Tuesday, September 09, 2008

To drill or not to drill, you decide.

Will drilling in ANWR and the outer continental shelf help our energy situation? You decide, based on this chart built from the US Department of Energy's data.

(Data from the US Department of Energy)


***my opinion*** Sure we can drill, but why the heck are our partisan candidates even talking about drilling when it will have such a minimal effect on our situation? They've coerced us into believing that what they're talking about (drilling) really is a significant issue with regard to our energy independence when it is so clearly insignificant. Besides, in 10 years shouldn't we have other things going for us instead of needing to use our last few remaining drops of domestic oil? (and it really is drops on the grand scheme of things) Additionally, when the oil finally does come on line, we will still only be able to get it for the international oil price (currently over $100). At that price, it won't have any effect whatsoever on what you pay at the pump. Bottom line, that is not cheap oil, and there's not much of it. Yes, that little bit of oil would come from the US instead of abroad, but the other 99% of the oil we use would still be foreign. Shouldn't we address the 99% instead?

To put things in perspective, OPEC met yesterday and simply decided (it took them all of one day to decide) to turn down the flow on their 'spigot' by 530,000 barrels per day. So, on not much more than a whim, OPEC reduced their oil output by more than twice what the US could ever get by drilling as much as we possibly could. That is, assuming we would also have built the required infrastructure to process the additional oil that we drill. I'm not singling out either candidate here, because both of them are making such a big deal about whether to drill. They should NOT be focusing on drilling at all, it is a drop in the oil bucket, that's all. We have much bigger fish to fry. Don't you love partisan politics? It's either one extreme or the other and each candidate's flame is stoked further by his/her respective party instead of by the real issues.

"Clowns to the left of me,
jokers to the right,
here I am stuck in the middle with you."

3 comments:

gina bina said...

I know you hate partisan politics because you talk about it every flippin' day. :) Which is OK and all, but you just have to pick your battles with it because the elephants and donkeys who are running the show are here to stay.
I don't understand why McCain is being heralded as a hero because Home Boy wants to drill on our turf. Our turf is shallow. As you said, this gets us no where if not 10 more years behind. And considering that we're already 10 plus years behind...we're in trouble.
Let's focus on what we can control. I'm talking Clean Coal baby.

Two Wheeler said...

At least coal-to-liquids would make a bigger dent in the foreign oil consumption.

travdean said...

I think efforts would be better spent on alternative sources. That chart is very interesting and brought light to my eyes that I was not fully aware of.