Rick Monteverde wrote:
>> No responsible fossil fuel industry experts or decision-makers disagree
with these laws.
So oil industry experts and decision makers agree with the offshore drilling
ban, for instance?
Well, they say they do. Anyway, they are not running out of places to
drill. This is not a problem at all.
They have many offshore leases in the areas now open to them which
they have not even tried exploiting yet. They say this is because
there are other places where oil can be extracted more cheaply. I
assume they are telling the truth.
You have to realize, no one in the oil industry is raising a ruckus
about offshore drilling or yelling "drill here till now." That is
being done only by McCain and the Republican party, as a stunt. If
the oil industry had wanted those limits changed it would have pushed
through a law changing them years ago. The oil industry has enormous
influence in Congress, to say the very least.
Do they agree with this new phony-Pelosi drill-'em-where-they-aint law?
This is nonsense. As I said there are huge unexploited resources in
areas presently opened to drilling. However, they are expensive to
explore and extract. The areas closer to shore would not be any less
expensive or risky. The water is not much deeper and conditions at
sea are about the same.
I cannot understand why the Republicans and McCain are so anxious to
use up remaining US oil reserves. Based on graphs of North Sea
production, this could be done in about 10 or 20 years, but I think
it would be foolish to exploit all remaining US resources when we can
extract oil in Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere at a lower
cost. I think it would be a bad idea for us to drain every last
barrel of our own oil leaving us 100% dependent upon other countries
in a few years, rather than a few decades. It is better to use up our
remaining resources slowly -- to stretch them out.
Or do they agree that the permits they apply for regarding refinery
construction or upgrades . . .
The industry has upgraded and increased the capacity of existing oil
refineries. The government is always granted these applications. The
industry has not applied to build any new refineries in recent
decades because, as I mentioned, US consumption has barely increased
since the 1970s. Why would they want to build refineries they do not
need? What would be the point? Who told you they want new refineries?
You need only glance at the curve of consumption to see they do not
need additional refining capacity.
You seem to believe some widespread propaganda regarding oil and
energy. I suggest you read some books about the subject written by
experts who have no political agenda, such as Deffeyes. Also, I
suggest you spend some time reviewing the data at the Energy
Information Administration:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
This is gold-plated accurate information, straight from top-notch
industry sources. US major industry has many faults, but lying about
industry statistics is not among them. This was noted as long ago as
the 19th century. US heavy industry has always reported accurate
information because it is in everyone's best interest.
- Jed
