Thread: Offshore drilling = lower prices? Maybe, maybe not

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

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I like the way that T Bone Pickens is talking. He is putting his money behind his talk. We need more guys like him in the USA leading the way for alternative fuels.

Right now we can build Wind Mills. It won't take 15 years to get them into production. They can be up and running in a year or two.

We have used oil for the last 100 years. First we used it for oil lamps as there were no cars before the Henry Ford Model T. Well there was no mass usage of internal combustion engines.

Our rail road could switch to Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology tomorrow.

We already have a natural gas (LNG) fueling station in Evansville, IN where I Live. The local power company converted a lot of their trucks to run on LPG.

We can drill offshore but there is not guarantee that oil will be found there.

Nobody but the oil companies knows for sure what's under the ground until they explore it by drilling.

Bush is doing this for political reasons. Why did he not do this when he first took office. A good leader doesn't wait until thing are in chaos before he acts. He plans ahead. He could have easily dropped his daddy's ban on drilling for oil along the coast of the USA. Yes it was his father Bush Sr that ordered the ban on oil drilling when he was President. And Bush's bother Jeb was totally against drilling off the coast of Florida.

If the oil companies had not screwed up so many times and messed up our pristine coast lines in Alaska there would not be as much opposition to their drilling plans. But they hired a drunk to run the Exxon Valdez and they are still paying for that mistake. And the people who live in Alaska where the Oil still contaminates the shorelines are paying more for that mistake.

There have been other tanker that crashed on rocks and broke apart spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the sea along coast lines.

People who make a living off the tourist don't want that ruined by some mishap.

We have a golden opportunity right now to develop new alternatives to using oil for energy.

We are going to have to learn to use other forms of energy eventually. Even if we drill and find more oil we will only increase the worlds consumption and eventually run out of oil.

China and India are putting more and more cars on their roads and more they have billions of Chinese who have yet started driving automobiles

I hears a good joke last night about how people react to change.

First they say it's too expensive

Second they say it won't work

Third they say "Why didn't we do that sooner?

Originally Posted by DJD

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

I agree that this is a political move but I also feel that this is needed. We should also be changing to alternative fuel sources as we speak and researching as we speak. I would like to see us not get pigeon holed into a few fuels like we are now.
Lets get nuclear, natural gas, oil, coal, hrdrogen, wind, solar and whatever else is out there a try. (I know some of these are used now)The best will rise to the top.
Holding back on options to ease the pain for the American people will be a major mistake for the Dems. Even if it takes 10 years to reap the benefits there will still be benefits and it's a plan. The U.S. might even be exporting oil at that time instead of importing so much if we have perfected an alternative fuel source by that time.
I don't remember but have we had any spills in the gulf? Even with the Hurricanes? Serious question.

Originally Posted by DJD

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

Don is right. NOW 79% of Americans polled wants drilling to start today or sooner. The Liberal Dems better get off their high horse or come election day they better be packing their bags and go back to being blood sucking lawyers.

Originally Posted by mhall

..The Liberal Dems better get off their high horse or come election day they better be packing their bags and go back to being blood sucking lawyers.

A few other things that you might want to consider. First, oil companies already have leases to many millions of acres of land that they are NOT drilling right now. WHY? How is the off-shore oil any better? Second, you do realize that we EXPORT a good deal of oil and refined gas that we drill in the US. Again, why? If the supply and demand was so great here, shouldn't that oil/gas be sold here? Sorry, but I just don't buy the republican "drill, drill, and drill some more" energy policy. If we really want to do something, we should be getting serious about alternative fuel sources now. Just finding additional ways to keep us on the oil teet is not helping us one bit.

Andrew

It's not just Democrats, aka "liberal Dems," who are at a crossroads; it's the nation as a whole. In case you forgot, the executive order that Dubya just lifted was imposed by his father. I repeat, the executive order banning offshore drilling, which President Bush just lifted, was imposed by none other than his father, then President George H. W. Bush. Was HE a "liberal Dem?" Senator McCain was originally opposed to lifting it, until he flip-flopped. Is HE a "liberal Dem?" Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (Dubya's brother) fought long and hard against drilling off of Florida's coastline. Is HE a "liberal Dem?" Can we please stop blaming "liberal Dems" or "neocons" for our problems, and start working together on solutions?

Originally Posted by apb

A few other things that you might want to consider. First, oil companies already have leases to many millions of acres of land that they are NOT drilling right now. WHY? How is the off-shore oil any better? Second, you do realize that we EXPORT a good deal of oil and refined gas that we drill in the US. Again, why? If the supply and demand was so great here, shouldn't that oil/gas be sold here? Sorry, but I just don't buy the republican "drill, drill, and drill some more" energy policy. If we really want to do something, we should be getting serious about alternative fuel sources now. Just finding additional ways to keep us on the oil teet is not helping us one bit.

Andrew

Andrew my ole buddy ole pal, fishing friend ect. ect., I too agree that alternative fuels are the real answer, however sitting on our hands doing absolutely nothing sure as heck ain't working either. I've always thought a little bit of something beats a whole lot of nothing. So what you are saying is basically do nothing until some Eienstein figures out a way for us to go 500 miles ona space age battery or something. We need something NOW to shake up the greedy oil tycoons and these line their pocket speculators, Just my very humble opinion. Oh yea I'll still fish with ya even though you are liberal, lol.

Originally Posted by RoadToad

It's not just Democrats, aka "liberal Dems," who are at a crossroads; it's the nation as a whole. In case you forgot, the executive order that Dubya just lifted was imposed by his father. I repeat, the executive order banning offshore drilling, which President Bush just lifted, was imposed by none other than his father, then President George H. W. Bush. Was HE a "liberal Dem?" Senator McCain was originally opposed to lifting it, until he flip-flopped. Is HE a "liberal Dem?" Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (Dubya's brother) fought long and hard against drilling off of Florida's coastline. Is HE a "liberal Dem?" Can we please stop blaming "liberal Dems" or "neocons" for our problems, and start working together on solutions?

I agree about working together. You are also right on your accounts of what sanctions had been in place. However if you check the voting records over the last several years you will see the Dem congress consistantly votes against drilling or almost anything they feel would impact the environment. In almost every case you will find that wall they throw up every time it's even brought up for discussion.

I fwe can put men on the moon, if we really did, and into space, then we should be able to do something about or energy problems. This is a great disscusion, as all of us seem to be on track with this, both repubs and dems, on this board, see if this bunch can start agreeing to somethins then maybe congress and our elected officials need to start looking at this board. This issue does not need to be a political one, as both parties in DC are making it, and I agree that both are to blame, but an issue for the people, as this crisis is affecting everyone in somway, finacially, physcally and mentally. It is not a W's fault, nor Clintons or W sr it falls manily on our elected Congress and Rep's and Senete, those are the one's that have held up everything and I blame 90% of our mess on these that we keep electing year after year. In order for this mess to be righted we need to clean up DC starting from the bottom up. Both Parties.