[QUOTE=Magiver]
If we wait until all the other oil reserves are used up technology will have caught up and it won’t be necessary. We need the oil NOW. People are having problems with inflation NOW.
Based on your philosophy we will lose all the tax revenue from oil mined from our own country. That money would be lost for research on future sustainable fuel sources and instead will go overseas to investment consortiums who in turn will be able to use that money to buy up local real estate. Again, money will flow out of the country instead of being reinvested internally.
Paul Volker said it best: “in the long run, we’re dead”. What he meant by that is that you cannot just plan for the future, you must also plan for the present. The United States has 117 billion barrels of off-limits oil reserves located in ANWAR, off the cost of California, Florida and states such as Nevada. These are known reserves. Lets look at the reality of it. ANWAR is another name for Alaska. We are already mining large oil reserves there and have a coast to coast pipeline in place. The only difference between current oil production there and “ANWAR” is a line drawn by a politician on a map. To the left is oil production and to the right is a zone where caribou will burst into flames the moment their habitat is disturbed. The only problem with that is caribou can’t read a map and don’t know the line exists. There is no rational reason not to fully utilize a pipeline that is already in place. Lets look at Florida. The state tourism board is against offshore oil drilling because of the potential of an oil spill. Cuba, on the other hand has been drilling since 2002.
We need to utilize our own resources so we can benefit from the revenue and reduce independence in the short term. The tax money from this can be earmarked for research for the long term.
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I don´t think we disagree and you misunderstand my philospohy (my fault, didnt explain it clearly). My point was simply, in the past, it was correct to keep the oil companies out of those places due to aforementioned using up oil elsewhere and the industries past inability to take loss prevention seriously. (I work in the industry and have seen the consequences of some of the past horrific errors in terms of safety and environment).
Today, the US needs the oil, so it is time to reevaluate and get after the resources that have been held in reserve. On the environmental front, the penny has dropped in most international operators and loss prevention is veiwed as economically and morally the best way forwards, hence my example of wytch farm, and look at THUMS offshore Long Beach , the advances in directional drilling that makes pad drilling economic with the subsequent lowering of the drilling foot print impact, total fluids containment as standard, efficient zero impact ways of dealing with cuttings, low emmision generators coupled with high efficiency AC drive systems, CO2 sequestraction, zero flaring well test systems, the list goes on, and on. Add in the generation gap in the industry that I think probably helps with a more loss prevention minded group of people in charge, and the gradual ejection of dinosaurs like Brown from BP, who single handly trashed a good operator with a low cost screw the consequences approch, and the industry should be in a better place not to fuck things up.
OK rant over, really, I agree with you.
