Video: Is Drill Here, Drill Now dead?
posted at 3:35 pm on May 12, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
This is a more complicated question than it might appear. Lindsey Graham tried floating a compromise with John Kerry and Barbara Boxer that would have allowed more offshore drilling in exchange for support of a cap-and-trade system, hoping to pick up a few moderate Senate Republican votes to allow the bill to pass. Given how such moderation played out for Bob Bennett in Utah, that probably was a non-starter anyway, but the Obama administration played ball long enough to push a mildly pro-drilling policy, at least in some specific circumstances. If the massive oil spill in the Gulf has killed offshore drilling for the short term, what does Graham have to offer moderates as a carrot to join the climate-change coalition?
James Inhofe thought cap-and-trade was dead anyway, but doesn’t think offshore drilling is necessarily in the same status, as he explains to Stuart Varney on CNBC today:
The Exxon Valdez didn’t kill oil transport, and the Gulf spill won’t kill offshore drilling. It will, however, delay it considerably until the oil industry demonstrates that it can fix this kind of catastrophic failure when it occurs. Some estimates have this spill continuing for four months, during which time we can expect zero permits for new drilling or exploration. As long as that spill continues, new drilling may not be dead … but it will be in a coma.
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Or FBN?
fourdeucer on May 12, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Ummmmmmm…
Why not propose on-shore drilling?
Seven Percent Solution on May 12, 2010 at 3:40 PM
Hey Ed, did you get my email concerning ANWR and how the US F&W are trying to forever close it off for any thing???
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 3:40 PM
Of course it’s dead….until gas hits 4 bucks a gallon at the pump. Then it’ll be revived quicker than a bad horror movie icon.
Doughboy on May 12, 2010 at 3:40 PM
It certainly ended drilling for oil off the coast of California, possibly Alaska.
Skandia Recluse on May 12, 2010 at 3:40 PM
Windfarms and solarfarms don’t have any accidents.
They don’t produce any usable amount of energy either, but hey, you can’t have everything.
NoDonkey on May 12, 2010 at 3:41 PM
Aaaaaaaah! The liberals plan is going smoothly. *rubs hands together*
capejasmine on May 12, 2010 at 3:41 PM
Kill offshore drilling in the Gulf?
Yeah, right…tell that to Mexico, Cuba, China, and whoever else is drilling or plans to in the Gulf as we speak.
ornery_independent on May 12, 2010 at 3:42 PM
Yeah, tell that to the birds that get taken out by windmills. After all, it’s the poor birdies covering in oil that have everyone up in arms about offshore drilling. And we can’t drill in ANWR because of the caribou. If we’re gonna be consistent, we have to ban all windmill farms.
Doughboy on May 12, 2010 at 3:43 PM
Which makes perfect sense. NASA didn’t send up a Shuttle for two years after Challenger.
YYZ on May 12, 2010 at 3:44 PM
/snort
ornery_independent on May 12, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Fox Business.
amerpundit on May 12, 2010 at 3:46 PM
fourdeucer on May 12, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Fox Business.
amerpundit on May 12, 2010 at 3:46 PM
fourdeucer on May 12, 2010 at 3:48 PM
They have been telling us that the rig is leaking at a rate of 3000 to 5000 barrels a day. Even at 5000 barrels a day it would take 2 and half years to leak the 4 million they are hypeing the total amount to be now.
Redglen on May 12, 2010 at 3:52 PM
Of course offshore drilling is still on! What a silly idea saying it might be dead! We shouldn’t drive our cars anymore? No heating oil for New England?
We might not get all of our oil from domestic sources, but we do get some and even that small amount is a good thing. More would be better, which is why drill-baby-drill is still a good motto as far as I am concerned.
As far as the technology issue is concerned, I though I heard from CNBC in their initial reporting on this leak that most deep wells are already equipped with newer, better shut-off valves. I’d like to hear it confirmed, but I think the problem is already solved.
MTF on May 12, 2010 at 3:55 PM
I hope Inhofe is right about crap & tax, but it looked Obamacare was on the rocks at one time and where are we?
That said, EVERYTHING having to do the oil industry has ground to a stand still. I had an offer to work on a refinery project for Exxon that was quickly rescinded after this blowout in the gulf. That project came to a screaming halt, cancelation of 1200 new jobs and furlow of 5000+ that were already on site. Instances like this may be responsible for the .2 bump in the unemployment number, if the industry slow down didn’t register in the latest report, it sure will in the next. The effects will trickle down as well due to the fact a lot of these workers were imported on a per diem basis, rseturaunts, hotels, etc. are going to start feeling the pinch as well.
Archimedes on May 12, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Tell that to Shell Oil who just had their permit yanked via the MMS/BLM and of course the DOI.
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Add Angola, Sudan, Mayanmar and Vietnam thanks to Obama’s marxist buddies in Cuba.
Fletch54 on May 12, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Despite the spill, drill baby drill!
Weight of Glory on May 12, 2010 at 3:58 PM
The only way it would be ‘dead’ would be if Palin was, and she’s hardly likely to kick the bucket anytime soon.
It might well be down, but not out for good.
Dark-Star on May 12, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Meanwhile in Florida, whose western beaches are still pristine, Gov Crist
(R)(D) is pandering the the fear-mongered populace, using emotion to promote (himself and) a Florida Constitutional Amendment for a permanent ban on offshore drilling off Florida’s coast.Learning quickly from his new Democrat cronies to “never let a crisis go to waste.”
ornery_independent on May 12, 2010 at 4:02 PM
Your words say CNBC, but your video says Fox Business.
lorien1973 on May 12, 2010 at 4:03 PM
Kerry-Lieberman bill has been released.
987 page bill
Summary
agmartin on May 12, 2010 at 4:07 PM
Shorter summary of Kerry-Lieberman bill
Which includes this
Can you say California bailout?
I knew you could.
agmartin on May 12, 2010 at 4:12 PM
Oh Boy.
1202 Revenue Sharing from the outercontinental shelf….. at 37.5% HOLY COW!
1203 Revenue Sharing from Areas of Seaward Alaska: Allows revenue sharing in areas adjacent to Alaska. OKAY WTF does THAT Mean? They already have “sharing” with Alaska….
1413 Carbon Capture and Sequestration Prog Part Council. Ummmm ui see a HUGE problem with that concerning Flaring and such when it comes to Oil drilling or Natural Gas offshoots.
1417 Determination of Fossil-Based Electricty deliveries. Which now means that ALL consumers will be paying a “Federal Tax” for your electirc if it is Natural Gas or Coal (MARK MY WORDS) and it will be Federally regulated.
OMG this is becoming worse and worse.
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 4:14 PM
Section 3101 and 3102 is worth a read if you are one of those who have Fuel oil to heat your house (East coast people this would be about you).
Starting 6/30/2015-6/30/2029, the Feds are monitoring your quantity of what you “use” and I am sure this will be the start of you going “green” due to their Carbon emissions act.
Holy Moly. This is not good.
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 4:21 PM
The day Obama was elected was the day freedom began to die….goodbye energy freedom, medical freedom, food freedom, speech freedom, goodbye liberties (unless you’re a terrorist)…the list goes on….
search4truth on May 12, 2010 at 4:31 PM
It is not just ANWR, it is the entire United States! What the administration is trying to do is ban fraccing which is necessary for 84% of the wells drilled just to produce. Fraccing is also required to keep old oil fields producing and this is something more practiced by small oil companies with names most people have never ever heard of.
Kermit on May 12, 2010 at 4:32 PM
Only on Federal Land. They can not mandate it on State lands that are open for drilling.
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 4:37 PM
There’s that release of “suspense” Lieberman promised us.
Fletch54 on May 12, 2010 at 4:38 PM
What is really sick according to Greta last night the Minerals Management Services are not only tasked with regulating the industry they are tasked with getting as much revenue as possible from the industry.
fourdeucer on May 12, 2010 at 4:38 PM
You are correct.
upinak on May 12, 2010 at 4:44 PM
NO … people will tire of walking everywhere.
tarpon on May 12, 2010 at 4:49 PM
Will Ed Morrissey ever write a headline that doesn’t have a question mark in it?
Kevin M on May 12, 2010 at 4:54 PM
I’m waiting to see the pictures from the Kansas wind farm which got hit by a tornado this last week.
If the MSM ever allows them to appear, I expect them to display the catastrophic failure of yet another liberal fantasy.
Meanwhile: Want food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medicine, chemicals? All of these things depend on oil!!!
So Drill, Baby, Drill!!! No matter how much Liberals fantasize about “alternative energy,” OIL is the only viable alternative to starving in dark, cold caves piled high with horse poo!!!
PS: We could reduce oil used for energy production if the self-destructive Libs would allow nuclear plants to be built. But you can’t make clothing, plastic parts, medicine, or chemicals out of nuclear power…so we still MUST have oil!!!
landlines on May 12, 2010 at 5:01 PM
It’s amazing how quickly $5 a gallon gas across the country will raise the dead.
Second look at zombie DHDN?
12thMonkey on May 12, 2010 at 5:02 PM
The choice:
1) Let the Saudis drill with environmentally-unfriendly methods, ship it at great expense–& risk of accident–halfway around the world (ships pollute, don’t they?), & we’ll keep indirectly funding terrorism, or
2) Let us drill here, drill now, with the the best, safest technology.
If the left really cared about the environment, they’d support (2).
itsnotaboutme on May 12, 2010 at 5:30 PM
The media are hyping the confusion in the general public between barrels and gallons. Since a barrel is 42 gallons, 4 million gallons is about 95,000 barrels, which could be leaked in 19 days at 5,000 barrels per day. But 4 million gallons SOUNDS like more than 95,000 barrels.
Still, such figures need to be put into perspective. If the oil slick spread out over one square mile of water, 4 million gallons would form a film about 0.23 inch thick. Since the leaking well is about 50 miles from the nearest shore, the oil slick is spread over a much larger area, and is much thinner than 0.23 inch.
As of 2006, offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico produced about 1.5 million barrels a day, so this particular leaking well is losing about 0.33% of the normal production, and there have been many years of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico without accidents. Do we stop all drilling because we leak a small fraction of the oil a small fraction of the time?
There is no doubt, this accident is an embarrassment to the oil industry, and will probably discourage new drilling in the short term. There will probably be a push for new regulations to help prevent such accidents in the future. But we still will need oil, and while windfarms and solar panels can replace a small part of electrical power plants, we still need oil for our cars, trucks, and planes. We can either drill for our own oil off our shores, and also tap huge resources of shale oil under the Rockies, or we can buy it at prohibitive prices from other countries hostile to us.
Steve Z on May 12, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Actually, only about 3% of our electricity is generated from oil. About 50% comes from coal, 30% from natural gas, and 15% from nuclear. The main need for oil is in transportation (cars, trucks, planes). Some of these could be adapted to run from natural gas, but not coal or nuclear power. In order to use nuclear power in transportation, it could be used to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen, then use the hydrogen in cars, but hydrogen is very light, and needs to be handled at high pressures, and is very explosive (remember the Hindenberg!).
We could eventually save some oil by converting gas-fired power plants to nuclear, then converting home-heating systems from oil to natural gas (if there is enough economic incentive), but in recent years, it’s government regulations that have been preventing the construction of nuclear plants.
We still need oil for its by-products other than fuel: olefins for the plastics industry, coke for the steel industry, asphalt for roads, etc.
Steve Z on May 12, 2010 at 5:47 PM
I’m comforted knowing that the Mississippi blasts the area with a million gallons plus every second.
Then there’s the silt along with it.
Let’s give them a month to try and save it, then junkbomb it and let the hydrates freeze us a nice cap.
Jason Coleman on May 12, 2010 at 6:34 PM
whack!
rslancer14 on May 12, 2010 at 9:17 PM