Dean Baker: 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Drill Everywhere' and Other Nonsense

[marmar]

via CommonDreams:




Published on Thursday, March 24, 2011 by Huffington Post
'Drill Here, Drill Now, Drill Everywhere' and Other Nonsense

by Dean Baker


It is a beautiful spring day in Washington. This is a nice respite from the horrors taking place in Japan and the ever-growing nuttiness of D.C. politics. Enjoying the weather provides a nice alternative to listening to the news or reading the newspaper.

The flood of nonsense in the traditional news outlets just continues to grow. At the top of the list is the steady stream of senators or members of Congress whose response to higher gas prices is to insist on drilling in every square inch of environmentally sensitive territory in the country. This is supposed to reduce our dependence on imported oil and lower the price of gas. Both sides of this assertion are absurd.

According to the Energy Information Agency, the United States has proven reserves of 22.3 billion barrels of oil. Given our current rate of consumption of 6.9 billion barrels a year, U.S. reserves could meet our demand for oil for less than 3.5 years. That means if we could somehow drill here, now, and everywhere, we could be energy independent until the middle of 2014 and then we would be 100 percent dependent on imported oil.

Of course, we cannot suddenly suck all the oil out of the ground at once, it takes time to explore and drill wells and then the oil must be drilled out over time. If we decided that we want to destroy every last national park and coastal region, we may be able to increase production by 1.0-1.5 million barrels a day in 5-10 years. At the high end, this would be a bit less than 2 percent of world supply. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/24-10

[swilton]

1. Of course no one mentions the 'C' word

CONSERVATION as a solution to our country's energy needs...one of the biggest consumers being our military.

[Name removed]

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