[QUOTE=gonzomax]
They have 40 million acres of land to drill in now. They got over 1700 drilling permits last year which are mostly unused…
[/QUOTE]
Interesting… I’d never heard this. A cite, please?
Honest question: how much of a difference will this drilling make in my life? And how soon? I’m talking the next 3 years, which are critical for my family’s finances. My husband commutes more than 500 miles per week. These gas prices are killing us. If this isn’t going to put real money back in our pockets and soon, then fuck it. Don’t bother. In 3-5 years, I expect alternative fuel or more efficient cars will be more readily available and affordable, and until then, we’re screwed.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
It’s an insignificant amount, it will take ten years to get to and they’re just going to sell it to China anyway. It’s all a scam.
[/QUOTE]
Jeez, you’re a cynic, arent you? I think I’d love you if you were just a B-cup redhead with freckles.
On the topic of the o.p., it’s just delaying the inevitable. Alternative energy resources to replace or even substantially replace fossil fuels are still a ways out, but they’ll remain so until we get serious about developing such sources. On the other hand, a decade to start obtaining oil from offshore wells is probably somewhat optimistic. Ploughing the funds into alternative (and hopefully renewable) energy sources is more foresightful. Of course, there’s no saying that we can’t take the belt and suspenders approach and do both (and hopefully mitigate environmental impacts of drilling, although past experience does not give us great optimism of the latter) but the development of alternative sources is a requirement for long term viability of industrial civilization.
Stranger
Strongly in favor.
I am opposed to it, especially in ANWR. There is only an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil there, which is equivalent to only three years worth of what we’re importing from foreign sources now. Why destroy a vast wilderness for what is really just a drop in the bucket of what we need?
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
Honest question: how much of a difference will this drilling make in my life? And how soon? I’m talking the next 3 years, which are critical for my family’s finances. My husband commutes more than 500 miles per week. These gas prices are killing us. If this isn’t going to put real money back in our pockets and soon, then fuck it. Don’t bother. In 3-5 years, I expect alternative fuel or more efficient cars will be more readily available and affordable, and until then, we’re screwed.
[/QUOTE]
I could not agree more. To put into perspective what McCain is saying, he will be well into his 80’s when his plan would even start to show results. We need something sooner and we need it now.
Drilling in the ANWR and elsewhere? Very much against, for the reasons above.
Drilling Obama a new anus? Strongly in favor. That bastard just lost my vote.
[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
I believe that the idea is to extend the amount of time we have so that alternate technologies can be made viable before having to swap over.
[/QUOTE]
I can see the logic in that, but I can’t help thinking of a student who puts off an important project until the last minute. If he suddenly gets a temporary reprieve and the deadline is pushed back a week, he might suddenly transform himself and make the best possible use of the newly available time, but it’s far more likely that he’ll continue slacking off as he did before and get into another last minute panic when the new deadline looms.
[QUOTE=Sublight]
I can see the logic in that, but I can’t help thinking of a student who puts off an important project until the last minute. If he suddenly gets a temporary reprieve and the deadline is pushed back a week, he might suddenly transform himself and make the best possible use of the newly available time, but it’s far more likely that he’ll continue slacking off as he did before and get into another last minute panic when the new deadline looms.
[/QUOTE]
Since the first panicky deadline came and went in 1974…you’re probably right.
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
Jeez, you’re a cynic, arent you? I think I’d love you if you were just a B-cup redhead with freckles.
[/quote]
Wrong drilling thread. 
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
they’re just going to sell it to China anyway. It’s all a scam.
[/QUOTE]
As I learned from this thread, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
For. It’s not going to solve long term problems, obviously, and we still need to be developing alternate sources of fuel, but as long as the oil is in the ground, why not use it?
Strongly in favor, wherever it is. This must be coupled with building nuclear reactors.
China’s going to be drilling in Cuba’s waters. We should be drilling in the Gulf, too.
[QUOTE=Endemic]
Drilling in the ANWR and elsewhere? Very much against, for the reasons above.
Drilling Obama a new anus? Strongly in favor. That bastard just lost my vote.
[/QUOTE]
Obama got beaten by sophistry. People actually believe ANWR could help solve the oil price problem. However if you get an international oil company to do it, they can sell it any where they want. It not only is a small amount of oil but they do not have to drill it if they don’t feel like it. plus they can sell it to China if they wish.