are those calling for this additional drilling really this stupid or have they not thought out the entire steps A-Z of what this really means? where does all this incredible small amounts of oil go when it is retrieved? Well forget the number of years it will take and the small amount it will produce, but it just ends up on the world market. Not in your local gas station just for you.

Monkei on July 14, 2008 at 6:07 PM

.
Here are some back of the envelope A-Z’s for you:
ANWR: 3-5% of US daily consumption
Offshore FLA, GA, Carolinas: 5-8% of US daily consumption
Other offshore: 6-7% of US daily consumption
Bakken field ND: up to 10% of US daily consumption
Rockies oil shale: up to 30% of US daily consumption (maybe more)
(did not include Canada tar sands, which are currently being extracted, but US law restricts US purchases
Timeline:
ANWR: 3 years
OS FLA: 5 years
Bakken: 5-6 years
Oil shale: 10-20 years

You will note that none of these plays are ‘incredibly small amounts’ nor do they take a large number of years, except shale. Some of us have been pushing all of these for several years; to the point that had we been listened to originally, everything but the oil shale plays would be delivering product to market. Also, as to your fungibility argument – it doesn’t matter which oil becomes which fuel; what matters is who gets paid for oil (and which country they reside in). Also note that if we proceeded with all of these, we could supply most of the current US demand from the western hemisphere.

Re drilling: What good does a good ocean view do us if we are funding Arab terrorist states? I guess if you’re a pol, you can talk yourself into believing that “stability” in the ME is a good thing–plus, those jillions in speaking fees and library contributions. That’s a lot of stability, baby.

I expact it from wingnuts like you … you think that things will somehow change because we will do a little drilling … blah blah blah … ditto ditto ditto.

Monkei on July 14, 2008 at 10:09 PM

Economics 101, The law of supply and demand.

Dust Devil power generator: If you have ever been in the desert you have seen a small dust devil these tornado like swirling wind vortexes are created because the ground heats up from the sun and warms the air. The warm air needs to rise but needs a p…

Monkei on July 14, 2008 at 10:21 PM

You are from Michigan huh? I should have known.

Why didn’t a GOP president lift this ban when gas hit $2 much less 4? was it still ‘unpopular’ then?

jp on July 14, 2008 at 1:26 PM

Because nobody cared enough at that amount. That was a normal fill up price, and we didn’t care where it came from. Now we do, especially because the dollar is dropping while the price of gas, along with other goods, like basic groceries, is rising.

IMHO, Monkei needs to get a grip. Those electric cars are re-charged using fossil fuels (that’s how electricity gets its fuel), and most of the plastics come from petroleum products (I spent an entire semester in grad school studying this for a regular client who was a plasma spray manufacturer looking for new markets).

Bush gave the Dem-led Congress enough time to do something pro-active about energy for the American people. Since the Dems have taken over Congress, the price of fuel and food have escalated dramatically. The Dems were going to drag their feet indefinitely because they are against any type of carbon-based fossil fuel exploitation. It was/is their hope that Republicans will be blamed for the high cost of living.

Rescinding the EO at any earlier time would have been a hard sell to the public, given the chokehold that the Greens have deluded the public with.

The fact of the matter is that providing energy is not an either-or situation. Using the resources that we have in abundance while exploring alternative avenues of energy is smart, long-term thinking. Modern technology in drilling, refining, and mining is cutting edge in safety and responsibility. The same is true for developing nuclear energy.

We can achieve energy independence from despotic regimes that have little else to offer to the world economy. At the same time, we can sell our resource to high-demand emerging economies in order to support our balance of trade and improve the value of the dollar.

By canceling this EO, Bush has generated a psychological lift and taken away the talking-points rah-rah of the Democrats during their convention.

WoosterOh on July 14, 2008 at 11:14 PM

Wooster, although the mileage isn’t bad, you won’t be able to refill the tank in a few minutes, as in normal cars. Also, electric cars carry a very great weight and space penalty, just to supply power.

Also, it just isn’t the same if you can’t hear the throaty exhaust as you wind her through the gears. :)

Monkei on July 14, 2008 at 10:21 PM

Where do you get the energy to charge the batteries on the electric cars? What happens if you go on a two hundred mile trip? How do you despose of the old batteries? How long will it take you to go on a two hundred mile trip? If electric car were practical for any thing other than city driving, then that is all you would see in Europe where gasoline is close to eleven dollars a gallon.

Denken Sie, bevor Sie schreiben.

john1schn on July 14, 2008 at 4:42 PM

Das ist gut.

“Well, we’re also the Saudi Arabia of coal, but Pickens mentions coal not at all. The U.S. has 27% of the world’s recoverable coal. A ton of coal can generate two barrels of synthetic oil.

On that basis, as the New York Times pointed out a few years ago, “the coal in the ground in Illinois alone has more energy than all the oil in Saudi Arabia.”

This technology is in use today in South Africa, where three coal-liquefying plants produce about 150,000 barrels of oil a day. At the above conversion rate, America’s coal reserves are equivalent to 20 times our proven crude oil reserves. Liquefied coal could solve our liquid energy needs for the next two centuries.

Another massive domestic energy reserve Pickens does not mention is shale oil. Another Energy Department report says the Green River formation underlying parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, deep inside Pickens’ wind tunnel, contains as many as 2 trillion barrels of oil trapped in porous rock close to the surface. Two trillion barrels is seven times the Saudi reserves.”

And if I remember correctly from my Econ 101 class, increasing supply ALWAYS reduces prices. And since the current price of oil is a reflection of the future supply the current price has been bid up because current supplies are deemed more valuable because of future scarcity.
If we were to seriously commit to adding hundreds of billions of barrels of supply to the future supply, the current price would drop because the futures contracts held by speculators would plummet in value. They would bail out of the market and the bubble would burst.
You sound like the ignorant Dems in Congress, all lawyers and no economists, who make the same ignorant arguments.
The ONLY reason the Dems are succeeding with this line of reasoning is because the majority of their constituency doesn’t understand basic economics themselves.

In a year (or maybe even sooner), every sane person on earth will be wishing he was still President.

Long overdue, but he ‘done good’ today.

- – - –

Now, if we build nuclear like crazy, like McCain has proposed, we can power all those dinky little tuna-can electric cars without a problem. Unfortunately, it’ll take 2-3 decades to build nuclear plants and get them up to speed. During those 20-30 years, WE WILL NEED OIL! And as others have pointed out, even if we could wave a magic wand and make all vehicles run off of sunshine and skittles tomorrow, WE WILL STILL NEED OIL for all the other petroleum-based products on which we’ve come to depend. Dumba$$.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

2010 Chevy Volt

What do I see there? A CHEVY?

2009 Tesla Roadster

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Thats the problem with you green weenies, you’re non-thinkers.

cjs1943 on July 14, 2008 at 10:52 PM

LOL, well said cjs1943.

Monkei on July 14, 2008 at 10:21 PM

Yeah, you are the dumbest commenter on this thread. You think we only get gas from oil?!?!? Don’t you think we get oil to lubricate the engines and transmissions? What about all of the plastic we get from oil? You think an all-electric car isn’t going to need some grease for the wheel bearings? Do you really think an all-electric engine is going to power all of the trucks moving goods all over the country? They run on diesel fuel refined from oil.

Thats the problem with you green weenies, you’re non-thinkers.

Wouldn’t it be nice to hear a candidate speak to Michigan and tell them that GM and Ford are dead and done. They are not moving in the right direction.

Instead of drilling for more oil the state of Florida they should invest in bringing total electric auto companies into the state screw big oil.

Yeah, I will go get another granola bar, you guys keep filling it up with some stupid thought process that oil prices will go down because we get more oil out of the ground off the coast of Florida to put on the world market. Last time I checked Big Oil was not a government owned business, they always sell to the highest bidder.

How Executive Orders May be Vacated

The President can retract an EO at any time. The President may also issue an EO that supersedes an existing one.

New incoming Presidents may choose to follow the EOs of their predecessors, replace them with new ones of their own, or revoke the old ones completely.

In extreme cases, Congress may pass a law that alters an EO, and the Supreme Court can declare them unconstitutional.