Offshore drilling will BARELY bring down gas prices!!!!

'Solution' well cars in Europe get on average at least 2x what ours get.

Drilling 10 years ago would have caused us to run our supplies drier even sooner.

 

But it is not the same cars that are getting that mileage. I've spent a lot of time in Europe. Cars there mostly run on diesel and many are small. You get much better mileage with diesel. If gas prices become as outrageous in the USA as they are in Europe, you will likely see the same thing happen here. Gas prices in Europe are also at least 2x what we pay here. The differential in price is all due to high government taxes on fuel in Europe.

If we never get to tap into those oil supplies, they aren't doing anyone any good.

Neither the USA nor the world is running out of oil. The world is running out of light sweet crude, but still has hundreds of years of heavy sour crude. The main difference between the two is the yield and the processes used to refine it. Light sweet crude is much more preferable. There is also tar sands and shale oil. We get a lot of our Canadian oil from tar sands. They have huge reserves and have perfected the process of extracting the oil. Oil is not oil. There are many types of oil.

 

Never said they were the same cars. You also can not equate their prices to ours. Taxes are paid by us in other forms to get gas other than just at the pump.

The oil that is available that we can currently get to will not last us very long if we used it as our only source. What good is it if we don't use it up?

From a security stand point alone it keeps us a supply should we need it, in an event we can not get oil from abroad in a time of war.

 

What good is it to never use?

 

No one really knows how much oil is in any of these places because they have never been allowed to explore it. Bash environmentalism all you like but if your solution is to let the oil companies be unregulated and drill wherever the hell they want whenever you must trust them a lot more than I do.

Yes not all oil is oil. In fact not every type of oil is usable for gasoline production so there is no promise for a drop in gas prices due to production. Maybe psycho mumbo jumbo or generosity from the oil companies for letting them drill might make a small drop in prices, maybe not. As someone else pointed out, we are in ever growing competition with the rest of the world for this energy and that is not going to stop. The more oil China wants the more we will have to pay for ours.

Anyway the lobbyists are there and they have the money. The nation is scared shitless with a failing economy and is willing to try almost anything. We will have offshore drilling and we will have it soon. Whether it actually helps any of us or not is up in the air from where I sit.

 

Why didnt the government put more money into getting better efficiency from electric cars. The chevy volt is about 1.5 to 2 years away, im wondering why more money wasnt freed up to get this car to market sooner so we will weed ourselves off of oil dependence from the rich arab gulf states?

 

You're right, what good are nukes if we never use them as well?

 

GRIM, sometimes I think you argue just for the sake of arguing.

Nukes are there because you may need them some day.

We need oil today to solve a serious and growing problem, but politics is not allowing us to tap into it to solve the problem. We are the only developed/developing country on the planet that is not aggressively going after additional sources of oil. Both China and Russia are pursuing oil off of our coasts, yet we are not allowed to do the same.

This is influenced heavily by the environmental lobbyists who have hijacked the Democrat party.

It makes no sense to not pursue our own oil and it makes less sense to tap into the strategic petroleum reserve to influence prices, as several Democrats have recommended. Just as you suggested that it may be good to not extract all the oil that we can because we might need it in a time of emergency, it makes less sense to use oil that has been specifically reserved for a time of national emergency. High prices are not a national emergency.

 

Hmm you have not read my argument about using the little oil we have left have you? I base my view primarily on 'security' as we 'might need' that oil someday should we not be able to get it from abroad.

Yet from everything I have read tapping into either will not bring down prices much if anything which does not solve the issue you want to solve. All it does is make us less secure into the future.

I do see you see my argument, but acted above like you did not?

 

I was specifically referring to the strategic petroleum reserve, but I do agree that we need to keep some sources of oil in reserve.

There are two problems that I see with waiting to drill until a time of emergency.

1. It is reactive, rather than proactive. Plus, it will take time to react if out foreign source get cut off abruptly. Meanwhile, the country will be in chaos.

2. We are sending gobs of cash to many countries that are using it to fund anti-American and terrorist activities.

My ideal would be to find an alternative source for oil and flip the Mideast and Venezuela the big bird. But we don't currently have any good alternative and my ideal is not feasible for the foreseeable future.

PingPong, if you do some research into electric cars, you will find that they are probably 10 to 20 years away from perfection. The Chevy Volt will only go 40 miles between charges. It has also evolved into a hybrid and uses a gas engine to charge the batteries to extend the mileage to a few hounded miles. It cannot be used for a long trip. There is also the issue of electrics and their inability to provide air conditioning in hot climates or heat in cold climates. The heat is going to be a bigger issue for most people. I think people will be more prone to accept sweating rather than freezing. Electric vehicles may be ideal for California and Florida climates, but not for most of the rest of the country.

 

Personally I think some 'wells' should be readied, simply not pumped ATM. Have them ready, but don't empty them.

I understand your point was about the reserves, I however am not for draining that either.

 

I guess the US president is willing to see the oil and gas price are in high level . He is from a family of oil holding group.

 

Every barrel that we drill domestically is $100 less to send overseas.

Every barrel that we drill domestically moves us further from dependance on foriegn oil.

If we learn anything this week, we should learn that it's time for us to keep our $$ in the US.

Drill away! Develop other energy sources. Electric cars aren't the answer yet. We don't produce enough electricity to power a nation that drives electric cars. If we ever develop a car that does not run on gas, we will still need oil. Oil is used to manufacture too many products for us to "just stop using oil".

We need more filling stations for natural gas. I'd convert my car to run on gas if there were more filling stations.

 

Drilling more at home will not even remotely end our dependence on foreign oil. Using up our own oil however can make us less secure in the future.

 

No one is trying to say that offshore drilling is the save all end all to the gas problem. Its just one part of a larger solution.

How is doing nothing better?

 

Of course it will not bring gas prices down. You will pay whatever the global price for oil is regardless of where that oil comes from. You don't actually expect petrol companies to sell you gas cheaper just because the crude oil comes from america don't you?

Oh, and there's also the fact that it takes many years (like a decade or so) to actually start pumping oil out of those places.

 

Thought I was on ignore.

I never stated anyone said it was the only solution, it however does not remotely get us away from foreign oil. What part of using up the little oil in the short term make us less secure in the future do people not understand?

Especially when it wont effect our need for foreign oil that much, prices wont come down much at all. If anything it might have the opposite effect, with higher prices people are using less oil 'hence we purchase less from abroad' if prices would magically come down, more would be used and in return we might actually buy MORE from foreign sources.

 

Actually if supply goes up and while demand goes down, the price DOES go down. Just the thought of this happening has an almost immediate positive affect on futures.

Again, its just one small part of a combined larger solution. What good is doing nothing?

 

I love getting gray rep from guys like this - this was towards my post with the t-shirt picture:

I edited the middle word, but what is a retart? Is that related to a pop-tart?

Maybe DP should have an extrance exam and only those who get beyond a score can enter certain parts of the forum.

 

true, true, but have you taken this into consideration:

this happened less than three weeks ago. If supply did rise don't you think they would apply that policy again to keep prices high?

what exactly is that larger solution?