Electricity, Fuel, Alternatives,Nuclear, Solar... Energy crisis solved. I am glad we agree backyard drilling is part of the solution.
I'm sorry. I don't follow the dogma that oil is evil, business is evil and not producing as value. I think you're confusing logic with value, but I digress.
A poll done last month suggests that whatever the merits of the idea, most Americans agree with Republican John McCain about ending the federal ban on offshore oil drilling.
that because people are stupid and think if they drill suddenly gas will be cheap again how about use less gas? how about people stop driving extremely inefficient vehicles to impress their neighbors how about taking person responsibility for the amount of gas you use, instead of crying to the government to fix the prices
US has only 11-12 years of crude oil left. After that, it will be entirely dependent on oil imports. Start digging NOW. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves#United_States
The narcissistic argument. Why? Why? The government is blocking the potential to fix problems. People are crying for the government to get out of the way. Why is that a bad thing?
In next 2 decades, many major economies will have NO reserves left. US will finish-off its reserves in next 12 years. Mexico in next 10 years. Russia in next 17 years. India in next 20 years. China is next 20 years. After that, most of oil production will be in hands of the OPEC. (I mean production - not just exports) I think Canada will be the only major non-OPEC exporter left. These economies will have to pay whatever price OPEC asks for...it would be a virtual monopoly. OPEC will be the next super-power.....
So? What does it matter? We'll move onto new technologies when it is needed. See that "wikipedia" you quoted has a biased look. It's only looking at the oil we can produce with our current technology. Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the World, but as of 10 years ago, it didn't. The reason it has more oil reserves is because it has more technology to extract oil. As our technology grows we can get more oil. So your quoted information is misleading. So? Are you xenophobic? It's not really a monopoly, it's a cartel and as the pressure of oil demand will cause pressure on member countries, some more than others, and it will fall part. OPEC is just some countries, and the old philosophy by Fredric Bastiat will probably fall into place, "When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." OPEC will crumble at any sign of pressure.
ha ha..... you are living in wonderland. If it was so easy to replace crude oil, oil prices would never be where they are today.
Why? You're assuming that the prices are up there for supply and demand reasons. World wide oil demand is down, yet prices keep going up. Oil has doubled in a price. This is what we call a "bubble" caused by speculators. See this oil crisis happened before. In the 70's. People like you would talk about "oh we're out of oil" and all this crap. Oil is skyrocketing. There is huge lines gas stations and even gas stations are running out of gas. The oil companies went "holy crap, something is wrong. Supply and demand. We need to start getting more oil, so we can get things back to normal." Apparently, it wasn't a supply and demand problem. When the bubble popped, oil prices went down to $10 a barrel, which bankrupted a lot oil producers. I don't like George W. Bush, but I'll bring him up. A lot of people like to quote him as an idiot because he bankrupted his oil company. The fact is that he went bankrupt when oil prices bottomed out because the bubble burst. This is a bubble, and like all bubbles, it will burst.
Speculation may be responsible for the rapid rise in oil prices, but the direction is certainly backed by fundamental reasons. The world has hardly seen any reduction in oil consumption. The US economy has almost come to a standstill. Many believe it is already in a recession. Yet oil prices refuse to come down even by a few dollars. The problem lies in Asia. The Asian economies including India and China are rapidly growing. (India at 8%+ and China at 10%+). Even the middle-east economies have started booming now. The demand for crude oil from these economies is continuously increasing. Higher price may slow demand growth, but growth will still be there. Half of India's population (around 550 million people) are below 25. As youngsters turn adults, many of them would want their own bikes/cars. 550 million is not a small figure.... it is 1.8 times US population. China with its 1.3 billion population and growing economy is a similar case; and also will see demand growing year after year. If world consumption has to stay at a constant level, there is only one option: The consumption in the west has to go down sharply - and this would not happen unless these economies slowdown considerably.
Good to see someone is conceding to my point. Just saw it on the news yesterday. So? It's a bubble. It won't pop when you necessarily want it too, but it will eventually. I don't see it happening this summer, but if I was to take a guess, it will happen this fall (no pun intended). No, it has to do with speculation. Do they need white skin to be deserving of oil? Awesome. Prosperity is a good thing. World wide demand for oil is down. Oil has doubled in the last year and there hasn't been a doubling demand or a cut in half of supply, so we're in bubble. Why are you telling me this? I can do math. I guess I miss the point on why you're telling me. Each sentence seems to be a totally original thought. Magical. Why does it have to stay at a constant level? Why don't we just produce more oil, so everyone in the world can have a higher standard of living? I don't think my white skin makes me entitled to cheap oil, while I'm supposed to give the shaft to other countries.
It really has nothing to do with offshore drilling that is just a political football, the only way to solve the problem is new energy and the technology is already there. our dependency on foreign oil is far to profitable and the wars to secure it, is all far to profitable to give up.
It will never be cheap again. I can see the price heading to 10 to 15 a gallon. If we start drilling or just say we are going to drill the price will fall some of stabilize. Alternate energy and more fuel efficient autos is also part of the solution. The price of virtually everything is based on fuel.
Recoverable reserves off U.S. coasts in areas now banned from production probably hold only about 19 billion barrels. That's enough to provide about 920 days, or about 2.5 years, of current U.S. consumption. Offshore drilling is no solutions and without the offshore reserves the US will really be in trouble when the world runs out of oil. Now is the time to start using alternative energy rather than trying to have the good time go on for a couple of more years.