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Florida Republican Calls Out McCain on Offshore Drilling
There are so many problems with John McCain's idea that we're going to use offshore drilling to alleviate high gas prices and get us out of our current energy pickle.
First, there isn't all that much oil to be found in the continental United States and sucking it out of the ground won't lower prices substantially. Second, there are no ships available to serve new rigs. Third, oil companies currently have leases for some offshore drilling that they aren't using. Fourth, it will take seven to ten years before we can actually get at the oil off American shores, if we were to start drilling today. Fifth, it presents serious environmental concerns.
It's an ineffective attempt at a quick fix. In so far as it keeps Americans from thinking about and coming to terms with long-term structural changes that will actually solve the energy crisis, it's an incredibly damaging idea.
You don't have to be a Democrat to understand this. Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Republican, is calling out McCain:
"For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country is disingenuous and a flawed argument," he said. "Oil drilling could take 10 years before any oil is pulled out of the ground, and there are a large number of leases held by oil companies that are not being exploited now. We can't say we need more until we've exploited those."
H/T Think Progress.
Typical disconnect. Repub lies, everyone freaks out, assumes Repub is hurting themself. Wrong. Repub just bought the votes of anyone who thought drilling was a good idea, and now will feel like Repub tried and was foiled again, but he's our man for trying to help! What you say is the only thing that matters, and those on top know how to use that power. Obama is no different in that sense.
Consequences never has been a conservative REPUBLICAN'S concern -- they can always go somewhere else.
It's really frustrating to listen to both sides of the drilling issue - one side conradicts the other without producing hardcopy evidence, just lip service. I believe we are sitting on plenty of oil but it hasn't been condusive to the oil companies thus far to drill for it, so we sit on our own wealth because the people who have control of this are either too lazy or it won't be as profitable for them to do so. Second, ships can be built - yes it will take time, but SOMETHING has to be done. Thirdly, Obama's idea of taxing the oil companies on their huge profit is ridiculous - anyone who has studied marketing knows that anytime a company is forced to give up profit margin, they RAISE PRICES! Fourthly, yes there are environmental concerns, but as China is already drilling off our coast, the threat is already upon us and shouldn't we be profiting from oil off OUR coast? The drilling rigs that are out there have already withstood many hurricanes and have proven themselves to be stable. Let's take control of our future instead of leaving it in the hands of those that want to see us fall! And we need to be SERIOUSLY looking at the other resources available to us that have been proven useful; i.e., hydrogen, garbage, compressed air, etc.
Ken Williamson makes so good points about this on http://www.posterspost.com.
He makes a good case for drilling.
The point is, we have no choice but to drill if we continue driving our vehicles.
Andy:
What kind of chicken are you?
Sandy:
No optimistic outlook for you. No faith in our dynamic American scientific minds? In a dynamic world there are numerous choices --- oil is the only one that has been allowed to be capitalized on, and the oil capitalists are not in favor of giving up their oil capital.
Well, China isnt drilling off our coast, thats been a popular myth since 2006. Why we cant even refine the 20 million barrels a day we do use and have to import refined fuel. High fuel costs can be related mostly to the Enron and London loopholes. IE leveraged futures contracts swaps with investment bankers. Ohm and the latest BS coming from the pundits about no oil spills from Katrina, there were some 44 spills and leaks up to 4 million gallons [Google it] And the Caribou thing, them getting war on the pipes? BS, the Alyeskan pipeline is 1/2 inch thick steel with 4 inches of insulation wrapped around it with a layer of aluminum on top of that. Your not gonna get any heat off that pipe by snuggling against it..
And drilling off Florida wouldnt put any oil into or system for 5-7 years. ANWR, which is next to a strategic reserve [imagine that] would only supply maybe 10-13 years of oil and only 5% of what we need. When oil surpassed 75$ a barrel alternatives are doable. Frischer Tropsch for one. The Bakken Oil Shale [Kerogen] has billions of gallons of oil, it must however be mined since its shale. Anyway, we have plenty of sour crude [high sulphur] thats cheaper than the Saudi Light Sweet Crude. The prolem is we dont have enough refineries setup to crack sour crude and its more expensive to crack [refine] plus it corrodes the pipes because of the sulphur content. PS dont let the politicians make a political football out of this. George Bush did the same thing when JEB was running for office and stopped the drilling of the coast of Florida because it garnered votes for JEB, so dont let them tell you the democrats stopped drilling off Florida. Heres the article. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=053002&ID=s1156519