First off, if oil companies were really disinterested in drilling their leases as the bogus talking point tries to show, they wouldn't be spending billions to lease the acreage to begin with:
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With oil prices staying above $100 a barrel, energy companies on Wednesday put down a record $3.67 billion in winning bids for the right to drill on federal leases off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Well first off, they didn't really spend "Billions". They don't pay for the leases unless they drill and get production.
Second, exploratory drilling doesn't consist of floating a rig out and blindly drilling in hopes of finding something somewhere down there. Drilling is expensive. So first, the geologists will acquire all the seismic info they can and study it and determine where the best prospects are. Before drilling begins they'll have a target they are aiming for - something about the size of your office thousands of feet underground. It takes time to do all the above.
You think that part isn't done BEFORE they bid on the leases? You are not thinking... every inch of the GOM has been studied to death.
I think imagining we can forego production of oil and simply rely on conservation is political posturing.
And since I never said that it's a strawman argument.
"Conservation" isn't the right word... it implies sacrifice in miles driven. That's exactly what I would like to avoid. The US is a mobile society... our entire culture, the way our cities and towns are constructed, our leisure time, the way we move our goods and services, EVERYTHING is dependent on mobility. If we keep focusing on the 10% solution of drilling our way out of this, as the right want's to do (to stick it to the environmentalists), then we won't focus completely on the 90% solution which is efficiency.
And if we don't completely focus on efficiency, then our lifestyle and culture WILL go away... and with it our prosperity.
I am way over my opposition to ANWR and drilling in the Gulf. I suggest you 'get over' your support of stupid, inefficient SUVs. Every vehicle that gets less than 25-30 MPG should be off the road (or paying a huge tax to represent their true cost to US society) in 10 years. AND the oil companies should be FORCED to drill those leases. Our economic, social and national security depends on it.
It's way past time to see this through the right/left prism. It's solve the problem or we are in 'a world of hurt' time. |
