Why don't you let the oil companies make that decision instead of the having government say 'you might lose money, don't do it.' I understand that you say you wouldn't restrict them, but it's a stupid argument.

Again, what the hell does it matter for how long? 2 months or 20 years, if it can lower gas prices a fraction and make people some money without doing irreparable harm to then environment, why does it matter?

is this a serious question? this entire debate is about cost vs. reward in the face of dwindling supply... it costs a hell of a lot of money to explore, build the infrastructure, extract and refine...

as a CEO of one of these companies, are you willing to pony up the millions or billions so as to extract 4 months of fuel at current US rates of consumption?

Can anyone on this forum debate a topic without a punt to "you're stupid?"

So, my argument is "stupid," and in the next breath you actually ask "what does it matter?" in response to the question of "how much is there?" ... Wow... OK

If it can be done at a profit? Yes.

Easy game

Again, let THEM make the choice instead of restricting. Do you understand how much research goes into determining the size of the oil deposit before any sort of drilling equipment is even though about being purchased? These oil companies are not stupid, if there is no money to be made then they won't go for it. But if there is money to be made, they will. Again, let them make the decision. The government doesn't even have any downside in this debate, they can only make more tax revenue if the companies decide to drill.

Dude, read what I said. The argument is stupid because it makes no sense. I didn't say anything about you as a poster.

Also, how much oil there is makes has absolutely no bearing on whether or not someone should be able to make their own decision to drill.

unbelievable... clearly you're going to just avoid the question of "how much" ... please don't guess that I lack the comprehension of how much this stuff all costs... it's at the very root of my entire argument here.

ok, let me ask you a different way then... do you honestly believe an oil company is going to "make a profit" when it builds all the infrastructure and exhausts a pool within 6 months?

No comment on the "estimated reserves" fairy tale totals you adhere to then?

Very well.

Ok, I see you have reading comprehension issues, so I'll do my best to spell it out more clearly.

If an oil company determines they can make a profit through detailed analysis, they will do it. If not, they will not.

None of that makes even a pinprick of difference on whether or not a Company should have the ability to drill.

If only we had some way to efficiently allocate resources...

Yes, it would be a huge advance if we could find a method that works in the real world.

The irony of this is that the first company that does do this will likely be bought out by Exxon or one of the other big players. But liberals will still state hate Exxon no matter what.

Is the Minerals Management Service good enough for you? According to their 2006 estimate, there's up to 115 Billion bbl of oil and half a quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas.

By any chance is there someone who actually knows something who can speak to whether or not "approving offshore drilling" means US subsidies to get set up? It's my impression that most of the oil, natural gas and coal production in this country is *still* subsidized by our govt. Here's one source: http://cleantech.com/news/node/554

Ok so some of those are reaching a little. But still even if the low number is accurate, realize we're not just talking about allowing drilling. We're talking about a very significant and murky level of govt subsidy. Again, I'd love to hear from someone who really knows their stuff (too bad Slim Pickens got busted for trying to build a bot, he was a nuclear power engineer and really knew his energy production facts). But it's my impression that most of the remaining fossil fuel reserves in this country, except maybe for coal, are unprofitable or worth the risk with oil anywhere in it's current ballpark. This would explain why the oil industry is sitting on 10s of 1000s of permits.

I believe I said from the beginning I wouldn't hinder their ability to drill. Did you miss that part?

Fact is, the detailed analysis is already in. The proven reserve totals off our coasts are negligible. So I guess they won't be drilling. Which was my entire point. Obama is basically saying "have at it. ... It's your books."

No, I was just clarifying the part where you mischaracterized my statements.

Guy, stick to 9/11 Truth denial. This discussion is about proven reserves, not undiscovered technically recoverable resources. Do you have any idea how much deep water drilling costs?

From your own link:

These estimates represent the potential quantities of undiscovered hydrocarbons that can be conventionally produced using existing or reasonably foreseeable technology, without any consideration of economic feasibility.

I watched his speech and about two hours of talking heads discussing this then read a couple of news stories on it. I still don't know how I feel about this issue one way or the other. He said we have less than 2% of the oil and use more than 20% of it. But how long would it take for us to run out completely if we just used our own oil? If the answer to that question is > 100 years I think we should start using 25%+ of our own oil - and take a gamble on the fact that cars will be getting 200+ MPG by the time we are nearing the end of our reserves or we have made Iraq the 51st state or we have heavily reduced, if not eliminated our dependence on oil or some other thing I can't think of right now.

OTOH if we'd burn through our 2% in a few years or something then I really don't see the point of drilling. Might as well buy the oil from others as our reserves will not only go up in monetary value in time, as the world supply decreases, it will be a significant national security issue for us to even have access to that oil - as many countries might stop selling it altogether.

But I'm admittedly very ignorant on this topic so who knows if any of that applies or even makes sense. I will say that I trust Obama fully at this point and am very happy to have a commander in chief who I know to be a genius and who I know to rely upon experts above his own opinion and yada yada so I can go on doing my thing and just trust he'll work it out.

Props on the student loans by the way Barry. Though you need to not let your exuberance about your rush of cards lately show through so much in your speeches. Starting to look like a 15 year old before his first date while reading from your teleprompters.

So what?



You must really be smarting from getting owned in that thread that you have to throw out ad homs in ever thread we're in.

Strange title for your post since it's not about drilling, it's about exploration as you indicate in your actual post.

This isn't going to waste tax dollars. If anything, it will generate them.

Drill. Don't drill. Whatever. We don't drill, we don't have any spills. We do drill, we get another tax revenue stream in the U.S. and 2 cent per gallon cheaper gas in exchange for potentially killing some sea life and idiot swimmers who aren't scared of black water. Either way, the game is potentially zero-sum.


Out of curiosity, I did a pre-election search for Obama and "offshore drilling", and the results were INCREDIBLY unsurprising.:

6/18/2008

Obama challenges McCain on offshore oil drilling, security

Candidates Clash on Impact of Offshore Drilling

July 16, 2008

Aug 3, 2008

Obama's offshore conversion: helps but battles loom


In a nutshell, Obama didn't give a **** either way during his campaign. I'm suggesting that sometime within the last 3 weeks he flipped a coin over a shot of Tequila and heads won out.

(Heads is ALWAYS drill for oil)

Yeah after reading some of that stuff, it seems this is probably more about neutralizing another republican talking point before the campaigns get into high gear.

This, surprised this wasn't mentioned in the first 5 posts, forum really slipping lately...