There are many important aspects to the drilling issue

[Nancy Waterman]

As always, Obama has the big picture with many moving parts in mind.

1. Drilling more in the US and its waters doesn't mean we will use more oil. We will still be working on using more hybirds and electric cars, greening more buildings, developing renewable fuels. But there is a long transition time during which it will be crucial to keep the price of oil fairly stable;

2. Peak oil is now becoming an accepted fact, and oil will rapidly become more expensive and scarcer in the near future;

http://www.postcarbon.org/press-release/85743-obama-administration-cops-to-likelihood-of

3. This new policy will create lots of jobs. It will also mean less money goes for imports, helping our balance of payments and debt issue;

4. Anything we can do to make oil cheaper, will have an adverse impact on Iran, a country we are trying to weaken for various strategic purposes we all understand.


So, it does not make global warming worse, while it helps the economic issues (debt and jobs) and it helps one of the biggest foreign policy concerns of today (Iran).

[katmondoo]

1. I am still not buying it. I love the beach too much

[zulchzulu]

3. I hate the beach. You have sand in your pants, seagulls pooping on you and get sunburn

So I'm for drilling baby!!!

:crazy:

[optimator]

2. spin away

I suppose you all think Palin was right.
I don't.

[Nancy Waterman]

5. I think Palin is an idiot

But Obama tends to see the very big picture, with many connecting parts.

I, too, worry about beaches and oil spills. I think that is the biggest problem with the policy. But I really don't think more drilling means we will use more oil and therefore adversely affect climate change. It is not a zero sum game.

[zulchzulu]

8. Palin is too stupid to be called an idiot. Pat Buchanan is an idiot

As for the drilling issue, oil and natural gas industries have had open permits and leases with over 6+ million offshore acres for decades and little offshore drilling has occurred.

Why?

Because if they drill more, they flood the market and the price...um... goes... down...

Do they want that? Only if they can pollute beaches and kill little kittens....

:sarcasm:

[phleshdef]

12. How intellectually LAZY of you.

[joeybee12]

23. What aprt of oil spill don't you get...what part of taxpayers will end up

cleaning any spill don't you get...what part of oil being sold to China and the rest of Asia don't you get?

[DrDan]

4. you forgot one

Drilling more in the US does not mean a single drop of that new oil will stay within the US.

[zulchzulu]

6. Even if drilling begins, it will take as long as 2030 before any oil/gas is extracted

Some people are either too stupid to understand fairly uncomplicated issues or they simply want to whine about something they have no idea is part of their life.

So people hate oil.

But they like their electronics, their computers, their cars, their clothes, their shoes, their shampoo...

It's like people who like wind farms but hate transmission lines.

:crazy:

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Heh. For all the talk of hybrid and electric cars, once again the...

Ford F-150 was the highest selling vehicle so far this year.

(And out here, the town has made windmills virtually illegal-- the restrictions are so tough that only one farm has filed an application and the town board shit a brick that it might have to allow it.)

[Spoonman]

10. BS

2030?
I've seen wells come online within 72 hours of completion.

From spudding the bit to perfing the casing most wells take less than 30 days to complete.
Even in the deepest offshore locations the longest drilling program for a single bore multiple lateral well I have ever worked on was six months. (North Sea)

Ask yourself why it would take so long - 15000 hp rig averages 30ft per hour. Lets double the depth of the average well and say it's 12,000 feet.
Without a problem you reach your target in roughly 17 days of drilling. Plus 2 days to move the rig in and set up, 5-6 days days to case, perforate and tie in.

LESS THAN 30 DAYS PER WELL X an estimated 2600 drilling rigs in the US = more than 30,000 NEW wells a year!

Why do people believe the crap they read?

[zulchzulu]

11. Do you just poke a pipe in a hole and just start sucking oil out of it?

Um, no.

There are many steps that need to be in compliance before any oil or natural gas can be extracted. You have years of finding the best sources to drill. You have to have EIS documents filled out. If you don't know what an EIS is, you have no idea what the steps are. Don't google it.

After the EIS is made, then there are other safety compliance procedures that need to be made. That takes years, and in the case regarding the Virginia Lease Sale 220, the Navy is against it... for obvious reasons based on where the location would be near Norfolk, VA.

Sure, you just set up the rigs once you figure out where the actual best source of oil or natural gas is.

If it takes so little time to drill (as you illustrated), why have the oil and natural gas industries sat on open permits and lease sales FOR YEARS on over 6 million available offshore acres?

Checkmate.

[phleshdef]

13. Don't bother. You are exceeding the limits of their attention spans.

[Spoonman]

16. Checkmate my ass!

I am the Corporate Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) Director for a drilling and oilfield services company.

I know more about the EIS process and safety compliance procedures than you will ever know!

You are DEAD WRONG about "EIS documents" being filled out.

The MMS has already conducted and submitted draft EIS documents, been through the public comment period, and could issue the FINAL EIS for the ENTIRE Virginia coastline!

EVERY concern (fisheries and tourist), excluding the Navy's desire to play war games, has been debunked when compared to the Gulf of Mexico operations.

An EIS is NOT even required on 96% of land based drilling operations, because the surface and minerals are privately held! A SWPPP plan is all that's required, and I can write one in about 45 minutes!

Why have the oil and natural gas industries sat on open permits and lease sales FOR YEARS on over 6 million available offshore acres?

Either they leased the block, conducted a seismic survey and found nothing viable or they are holding it in reserve waiting for a price increase.

Add to that the fact that seismic accuracy decreases dramatically with depth, it's not worth the gamble unless the reserve is HUGE.

I guess you think, like so many other “experts”, just because the land is leased there is oil there.
If there is nothing there, the land is worthless but the oil company owns the lease anyway. Congress doesn't know if oil/gas is present on those leases when they offer them for sale.

The fact is, there is not oil on every one of those leases!!!!!!!

You oversimplify the situation because you have NO experience or knowledge of the industry.


Go back to chess school junior!

[barbiegeek]

18. So what are you saying? Your for or against, because the way

it reads to me your yelling about some EIS reports and that there is not oil out in all of the leases anyway. Are you saying they can drill sooner?

[Spoonman]

7. "Peak Oil" is a total scam!

Is was created by brokers and producers to aid them in profit generation.
There are untapped reserves that exceed what man has already used.

How do I know?

I work in the oil business, and have for 18 years.
The first 4 years I transcribed seismic data all over the world, and worked with some of the worlds leading petrophysicist.

[neverforget]

17. So oil fields don't decline? Are you saying that there is enough oil in the

world to continue to use and burn at our current rate without any reduction in supplies?

[freddie mertz]

14. It's a lame attempt at triangulation that is impressing nobody...

Other than a few sycophants.

Repubs will reject it, environmentalists already have.

That leaves Rahm and a few deluded DC Dems.

[Oregone]

15. So this amount of oil, when harvested years off, will significantly impact the market?

If not, how much more drilling will need to be done to impact the market, create jobs, and pressure Iran? Are we willing to accept this and more drilling to accomplish those Ends, despite any consequences?

[vaberella]

19. Great post. I hate off-shore drilling, but this exactly how I understand it.

He said nothing about investing in renewable energy. But speak to some of the clowns on this site and they think that's exactly what it means.

[Tailormyst]

20. Nice bit of spin you got going

1. No real big push toward green technologies (china is getting to build some wind turbines though, with chinese steel)

2. Probably true, not sure how they figure out the numbers though.

3. Not really. all that many jobs.

4. You are assuming that oil will stay here. It won't. It belongs completely to the oil companies to sell the the highest bidders.

[Cleobulus]

21. How the hell will it stabilize prices? There's not enough oil there to do that...

not to mention the decades it will take to develop it. No, its best to view this as a political move, NOT anything that would have practical implications on our energy usage or generation.

[Odin2005]

22. More BS spin.

[ZombieHorde]

24. I am not a big beach person, but many many people LOVE beaches.

The main concern for many is the environmental impact.