Drill bits: The uphill battle to lift domestic restrictions Update: McCain. Ugh.
GOP Rep. John Peterson of Pennsylvania offered an amendment a year ago to permit offshore natural gas drilling. It was defeated 196-233 by do-nothing Democrats now panicked over high gas prices and forecasts of declining energy supplies from non-OPEC nations.
Peterson is pushing his amendment again today before a House Appropriations subcommittee, but it’s another uphill battle. For the Dems, you see, doing something about energy independence ain’t as fun as whining about it:
Supporters of a proposal to allow drilling for oil and gas off the U.S. coastline are expected to make their case to a House panel Wednesday.
Offshore oil and gas production has been banned off most of the U.S. coastline since Congress approved the Outer Continental Shelf moratorium in 1981, which prevented the leasing of coastal waters for fossil fuel development.
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., wants to change that with an amendment to the Interior Department spending bill to be considered by a House Appropriations subcommittee. The amendment would lift the prohibition on exploration 50 to 200 miles offshore but continue to ban drilling within 50 miles of the coastline.
“For 27 years, Congress has deliberately locked-up vast offshore oil and natural gas reserves,” Peterson said. “With the price at the pump increasing daily — with no end in sight — and the cost of natural gas trading at record levels, Congress needs to unlock these reserves.”
He cites estimates from the Minerals Management Service that there are 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas located offshore.
The Senate and the White House, kowtowing to California and Florida electoral interests, actually oppose the measure. So does Barack Obama. McCain is straddling with a “let the states decide whether to drill…unless it’s too ‘ecologically sensitive’” response and is more comfortable peddling Hillary/Edwards-style demagoguing of the oil industry’s “obscene profits.”
Promising on-shore areas also remain untouchable. Background via the WSJ:
A century and a half after oil production began, there is ample evidence that a lot of oil — and natural gas — remains to be found in the U.S. and its territorial waters. Some of those areas are wide open to oil companies, including most of the Gulf of Mexico where deep-water floating rigs now routinely drill wells hundreds of miles from shore. Even in the gulf, areas are off limits, including most of the waters off the Florida coast. The entire East and West Coasts are off limits for new drilling.
Last week, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson chided President Bush for asking Saudi Arabia to boost its production, while not doing more to increase production at home in the U.S., particularly off the coasts of Florida and California.
“There is no question in my mind that there is significant conventional resources available,” Mr. Tillerson said in an interview last week. “If you are looking for larger fields, they will probably be found in the offshore areas that are currently off limits.”
Those offshore areas are closed to exploration and drilling under congressional moratoriums and presidential executive orders that command broad support among elected officials in the politically powerful states of California and Florida. Opening these areas up could prove nettlesome.
Little data exist about how much oil and gas might be found under the waters now closed for exploration. Federal agencies are prevented from doing rudimentary geological surveys in most areas to pinpoint areas of interest. The last time the industry shot seismic imagery was in the 1970s when this widely used search technology was in its infancy.
Other promising areas onshore also are off-limits. In a report last week, the federal Bureau of Land Management stated that at current U.S. consumption levels there are four years worth of oil and 10 years worth of natural gas under federal lands. However, more than 90% of that energy was under lands either closed to development or open with significant environmental restrictions. The federal Minerals Management Service said an additional three years worth of oil and gas is in offshore areas where drilling isn’t allowed.
See also: Energy Lesson in drilling vs. production.
***
Latest from the Energy Department: Oil and gas prices are staying up.
Update: McCain. Ugh.
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Categories: Enviro-nitwits, Politics
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What? Drill off Florida and spoil the beach views of our congressmen? Impermissible!
All we can do is hope that the libs will finally get hit hard enough in the pocket with the high prices that they will pay attention and realize it is their wonderful Dem party that has been and still is blocking increased supply and causing the higher prices …
This could possibly, but only slightly, happen since some of the highest prices in the country are found in CA and FL …
Meanwhile India, China, Canada, Spain and Norway are entering into contracts to drill 36 new wells off Cuba and within 50 miles of the Florida mainland coastline and even closer than that to Key West and the Florida Keys themselves …
I live near the Gulf coast of Florida and thoroughly enjoy my beach going days…. days that have been cut short because I can’t afford the gas to get there… days that have been cut short because our public transportation here has cut back several routes because of high fule cost… Dang! I’ll miss that pretty view. Good thing I got pictures… DRILL AWAY BOYS.
Yes. And since the Chinese are there already, it’s going to be too crowded.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist said it again yesterday: he has no plans to lift his dictatorial ban on off-shore drilling. He would rather us use “sugar ethanol.”
Jerk!
Mr. Governor, you are now officially part of the problem.
Thanks in very large part to our do-nothing elected officials. Too bad they don’t feel the same pains as the average Americans they profess to represent. Idiots - all of them!
I called my represetative this AM concerning this issue, Fox news was already reporting on this issue this morning. My representative is a liberal democrat, so I never expect much when I call, but call I must. If any of us expects congress to budge on this issue, we all had better call, and call often. Put some pressure on these folks and keep the pressure on.
It seems to me that vast, untapped sources of energy (whether it be oil in Alaska, natural gas along our coastlines, or oil shale stretching up from Colorado and into Canada)are disclosed in the media almost every day.
Yet with every new discovery, all I hear from liberals are that these newly discovered sources won’t make a dent in prices at the pump, so we should just continue suffering and blaming others for our current energy problems.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that a concerted campaign (a la 1994) could effectively use the democrats’ positioning on this universal issue to blow them out of the water?
I haven’t read Sowell’s Basic Economics yet, I’ve asked for it for Fathers Day.
But can I be so naive as to think that the very minute we annouce and show efforts to drill our own oil, the world prices will immediately drop? They’ll say “Hey waitamiunte. These guys are serious now.”
Then how long will it take for a Kennedy, a Pelosi, a Schumer or some other whacko protest that we might ruin the economy of some of our suppliers if we don’t continue to buy from them at the rate of 1.7 million barrels a day.
And hey, shouldn’t we be getting back a $2 deposit on those barrels when we return them? Just a thought.
I worked in the oil industry for years off-shore. From the top down management was very conscientious about safety and the environment because we lived where we worked. What are these idiots going to do when one of these wells that Cuba is drilling causes a huge oil slick all the way to Florida? Cuba and China will clean it up. Get real.
If there was oil under my house, I’d drill a well in my living room.
WHO is allowing these other countries to drill off our shores while not allowing us to do it?
“entering into contracts” - again, with whom?
It must be those evil Oil CEOs doing.
Marshall #10
I think that’s China drilling under the aegis of Cuba - 50 MILES FROM FLORIDA!!!
Do they have some magic clean technology that we don’t? I doubt that. Or did they just say, “lets go for it, minimal risk involved or no”, while we sit here with binoculars and watch it happen.
The country of Cuba.
If the fuel prices continue to climb, and common sense Americans continue to talk about all the off-limits areas that the
Democraps DemoncratsDemagoguecrats have us saddled with, Repubs may clean house (and Senate) in November. Hmmmmm.The immediate issue in Florida is primarily the Destin Dome which contains a huge reserve of natural gas as well as likely some oil. The Thunder Horse reserve, just a stones throw away in Alabama, is supposed to begin production in a few weeks, as much as 250,000 bpd.
Florida gets most of it’s gasoline, oil and gas using tankers that sail the waters that the greens whine about protecting. I wonder if pipelines to our own oil reserves would be better for the environmental than foreign flagged tankers?
As an aside, Iran has increased the number of large oil tankers filled up and at dock off of Iran from 10 to 14. No tankers, no delivery. Limit the available tankers, you drive up price because it constrains supply.
I would say after the winter’s high heating bills what is wrong with high gas prices?
There goes congress producing barrels of excuses but no barrels of oil. They say we should use alternate fuels. WHAT ALTERNATE FUELS?? there are none arround my house. Are they going to pay for an electric car for me? doubtfull. Are they going to pay to get my car converted to cng? Doubtfull. They are being generous with my money again.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
OPEC sells oil for $128.00 a barrel.
OPEC nations buy U.S. Grain at $7.00 a bushel.
Solution:
Sell grain for $128.00 a bushel.
Can’t buy it? Tough! Eat your oil!
DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW!
http://www.americansolutions.com/
Ok, so I agree with the drill here drill now idea. Simple supply and demand. However, I want the oil to only be available for sale in the U.S. The amount of supply generated from drilling here would only be a drop in the bucket for global demand. No one is talking about this. Where am I going wrong?
Update: Defeated
How the dems can get away with this is criminal.
Forida’s dodo ‘one square’ Gov Crist has other problems with no fix, the high gas prices are keeping the tourists away and the high real estate taxes have flattened Florida’s economy.
Maybe a little revenue from offshore leases could help …
That way, each state can take a NIMBY position and nothing will ever change.
Drilling in ANWR is a change I can believe in.
Actually dear Mr. Obey, I believe you’re kidding yourselves into thinking that you can solve the problem by taxing oil companies.
Colleges should be ashamed that they gave degrees on to these morons.
It isn’t just coastal states that won’t allow exploration and production. The oil and gas industry pays over 2.3 billion dollars a year to the state of NM. However, Governor Bill Richardson issued a six month ban on drilling in the Galisteo basin and Rio Arriba county commissioners instituted a four month ban on drilling. This area primarily produces natural gas, but don’t think it won’t go up just like oil.
sillygatboy #14
It will be no doubt a partnership. Your right, it is unbelievable that we are cutting our own throats.
We have enough reserves onshore here that we would not have to import foreign oil. Produce here. Produce now!
I’d drill THROUGH a baby seal AND a polar bear cub to get at new oil.
mchristian — you are right about that, the BLM and the States are also restricting leases on federal lands.
Anyone see a conspiracy between the Democrat and Rhino governors and the ‘limit the supply’ environmental groups?
One hitch came in the Dakotas with the Bakken field, seems a lot of the drilling is on Indian lands, Indians want the revenues … LOL …
It is crystal clear that there are people in Congress that wish to do every thing in their power to harm the U.S.A.. They won’t protect our borders, they prevent America from producing energy, they have put us $9 Trillion dollars in debt, and yet give our tax dollars and natural resources to foreign governments.
We have become a nation of sheep! Until they fear us they will continue to do as they please without any repercussions
They are having huge riots in S. Korea just for increasing beef imports.
What is it going to take to get Americans of their butts and raise some hell!!
I wonder when someone will finally get the clue this is a national security issue and mandate the approval to drill here, drill now, and pay less for the consumption of the “57” United States of America. I am still trying to find the extra 7 Obamasiah ushered into the Union during the primary season.
Has anyone looked into the personal investments by our wonderful Congress critters? … Anyone care to give odds whether most of them have oil company stock in their supposedly “blind trusts” through either direct ownership or included in some of their investment fund portofolios? …
If they do then they are raking in money from this situation and therefore have a conflict of interest voting on anything to do with the oil price situation …
Someone should start asking … would explain a lot of the resistance to increasing supply by domestic drilling …
From Fox News:
Can somebody explain to this moron that we haven’t been drilling on about 92% of the land and seafloor available since a congressional moratorium was enacted in 1981? Geez Louise.
Agreed. I think Americans need to present a Petition of Grievances to the government as the Founding Fathers did to the British king before the Revolution.
Let’s put them on notice…
Can anyone here answer my quesiton from my previous post?
#18sonofdy - I’m so stealing that motto:
Congress produces barrels of excuses
But, no barrels of oil
And while I’m at it, I spent over 20 years as a naval officer, 14 years of it on sea duty. Not once did I ever hear of a pipeline colliding with anything, or running aground. The Florida and California sand crabs (land dwellers/beach creatures) should consider the safety of oil tankers versus pipelines when they worry about spoiling their beachscapes.
Every drop in the bucket adds to the supply side. If Clinton didn’t veto drilling in ANWR, we would have been producing a million barrles a day from there over the last 4 years. Thats 1,460,000,000 barrels. We, and other countries, need to produce enough oil so that opec can not control the prices.
good idea…our chicken sheeet government will never approve of such a thing.
Once it’s out of the ground, oil is a commodity. If we sell a million bbls of Alaskan oil for $140/bbl to Japan, and then buy a million bbls of Mexican oil for $140/bbl, it is no different then keeping it all here. We sell Alaskan crude because it is thick, and high sulfur. California doesn’t want to refine that stuff. It makes more sense to sell it to Japan, where they will refine it, and buy sweeter oil from other sources. (there is a price differential)
As far as a “drop in the bucket” I hear conflicting info. The Democrats are calling for not placing more oil in the strategic petroleum reserve to ease demand. That amount is less than the amount estimated to come out of ANWR by an order of magnitude (at least). So why would not placing in the SPR be worth while, but ANWR be insignificant?
I even hear from some ‘well ANWR would only supply 1-2 years of our imports.’ Yes, replacing all of our other imports, As if any one really anticipates eliminating imports and solely using ANWR. But if it replaced 10% of our imports for 20 years, that is significant to the supply curve. And the equivalent amount of oil.
Maybe McCain and Obama want us to get to work in Rickshaws ?
This is such a stupid thing to ban. Why?
The libs don’t want it because it might cause spillage. But others are already doing it so you are not preventing the possibility. If anyone is going to be extra careful not to spill, it will be the ones who live on-shore.
As Carlos says, “D D D!”
sonofdy
and we all know that in addition to excuses those barrels are also full of congressional monkeys … and OPEC is their organ grinder …
The dems are hoping they win the presidency and then and only then will they allow drilling in all of the off limits areas. This way they can show the country how they “fixed” the crises they themselves caused. Their negative voting record on this issue is disgusting.
This will be one of the key reasons that an Obama presidency could result in a “Reagan Sunrise” on the other side (if only we can find another conservative…)
Imagine the following:
a) A gutted strategic oil reserve,
b) Even less available oil products, as refinery expansions are halted, oil companies are forced to “limit profits,” and no new wells are authorized within 200 miles of the USA’s coast.
c) More and more brown-outs, as power companies respond to regulation by limiting supply.
And, finally… $6 or $7/gallon gasoline, by 2010.
Cherry on top? A wrecked military, with a CIA that’s even worse than what we have now.
What is the economy going to look like at that point? Not grim enough for you? How’s this:
What’s going to happen when President Catastrophe proposes a minimum wage of $12/hour to allow “the hard working people of America the means to buy the gas they need to get to work!” and the Democratic-run Clown College makes that the law of the land?
How about price controls on grains to “help working families deal with the excessive profits farmers are making on the back of the working man!”
In the midst of this, let’s toss in another multi-city attack by our friends from the Mideast…
Man, the future’s so bright, ya gotta wear shades!
Hmmm… If I remember the formula for earth’s curvature per mile…. you couldn’t see an oil platform 50 miles away. Oh, never mind, to anti American liberals,the mere existence of a platform makes them cry like the little ninnies they are.
Agreed. I think Americans need to present a Petition of Grievances to the government as the Founding Fathers did to the British king before the Revolution.
Let’s put them on notice.
May I remind everyone that President Clinton also placed an executive order that banned the mining of low sulfur coal in federal lands.
The only other place in the world where this particular form of coal was available was in the Phillipines. I’m SURE there was no coincidence regarding the mining interests in the Phillipines that had just made a large contribution to his personal coffers…(sarc/off)
I am a Petroleum Geologists and have been in the oil business for 55 years.
The argument that there is “only” a (pick a number) years supply of crude is both ignorant and foolish. So What?
I can tell you that no one knows how much or how little oil is under ANWAR and will not know until we explore with the drill.
It is foolish and infuriating for the “tree huggers” (there are no trees, BTW) to resist drilling in the Artic on environmental or “protect the wildlife” grounds. I was on the North Slope when Prudhoe Bay was discovered and have seen up close that there is no widespread detriment to the great pristine land so treasured by people who have never been and will never go there. The amount of area devoted to drilling and infrastructure is infinitesmal compared to the vast expanse of tundra.
The locals do not object to exploration and development and the animals have not been adversely affected. In fact, the caribou exploit the pipeline in that it makes migration easier and they stand on windy elevated areas to blow away the flies. And, it has not, as predicted, interfered with their sex life.
The same short-sighted refusal to allow exploration in US offshore coastal areas is equally infuriating. There are literally thousands of offshore installions in the western Gulf of Mexico that do not hurt tourism and would prove equally innocous in the easter Gulf and off shore eastern seaboard. I am admittedly prejudiced but there is nothing repulsive about a drilling rig or production platform, in themselves a tourist attraction.
If we opened ANWAR tomorrow it would be 5 to 10 years before that oil reaches market. Congress must get its head out of its anus and face reality. We have to exploit all possible domestic hydrocarbond reserves in addition to alternative energy sources.
On the other side we have, “Mommy, I wan my Hummer. Peoples should have a fwee market. Waaahhhhh.”
Conservation is the most practical method of becoming less dependent on foreign sources at this time.
Lets go to Washington and hang’em all, problem solved.
The Democrats are not worried about high gas prices, they created the problem with the full knowledge they could blame “BIG OIL” and the Republicans by association.
I have an idea.
Let’s ask for a return on investment on the billions of dollars we’re spending to secure Iraq and it’s interests. I’m the last person to suggest we pull out of Iraq, and I’m certainly not against the war there, but aside from peace of mind that the terrorists are over there, and not over here, what are we getting out of the deal, other than a warm fuzzy that we’re helping the Iraq people out? We could at least ask for a couple of barrels, couldn’t we?
I was quite disappointed with McCain’s take on this issue. Very, very depressing. So what will be his response to those moderates/independents who want to drill on and off shore? Screw you?
Yep, this election is a matter of 0 + 0 = 0. Two hoplessley committed lefties devoted to satisfying the greenies for their own self-aggrandizement.
Does anybody know Bob Barr’s take on all this?
… sigh, what a freaking mess both parties have left us in for ignoring this issue the past 30 years.
/sigh
There’s always the possibility that this is entirely intentional. Perhaps the US government do realize just how much crap we’re in with the coming bankruptcy of social security. Perhaps they want to push those oil prices way the hell up as global supplies start decreasing, and just when it looks like the entire world economy is about to be stood on it’s end, the US will start drilling and we’ll suddenly have a global monopoly on oil and be flush with cash again. Now that would be a plan I could understand.
I keep waiting for Sen. McCain to say something that might induce me to vote for him, but every time he opens his mouth, it only reinforces my initial belief that he can’t be trusted on a single issue. It’s a choice between a Tweedledum and a Tweedledee. God help the nation this election!
I wonder if McCains strategy is to take liberal positions on virtually every issue to attract liberals who don’t want to vote for Obama and still get the votes of disappointed conservatives who agree on Iraq and will not vote for Obama under any circumstances.
If anyone wants to see how totally off-the-wall McCain is on ANWR, just take a look at actual photos of the “pristine” wilderness he wants to protect.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTU0NThkNTk4ODMzYTUxYWE3YTQwZmJkYzJkYzE1OGU
Just click on the numerals to see for yourself this Alaskan equivalent of the Grand Canyon, as McBane refers to it.
Synopisis: in winter, a pale version of Mars’s frozen ice caps; not quite as cold, but every bit as desolate and virtually devoid of life. In summer, a huge swamp teeming with raptor-sized mosquitos.
Aside from oil workers almost no one visits the region, because…..there’s nothing to see. No lush vegetation, few animals, just a mostly lifeless and feature-less expanse. No bush pilots impulsively put their planes down there for rich tourist passengers, shouting over the noise of the engine,
“Folks, I hear the skeeter larvae are really bitin’ today in those swamps — just don’t forget the 8 inch minimum”.
In the winter the “threatened” caribou, before migrating southward, huddle near the pipeline because the oil flowing through it is heated. In the summer they congregate in the shade of that same pipeline (which in any case has sections built high enough so migratory animals can pass under it easily).
Remember: with slant drilling techniques the drilling facilities would take up only 2000 acres out of an area roughly the size of South Carolina — an exceedingly tiny environmental “footprint”.
But meanwhile, in the “Lower 48″, Stupidity surges across the American political landscape as never before. Thus McVain stubbornly swats aside not just reason, but the national interest, in his self-obsessed quest for the presidency.
I am reminded of a formerly obscure word: KAKISTOCRACY, which means: “the rule of the worst and least qualified”.
McQueeg. D’Ohbama. Take yur pick.
OK Dummicrats: Since drilling for oil now won’t have any immediate effect, I suggest we also do away with all education programs since they also have no immediate effect (it takes many years to educate ?indoctrinate? a child). We also should do nothing about pollution since stopping any pollution now will not have any immediate effect. Nor should you even begin to think about greenhouse gas emissions as by your own words, it won’t have any immediate effect. Come to think of it, I don’t think we ought to do much about anything since the effect of any of it won’t be immediate. Talk about a bunch of inconsistent instant gratification whores…..
MORONS
(For those who don’t know my positions on some of the above, I think we ought not worry about global warming not because the effect is not instant, but rather because the whole global warming thing is bad (false) “science”.)
McCain: the Clueless Maverick. The RINO who can only win if people realize his is bad but that Obama is terrible. If McCain really wants to get elected, he would repeat the mantra: Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay less. How stupid can a country be to not leverage its own natural resources? And how did we get stuck with two Neanderthal thinkers as these two jokers?
As much as i want to agree…
People want instant gratification. That’s how the dems are able to pull people into the idea that “if we drill now, it wont hit the market for 7-10 years”.
They don’t want to admit that its the supply side of the chain that’s helping drive prices, among several other factors.
If the supply is established, whether it would hit the pump tomorrow or 7 years from now…its still supply, and would lower the cost of the current supply because there would be more to use later.
Let’s face it, half of the electorate shouldn’t be allowed to pick the American Idol winner, much less the president.
But what McCain could do, as well as the other Republicans is pick out a few simple issues, which can be reduced to simple yet true slogans.
Drill Now! That would be one example where you could truly show the difference.
Other things like: “We don’t play defense lawyers for terrorists” “The USA doesn’t beg for its freedom” are slogans that anyone can remember.
A third of the electorate at least will be swept up in emotion and will cast their vote for the one that inspires the “Yeah! What he said!” passion.
Keep it simple, keep it like the Contract for America, and avoid discussing things that make the average voters eyes to glaze over.