danarhea

Interesting article by a Colorado big game hunter and former Air Force officer. If it is true that 65% of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East, and that US oil reserves only amount to 3%, then his premise that not conserving amounts to caving in to terrorists is correct.

There have been some great plans put out there, and I especially like the Pickens plan to cut our imports in half. Not only that, but with the recent discoveries by MIT on using artificial photosynthesis to store solar energy, new vehicle technologies, and other exciting discoveries, I have no doubt that we can be energy independent. And yes, something simple like Americans being patriotic enough to conserve, and check their tire pressures, is also important.

Now I still believe that we should drill. After all, one percent is one percent, and one percent of 700 billion dollars a year is not chicken feed. But, this week, as I watch the bloviating Congressional Republicans on a closed Capitol Hill, I see people who must have had their own brains drilled out when they were babies. These are the quintessential village idiots, who only care about political power, and America be damned. With all the money that we are sending to the Middle East, I cannot help but feel that these are our terrorist supporters.

This ain't about politics, folks. It's about survival. Although I disagree with the author on drilling, and still feel it would be part of a good plan, there is much more that we need to do, and the author of this article is right about what needs to be done. So damn it, lets just freaking do it, and kick the bloviating Congressmen to the curb, where they can watch, from the peanut gallery, where they belong, how an innovative and successful America operates.

Article is here.

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Jack Kevorkian for President's Physician: 2012

Kernel Sanders

If you look at the world as a whole, the ME has a stranglehold on the oil market. If you look the US, however, the only ones we're caving in to are the Canadians



Source [ Energy Information Administration]

UtahBill

If we could just drill on our own turf enough to tell the Suadis and Chevez that they can just sell their oil elsewhere, it would be worth the effort....
I have no problem buying oil from Canada and Mexico, they are part of North America, and that is close enough to domestic oil to me....

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The Age of Reason doesn't have to be a thing of the past.
Being judgemental is the prime directive of some evangelicals.
No success can compensate for failure in the home.

PeteEU

Problem is the US does not have the reserves in the ground to compensate. Even with opening up of the gulf it would only add 200.000 barrels a day extra at its peak.. estimated.

Like it or not, drilling wont get the US out of this pickle, only alternative energy sources will, but there is no will to go down that road as long as there is oil out there and the energy policies are written by big oil.

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PeteEU

DeeJayH

you mean all those alternatives currently in use, in R&D, etc...?
so all those nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, alternative fuel cars, natural gas powered buses, etc.... are figments of our imagination
and that discovery at MIT the other day was a fraud?

or maybe you are just a simpleton who can only conceive of using one source of energy at a time. some people can multi-task. Options are being developed and some are in use.
get over your pompous self and your disdain for all things america
its rather pathetic

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These days it seems that the deadliest place on earth for an American to be is inside the womb. - Joshua P. Allem

UtahBill

Seems to me that our leaders SHOULD be keeping our actual reserves a secret. I wonder how much there really is...

PeteEU

You do know that in keeping the actual reserves a secret it effects the price of oil... less possible future production = higher prices.

UtahBill

sounds like a leap of logic.....
a very big leap.

can you connect the dots for me?

PeteEU

If the world knows that there is say 1 billion barrels left in the ground, then the price will be reflected by this fact. If the world knew there was 1000 billion barrels left in the ground then the price would be reflected by this fact.

The rarity of the commodity, both now but also in the future will dictate the present price as well as the future price. Of course the impact will not be as great in the present price as in the future price, but there is an impact.

For example, a few years ago the price of computer memory chips skyrocketed up because of a massive fire at a major Samsung plant. The company and others said, there was plenty of inventory to cover the loss of the plant till another plant could "gank up the production", but the price went up any ways. The fear of limited supply in the future basicly drove people to raise prices.. the limited supply never happened though.

If we go back to the oil example, we know about how much oil there is in the gulf. The estimated production boost is 200.000 barrels a day, and that will not change the price very much if at all. Now had it been 20.000.000 barrels a day.. then that would have been something totaly different and the current and future prices of oil would be reflected in this.

UtahBill

I think you are combining reserves with as yet undiscovered oil. By reserves, I mean stored oil that was already pumped once and is now stored in tanks and underground salt mines, etc. plus capped wells.
The term Reserves is misleading, I guess. I thought it was known quantities of oil that is NOT being pumped and delivered to refineries.