Originally Posted by
aerospacepilot
Exactly. The world consumes 80 million barrels of oil per day. If you were to add 1 million barrels a day to the supply, the price of gas would probably drop about a nickel. Big deal. And if that oil exploration were commenced today, it would take 5 years before any of that oil hit the market. And even then, you are still talking about a short term solution to a long term problem. If we emptied every single drop of oil from our shorelines, you are still only talking about 3-4 million barrels a day for 10 years MAX. Then what?
We are right back where we started. Extremely high oil prices putting a strangle hold on our economy. Sending trillions of dollars overseas to countries we hate (Let me list a few of the countries with the 10 largest oil reserves: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, to name a few). And now we have just destroyed some of the most sacred environment on the face of the earth. All we would have done is put a band aid on a gushing wound.
Fortunately, most politicians in power are against off shore drilling. There has been an offshore drilling ban for 27 years. Obama is against offshore drilling. McCain was against offshore drilling in 2000, but he has recently changed his position in an effort to attract more ultra conservative votes. And his stance is still "Leave it up to the states," a traditional republican value. Do you really think any of the states on the west coast are going to allow offshore drilling? California's republican governor is strongly against offshore drilling. And if someone were to allow offshore drilling in California, you would be just asking for a recall election. Oh, and both Obama and McCain are strongly against drilling in ANWR. All democrats and several republicans in the house/senate are against drilling in ANWR too. So guess what, more offshore drilling is not going to happen in the next 4-8 years.
We can strengthen the value of the dollar.
We can clamp down on oil speculation.
Both of those can help bring the price of oil down. But you are still talking about $100/barrel or more just from strong world demand. The only way to get that price down is to cut demand.
The US alone uses about 11 million barrels of oil per day (15% of the world's daily demand) to power personal automobiles. We have the technology TODAY to power all automobiles using no gas. It made economic sense to buy a hybrid car when gas hit $3 a gallon. Now you are actually saving significantly more money by buying a hybrid car than buying a traditional gas powered car. Now just wait until more plug in hybrids/all electric cars hit the market. Electricity required to power an automobile cost about 60 cents per GGE (gallon of gas equivalent).
The big three automakers are bleeding cash right now. Yet, not one of them is taking a lead on what WILL BE the most popular vehicles in the future (hybrid/plug in hybrid/all electric cars). They have an opportunity to turn their company around, and more importantly turn their nation around. And they aren't doing much about it (Chevy with the Volt is about the only big name project I have seen). As far as I'm concerned, they can continue to bleed cash while Toyota and Honda continue to gain market share. Interestingly enough, Toyota and Honda have both taken the lead in hybrid/plug in hybrid/all electric car development as well as fuel efficiency within their gas powered car lineup. Coincidence? Doubt it.
Drilling for oil offshore is not going to fix our energy crisis. Cutting demand in a way that is financially smart, and does not affect the American lifestyle at all is a much smarter way to help solve the energy crisis.
Wow...this post almost makes sense if it wasn't so clueless. Let's do the math. Energy has to be produced from a source. If we limit our exploitation of domestic resources, we limit supply and create upward pressure on price. Oil is down $19 a barrell just since Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling. Heckuva psychological hit, huh? We have more oil in this country than Saudi Arabia or anyone else. Some of it is not currently recoverable, some is. Technological advances will open up the rest. There are two types of Americans, those who work for solutions and the new class of those who think the sky is falling and we can't do anything about it.
Electric cars? LOL...you can't be serious...except you think it is the solution. We already have an electric grid that suffers temporary blackouts during peak demand and you think it can support our driving energy consumption? Where does electricity costs go when we introduce the new demand to a strained system? The next new "bubble" will be electricity and utilities. Electric cars are getting more advanced and will be viable for some people. Where does the electricity come from? Coal, natural gas, oil, etc. Natural gas is going up right now and what happens to electricity rates? They are up 20% already and we aren't even plugging our cars in yet!
Plain and simple here...energy has to come from somewhere. Right now, the most abundant and efficient source is fossil fuels. Some may argue we will never develop the Bakken shale or Green River formation. Some of ya'll may have heard of a lot ofd people in the DFW getting these royalty checks for natural gas the past few years. The Barnett Shale formation. Everyone knew of the gas in the shale, we just couldn't get to it. Until about 4 years ago. They figured out how to recover it.
We need to quit this silly bickering about not developing our own resources and solve this problem. It is the only way our jobs, lifestyle, economy, and current way of life stay recognizable. If not, then our kids or grandkids may need a couple hundred acres and the knowledge of farming because we refused to solve the problem early on and prices remained high and eliminated the middle class.
Of course this won't happen. We as Americans have always stepped up in tough times and solved the problems. Even Churchill was quoted, "The Americans always do the right thing, after they try everything else." We are in the process of trying everything else now and on our way to the right thing. Developing our resources.