There’s one of the better reasons to support Senator McCain. It is ridiculous that we refuse to drill in America, which would not only help lower prices on gas but would also generate jobs. It’s also more eco-friendly to do it that way rather than ship it across oceans in tankers.
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You left out one big thing. Every additional barrel of oil we produce here would reduce the trade deficit.
I don’t really like paying big oil $4 for a gallon of gasoline, but it beats not being able to drive because there is no gasoline.Â
Those people who oppose drilling (and refining) here because it would help big oil are overlooking the consequences of their actions. If big oil made even more obscene profits here in the United States, then big oil would pay a larger tax on these profits.Â
By forbidding big oil from drilling here, the Democrats are helping foreign goverments in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela that aren’t exactly our friends. Those most harmed by this policy are not the oil companies, but those poor Americans who can’t afford to buy a newer, more fuel efficient car.
Big oil provides me with stations selling gasoline whenever I need it. What has the Democrat controlled Congress done for me?
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What do people have against Canadian oil? They’re our largest foreign supplier by a significant margin.Â
The entire question is a will o’ the wisp. As long as the Middle Eastern countries are the lowest cost suppliers AND there’s a global market for oil we will be dependent on Middle Eastern oil EVEN IF we don’t import a drop of oil.
As you note, Dean, there are a number of good reasons that we should be producing more of what we consume (it’s not often pointed out but the U. S. remains one of the world’s largest OIL PRODUCING countries). Independence isn’t one of them. I see the very notion of energy independence of a grand old American tradition: isolationism.Â
For good or ill we’re stuck with the rest of the world and they’re stuck with us. We’d best get used to it.
It’s a bit unfair to blame Obama for the U.S. not drilling for oil. As McCain himself has said, Obama as spend the majority of his time in the Senate campaigning for President.
Of the two, I’d say McCain shares more blame for not pushing to drill. He didn’t exactly make energy independence the main thrust of his Senate career.
The main point is that the US economy is not sustainable with current oil and energy prices. We need to restructure our economy for higher energy prices. It is not impossible to do. Europe and Japan have been operating with $4+ gasoline for years.
Some day we will drill in most of these areas. It is a question that is worth discussing. There are legitimate concerns about drilling in these areas. If the price of oil is high enough, oil companies can profitably drill in these areas in a responsible manner. There are other places in the world where drilling and production costs may be lower. There are not enough reserves here to significantly effect the price of oil. I have seen estimates that drilling in these areas might lower gasoline prices by 10 cents in 5 to 10 years. Drilling in these areas is not a solution to our current economic problems. We still need to restructure our economy for higher energy prices. That is the issue we should be talking about.
I don’t know where you got those estimates but I’ve seen a number of reports state that simply announcing we’re going to begin serious drilling of our reserves will drop the cost of gas $2 overnight.
If simple talk drops the price that much, I see no reason to think that when the actual drilling begins it wouldn’t drop further.
Yes, simple talk can lower the price because the prices you see in the news are future prices for the highest quality crude. They are based on the expectation of future supplies not current supplies.
Also, the 5 to 10 year timeframe is political nonsense. My family and I have some experience bringing in oil wells and the easier oil will begin to hit the market in 6 months or less. The more difficult oil, where it is very deep or infrastructure has to be built will be 12 to 18 months. (The futures traders know this and the drop in prices reflect it even though so far there has only been simple talk.)  They will then spend 5 to 10 years developing the field to its full capacity. That will put them at the top of a (roughly) bell shaped production curve.Â
I’ve heard several reasons given as to why one might be skeptical of the claims made in this ad:
First of all, offshore drilling wouldn’t reduce our dependence on foriegn oil in any significant manner: oil is a world market. This would increase our share in that market only by a tiny tiny fraction.
Second of all, oil companies ALREADY have rights to offshore drilling areas that they aren’t using. The offshore proposals in this case are nothing more than handing away drilling rights to companies at huge discount and/or for free, with no guarantee that they’ll actually use these ones either. Having drilling rights in your portfolio is great for the bottom line. But this is like lumber companies whining about how we won’t open Yellowstone to logging when they still have millions of acres of clear-cut forest that they are hoarding.
Third, have Republicans stopped lying about how ther were no significant oil spillage during Katrina, because it’s just supposedly impossible (a neat trick for impossible things to be actualities, no)?
Finally, if Obama is such an irresponsible dupe with poor judgment because of this issue, what are we to make of McCain opposing it himself for most of his political career, right up until the election? Vote for the guy who had the same terrible judgment right up until halfway into his 71st birthday?
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Bad: Reason 1 is obviously a joke. Countries which produce most of their own oil have lower oil prices. That’s what’s going on in Canada now and part of why their dollar is now worth more than ours. The jobs and opportunities, not to mention the lowered shipping costs, will make producing it here a very good thing.
I’ll look at the rest later but the first one right off the bat looks like it comes from people desperately grasping at straws to avoid allowing something we should already be doing–exploiting our own massive oil reserves that are currently locked up due to irrational "environmentalist" laws that do little or nothing to protect the environment.
They said 10 years ago that drilling for oil would take ten years to change prices…
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