Foreign oil dependence--who's fault?
 

WASHINGTON - "Despite talk of an energy crisis and the need for independence from foreign oil, Congress seems to be in no mood to open more of the country's coastal waters to energy development.

The House late Thursday rejected an attempt to end the quarter-century ban on oil and natural gas drilling that has been in effect for 85 percent of the country's coastal waters from Alaska to New England despite arguments that new supplies are needed to lower energy costs..."

**snip**

Rep. Frank Pallone (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., was more blunt. "Our coasts are simply too valuable to risk this. I can't depend on the president. The president is an oil man."

AP (fresh off the press, but interestingly only whispered by the MSM)

Lets be clear. I would imagine it not hard to believe that the push for our reliance on ME oil are the Democrats and the more liberal Republicans. If the Repubicans had their way I am sure we all would agree that we would have a drill everywhere we could. As it stands the enviros and their Democrat and Republican b!tches disallow domestic drilling when Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico drill regularly in the same waters we are barred from drilling in.

We are all at fault, the oil crisis of the 70's should have made us wake up as a society and work towards a alternate fuel. I have always said to co-workers we need a president like John Kennedy when he basically mandated we would put a man on the moon but now we need a mandate to get off oil. It can be done we still have great minds in this country we just need the BS removed and we could be free of this oil dependancy.

long term, oil isn't the answer. not sure what will satisfy our needs in the future.

Short term is most important, as our long term survival and progress depends on it. There is no more efficient source of high yield energy than oil. By design or not, shooting our energy independence in the foot by handicapping ourselves is at least hyper-foolish.

+1

"Drill everywhere" is incredibly short-sighted. Yes, let's bail out those alive today...screw the next generations. We got ours...

Who's at fault? Well since we don't have the type of deposits that are present overseas I guess nature is at fault.

I say pump it all out of the ground and burn it up as fast as possible. The sooner we run out the sooner we can stop fighting over it and get on with an alternative power source.

There are viable alternative energy sources. We only need the will to develope them. Nuclear is the only alternative energy source which can meet out developing needs for the forseable future. It is not a pipedream (like fusion) and enough can be made to supply our energy needs (unlike Solar, Wind, etc).

And by will, I mean removing the onerous regulations that have kept it from being used/developed.

Unfortunately, even with a reduction in the usual enviromental impact studies and hearings, it still takes 10+ years to go from licensing/planning to functional.

Using foreign oil instead of American reserves is good, but only if the foreign oil is priced lower than oil available in America, without environmental restrictions on drilling sites.

Don't drill now so that future generations (that don't need oil) will have oil???

Tree hugger groups have been more open to allowing atomic plants the past couple of yrs.

otherwise I would say it's the cost of any fuel type that is the issue. Cheap US oil does have an economic impact no matter what you think is the answer.

Joel, don't confuse the liberals with logic.

how about we drill in your backyard? Literally. Burns Slant Drilling Company. You OK with your kids playing in the fields?

Antartica.

No people.(not many)
No trees. (so the tree-huggers won't get upset) ;-)
No unpleasent foreign regimes to deal with.

Any geologists out there want to comment on probability of oil down there?

I know extraction may be an issue, but would it really be that much harder than deep sea drilling?

I grew up playing in oil fields. Other than some obvious brain damage and occasional oily hair, I am fine.

I rest my case.

Waiter? Check please.

Who is at fault. We, of course. Yes, one can split hairs - the Dems won't allow increased drilling... While at the same time the Reps balk each time there's a call for the CAFE standards to be raised...

Blame is easy. Change more difficult. Ride a bicycle, get a mileage-favorable car, carpool, take mass transit - it can be done.

B!tching is a weasel's way out.

And gasoline prices aren't that high...

We are at fault. Look at all the Surburbans, Hummers and lifted pickup trucks with one frigging person in them.

We are going to have to keep drilling but as well we need to forge ahead with alternative means of energy. Solar, wind, nuke and so on needs to be spooled up and now but even if oil went to $100 a barrel tomorrow we could not survive without more drilling now.

Everything I drive gets at least 20 mpg. Two of them get 30+ and one of them gets 45+ mpg. I recycle in my house every day and have done so for 30 years.

Americans need to learn from the rest of the world and get on the wagon or else...

Personal usage isn't the problem, it is supply that is the problem. Power companies should be forced to go nuke. We need to drill domestically and eliminate the enviro-inspired over-formulations and low octane piss gas.