasing agrreements to force development of land already leased for production.
3. Yes, prohibit oil produced in the US to be exported, period. Not to China.
4. Yes, an agressive approach to alternative such as eth from grass not necessarily corn, like Brazil has done for heavens sake.
5. Yes, an aggressive approach to hybrids.
6. Yes, an aggressive approach to nuclear plants and improving the grid.
7. Yes, an aggressive approach to restricting investment bankers and pension fund managers from using a resource necessary for national security as a way to make millions.
Yes it will take years but we need to quit thinking that conservation in a growing economy will do the trick and get on with the project. Need a little leadership folks and less politics. We evidently have more oil in the US than the Mid East so lets start using what we have. Affordable energy is an absolute essential to a growing economy and the good of the average American. Let's quit arguing and get on with it.
We should probably do all those things, but don't kid yourself that the result will be less expensive energy. The current sources of energy (including the imports) are the cheapest available, that's why we are using them instead of developing domestic sources and alternatives (the oil industry would have rolled over the environmentalists decades ago if it was in their interest). When the cost per barrel gets to about $2-300 we will have more incentive to develop these other sources. You have just outlined several 100 billion dollars of initiatives, most of which will probably happen in the next few decades and all of which would have to be payed for by U.S. energy consumers.
This is not about a shortage of energy, this is about a shortage of cheap energy. The U.S. energy market will eventually reach a supply/demand equilibrium again, at a significantly higher price point.
Something to keep in mind is that many wells in the U.S. have been shut down. The oil is there but they're not pumping.
In one large field about 20 miles south of me a large number of wells were closed about 15-20 years ago. These wells had the pumping units removed, electric lines pulled, and they were then cemented over and covered with dirt. They're completely grass and tree covered now and one would never know from driving by there that only a few decades ago pumping units were sitting about a 100 yards apart and working like crazy.
These are small stripper wells and it reached the point it was not considered economically feasible to keep them in operation, especially after lease owners and operators were hit with higher taxes on them. Even with higher oil prices none have been reopened.
High gas prices have really hurt here in Oklahoma due to everything being spread out; mainly due to gas/oil and farming interests. It requires a lot of driving to get anywhere or do anythinng. Out in the NW corner of the state and the Panhandle it's far worse than it is here. Even a trip to Wal Mart out there is a 50 miles + journey, and that's one-way.
Addresses in the Panhandle are placed on signs on the highway with the name, say John Doe, as 10 miles N., 4 miles W., 1/2 S., etc. so there is no short hopping out there. SUVs and pickups are a necessity out there because high ground clearance, 4WD, large carrying capacity, etc is required due to the terrain.
06/23/2008 10:12:53 AM
