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Oil shale development gets boost from Bush
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Instead of drastically cutting back our oil usage and making small sacrifices toward a greener and healthier planet, we just dig more, drill more, ruin more. That is what Bush wants. That is what McCain wants, and that is what every American wants that won't make a change in their own lives to get us off of this neverending spiral of self gratification and self-ruin.
I hope Congress is smarter than our president. I will definitely be taking action to write to Congress and show my distaste for any of these 'quick-fix' ideas that really aren't a quick fix for anything.
If so wouldn't the money from the oil produced go to the school children of Utah?
We could pretty much do away with property taxes and have one of the best funded education systems in the country instead of the worst funded.
Of course the feds would probably come in and snatch up the land...
I feel like this is grand-standing and will simply allow Congress to continue to listen to the combination of foreign oil interests and environmentalists, who got us into this oil situation in the first place.
It is ridiculous to say that oil drilling destroys the environment and then buy oil from other countries, none of whom are our friends. It puts us economically at their mercy and, if oil drilling is bad for our environment, it can't be good for theirs--and we should be concerned about the environment of the whole world, not just our little corner of it. While we STRONGLY need to find all sorts of alternatives to our mad dependence on oil, we should be developing our own oil resources and building new refineries.
But it won't happen overnight. If we don't drill, we jeopardize our immediate future. I know you want us to stop using oil 100% today, but what would it do to the world economy? Would you be willing to sacrifice your job to stop using oil?
You're right in the long term, but you have to realize that oil is part of our future for at least the next few decades......we need to consider that and drill our own.
I don't think oil is the end-all solution but we have the resources here - let's use them for crying out loud.
We need to not find more oil to consume but rather find a renewable energy source.
Why cant people see that? Oil will always be non-renewable and therefore will cause stress on our economic base.
But telling that the hordes of Rush Limbaugh freaks is impossible. It is like trying to teach an infant to file taxes.
My friend who lives in North Dakota has a farm that produces corn, this corn is then turned to ethanol and fuels his cars. He then charges his friends 35 cents a gallon. I know that ethanol from corn has it's problems such as food shortages etc, but i am just trying to get the ball rolling on different ideas for energy.
The last thing we need right now is Bush and his Big Oil buddies finding ways to make even more money on oil while the rest of suffer.
Prices will drop at the pump within days of a congressional passage. Two things are are affecting the current price 1. current supply and demand and 2.future supply and demand. The increase in prices of late are from the projectd future supply and demand of gas. Increase the projected supply of gas and current prices will decrease immediately.
Simple as that.
I approve of Bush's plans here for private industry to increase oil supply and pray that we will increase usage of alternatives fuels so we can minimize our dependency on foreign nations for our energy supply.
But making fundamental changes in our lifestyles will. No one can stop using oil 100%. Oil is used for more than just cars. But the good news is, if millions of people make SMALL changes, the cumulative effect is HUGE and we won't need to depend on foreign oil period, and the oil we have access to here already will do just fine without even having to tap into the ANWR or drilling off-shore.
(Some) Americans are intelligent enough to insist upon alternative fuels and energy. We have the technology, the brains and the dollars to do it. We just have to do it. There are no excuses.
NOW i HAVE A QUESTION. Why aren't any of the presidential candidates talking about spending our diminishing resources to making life and transportation in the future more viable? We need more mass transport in large, small cities, and good size towns. We need to revive rail transport in the US. We need to reduce the carbon footprint of residences and business. These are easily acomplished and can even have a pleasent outcome in stress, comfort, and money savings.
Drilling for more oil in preserves and using every last drop of oil to maintain this lifestyle is not the answer.
These changes weren't easy, but are necessary. I'd rather learn to deal with the inconveniences than have oil pumps everywhere. My wife is from Bakersfield, CA. Anyone ever been there? Oil pumps in supermarket parking lots, church parking lots, on the side of the freeway, and sometimes in residential areas. No thanks! I'd rather learn to get by on less that disturb Mother Nature (and myself) that way.
Some people are literally addicted to oil. With rising prices, they want a "quick fix" to the problem. Time to break the addiction.
How is it thet we need to deplete every last drop in the US. I would think it would be better to use theirs first and save ours in any case.
And why do the Oil companies keep posting obscene profits, are called in front of congress to give some crap excuse, then let go after the furor dies down to start the cycle over the next quarter when they again post record profits.
Follow the money kids.
A speculator signs a contract and agrees to buy a certain number of barrels of oil at a set price at a set date. Speculators look at our energy policies now, throw in the debt/dollar, and war and see the policies getting worse not better. So they are in a rush to by tomorrow's oil at the best price they can. So they buy tomorrow's oil for $155/barrel because they think it will climb to $170/barrel.
And who are these evil "speculators"? Of course the actual transaction is handled by brokerage firms on Wall street. These speculators happen to be retirement funds, insurance companies, Union/labor funds. Translation, so much of this speculation money is our money being reinvested into the economy.
So before we thrash the "speculators" we may need to look in the mirror. I would bet that retirement, employee, etc funds right here in Utah are doing this. That means YOUR money is being used to speculate.
Not pretty but how the market works.
Opening ANWR/Off-shore/shale-oil would drop futures almost immediately.
And of course we need to improve technology so we can get the economy off oil. Until then...
Here here. I agree totally. The US is really an odd place. Years ago if you invaded an oil nation you would have taken all of their oil for yourself as spoils. See the Romans/Greeks. If that were the case we would have most of the oil in Iraq and Afganistan flowing to the US. Of course then the locals would not have liked us very much. So we play nice guy let them have their oil and we have shortages and many there still do not like us.
The corruption from Bush/Cheney is apalling and while I like his idea of doing more drilling in the US while we also seek alternatives, Cheney and Bush's oil friends have got to be pretty happy. I wonder if they send their children off to war for their own benefit? Time to get the costs down for alternative sources of energy. Any national impetus in this area would be appreciated as of twenty years ago.
As far as alternative energy. I'm all for it. But people, it will be YEARS before alternative energy will replace oil as the fuel of the modern economy.
I don't think we sit on our hands and wait. Drill.
2006 gas == $2.00 a gallon
2008 gas == $4.00+ a gallon
Amazing how the obvious seems to elude so many.
Saudi Arabia thinks that adding 500,000 barrels a day will stabilize and lower prices, yet when we have the capability of adding a million barrels a day from our own resources, liberal wet their pants.
Please name a drilling site in the US that is an abomination, that has leaked and made an eco disaster? Please realize who first the rigs go up, they open the well, and the rigs come down and nothing more than a bout twenty feet of pipe a few feet off the ground is all that is left as visible to destroy the "pristine" land that liberals worship.
I say that refusal to try to make the US as independent of our enemies as possible, is darn near treason.
And one more thing for all the wackos who are demanding alternatives. What are they? Please give details on them, and now long it will take to bring them on line to the masses. Probably about ten years.
Some oil could and should be replaced by nuclear - oh those warm fuzzy eviromentalist don't like that option either.
You want to skip the first two because you think the third is imminent. It's not.
Batteries are several years away from being feasible for powering cars. Yes, the Chevy Volt is coming out in 2010, but it will cost $40k, it will only go 40 miles at a time, and you have to lease the battery pack for $100 a month. Most people can't afford that.
Hydrogen infrastructure is 50 years away.
A gallon of ethanol requires 1.6 gallons of gas to produce. That's not a solution.
Are there any other technologies on the horizon?
It's pie in the sky to think we can go straight to alternative fuels. You need to accept the reality that we need to do something in the interim.
This will not bring prices down immediatly, but will start the process.
Build refineries, build nuclear power plants, develope the hydrogen cars, stop turning food into fuel.
It's time the Democrats and the whacko libs quit blocking drilling for oil.
Corn ethanol takes as much energy to produce as it makes, and causes hunger all over the world.
I'am for alternate fuel, but it will take many years to become energy independent, and it will take time to bring more oil to market.
It's time for the Democrats and Libs who have caused the high price for gas to get out of the way.
Drilling for US oil will reduce our dependence on foreign oil NOW and lower the costs of oil NOW. It has been very foolish of the US not to have used more of our own natural resources years ago.
Developing alternative fuels will reduce our dependance on oil in the future. We need a good economy now in order to properly research and put in place the alternative fuels of tomorrow.
On the surface, getting ethanol from corn seemed like a great idea. It would provide a clean form of enegy at a fraction of the cost of oil. Plus, it would create a boom for the midwest farmers. However, we have come to realize that creating energy from a food source is a bad idea. Mostly because the price of that food skyrockets.
Now consider oil shale removal. Does Bush know how much water is involved in this process? It takes over two barrels of water for every barrel of oil that is extracted. This does not seem like a good idea in our already thirsty state. Water is our most valuable resource. Will water costs increase just like food cost have?
Plus, it costs over $60 a barrel to produce. Gas prices could only drop so far before it would be an unprofitable venture.
Developing a 'Green' energy technology would, by the most optimistic projections, take at least 15 years to be competitive with oil. Ethanol made from corn will never be competitive because it takes so much energy to grow corn. Silicon based solar panels cannot currently compete with oil, mainly due to physical constraints of the technology and few 'good' areas to set up solar farms. Wind tech has the same problems.
Nuclear power is too heavily regulated and feard. There are so many people terrified of ghost stories about nuclear power that it would take about 20 years just to change attitudes and import the necessary braintrust from France and Japan to make it viable.
There is no short term solution. Get ready for an economic ride folks.
*cough, sputter*
I visited an oil company last year because my friends son was dating the presidents daughter. My friend arranged for a local scout group to visit and discuss oil and I went along.
The president sat us down in a romm and challenged anyone in the room to find something that was not made of oil. For each item in the room he carefully explained how much oil was used.
People, We will never ride ourselves of oil. Those of you who wish we could are being rediculous. Lets start drilling and become self sufficient. We have been scared into thinking that oil usage is bad. It is not a bad thing.
I believe the earth continues to reproduce oil at a faster level than we consume! Stupid? No stupider than oil comes from dinosours. Second, I refuse to believe that when the earth was created or started, there was a fixed amount and when it is gone it is gone.
By the way, carbon dioxide is being banned, but dihydrogen monoxide is a deadlier & more destructive chemical compound, just ask those people in the midwest right now -- BAN & TAX DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE!
You can trash talk liberals all you want, but in the end it all comes down to decreasing supply and increasing demand. Besides, didn't any read in the article that companies aren't developing a whole bunch of the resource that they actually have leases to? These are all run by staunch, republican lovin' conservatives. I hope they do get to develop it, or are forced to. It will bring jobs. And power lines, and pipe lines, refineries, compressor stations, pump stations, the odd H2S flare even. To where your are, or places you go. I don't mind these things, but a lot of your conservative brethern sure do. And in the end, it's not going to cause much price reduction; it will only delay it at best.
I notice a funny thing about the "energy debates". It seems as if democrats think that we should only look at something other than oil to help remedy the situation (renewables, wind, solar). Republicans seem to think we should just drill more and that is all we need to do. I humbly submit that to replace 60% of our oil (the amount we import), it is going to take a concerted effort at: (1) more drilling; (2) creative oil finds (oil shale); (3) development of all possible renewables; (4) ultimately the development of an increased national electrical grid to support hydrogen extraction for use in hydrogen fuel cells (long term solution). An increased national electric grid should come from nuclear (no greenhouse gases) AND very smart, clean coal plants.
A better immediate fix would be to require ALL automakers to make EVERY car have about 60 miles per gallon as the standard gas mileage (stretching out the usefuleness of the gas, making it so you have to buy gas less often).
We and the environment can't afford to have people like you who say & accept we "must" face the "fact" that oil is part of our future for "at least" the next FEW decades (implying reliance on oil for 40 years minimum or maybe close to 100)... sounds alot like McCain's 100 more years in Iraq comment. If we could send a man the moon almost 40 years ago, surely by now we have the smarts and technology to come up with an alternate fuel source solution in MUCH less than 40 years. I see no reason why not within the next 20 if not sooner if it's a top priority.
Please, Any of you Enviro's. What is the price where you will say, OK lets drill?
There has got to be a limit?
If you can no longer drive a car and have to walk everywhere or ride your bike and you go hungry from lack of food because it costs $50.00 for a loaf of bread and your kids are crying because they are startving. Is that the point at which you will say OK.
Where is the line drawn in the sand?
RE: And another thing
Your short term memory forgets that the USA invaded Iraq because of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Which passed higher than the Persia Gulf War resolution by 15-0.
The goal here isn't or shouldn't be about just lowering the prices at the pump, it should be about freeing ourselves from depending on oil period. The goal should be cars which DON'T run on gas.
If the oil companies are so worried about how this will put them out of business, perhaps it is THEY who should lead the way on alternative fuel research and if they can provide the new greener fuel/power source and market it their company can still exist. For example: have EXXON convert to the/a major provider of wind, solar and non-gas auto fuel/power and leave gas/oil behind them.
You'll notice I said our immediate solution is conservation. Drilling only helps us 10 years down the road. So you've misrepresented me.
Here's where you're wrong: Requiring automakers to have all cars be 60 mpg is NOT an immediate solution by any means. It's doubtful automakers will even be able to meet the upcoming CAFE standards (35 mpg by 2020). I don't see a 60 mpg average auto fleet happening before around 2050.
It's more likely that we'll have hydrogen cars, cheap hydrogen, and the fueling infrastructure in place before we'll have a nation of internal combustion cars that get 60 mpg.
Chevron.
Along with Goldman and a solar company.
So some people are starting to get it.
Did you see that Honda's electric car only cost them 250,000 a piece to make? Wow
Certainly we need a balanced approach to our energy future. Non gas combustion engines will be awesome once we get the price down.
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