Quote:
Originally Posted by camaraderie
CD....the notion is not to support drilling now...but to support ALLOWING drilling when it makes economic sense in places where it is not allowed now.
Those who need to profit from their investments in oil leases (i.e. payments to the government) and equipment are in the best position to know where to drill NOW and where to wait to drill until the price goes up again.
And YES the same argument can be made for wind and solar. Let the companies interested in making a profit decide just when and where to place their panels and mills and when it makes economic sense for them to do so. Let the feds lease land for that purpose to them as well. The point is...don't spend taxpayer $$ subsdizing what would otherwise be an economic decision that no company would make.
The Arabs you speak of ain't too happy right now as every barrel of THEIR limited supply is being sold at 25% of what they got for it a few months ago. But THEY too must sell it at the market price as their economies won't let them leave it in the ground till the price goes up. Ask Hugo about that too.
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An interesting perspective.
First of all, it would be worthwhile to research how long it takes to go from "Hey, I want to drop an oil well here," to a drop of gas at the gas station. It can stretch close to a decade. It is also worth noting that there is not enough oil in the US to supply our country for any lengthy period of time (less than around 3 years supply if we drain everything overnight). Also, it could take upwards to 30 years to pull that oil out. As such, at best, AT BEST, the most you can hope for is to reduce our dependency by a small percentage. Certainly you would agree with that as even the oil companies and USGS agree. Those links have been posted repeatedly in this thread.
So, we are going to invest that amount of money and time into a venture that is very short lived, cannot support us or ever get us off foreign oil, and is even unprofitable at this time. It would make one wonder if we are not simply drilling here for the sake of drilling here?? Certainly there is no economic benefit at this point. Should our economy not improve considerably (which appears very unlikely), it seems that it will be some time before oil goes up much. Tick, tock, the clock keeps running as does our foreign dependence.
I also remember some pages back where I was challenged to find a way to get us 25% off of foreign oil. I took the challenge. My price tag ended up being very close to $1 trillion dollars. The general sentiment was that was way too high a price to pay for the government. Perhaps we should tell the investment banks that? Looking back now, it seems a drop in the bucket compared to where we are today in bailouts. There seemed to be some concern about government ownership of commercial institutions. Oops. I guess we missed out on that one too.
We are in a very precarious time for our country - possibly the most precarious in 70 or more years. Maybe it is time for all of us to stand back and re-evaluate our stances on government ownership, energy independence, economic longevity, national secruity, and the true cost of $1 trillion.
- CD