Gingrich: Three ways to reduce the cost of oil
posted at 8:07 pm on June 12, 2008 by Allahpundit
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“We cannot drill our way out of this,” Pelosi reminds us. True enough. If we only drill in ANWR, if we continue to decline to exploit ocean reserves and the mind-boggling amount of oil shale available to us, then it’s true, drilling won’t do much good. And since we can’t solve the problem solely by drilling, why bother trying to solve it in part, no? A lefty friend made the argument to me today that rising gas prices are actually sort of a virtue because the higher they go the more we’ll be forced to carpool and use public transportation, and the more that’ll wean us from our oil dependency. To which I reply, sounds like a fine idea for a campaign platform. Let His Holiness run on the idea: $10 a gallon and carpools for everyone. He seems to be open to suggestion; let’s see what that considerable charm of his can accomplish when he really puts it to use. Yes we can be crippled by inflation.
As you watch, bear one thing steadily in mind. We had a Republican president and a Republican Congress for six years, five of them post-9/11 when everyone could see very clearly where the revenue was going. And yet here we are. Too late, boys, too late.
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Whoopty doo. They go from one extreme to the other. I.E. they are probably wishing they would have saw the light a while back and want a slice of the pie. Anyone know what stocks or company shares these two have?
upinak on June 12, 2008 at 8:12 PM
I don’t even know why I comment on Allah’s posts… all I can say is “ditto”
I’m just waiting for the oil companies to figure out that they can go in to a natural area, drill with out permit and be fined minimal amounts of money… profit/loss ratio says oh yeah!
Kaptain Amerika on June 12, 2008 at 8:16 PM
I paid almost $5 a gallon for gas today….what a joke. and its just going to keep getting worse and worse. I dont think congress (whether its a republican majority of a democratic majority) has done one single thing in the past 8 years. it is really starting to make me sick and the american people are paying for it.
SoCalInfidel on June 12, 2008 at 8:17 PM
There’s an increasing tendency to conflate the issue of the price of oil with the issue of where the payments are going. Too many people assume that solving one of these problems will lead to a solution of the other. I’m not so sure that that’s the case.
Big S on June 12, 2008 at 8:17 PM
Absolutely! And Tony McPeak is the golden choice for Obama’s VP.
Yes, sadly Bush, Lott, Stevens, and sadly even Hastert were more motivated to reward their cronies and their home states with pork just like the democrats had for so many years.
what a waste.
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 8:18 PM
flip flop McCain, flip flop….and nominate Palin as your VP!!! This is tailor made to attack the left with and its a Populist issue.
or McCain, if you don’t want to be POTUS and CinC, then remain hard headed about drilling in North Alaska.
jp on June 12, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Amen, AP. Too damn late. Squandered opportunities and no balls.
Remind me again why I vote Republican?
BacaDog on June 12, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Kap actually they can’t. You see there are inspectors all over the place. State, Federal and Environmental so they go off check lists. Some have been doing this for years and know where the start of every well head is in their sections. If something looks different they go do what they do… and inspect it. Also.. other Oil Companies tell on you (the illegally drilling guy) as well.
upinak on June 12, 2008 at 8:19 PM
It is so refreshing to hear someone speak some common sense.
There’s no point in arguing about the past. We can argue about the present. Just start drilling now!
JellyToast on June 12, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Well, on paper voting republican makes alot of sense…but when politics and human nature get involved and the people that have no spine get into office….well lets just say it messes everything up…that and you dont want a handout like the democrats
SoCalInfidel on June 12, 2008 at 8:20 PM
Too much commons sense for the politician…what’s in it for the elected official?
I don’t see where our elected officials receive any benefits.
right2bright on June 12, 2008 at 8:20 PM
Newt on O’reilly, explaining these points right now.
Newt for President!
GRUMPSPOT on June 12, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Because the democrats nominate crazy people like Gore, Kerry, and now Obama, who seems to believe he can heal the earth and lower the ocean level (?)
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 8:21 PM
But a windfall profit tax trust fund will?
How are we ever going to find out? I’d say we can, well to start with. If we started drilling 20 years ago, along with building refineries and more storage facilities we’d be a lot better off now. Why is it all or nothing?
Politicians just can’t think beyond the next election, and the sad part is we have some kind of election every 2 years, so we are basically screwed.
reaganaut on June 12, 2008 at 8:22 PM
I thought he would be the one to stop Gorbal warming with the wave of the Obamessiac hand?
upinak on June 12, 2008 at 8:22 PM
GOP Rep. John Peterson’s latest bid to lift domestic offshore drilling restrictions, which I blogged earlier today here, was killed this afternoon by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment. It was a straight, party line vote.
Dems against:
Chair: Norman D. Dicks (WA)
James P. Moran (VA)
Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
John W. Olver (MA)
Alan B. Mollohan (WV)
Tom Udall (NM)
Ben Chandler (KY)
Ed Pastor (AZ)
Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio
Republicans for:
Ranking Member:
Todd Tiahrt (KS)
John E. Peterson (PA)
Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (VA)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio
The Republicans on the subcommittee vow to keep pressing the issue:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/11/offshore-drilling-bill-killed/
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 8:24 PM
I have an idea.
Let’s give each member of Congress a 1 cent per barrel royalty on oil produced in ANWR, offshore and shales. There is nothing like greed to focus those b*astards on solving the problem. They get even richer than the will already as a result of their “servicing” America but at least we get the oil we need. I’d rather make some greedy American politican rich than some greedy oil sheik.
johnsteele on June 12, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Bush has nothing to lose, why not declare Gas prices a national Emergency, frame it around national security and inflation, and issue an Executive Order to drill here, drill now….well If McCain won’t use it as a campaign issue.
jp on June 12, 2008 at 8:25 PM
If McCain could flip-flop on this issue…..I may consider voting for him
geminicontender on June 12, 2008 at 8:26 PM
What would you call them then….
The Shiek-ress? The Sheik-ators? How about no because they make to much already!
upinak on June 12, 2008 at 8:26 PM
btw, I’ve seen the last week Newts campaign linked on non-political forumns around the internet…..this has traction.
jp on June 12, 2008 at 8:28 PM
$4,79 for diesel here. The town looks like a morgue, nothing is moving around, stores had more clerks than customers.
Wasn’t Newt on that couch just a few weeks back? What happened since then? Must have read some real science instead of the Marxist propaganda. Now it’s drill everywhere. What about the CO2? What about the nuclear power plants?
Cold is much worse than warm, we are likely to find.
tarpon on June 12, 2008 at 8:29 PM
I am not so sure that dumping 1/3 of the SPR on the market would burst the speculative bubble, if in fact there is one. The speculators may take a short-term hit, but figure prices will come right back up—especially if we or the Israelis get serious about Iran.
My brother thinks the solution is to raise interest rates; that, he says, will take the air out of the commodities balloon(s).
MrLynn on June 12, 2008 at 8:33 PM
I simply cannot believe that Newt buys into anthropocentric global warming.
Akzed on June 12, 2008 at 8:37 PM
Yeah, Newt’s still throwing in the ‘climate change’ nonsense, mixed in with ‘drill now’ sense on oil. Drives me crazy.
MrLynn on June 12, 2008 at 8:39 PM
I’m moving to Texas next week (this is no joke). Time to soak you Gringos big time.
jim m on June 12, 2008 at 8:39 PM
Maybe. The one thing that will take the air out of speculation on oil prices is eliminating the speculation on future supply. Nobody will pay higher prices for oil or any other commodity if they are certain supply will equal or exceed demand.
BacaDog on June 12, 2008 at 8:40 PM
Assuming that the high price of oil is due to a “bubble” may be a mistake.
Big S on June 12, 2008 at 8:48 PM
Newt is playing a game, since public beleives in GW he accepts it but trying non-economic harmful measures to promote and then sensible stuff like this to try and influence joe blow ‘environmentalist’
jp on June 12, 2008 at 8:48 PM
Why punish speculators? They are just reacting to the market, they aren’t doing anything to justify “punishment”. Is that just the base-level of populist rhetoric necessary to gain any recognition?
gash on June 12, 2008 at 8:49 PM
Have you guys seen this:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/06/020729.php
very nice effort by Rep. Blunt.
The GOP is working the issue, but there seems to be an MSM blackout on the news. I wonder why?
/uh, no, I don’t
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 8:52 PM
yeppers
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 8:53 PM
If there is speculation, it would stop immediately if the investors knew that we would be drilling for oil everywhere. The speculation would dry up because there would be a known steady supply!!! This is not rocket science, supply and demand curves have been around for a long time.
But, people usually get the government they deserve.
Andy in Agoura Hills on June 12, 2008 at 8:54 PM
Ya beat me to it. Fast typer eh?
Andy in Agoura Hills on June 12, 2008 at 8:55 PM
i would so vote for the NEWT
custer on June 12, 2008 at 8:56 PM
Heh. Great minds think alike!!
BacaDog on June 12, 2008 at 8:59 PM
I’ve actually heard the argument that your lefty friend made a few times from environmentalists, AP. The environuts thrive on higher gas prices. It helps not only to push their agenda, but they enjoy standing back and tut-tutting that the only way to change the habits of the commoners (like us) is to have higher prices. Their logic reveals their fantastically elitist viewpoint. What they choose to ignore is that poorer people are hurt the most by these high prices (the people that these elitists usually claim to represent.) But what does it matter to these environmentalists. While Al Gore and his cabal are sitting comfortably on their capitalistic alternative energy ventures, they preach spartan, communistic lifestyles. Hypocrisy is not a virtue.
MB007 on June 12, 2008 at 8:59 PM
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26979
ot/ anyone read the above Ann Coulter column from today? Holy Cow I can’t beleive how pro-Bush she went in it, all there is definitely some truth to were she is coming from…still shocked me.
jp on June 12, 2008 at 9:01 PM
I like Newt but each time he says global warming I wanna puke.
DavidM on June 12, 2008 at 9:02 PM
And there ya go again Alla…you almost grasped it that time, and then ya had to go and add that little jab in there. What you say is true….but the fact was the majority was such a slim margin that we were barely able to get a damned judge through confirmation…do you really think the Dems would hesitate filibustering any bill that came to the floor to open up drilling? Of course not…and that was when gas was only 2 bucks a gallon…now that it’s 4 bucks they can sit back and blame it on the Republicans, all the while pretending not to notice the Chinese drilling just off our coast…of course I’m sure those Chinese will be willing to sell us back our own oil…for a price.
BadMojo on June 12, 2008 at 9:05 PM
I know. And that Fundamental Theorem of Calculus bs. So confusing.
freevillage on June 12, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Politics is only marginally to blame for high prices at the pump, in that the Democrats refuse to tap known deposits of oil. It’s all about supply and demand. Demand is increasing faster than supply. To wit, there is a rising Chinese and Indian middle class who are trading bicycles for cars. That’s not going to go away nor get better.
I was just in India a few weeks ago. You can get around by touk-touk, which is a motorized trike. Basically, it’s a motorcycle with passenger seats. Touk-touks replaced rickshaws, ie taxis pulled by human runners. The Indian folks who used to hire cabs now buy their own economy cars. What that means is more consumers chasing the same gallon of gas, bidding up the price.
Gas is never gonna get cheaper. Ever. Those folks in India are not gonna go back to rickshaws. The Chinese are not gonna give up their cars for bicycles. When the Cold War ended and the Third World figured out socialism doesn’t work and adopted capitalism, this was inevitable. As the world gets wealthier due to the advent of democracy and free market capitalism, there is going to be more price competition for some natural resources.
However, the good news is that increase in price will drive the discovery of wonderful substitutes. I read not so long ago about a scientists who discovered how to burn seawater. He beams a radio frequency at seawater which loosens the hydrogen and oxygen molecules enough to ignite.
The one disconcerting aspect of these rising gas prices is just how much the Democrats seem to enjoy America suffering at the pump. They don’t see it as a bad thing, but rather as an opportunity to gain power for themselves.
Tantor on June 12, 2008 at 9:09 PM
If you read The Right Man by David Frum you’ll come across a passage where Bush privately complains about the low price of oil. He claims Americans are sucking up the limited supply.
aengus on June 12, 2008 at 9:16 PM
I’m hoping the gas prices continue to go up…even to 6 or $7 a gallon over the next 12 months. And then watch the hypocrites moan and groan over gas prices and watch Congress sweat that one out. I’m sure by then the pressure will be so great to start mandatory drilling.
Kokonut on June 12, 2008 at 9:16 PM
Because if you don’t that automatically makes you Obama’s campaign manger. Or something.
aengus on June 12, 2008 at 9:33 PM
But, people usually get the government they deserve.
And that is the bottom line. See Maxine Watters……
TroubledMonkey on June 12, 2008 at 9:34 PM
NEWT you don’t understand. If everything in life is good how can the socialists convince us to embrace socialim??? They must creat desperation and chaos in anyway and allways that they can so that the masses will accept socialism???
DADDY GOV TO THE RESCUE!!!
This is why we have laws that make no sense. These laws make absolute sense when the goal is to enact socialism.
allrsn on June 12, 2008 at 9:37 PM
My bet: History will tag this as Bush’s big mistake.
petefrt on June 12, 2008 at 9:40 PM
Build the god damned fence, and drill for the god damned oil!
Buy Danish on June 12, 2008 at 9:40 PM
Even if we didn’t release the oil reserve oil markets would probably respond immediately and dramatically to the passage of legislation allowing an increase in US oil exploration. The bubble may not pop but prices would probably peak and start trending down.
FloatingRock on June 12, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Bush’s big mistake? Bush has always been a strong supporter of drilling. He just never had the kind of majorities needed to push it through.
As for Gingrich, he is big on handing out advice now, but he did not do much about this {or immigration} when he was actually in a position to make a difference.
And it will take years to increase production by drilling new fields. That does not mean we should not do it, but it won’t help now. Not long ago we heard about the new field found of Brazil, it is huge. It did not impact the market for a day.
And we do not know what the price will be in a decade. It could bottom out or keep trending up. We just don’t know.
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 9:50 PM
Maybe so but he’s not insane on the issue like McCain. At least Newt is reasonable and offers solutions, which neither o the main candidates will do. He may not be the best candidate but I’d support him if he ran on a 3rd party ticket, and being the only one pushing this issue he might even win.
FloatingRock on June 12, 2008 at 9:50 PM
FloatingRock, yep, totally agree.
Guys, check out Grahamnesty in the headline. He’s fighting mad over the GTMO decision.
If he would say something good about trying to get Charlie Crist to consider offshore FL drilling, and get excited about Orrin Hatch’s efforts on oil shale, well….
Actually, I’m going to publicly apologize to Graham now, because I’ve been pretty nasty about him every time his name has been mentioned. We are all humans, and even though he is still dead wrong on immigration, I’m going to stop slinging rhetorical poo his direction.
Oil Shale! Offshore drilling! And yes, a 3 month gas tax holiday, set to expire on October 15, 2008. Just in time to slap folks in the face with a huge tax increase.
And a GTMO amendment. Much better politics for the general election than defense of marriage.
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 9:51 PM
An engineering co-worker of mine told me about a method of extracting oil from the shale which would have turned us into the worlds biggest oil producing nation. Its illegal to do it… why? Because it would have turned all of Colorado into a dead zone. But who gives a hoot, right?
AbaddonsReign on June 12, 2008 at 9:51 PM
aengus:
I do not believe much of what Frum says about Bush. Frum has a chip on his shoulder. But a lot of people said that the prices got too low for awhile. People bought big cars, built huge houses, the Chinese were able to buy a lot of cheap oil to get their expansion off and running..and the result was that no one bothered to worry about drilling for more oil or finding alternatives to the oil either one. Why would they when oil was $30 or $40 dollars a barrel?
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 9:54 PM
Let the Dems persist in using the carbon scam to push their ideology, attack capitalism, and tear down the American economy at the expense of the middle class and poor who can’t afford the inflation. It’s patently untenable in mainstream America.
McCain could win the election on this issue alone, if only he could the case for energy independence at affordable prices.
petefrt on June 12, 2008 at 10:00 PM
jp:
Considering what happened in the Supreme Court today, do you really believe that Bush could play King and just declare the price of gas an emergency?
Some people may wonder why to vote Republican, but I saw a post at Big Lizards that I thought answered the question pretty well. The following is an excerpt:
Yes, I completely agree with Sen. Joe Biden’s (D-DE, 75%) commentary on the Boumediene v. Bush Supreme Court decision released today… actually, with part of Biden’s commentary. Well, to be perfectly blunt, I agree 100% with the last two sentences of Biden’s statement:
As we look forward, we must take stock that this decision was five Justices to four. If one more Justice in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts or Justice Alito is appointed to the Court, decisions such as this will likely come out the other way.”
Yes sir. One more justice. Contrarywise, if one more justice in the mold of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Breyer is appointed to the Court, decisions such as this will likely become commonplace.
Many conservatives wish someone less friendly to illegal immigrants had won the GOP nomination. They could never quite settle on who they wanted; nevertheless, many now threaten to sit out the election, forcing an Obama victory, in order to teach the rest of us a good, hard lesson — bow to their wishes, even when they themselves can’t decide what those wishes are.
I would like to address those conservatives directly: You have now seen what radical judges can do and how devastating that can be to the national security of the United States. You may very well see, in the next administration — particularly if those “sitting out” get their way — the federal courts order the release of top al-Qaeda terrorists back into the wild.
Five justices voted in the majority in Boumediene:
* John Paul Stevens is 88 years old; he was nominated by the unelected and very liberal Republican Gerald R. Ford. I cannot prove this, but I strongly suspect that Ford, like other liberals (Republicans and Democrats), believed in an activist judiciary, given his generally liberal politics;
* Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75; she was nominated by President Bill Clinton;
* Anthony Kennedy is 71; is the only justice in the majority nominated by a conservative president, Ronald Reagan;
* Stephen Breyer is 69; he was nominated by President Bill Clinton;
* David Souter is 68; he was nominated by liberal Republican George H.W. Bush.
Note I listed them in order of age. Think about this: Nobody lives (or serves) forever; and it’s hardly a revelation that the older a justice is, the more likely he or she is to leave the Court — vertically or horizontally — through simple old age.
All five justices in the majority are senior citizens; three are in their seventies or eighties (Stevens is getting close to his nineties). By contrast, three of the four dissenters is in his fifties; only Antonin Scalia is in his seventies. But there is a very good chance that the next president will replace at least one, probably two, maybe even three justices… mostly liberal judicial activists. It will be an extraordinary opportunity to shape the Court for literally decades to come… and one conservatives will only get if John McCain beats Barack H. Obama in the elections on November 4th.
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 10:01 PM
petefrt:
I wonder about that. It seems to me a lot of people are willing to give the Democrats a pass on this. It certainly is not hurting them so far. All they have to do is blame the oil companies and talk about the environment.
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 10:11 PM
I think that is treatment that may hold much promise. However we must do this in a controlled scientific manner and first have a clinical trial lasting maybe 2 or 3 years. The clinical trial would have as it’s first phase participants Al Gore, John Edwards, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ariana Huffington and Leonardo DiCaprio and should start immediately.
MB4 on June 12, 2008 at 10:12 PM
Terrye,
Nonsense. Most of the voters are ignorant mutts who vote based on the color of the candidates’ ties and what they heard on the news.
This will be properly shaped and defined and shoved down their throats by the RNC…eventually.
Jaibones on June 12, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Barack Obama hailed the ruling, calling it “a rejection of the Bush Administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo,” which he described as “yet another failed policy supported by John McCain.”
The presumptive Republican nominee, by contrast, sounded a Bush-like note, and took issue with the ruling while pledging to abide by it.
Speaking to reporters in Boston, McCain allied himself with Chief Justice Roberts, who dissented in the case.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105455&page=1
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Surely you realize by now that the Democrat perspective is that the American people can be taxed out of any problem. Any at all. It is their panacea.
Blacklake on June 12, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Well, I don’t know if he’s planning something but he alluded to it – July 4 – Energy Independence Day – there should be a massive demonstration on the mall up to the Capitol over this!
CP on June 12, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Hey, the GOP needs to propose the offshore drilling thing again and again. And Orrin Hatch needs to bring up the end of the oil shale moratorium again and again. Let the dems vote it down several times a month for now until time for the elections.
One of the dems on the house committee that killed the offshore drilling thing is running for US Senate from NM against a very strong conservative republican. Make him vote against domestic oil production as many times as possible from now until November.
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 10:20 PM
probably not, but why not try…..he would have the public and political support if he did I think.
jp on June 12, 2008 at 10:22 PM
It is very realistic to expect that the Department of Energy Research program on using an endothermic chemical reaction to produce hydrogen out of water will be viable and much more efficient than electrolysis by the time we will have built all the nuclear power plants we will need so that there is off peak time that the Nukes can make Hydrogen. By that time H2 fuel cell cars can be developed that are competitive with gasoline for performance. In the meantime gasoline engines are what we have and we will need oil for them for at least the next few decades so we need to produce as much oil as we can here at home.
Sadly, the Democrats oppose nuclear power as well as oil drilling. They insist that we must walk or bicycle to work. That we lower our standard of living so that the rest of the world will like us as Obama recently said with his we need to eat less and use less energy speech. They seem to believe that the reason other people in the world are poor is because we are rich. Nothing about that zero sum game belief is true. It is our wealth that created the capital needed to develop prosperity in the rest of the world, When we were poor in the Great Depression years ago, the world was not rich at our expense, they were poorer because we were poorer.
KW64 on June 12, 2008 at 10:28 PM
I get so sick of hearing this, they didn’t have the 60 votes needed in the senate to be able to bring bills to a vote. The dems blocked most of the legislation.
free on June 12, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Let’s also remember that while while we had a GOP President and a GOP Congress, we never had Newt in charge of that GOP Congress while a GOP President was in office. Newt would have had us drilling everywhere if Clinton hadn’t been playing politics with our future.
john1schn on June 12, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Rush’s show a few months back they had 59 votes, but couldn’t get the 60 needed to stop a filibuster. I wonder which way McCain voted…
SouthernGent on June 12, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Oh! And why hasn’t president Bush lifted all the silly EPA gas blend mandates like he did after Katrina? That would help a little bit!
SouthernGent on June 12, 2008 at 10:37 PM
free on June 12, 2008 at 10:30 PM
that is why you have to be a leader, instead of excuse making, fight the good fight instead of giving up before the battle is waged. Reagan did more with less…can you imagine what would of happened if Reagan was actually in charge during the time Republicans held congress? If Republicans exposed the energy issues head on, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now.
Bob Barr for President
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:38 PM
SouthernGent on June 12, 2008 at 10:35 PM
but thats the problem, they are so darn afraid of a threat of a filibuster…let them filibuster, let them parade in front of everyone what morons they are, instead we are like…oh my, they said they might filibuster, I give up…so who is the moron?
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:40 PM
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 10:20 PM
exactly, make them say over and over “let them eat cake”
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:42 PM
We need to get aggressive and get it in gear. Higher oil prices makes some of the more intensive recovery methods feasable.
“While oil shale is found in many places worldwide, by far the largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years1.
More than 70% of the total oil shale acreage in the Green River Formation, including the richest and thickest oil shale deposits, is under federally owned and managed lands. Thus, the federal government directly controls access to the most commercially attractive portions of the oil shale resource base.”
moxie_neanderthal on June 12, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 10:01 PM
You put too much faith that McCain will give us the judges you want. It won’t happen. That’s the problem electing a Senator, they are micro managers and love to compromise, so the chance of a real Judge being elected is the same as the chance of Bob Barr winning…because that is what it would take for it to happen.
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:46 PM
They did vote on it. Le Clinton vetoed it:
Link
SouthernGent on June 12, 2008 at 10:48 PM
moxie_neanderthal on June 12, 2008 at 10:44 PM
And all it would take is Bush to declare it no longer a monument.
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:48 PM
That’s the exact issue Hatch is fighting and just furious about. Hannity needs to have him on, and so does pretty much every other conservative media person.
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 10:49 PM
SouthernGent on June 12, 2008 at 10:48 PM
Do you think all the liberal programs happened over night? No, you bring it up again, and again, and again until it is passed. You have to play hard, or don’t run for re-election.
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:50 PM
jp:
I am not so sure about that. It seems to me that conservatives might not be reading the public right on this. I am just saying that increasing drilling could take years to bring down prices. Look at how patient the public has been with the war in Iraq. Imagine years and years of promising that once that gusher comes in prices will fall.
Yes, we need to make energy independence a priority, but it will have to be about more than drilling. In fact if the price of oil had not reached over $80 a barrel a lot of these fields would not be profitable. It took higher prices just to get people to even talk about it seriously.
But the environmentalists are strong, that is not a passing fancy and Obama is out there touting clean energy every day.
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM
Myself, I believe in a two legged approach. Let’s frill now. The day we pass legislation to open up all of our lands and offshore to drilling, prices will drop immediately. For us to dump our strategic reserves is a little risky, IMO.
While we are exploring new oil reserves, we need to turn to developing alternative energy supplies. In 10 to 15 years we could make oil just a dirty sludge that nobody needs. Think about it…if you take oil out of the equation, we are much better off.
I am in no way a tree hugger nor do even come close to agreeing with the whole ‘climate change’ theory. I am just talking economics. And it makes sense!
lsutiger on June 12, 2008 at 10:54 PM
*drill..thats what I get for drinking heineken!
lsutiger on June 12, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Terrye on June 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM
It isn’t a supply issue, its demand. Spectators are driving the price at extreme levels, because right now it looks like the USA is doing nothing to increase its supply to meet future demands.
Making it a priority to drill offshore, in Alaska and everywhere, to build dams, to build nuclear power plants, to open the coal market, cutting out red tape, all these things will quickly reduce the price to normal levels. For once I would love a politician to tell the Sierra Club to shut their pie hole.
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Excellent question.
FloatingRock on June 12, 2008 at 11:00 PM
lsutiger on June 12, 2008 at 10:54 PM
I agree, the government should not get in the practice of changing oil prices based on the strategic reserve. That is not the purpose of the reserve, and its an overall bad idea. They can provide a better business environment and let the private sector manage the market, versus short term band aid fixes dumping our reserves and price fixing.
Conservative Voice on June 12, 2008 at 11:01 PM
The oil market is as high as it is because speculators have gauged the various risks and demands on the current oil supply and have driven the prices where they are. As soon as they see that the US has passed legislation to radically increase oil exploration the market will adjust downward. Once we actually start the process moving the markets will undergo another adjustment. Long before the first new well starts pumping the markets will have already factored it in, although the news might still cause a slight fluctuation in prices.
FloatingRock on June 12, 2008 at 11:08 PM
I am quite sure it would drive oil prices down because I use to trade oil futures and track prices very closely. Back in the Clinton days during hight oil prices, Clinton released… I don’t remember exactly… but far less than one-third of the oil from the SPR in an attempt to drive prices down. The amount of oil released was insignificant, perhaps a few million barrels, yet it sent shock waves through the futures market and prices dropped dramatically.
This is because the speculative markets are not driven by supply and demand or any kind of logic, but are driven by emotion, in my opinion.
Maxx on June 12, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Drill here
Drill now
Drill often
Texyank on June 12, 2008 at 11:13 PM
lsutiger, look up the guy running for US Senate from NM. His name is Steve Pearce, and his intro letter/press release says that we need to increase domestic production now and accelerate work on the alternative energy stuff at the same time.
Orrin Hatch says the same thing.
It’s the democrats who want to do only the altie stuff …
funky chicken on June 12, 2008 at 11:16 PM
I agree. I would rather not tap the reserve without a real emergency, like if Saudi Arabia embargoes the market again or we bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and they launch missiles at the Saudi oil fields and some of them get through our shield, (which hopefully we’ll have in place).
FloatingRock on June 12, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Republicans could make this their SOLE issue for November and it very well could earn them majorities. Every ad, every speech, EVERY AD AND SPEECH they could HAMMER on this topic and just kill.
SlimyBill on June 12, 2008 at 11:20 PM
So very true. I cringe when I think of all the good things the Republicans could have done for the country while they were in power, but they squandered the opportunity. And now they are no longer in power. You would think they would learn a lesson from that, but will they?
Maxx on June 12, 2008 at 11:22 PM
Democrats in Congress are fiddling as Rome burns. Senator Obama says he thinks it a good thing that Rome is burning but he just wishes it wouldn’t burn so fast.
Maxx on June 12, 2008 at 11:27 PM
With McCain as the head?? A guy who wants to dive into the ‘climate change’ pool? PALEEZE!
And just as Gore has admitted to overstimulating the rhetoric in his documentary. There are more links…google is a good tool :)
On the senatorial races, yes, we, can (pun intended). But with our flaky choice president, no, we can’t
lsutiger on June 12, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Brilliant Gingrich! To bad you and your buddiesi the Republican Party didn’t have this revelation 5 years ago!
But still, you had me up until you mentioned global warming.
RMR on June 13, 2008 at 12:07 AM
Crap. Not just oil shale, but tar sands and coal liquefaction — folks!
And how about a move to CNG and METHANOL as well?
There are solutions — real, workable and doable solutions. One problem, though. All that is ever heard in response to these solutions is “No” because it’s all just one big power-grab.
We will reach a breaking point. And what will happen beyond that is anyone’s guess. All I know is it isn’t gonna be pretty in the short-term. And the long-term right now is a huge question mark.
All I keep thinking is Atlas Shrugged…
eanax on June 13, 2008 at 12:36 AM
Damn skippy. And Bush is a “compassionate conservative,” i.e., not a conservative.
And now we’re supposed to vote for McCain? If McCain gets elected, will it be a surprise if Republicans think conservatism is dead or dying?
Politicians are not that sophisticated. They do what wins.
misterpeasea on June 13, 2008 at 12:43 AM
If the GOP had any guts at all they would make “Drill now” the #1 issue, run ads, etc. They would take back the House this year.
indythinker on June 13, 2008 at 12:54 AM
Heheheheheheh…..
The Ugly American on June 13, 2008 at 1:28 AM
Well, let’s not get carried away.
Bwahahahaha!!!
labrat on June 13, 2008 at 1:33 AM
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