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My view: Developing oil shale is best choice
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A moratorium is good policy - let's see the oil companies prove themselves on the land they already have before we sell out our future.
We need to institute CAFE standards. We need laws if necessary to "encourage" us to be more efficient in the use of resources.
The environmentalists have caused the brownouts in California by closing down gas and coal fired plants. They oppose neuclear, gas, coal, hydroelectric, and geothermal. Also, depending on the group they also oppose solar and wind because of either the whiring blades of death that kill birds or the location of the solar cells.
They don't want any new power sources, but have yet to come to a consensus for what to do.
Hatch should look hard in the mirror as there is pretty of blame for both Democrats and Republicans for the mess we are in now. The answer is painfully obvious to anyone who is not tied at the hip to special interests: Reduce/Eliminate our need for petroleum based motor vehicles. The technology also exists to accomplish this solution, Orrin, and it is a much longer term answer than oil shale.
Perhaps, if we trigger some positive feedback loop that leaves us with a climate similar to Venus or Mercury. But we won't be too worried about oil or anything else by then.
The responsible development of America's domestic energy sources such as oil shale, ANWR, and the resources off the Outer Continental Shelf, is a reasonable, balanced, and fiscally responsible approach to transitioning to the next generation of energy and transportation.
Sending 700 billion dollars overseas each year for energy that could be developed in our back is not good policy. And yes, it is the Democrat party that has stood in the way of developing these resources. Developing ANWR was vetoed by President Clinton ten years ago. We'd have another 1 million barrels of oil a day if he had not stood in the way. Similarly, it is Democrats in Congress today who are impeding the development of oil shale and other energy resources.
Senator Hatch should be applauded for his leadership on this issue.
The fastest way to drop gas prices would be for half the nation to start carpooling. Prices would drop like a rock But Senator Hatch (and just about every other politician) is afraid to ask anything of the American people.
Oh, and Red Shirt - the brownouts in California were due to Enron manipulating the market.
Steve Glaser - You are correct, the price of gas is related to supply and demand. If you increase supply, cost goes down - that's Economics 101. The price of a barrel of oil is also based partly on the future expectation of supply. If the U.S. were to radically adopt a plan to increase domestic supplies, even if that oil wasn't actually produced for a few years, the price of today's oil would still go down based on the markets recognition of future supply. That's Economics 201.
Oh Please - I'd love to see you point out how the oil shale in Estonia and Brazil is different than that found in the U.S.?
For a comparison, there are 1.3 trillion barrels of worldwide petroleum reserves.
Oil shale was scrapped in the early 80's because petroleum prices dropped so far and so fast - in large part because we had begun a strong "energy independence" movement. However, technology has advanced so much since then that shale oil is profitable at prices as low as $20-30 a barrel. It currently sits at around $130.
Most of it would come from an in situ process that leaves only drill holes that can be quickly capped.
Some would come from underground mines, and any surface mining is covered up and restored to nature.
Any surface mining would be restored to nature and reseeded, which the law requires.
a 3 trillion barrel hole. seriously.
When we have OTHER sources of electricity your simplistic solution will make sense. Until then... you are not kicking your adiction to oil and other fossil fuels by switching to an electric car today.
If you could quit getting on everyone who isn't pledging to go oil-free right now as "Not doing anything to kick their addiction to oil" and start using your energy to advance alternate sources of electricity that your radical-environmentalist friends are blocking... We could all make some progress on kicking our addiction to oil, and then yes, even switching to an electric car would make sense.
Telling Utahns to switch to electric cars doesn't help the environment when all of our electricity comes from coal or gas burning plants and the few hydro-electric plants we constructed before environmentalists took control of American and made cleaner energy (solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, etc)impossible.
Getting dogmatic and insisting everyone switch to electric cars NOW is conterproductive. We need to try some things to buy time until we can improve our energy-infrastructure so we can generate electricity without burning coal or oil.
Where do you plug in your car?
You live in an apartment, you have no place to plug in your car.
You live new york and park on the street, where do you plug in the car?
Every parking lot I have seen has no place to plug in your car.
Every driveway I have has no electric outlet.
ON top of that most electric cars do not have power necessary for heavey duty work of trucks, semi's, construction equipment, tractors, cranes, etc etc etc.
And of course, where is alll this electricity going to come from?
Who is creating it?
I also state, quite clearly, that we need to develop solar, wind, and, yes, nuclear power.
Keep in mind...it was Bush himself that said we're addicted to oil. There is no easy solution to the problem. But using huge amounts of money to develop the technology and the machines to turn shale into oil...that's sillier than growing corn for biofuel. Utahns like it like Iowans like corn...because of the money.
The easiest thing for us to do is to decrease the amount of energy we use (as easy as exchanging an SUV for a compact car, or insulating our home).
Then, expand our sources of energy so we're not dependent on dirty, limited resources such as coal and oil.
As we're doing this, we can phase in electric cars. They've already been used. They work. The technology is there.
I'm not saying that we'll ever get 100% off oil. We'll probably need it for flying and other uses. But we can reduce our oil consumption drastically. Right now we're being forced to because of cost. But more changes are possible--without resorting to old, dirty ideas such as shale.
Senator Hatch you days of credibility are over. It's just an embarrassment watching you wriggle in the corporate noose that now traps our government.
I am not saying oil shale shouldn't be looked at, but if we use ground source heat pump systems to heat and cool new commercial buildings, we can use electricity to provide the fuel to heat and cool these buildings, freeing up natural gas for cars.
We should use several sources of energy.
Comparing oil shale to corn isn't saying much. Even the National Geographic said using corn for bio-fuels is not a good use of energy.
Had we passed the bill 7 years ago, things might be different today.
We can't afford to not to be 100% energy independent, the sooner the better. We need people like Jason Chaffetz that realizes that.
Where to get the power. May I suggest we look at nuclear power. It is safe, believe it or not. Look at the worlds record for nuclear plants. 1 catistrophic failure at Chernobil, but they don't build them like that anymore.
There are two goals here, one is to supply more energy for ourselves and hopefully someday be able to export it to the world. The second is environmental. We can pursue them together. Build solar, build biofuel, build wind, but build nuclear, build coal, dig oil wells, and build refineries. We'll need all these things to weather the storm!
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I realize that certain people in Utah could make big money processing shale. I realize that's why Hatch wants it to happen. But if we want to decrease pollution, decrease health insurance costs, and increase quality of living and over-all health, we need to forget shale, convert to electric cars, and use cleaner energy (solar, wind, nuclear).