Jul 15 2008
The president lifts ban on off-shore oil drilling, and oil price drops 6%
President Bush on Monday lifted the executive ban on oil drilling of the East and West coasts of the United States. At the same time, he called on Congress to do the same and lift the ban as well - which they must do or no off-short drilling can be done. The President kept up the pressure on Tuesday with another news conference, saying the same thing. And guess what has happened since then? Oil dropped - dramatically. Oil futures for August have plunged $9.26 (6.3%). Money guru Jim Kramer says “traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.”
That’s exactly what the President said today. Its about psychology and the argument not to drill is one the Democrats are slowly losing. The Senate’s #2 Democrat, Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said he would be open to it and others are following suit. In fact, there is a bill that would lift the ban trying to make it through the house, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to not let it see the light of day. Instead, the Democrats want to take oil out of the Strategic Oil Reserve. And they keep blaming the President for not doing anything. But that may not work. There’s a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium, which expires at the end of September.
Polls have shown the majority of the American people now support drilling. If just mentioning drilling drops the price by 6% in two days, imagine what actually drilling might do. A new report says California could start producing new oil within one year if the oil drilling ban was lifted. Its what we need to do.
Keep building those fuel-efficient cars, keep coming up with ways to get us off oil, but for the sake of all of us who right now have cars that use oil, lets start drilling!
(6 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
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Changes rarely happen in a vacuum. President Bush’s lifting of the ban was part of the reason oil prices dropped, but other contributing factors are speculators, supply and demand, and people conserving more–driving less, carpooling more, etc. We do need to drill but we need to do it responsibly, because what difference will it make if we have cheap oil but ruin the beautiful places we drive to so we can enjoy them? Anyone who thinks Bush did this by himself must believe he has that “magic wand” he keeps talking about.
Lynn, how often do you enjoy the area 100 miles off the coast? Not very often. The rigs hit by Hurricane Katrina did not spill ONE DROP of oil. The technology has come a long way since the spill in Santa Barbara in ‘69. Speaker Pelosi admits “more oil will help lower the price” but then she says in the next breath “more oil isn’t the answer” and then in the next breath says “we need the president to release more oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.” I’m confused.
Luckily, there are responsible Democrats like Sen. Durbin, Sen. Webb, Sen. Nelson and others who agree drilling will help. I agree its not the long term answer, but you can’t expect everyone to shift over to electric or solar cars tomorrow morning. We’re going to have to have a stop-gap until we get everything turned over. That could take 10-15 years.
I’m personally against more drilling because I think it will keep everyone’s eyes on the long term goal if oil stays expensive….but that’s not my reason for posting.
Oh Cargill, you GOT to stop watching Papa Bear O’Reilly and start researching the facts brotha!
In May of 2006 the U.S. Minerals Management Service issued a report of the damage in the gulf (here’s the link=http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2006/press0501.htm).
In that report it says this;
“Six spills of 1,000 barrels or greater were reported; the largest of these was 3,625 barrels of condensate reported by the Gulf South Pipeline Company in the Eugene Island Block 51 area. A total of 146 spills of 1 barrel or greater have been reported in the Federal OCS waters; 37 of these were 50 barrels or greater.”
Thanks for the link Tony. That’s the first I have seen of that information, and no I wasn’t watching O’Reilly.
If you read the article, it says condensate was what was spilled. According to everything I can find, condensate is a light crude oil extracted from natural gas. If that’s the case, than its not actual oil in the sense I was talking about. I realize we might be splitting hairs. But if its true, should we stop exploring for natural gas too?
Like I said in my post, I’m not opposed to finding alternative sources of energy. I just want us all to be able to afford gas in the meantime. It amazes me how some people are actually rooting for gas prices to go higher (several who work here at KXLY) because they want to punish people for driving. I don’t want to be punished, and I don’t want the single mother of three who can’t afford to take her kids anywhere to be punished either.
I can’t understand why the Congress just can’t come to a compromise on this. Lets put together a bill that includes a massive investment in Wind and Solar (put a windmill in my backyard for pete’s sake), but also includes increased drilling. Like it or not, most cars in this country still use oil and will do so for atleast the next 10 years.
Tony is right. A lot of people–including Senator McCain–like to *wrongly* assume and state that there were no oil spills during Katrina and Rita as rationale for promoting drilling now:
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June 25, 2008 | An example of leadership or reckless chutzpah? On Monday, John McCain visited Santa Barbara, the scene of one of the great environmental disasters in American history, and proceeded to downplay the potential consequences of lifting the federal moratorium on new offshore drilling. Modern drilling technology is environmentally safe, he told the audience. According to the Associated Press, McCain “cited the examples of Louisiana and Texas, noting they have allowed drilling and weathered two devastating hurricanes with minimal or no oil spills.”
McCain exaggerated. A 2007 report by the U.S. Minerals Management Service unearthed by Outside the Beltway documented the damage caused in the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: “124 spills were reported with a total volume of roughly 17,700 barrels of total petroleum products.”
Now, 17,700 barrels of oil equals 743,400 gallons. Whether you consider that a lot or a little depends on your perspective. Compared with the 1.5 million barrels pumped out of the Gulf every day, it is a trivial amount. But it’s also within shouting distance of the 3 million gallons of oil spilled in the Santa Barbara offshore oil disaster of 1969.
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Not only that, but ever hear of ocean tides? Substance in the ocean does not stay in one spot.
Technology *has* come a long way, and I am not opposed to drilling, but I am opposed to reckless drilling. Look what happened with the Exxon Valdez spill, and how Exxon was not held responsible to the full extent of the damage. I want to see some safeguards in place or the next spill could be even worse.
We do need to drill. We need to do everything short term, midterm, and long term that we can think of. Being dependent on foreign oil is dangerous to our national security. When I think of how Clinton and Bush squandered their years as president, lost in immorality and arrogant nation building, when they could have taken significant steps to build our energy independence, which could have made our nation safer and stronger, it makes my blood boil! And now Bush is doing something, but it’s too little , too late. The time to prepare for a crisis is before it happens, not in the midst of it.
And I’ve told you before, Mr. Cargill, that all Democrats do not think with one brain. If you want to know why Pelosi has said what she has, you’ll have to ask her. I have no explanation or understanding of most of what she says or does. Tapping the oil reserves would be foolish unless we can replenish at the rate we withdraw.
I believe you when you write you would be willing to put a windmill in your yard, and good for you! Pure selfishness is one reason we are in such a mess. People want a solution as long as it doesn’t inconvenience them. Kennedy and many on Martha’s Vineyard don’t want wind turbines out in the ocean because–even though they are barely visible from shore–it would ruin their scenery. Whatever happened to doing things for the common good and whatever happened to shared sacrifice? If we don’t rediscover those in a big way, energy isn’t the only crisis we’ll endure.
I feel that we need to stop importing oil and stop the price gouging in the states, lets tell our people that we need to support our selfs frist then help others if we can.
Stop the usless spending and keep the US alive GOD BLESS AMERICA lets say with our hearts not our wallets!!!!