The Democrats have told us that ANWR is off limits because the size of the 16 billion barrel deposit is too small to risk the absolute purity of the barren, frozen waste up there. Considering that existing pipelines have NOT changed the caribou migration patterns nor have they had any appreciable effect on the herd size one can only wonder what the fuss is all about. The track record of these pipelines is excellent; yet the the claim of the environmental activists is that the opening of ANWR would destroy the wilderness. The likes of Green Peace, and other environmental activists along with OPEC lobbyists have found the Democrats in congress eager to do their bidding and keep ANWR closed.
When one takes into account the shale oil reserves in the Rockies, the United States has more than three times the amount of oil than the Saudi Arabians.
The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday.
One would imagine that this resource is big enough to bother with. Though the study was recently released the US has known of this reserve for some time.
The vast extent of U.S. oil shale resources, amounting to more than 2 trillion barrels, has been known for a century. In 1912, the President, by Executive Order, established the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves.
This resource is enough oil to last us to the next Century. The only trouble with this potential resource is that the Democrat controlled congress does not want to make it accessible to development. They and their masters in the Green lobby would prefer to see us paying $4 dollars or more at the pump.
We need a new energy source now. Windmills are for Don Quixote to tilt at, and are not meant for industrial energy production. The Indian and Chinese economies are growing fast. This economic growth has greatly improved the lot of the average Indian and Chinaman, but, these same folks are now competing with us for ALL the worlds resources. The time has come to increase the size of the pie. With Al Gore increasing his electric bill by 10%, we need to act fast.
Shell Oil Corp has a new idea for the extraction of oil from shale that potentially has a lower environmental impact than traditional methods. This new method is called the en situ extraction process. Since this is a new approach, there are risks in both development costs and schedule. As the method is new, the claim that this will be a more ecologically friendly approach remains to be proven.
The other trouble with this potential bonanza of energy is that our Democrat lead congress has recently voted to stop development of this resource.
The Senate Appropriations Committee today narrowly defeated Sen. Wayne Allard’s attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado.
Apparently the need for oil is not great enough yet. We need to suffer, when the people start giving up their cars, living without heat or air conditioning then our betters in Green Peace and the Democrat party might be satisfied.
We have an energy crisis in the making; the world wide demand for oil is growing. Actually it has doubled every 20 years for the past 80. We are sending money to dictators and religious fanatics who hate us, in short we are financing our enemies. This is hubris on a grand scale. The Democrats in congress are in the pockets of special interest groups like ELF, PETA, The Sierra Club and Green Peace.
The only domestic sources of energy currently available for expansion are coal and natural gas. Coal is not an energy source known for being ecologically friendly, so why are we being forced into a corner to use it? Natural gas production cannot make up the need for more energy alone and foreign oil is getting more and more expensive.
Shale oil was not economically viable when oil was below $35 a barrel; at $100 a barrel we need to invest in this resource and clear the way for this to get to market. It will take time, so the longer we wait the worse our economic situation will get.
Excellent post. The pressure is building now in a way that politics and ideology will not be able to suppress – there is a nascent groundswell of public support (ask Charlie Crist) for the U.S. to do what it should have done a long time ago, which is to think strategically about our energy policy. This means offshore drilling, ANWR drilling, exploiting shale oil, building new refineries and building nuclear power plants.
jacob
“The US has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia… according to a study released yesterday”.
I would be interested to know WHO is behind it. You don’t mention the source. Info, please!
Honestly, Lovisa, don’t you think we should just be drilling the bejesus out of every possible location anyway? Shouldn’t we err on the side of finding new energy? It seems like that is what every other country is doing. Why should U.S. citizens be uniquely obligated to cut ourselves off at the knees at the slightest whisper that developing a new energy source might detract from someone’s personal comfort, such as a snail darter.
Lovisa,
“I would be interested to know WHO is behind it. You don’t mention the source. Info, please!”
Follow the link. You know, the blue highlight, BOLDED, part, of the post. In the particular case use the mouse ‘thingie’ to clickie-poo on the words ‘Saudi Arabians’.
In case THAT is too much for you
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002463368_oilstudy01.html
In case THAT is too much for you, RAND Corp did much of the basic research.
Sure, let’s just cut up the studs in our house to throw on the fire. Of course, the fire isn’t to actually HEAT the house, it’s so we can cook our filet mignon just right.
The problem is, once the house is gone, we have no heat either.
We need to:
1. Understand and realize that our current way of life cannot continue. 150,000,000 automobiles, most with pretty pathetic gas mileage, is just not sustainable. Mass transit and telecommuting are in the future. Sell the house in the suburb.
2. Really focus on alternative energy sources, whether it’s nuclear, wind, concentrated solar, or other. It just needs to get done.
Sanity,
Your comment was excellent, and frankly deserves a post to address it. It does not man I agree with your points in 1 or 2, completely or partially, but a thorough response is required. In some ways you have distilled the erroneous thinking of the left, about energy, down to its most basic. Bravo.
It takes several barrels of water to process enough shale to produce 1 barrel of kerogen, a (low quality) oil-like substance. Where is this water going to come from, the Colorado River, which is the sole water supply for a multi-state region?
Many on the right are fond of bumper sticker slogans, because they are just too lazy understand all aspects of an issue.
Sanity :
The problem with arguing energy policy with you or any other leftist is that you simply cannot grasp the concept that we as a nation can walk and chew gum at the same time. Drilling and exploration is a short or mid term solution where as R&D regarding other sources is a longer term project. The two go hand in hand. The latter requires the former in order to avoid an economic meltdown.
It takes energy to develop energy. If we drive up the costs of energy due to continued government intervention hampering supply, we will never fuel our R&D efforts.
This is one area where liberals and most Dems clearly have their heads buried somewhere, you pick the place they all fit.
Politicians better get it together on this and fast. There is a tipping point in our future. We do not want to get anywhere close to that point lest we want to spend years fixing a very damaged economy.
It was Don Quixote, not Pancho Villa.
Jack,
Huh?
hoobie,
typical lib-loser-defeatist think. There are many challenges to the problem, go folow the links. But you take a bief scan of the article and assume, that no one but the ‘GREAT I’ understands this. Hey genius, Shell, Exxon and Chevron all are looking this problem, and consider it not only tractable but profitable. So take you smugness and shove it, people other than you ‘get it’, the difference is other can see a way forward.
jacob 7:08am
Thank you for your more than kind instructions. Much appreciated. (hope you’re not a teacher). Following same instructions I also found the following:
“Researchers at Rand caution the Feds to go carefully, balancing environmental and economic impacts with development pressure to prevent an oil-shale bust later.”
A few years earlier experts stated that getting oil from shale would only be profitable as long as the world price for crude oil stayed UNDER $70.
Lovisa,
Read the article, all of it. Then read it again, you might find …
“As the method is new, the claim that this will be a more ecologically friendly approach remains to be proven.”
Go follow the link at ‘$35 a barrel’, and yes there was a time when $70 was needed. What is coming form development of the sand oil is that the extraction process can be made cheaper. The shale oil is piggy backing off this.
jacob — typical right winger bellicosity from someone who specializes in regurgitating talking points and name calling.
Where is the water going to come from? You seem to have it all figured out.
“…the claim that this will be a more ecologically friendly approach REMAINS TO BE PROVEN.”
What’s your point? Has it been proven?
It was Don Quixote who was tilting at windmills, Jacob, not Pacho Villa.
Sanity,
“We need to:
1. Understand and realize that our current way of life cannot continue. 150,000,000 automobiles, most with pretty pathetic gas mileage, is just not sustainable. Mass transit and telecommuting are in the future. Sell the house in the suburb.”
What we need is serious innovation. We can’t all move into the city. It simply isn’t big enough, even if we all quit having kids and lived in efficiency appartments. How’s this for your new car – available in the next year or so:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html
When you run out of gas, do you get out and pump?
hoobie,
The bellicosity was a calculated response to your asinine and gratuitous
“Many on the right are fond of bumper sticker slogans, because they are just too lazy understand all aspects of an issue.”
If you cut the BS, I will be happy to have a civil discussion. If you reply in kind I will take a crack at your valid question.
Jacob,
I read him wrong. I thought it said “DOObie” and I figured that was the problem!
Jack,
what are you talking about?
ACJ: Sign me up for the car!
We DO need serious innovation. the problem is that we’ve known this was coming for many years but we still have oil companies and car companies saying things like “Oh no! We can’t raise mileage! Too many people would lose their jobs!” Baloney. This has kept the Repubs since 1994 from forcing a plan B.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost, and rather than capitalizing on the innovation we could have had, we’re forced to tear up the country looking for expensive oil.
#1, I would mandate MUCH higher vehicle mileage to promote innovation there. If we all got 60 miles to the gallon, bada bing!
#2, I would apply windfall profit taxes to alternate energy sources. The oil companies could keep all their money if they just got serious about non-oil methods.
#3, I would drop ethanol. Food is a higher priority.
Lovisa,
what part of ‘has yet to be proven’ don’t you get?
ACJ,
Why would anyone want to live in a city? And I won’t have anymore kids if you don’t. Besides, putting children (or anyone for that matter)into these little sardine cans looks dangerous-especially if there is a Kenworth anywhere within your vision. That has been the governments beef with Detroit-safety standards with fuel mileage/economy. Detroit comes back with more plastic and lighter cars and supposedly (after kicking and dragging) install airbags to offset the “krinkle factor” (which in medical terms is related to the sphincter factor-pucker if you are a layman). It is made in India and I have seen the way most eastern Indians drive. The krinkle factor is valid.
Now, I too want to know what happens when the air runs out. Are we suppose to find liberal hitchhikers on a whine as refueling alternatives?
ACJ,
Case in point: read comment #22, espescially 2nd item. Why that alone would be worth an additional 6 miles, don’t you think? BTW, it doesn’t matter if it is cool air or hot air, does it?
“In some ways you have distilled the erroneous thinking of the left, about energy, down to its most basic. Bravo.”
I was responding to this civil comment.
Have a crack at the question now.
I don’t know. It sounds to me like that car kinda blows.
By your theory, if you put Obama in one you would have a neutral environment!
“If we all got 60 miles to the gallon”
yawn….
As I said in another thread, this does not solve any problems, it just pushes it out to the next generation.
Typical liberal idea though, the solution to any problem is to make it someone else’s rather than your own..
Apparently the Oil Shale moratorium was upheld based on urging from Salazar – the Colorado Senator. I guess he would prefer the his state not be strip-mined in the name of reducing oil costs for the rest of Americans. I can understand why you state’s rights guys would not support his position…makes perfect sense.
Meanwhile our environmentalist friends are oh so angry at the Washington Nationals for daring to have Exxon Mobil advertising at the new ball park. Exxon Mobil’s crime? Why global warming and high gas prices of course and we can’t have an eviiiillllll oil company advertising at the first “green” ballpark in American, can we?
But high gas prices result in people driving less which means less emissions and less global warmimg so you’d think the environmentalists would be happy but they’re not because higher gas prices means Exxon Mobil has higher profits and that’s bad because that means shareholders make more money so we really need to have cheaper gas so people will have more money to donate to Obama and Exxon Mobil execs will get smaller bonuses but then that means people will be driving more which will cause more global warming which is bad and then gas prices will go back up and those evil Exxon Mobil execs make more money and people won’t be able to drive as much….
The logic of the environmentalists and the Left can make one’s head explode a la the fembots from Austin Powers.
Sanity, I am sorry but you’re a Nit Wit. There simply is no other way to put it.
#2, I would apply windfall profit taxes to alternate energy sources. The oil companies could keep all their money if they just got serious about non-oil methods.
Oil companies are in the OIL business. You want to tax ( confiscate ) their profits in order to FORCE them to do put themselves out of business ?
If they want ( choose ) as part of a business model or plan to go into the alternative fuels business that is their decision to make. It is the business of the Company and its stockholders, period! Who the hell are you, the Government or Barrack Obama for that matter to confiscate profits from private enterprise using the power of the state.
Follow me here, my little Marxist.
Capital is used to finance the means of production.
Products, goods and services are sold in the hopes of creating a profit. The profit is Capital. You and the other Marxists want to confiscate a portion of a specific industries profits, the financing of the means of future production. You are confiscating the means of production. Does any of this sound familiar ?
It appears that Marx having his head up his ass is not alone.
Pre-emptive comment here. I have heard the Democrats mantra the past 2 days claiming the oil co’s have “68 MILLION ACRES” they have leased from the federal gov’t but not tapped. I further heard Rahm Emmanuel claim the lease on these acres is a ‘use it or lose it” scenario. Hooray, I hope they do lose the 68 millions acres. I hope the Oil Co’s follow through with their unofficial offer to swap the 68 mill, that is proving to be dry as a bone and sucking monetary resources from real drilling, for leases on the outer continental shelf and ANWAR. There is actual oil in these 2 locations, and it is has been explored, studied and passed the “oil rich” test, unlike the 68 barren acres.
Despite the ignorant statements concerning the time it will take to actually deliver the oil, if it is ever allowed to be drilled, the speculation on drilling alone will drive down the current price of oil. As we know, the speculators have had their finger in this situation and currently consumption in the United States is down. I think there would be some pretty pissed OPEC members if the US did, in fact, start to drill.
If the Republicans stay on the offense on this issue, they have a fighting chance in November. Public opinion on drilling is on their side right now and the Republicans need to play their cards right.
ACT, Sanity
The car shows innovation, which was my point, and we need more of it. Air in, air out (so yes, it would seem this car blows
). I’m not sure if I’d drive anything made in India, but let’s at least take a look at what they’re doing and see how we can use it. And if the car goes anywhere near the projected 1000 miles on a tank of gas, surely you can find a station to fill up with a mere 8-10 gallons in that distance. Though I suppose someone full of hot air might work too…
ACT – I thought you were too old to have more little ones…
I used to live in town, so I’m familiar with cramped quarters. But I’m much happier out here in the sticks where my kids and dogs have this odd thing called a yard to play in.
Jacob…let’s imagine that you have 3 times the energy that Saudi Arabia has under your own turf…now broaden the scenario to bridge to a time when everyone else has either burned, exported or nationalized their own supplies. We would be “the last man standing” because we’d still have plentiful and untapped supplies that belonged to us. The economic ramifications are simply staggering. Think about that, and then you’d also have an answer about why even some republicans are not singing the verse about tapping it right now.
I had a friend long ago who would do the same at summer camp — bum cigarettes from everyone the first week, and sell them the second.
ACT,
In the not too distant future, the oil companies are going to be out of business anyway, so we would be doing them a favor.
Otherwise, their stockholder’s focus on short-term profits will force them off the cliff like lemmings.
Just trying to help!
You hold your breath until that happens, Insanity….and we’ll see which one of you is still standing in 20 years. If you are stupid enough to think oil bidness is going out,….well it certainly does explain quite a bit of your other failings.
“…and we can’t have an eviiiillllll oil company advertising at the first “green” ballpark in American, can we?”
You must remember about WHAT greenhouse gases are. If they serve hot dogs and/or beer at the ballpark, there will be farting. Yes, even from the women!
ACJ,
You know I only look old. I just don’t WANT anymore kids. Grandbabies are enough. And if you give the kids spoons to dig in the backyard (like all kids do) well, hey-you may end up with your own oil-well.
Then you can be a rich capitalist helping the global warming cause.
” there will be farting. ”
As Steve Martin said in a skit, we must protect the Ozone Layer at all costs, as that is the only thing between us, and The Fart Zone. The layer of the atmosphere where all farts since the dawn of man have gone, and remain to this day..
The news of the passing of George Carlin today stirred up some fond memories of 80s comedy.. Can I say “fart” on this blog, or is that one of the NTH seven words ?
Dan,
You will know if you get a reprimand letter from the blog police. George was cool and will be missed. I think I will miss nitro man Scott Kalitta more. http://www.nhra.com/2008/kalitta/index.html
Dan,
You will know that you can’t if you get a blog-police reprimand letter. George was cool and will be missed but not as much as nitro Scott Kalitta.
http://www.mlive.com/autoracing/index.ssf/2008/06/nhra_funny_car_driver_scott_ka.html
[...] huge, untapped energy reserves. The United States has more than three times the amount of Oil the Saudi Arabians do. Due to a masochistic energy policy brought on by environmental extremists we are now importing [...]