Permit issuance could be relegated to the states, or to a board which is answerable to the legislatures of the Gulf states…until such time as there is a responsible national energy policy administered by adults in place.

Windmills are not viable energy sources: they run on tax money. And the only gas we get from the Obama administration comes out of their rear ends.

Yes, I could say that he and the rest of the left aren’t smart enough to know these things, but that would be uncivil, so I won’t.

Chip on February 28, 2011 at 4:21 PM

Our latest guidance on “civil discourse” is that “You are f***ing dead” is civil…at least in Wisconsin.

Based on this guidance, you could say that the left is “brain dead”….which would actually be kind.

Drilling for oil in the US will not have a material impact on worldwide oil prices. Growing demand in China and India are the primary driver of oil prices, compounded at the moment by supply problems in some parts of the Middle East.

Gas prices will go far, far higher over the next decade and the only answer is hybrid and electric vehicles that are fueled by a power grid that relies primary upon natural gas, which the US has in abundance.

bayam on February 28, 2011 at 3:48 PM

Not completely true. Oil prices peaked at about $140 a barrel, and gasoline prices at about $4.50 a gallon, in July 2008. When President Bush announced he was lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling, oil prices decreased rapidly over the following year.

It’s true that it takes a year or two to FIND oil after companies start drilling for it, and to bring wells into production after oil is found, but the oil market is strongly driven by “futures-traders” and speculators betting on the future balance of oil supply and demand. President Bush’s announcement obviously didn’t bring any new oil to market immediately, but it gave the IMPRESSION that new supply would come online within a few years, so that speculators in 2008 suddenly thought they would lose their shirts betting on $150/barrel oil in the future, and started selling short, and led existing producers to bring their oil to market BEFORE the new U.S. oil came online.

If President Obama were to suddenly reverse course and encourage new offshore drilling, not only in the Gulf but in ANWR and off the East Coast and California coast, it would still be a few years before the new oil came online, but oil prices would probably drop by at least $20/barrel within a few weeks, because of the PERCEPTION that the U.S. will not continue to starve itself for oil.

“Electric vehicles that are fueled by a power grid that relies primary upon natural gas” are not necessarily a panacea, because energy is lost in every conversion step–including converting natural gas to electricity and electricity into power to move a vehicle. It would be more efficient to develop vehicles that run directly on natural gas, which has already been developed for buses in some cities. This may not be practical for private cars due to safety issues during refueling under pressure, but could be adapted for large trucks, thereby freeing up some oil for other uses.

Gas prices will go far, far higher over the next decade and the only answer is hybrid and electric vehicles that are fueled by a power grid that relies primary upon natural gas, which the US has in abundance.

bayam on February 28, 2011 at 3:48 PM

ONly a multi-prong effort, led by more drilling of oil, natural gas, nuclear power will resolve our issue.
Electricity is not the answer, since so much is lost in the delivery of the power…however, a series of small nuclear power plants could provide local power evenly across the U.S.
And just in case one forgets…Trucks need fuel, and the only real efficient power is diesel…and lest one also forgets, oil is used for more then just “power”…

There is not 2000 years of oil in Bakken, also it is a tight shale formation which will take a constant drilling program for years to come. Those shale wells pay off quickly but peter our quickly (in 10 years or less).

They just issued a permit of a well today to a well which was well on its way to being drilled to its final depth offshore in over 6,000 feet of water today. Drilling was stopped when the Macondo well blew out last year. THIS IS NOT A NEW WELL.

Feldman issued a CIVIL contempt citation with another judge/panel to decide the CIVIL penalty against Ken Salazar & Dept of Interior. He later issued a ruling that 5 WELLS application would either receive permit approval or rejection in the course of 30 days. NOT 15.

It is quite impossible to mobilize ALL THE RIGS IN THE WORLD and become hydrocarbon self sufficient in Obama’s present term, impossible. I don’t care where we drill. However, it could go a long ways into becoming self sufficient by the end of this decade.

At current prices, most – if not all – of the onshore lower 48 production is at risk of loss.

The vital infrastructure of our industry is being shattered. Last week, the rotary rig count of oil wells dropped to an all time low, 122. At this number the only oil wells being drilled in the United States are being driven not by a desire to find oil but by the need to meet a lease commitment.

This loss of activity reflects the serious impact low oil prices will have on future production. All oil wells deplete over time. While new technology has made the discovery of oil more effective, it has also allowed oil reserves to be depleted more quickly. Some recent studies suggest that the current oil depletion rate in the Gulf of Mexico is now averaging 26 percent per year. This is dramatically higher than historic rates of 3 or 4 or 5 percent per year. What it suggests is that the industry must spend more money to meet future demand and maintain its reserves. One recent analysis shows the magnitude of difficulty of this task. Looking at ten of the best major oil and gas companies over the past ten years it shows that these companies’ exploration and production capital expenditures totaled $260 billion – at a time when a vast overcapacity in the oil service industry kept prices down. For this expenditure, these companies increased their daily oil and gas production by 0.9 percent. Reserves were increased by almost 13 percent, but most of this was natural gas and a sizeable portion was in Central Asia where more needs to be invested to bring it to the world market. Oil reserves were increased by about 1.7 percent.

This brings to bear two key points. First, these were probably the best ten companies, ones with the best financial base. Other companies would have fewer resources. Second, these results will not be achieved without substantial investment. These historic low oil prices are savaging capital expenditure budgets with cuts of 20 to 40 percent so far. Without investment, reserves cannot be replaced.

Behind these numbers is a realization that jobs are being lost by the tens of thousands, skills that will not be recovered by the industry in the future. For the past several weeks we have read about the intense concerns over steel imports into the United States that could cost 10,000 jobs. The Houston Chronicle reported that the American Petroleum Institute estimates 1998 job losses in the industry to be 30,000. IPAA analyzed the domestic oil industry based on economic multiplier factors associated with lost revenues. This analysis concludes that the domestic oil industry has lost 50,000 jobs or more from the current price crisis. Moreover, the country has lost over $1.7 billion in lost federal royalties and state severance taxes, without even assessing the lost income taxes, property taxes, or sales taxes.

So America does have… or more correctly DID have… a thriving domestic producer situation. What happened was that the lowest part of the market, the determiner of price for the market overall at that time, was none other than Saddam Hussein. He was willing to sell at a loss, a huge loss, via Oil For Food because it would cause long-range problems to the US as our smaller, domestic producers either went out of business or were gobbled up by larger firms.

That was an intentional attack to concentrate our energy system into fewer hands that were more amenable to market manipulation via production contracts. The trail to get to Obama, today, does not start in 2008 or in 2003 but in the post-Desert Storm agreements that would not keep Saddam to his word for the cease-fire. That then brought on the violins and bleeding hearts for the Iraqi people that let Saddam game the oil markets via OFF and smuggling to put an artificially low price-point into the market. He could afford that as any income was better than none, and his friends he had chosen to sell oil via OFF could then get non-contract prices for it that were higher than the original contract price… with the difference pocketed.

What that did to the US was lose the necessary hardware and job skills to have a strong and diverse domestic market. Why do we have the current concentration of power (not just oil but the political power that goes with it) into the hands of a few players? That was engineered. But no one on the Left wanted to talk about that in 1999… all hearts and flowers for Saddam, then. And as there was cheap oil, who was going to worry about the loss of domestic infrastructure going to fewer and fewer, and larger firms?

Even with ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’, with which I wholeheartedly agree with, look to see who benefits from the system that has been gamed for decades. The current Administration has its friends who took part in that gaming… and do note that some of those intermediaries are playing both sides of the aisle. We were warned the system was being arranged to do this, and even if the one who started the gaming is now safely out of the way, the rigged system continues on with others reaping the benefits. Obama couldn’t rig the system on his own, he is just playing out the rich hand that was dealt to him by others.

In addition, over the last forty years the progs have built us a legal machine designed to stop energy projects through the courts. If the EPA disappeared tomorrow and we got us a decent president, one or two Luddites could still go to court and delay any project for years and years with demands for ‘environmental studies’ and other such nonsense. Those environmental studies have to be done by -you guessed it, the filthy rich multinational environmental organizations! It’s corruption at it’s finest, under the guise of environmentalism.

Taking apart this machine will take years, and I don’t know if Republicans have the willpower to carry it through.

“I’d rather see [the U.S.] drilling for [natural] gas than for oil and for coal,” he said.

It is no movement towards drilling. It is a change of subject. I want to bring down price of gasoline, so I am proposing we should drill for more natural gas. There is no correlation at all between the price of gas and the price of natural gas, as almost no cars use natural gas and almost no power generation plants use any oil. Look over here, we are working to allow more energy production. Solar, Wind and natural gas, don’t look over here where we are cutting oil and coal production nothing to see here. Now shut up your ingrates and vote for me next election.

I own a furniture manufacturing company and I get a first hand look at how much high oil effects prices. We get all the parts to make upholstered furniture from all over the country/world. Prices on everything (and I mean literally everything) have went up over the past few months:

* Wood for frames.
* springs
* foam (made from petroleum)
* fabric (many fabrics contain petroleum, plus a roll weighs 60+ lbs. expensive to ship).
* Screws
* Staples
* Wood finishes
* Shipping of finished goods

You may not think little things like screws and staples make a big difference in price, but you have wouldn’t believe the numbers used in a typical sofa or chair.

Now imagine the same thing applied to other types of manufacturers throughout the country. Until now manufacturers were able to eat most of this with owners and/or stockholders taking on most of the burden. Eventually, consumers will pay the price.

Hmm, maybe we should invade. Of course then Obama would put their oil off limits too.

Iblis on February 28, 2011 at 4:43 PM

LMAO

Dire Straits on February 28, 2011 at 5:20 PM

Dire Straits:)

“We are carefully and rigorously reviewing drilling plans. I am quite confident we will again get to the point where we approve deepwater permits,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said Friday, according to Reuters.

Who is doing this review? What parameters are being reviewed? What is still lacking with these permits that they continue to be held up? Why is NO ONE asking these questions? Don’t the repubs in the house now have the authority to drag this guy before congress and demand these answers???

Dire Straits:Lol,the great Hopey pressure gauge,changing
the planet,one properly inflated tire at a
time!:)

canopfor on February 28, 2011 at 4:25 PM

LOL!..:)

Is Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT-4) starting to get the message on domestic energy independence? According to one recent set of comments and a strong message from some of his constituents, he just may be.

It helps to be able to spell out the consequences of sustained high oil and gasoline prices in no uncertain terms for elected officials – eventually, they put the two and two they need for getting re-elected together.

Unless they really didn’t learn anything after the last election….

China is selling a particular brand of rice at a cheap price.

PrettyD_Vicious on February 28, 2011 at 5:10 PM

Yeah, food fights won’t be a humorous, childish interlude soon. They will be for real and coming to a theater near all of us soon.

Thanks, DC pols, you insane fools. Completely FUBAR. Why is everyone terrified of a gub’mint shutdown? We’d be better off shutting down DC completely, turning it into a “living museum” where anyone who is interested can visit and spit on it.

Give the government back to the people. Wasn’t that the point to begin with?

bayam on February 28, 2011 at 3:48 PM

According to liberals:

Cutting $100B of the budget won’t do anything since the deficit is so big.

Drilling for oil won’t do anything since worldwide demand is so big.

But asking union members to pay $100 a month towards their own health insurance? That will destroy the world as we know it and we cannot possibly allow it to happen.