Clearing up Florida oil-rig rhetoric: What does drilling mean f...

Drill , we need the oil. The mexicans have found huge oil deposits in the gulf right oposite of us,so why not expect the same for our side.We already know some is there but exploration was stopped prematurely,so we don't know how much really is there.
the atlantic has never been alowed to be explored, We might have enough to fill our own needs without being robbed by the cartel. If it takes 5 years to affect supply then I vote that we start 5 years ago!! times a wasting, we never will have the oil if we don't start.

The meaning of drilling is security. You should be ashamed for misleading the public. A Conoco/Phillips Executive said they already know where the oil is and could have it at the refinery within 2 years maybe less. It better be less because the towel heads especially the Iranians are ready to strike Israel and close the Straights of Hormus. You are all gonna wish we had our own oil wells then. In that scenario there will be rationing, long lines, scenes out of Mad Max with roving gangs stealing your food and your gas and everything else. Better get drilling today, don't delay?

WAKE UP AMERICA !! this is all a scam. We have plenty of Oil in the US, the problem is the wells were capped OFF in 1975 because there was "Cap" on how much could be charged for a barrel of oil, and the Oil Companies said it wasn't profitable to sell US oil so we Imported, Just Prior to the So Called Oil Embargo the USA was a Oil EXPORTING Country. The price of Oil today is caused by GREED in the stock market, NOT Supply and Demand. You can have a thousnand Oil Wells off the Gulf Coast and the Crooks controlling the stock market will continue to drive up the price. Want lower gasoline prices? Close the Loopholes and Regulate the stocks. Remember how the Alaskan Pipeline was suppose to Free us from foreign Oil? We were LIED to then and they're lying to you now.

The beaches in Texas are beautiful.... not! If you put ugly oil rigs along the FL coast... the tourists will stop coming. Guess who pays most of your taxes in Florida? So eventually if the tourists stop coming... you will have to pay income tax. Its gonna cost you more no matter what. Do the right thing, push for govt officials to truly work with Americans to come up with a real solution to our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic. It may hurt for a few years.... but it will be more than worth it. Also, dont make a decision until W gets out of office, its obvious he does not have the American peoples best interest in mind. We are in Iraq because of oil, not terrorism.

Simple minds seek simple solutions, so what are you gonna do for 10 years til the oil flows in undetermined quantity/quality from our coastline? If any of you had 10 years foresight anyway, we wouldn't be in this mess. The people to blame can't think beyond the next election cycle. It is the oil futures market that drives the price, not the barrels available.

Conservation, Conservation, Conservation!!! Ah, could you imagine what the air would be like without all that combustion engine pollutants in it. What if every house had a small accessory wind generator on it?

The Truth needs a history lesson.. The Alaskan pipeline was half-Financed by the Japanese. And the deal was they get half the oil from it. They never said the pipeline would free us from foreign oil.

Dano wrote:

Conservation, Conservation, Conservation!!! Ah, could you imagine what the air would be like without all that combustion engine pollutants in it. What if every house had a small accessory wind generator on it?

And wouldn't it be nice if we all had flying cars that ran on water that was recyclable?

As a hybrid owner, I understand the need to conserve and try to be environmentally sensitive. However, we are in crisis. Oil permeates the entire economy. We need a comprehensive strategy that includes conservation, alternative development, nuclear power and drilling for oil now. Waiting just makes it more painful. Just the action of approving drilling is likely stabilize the price, if not bring it down.

We, as a country, have been able to accomplish massive initiatives if we set our mind to it. The moon landings, WWII, etc. We need to declare an emergency and do EVERYTHING we can to make us energy independent.

in the know wrote:

The beaches in Texas are beautiful.... not! If you put ugly oil rigs along the FL coast... the tourists will stop coming. Guess who pays most of your taxes in Florida? So eventually if the tourists stop coming... you will have to pay income tax. Its gonna cost you more no matter what. Do the right thing, push for govt officials to truly work with Americans to come up with a real solution to our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic. It may hurt for a few years.... but it will be more than worth it. Also, dont make a decision until W gets out of office, its obvious he does not have the American peoples best interest in mind. We are in Iraq because of oil, not terrorism.

Tourists are going to stop coming anyway when they can't afford to get here at $8 a gallon. Better get started on those alternative fuels real fast, eh?

Ok here is another 2 cents worth, drilling is going to begin in parts of the Gulf that is considered international waters. So whether we say yes or no someone else will be drilling and guess what we have no control and no oil because we will be buying oil that should belong to US from those taking it in international waters. Once again we let someone else take from the USA. when are we going to learn?

I am going to scream if I hear one more time some idiot touting that "even if we started drilling new wells and uncapping old ones today it would be ten more years before we'd start getting any real reduction in oil prices from doing so". Dammit, if Congress hadn't all gone along with the "enviro-wienies" and blocked every attempt to start on the road to energy self sufficient way back in the 70's when Carter was President and even under Nixon - both whom wanted energy self sufficiency and to move the Nation towards conservation, we'd not still be debating this. The longer we wait the longer off it moves out that we profit as a whole from it. IF YOU AREN'T PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Drill away! Find it, drill it and pump it. Besides, oil rigs make excellent fishing reefs. The ten year time frame is silly, we put a man on the moon, split the atom in shorter time. We can certainly dig a hole in the ground rather quickly.
I'm glad to hear that Sen. Mel is showing some movement. Maye if the Sentinel told him it was supported by Latins and illegals, he would drill a half a mile from shore to get their support.

Drill on drillers...

The TRUTH wrote:

WAKE UP AMERICA !! this is all a scam. We have plenty of Oil in the US, the problem is the wells were capped OFF in 1975 because there was "Cap" on how much could be charged for a barrel of oil, and the Oil Companies said it wasn't profitable to sell US oil so we Imported, Just Prior to the So Called Oil Embargo the USA was a Oil EXPORTING Country. The price of Oil today is caused by GREED in the stock market, NOT Supply and Demand. You can have a thousnand Oil Wells off the Gulf Coast and the Crooks controlling the stock market will continue to drive up the price. Want lower gasoline prices? Close the Loopholes and Regulate the stocks. Remember how the Alaskan Pipeline was suppose to Free us from foreign Oil? We were LIED to then and they're lying to you now.

There is enough oil. If there was not, there would be long lines at the gas stations and everyone will be hoarding it. The problem is that we do not have enough refineries to process it. There is a large quantity of oil in north dakota. it rivals in size the largest well in saudi arabia. The well is 2 miles down but the technology is there to take it out. As for speculation in the oil markets, well, that is capitalism. Do you think that by regulating oil prices the problem will be solved? You guys would like to see a commie controlling everything like in Venezuela. Do not believe the politicians, these overlords lie cheat and steal.

Truth...The US has been a net oil importer since the 50's or so. The US reached peak production in 1970, and we now produce as much as we did in the 50's.

One thing the Sentinel ignores is that there is very little oil in the eastern gulf anyway...it's mostly natural gas. We've got experts, the EIA, telling us that this will not lower the price of oil and will not be available for 5-10 years. And we've got bloggers that can't spell and politicans like Mica telling us that it will magically send the opposite signal to the market and bring us happy motoring again.

Who are you going to believe?

XxXx wrote:

<quoted text>
There is enough oil. If there was not, there would be long lines at the gas stations and everyone will be hoarding it. The problem is that we do not have enough refineries to process it. There is a large quantity of oil in north dakota. it rivals in size the largest well in saudi arabia.

Wrong and wrong.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewBusiness.asp...

If oil refineries were in such short supply, there would be a large price markup between oil and gasoline...called the crack spread. Yet there is not.

Offshore oil drilling is an illogical, even a disastrous, solution to the problem of oil prices for three key reasons. First, there is always the concern over environmental damage caused by oil rigs or by the tankers carrying the oil across the Gulf of Mexico. A Harvard Medical School study in 2002 found that,“oil rigs contaminate sediments, fish and fish consumers with mercury at levels far exceeding EPA standards.” The report went further in saying that,“Operational discharges of water, drill cuttings and mud have chronic effects on benthic (bottom-dwelling) marine communities, mammals, birds and humans.” This means that there are severe environmental impacts to offshore drilling, providing a reason for keeping the moratorium.
Second, it will have no long term benefits to jobs or business. In a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives it was found that,“Offshore oil and gas projects are notoriously expensive and, though they are initially pitched as purely private enterprises, they often require extensive government subsidies to succeed.” This will mean the government will have to invest large amounts of money to build up the infrastructure which means the benefits are decreased because of the projects inherent expensiveness. In addition, the report found that,“…offshore oil and gas projects create few jobs, and even fewer local jobs.” This is because of the length of time it takes to develop the necessary provisions for the project and because of the tremendous cost to the companies.
Third, it will have no effect on oil prices. Republicans in Congress make out the solution to be a miracle cure for the oil crisis, saying it will lower prices. The problem is not necessarily the amount of oil, but the time. According to the Orlando Sentinel it would take 5-10 years simply to get the gas to you. By then oil prices would have gone down and the US would no longer be in a recession. The length of time renders the project useless because it has no long term worth. We should focus instead on alternative energy which would be cheaper than gasoline (at the moment it is) and it would end our dependence on oil, providing more opportunities for economic development.

XxXx wrote:

<quoted text>
There is enough oil. If there was not, there would be long lines at the gas stations and everyone will be hoarding it. The problem is that we do not have enough refineries to process it. There is a large quantity of oil in north dakota. it rivals in size the largest well in saudi arabia. The well is 2 miles down but the technology is there to take it out. As for speculation in the oil markets, well, that is capitalism. Do you think that by regulating oil prices the problem will be solved? You guys would like to see a commie controlling everything like in Venezuela. Do not believe the politicians, these overlords lie cheat and steal.

George W. Bush was elected twice with the key help of the major oil
companies' contributions to his campaign. In other words he owed them big time.
Now there's the argument (read convenient excuse) that gas prices are so high, because we don't have the refinery capacity to convert the abundance of crude that's available.
I agree, they're right, we don't.

But it's not because...
A} The "leftist tree-hugging environmentalists" are screaming their heads off about local land and water pollution that would result from a major refinery being built anywhere.

B} Because we can't drill in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or set up additional refineries there because the Governor of Florida (some guy named Bush) doesn't want to risk messing up the gulf coast's beaches for tourists.

C} We can't drill in the Alaska pristine wilderness even if the real reason they want to is because it'd all be sold to China and India anyway and NOT the U.S.

D} It's not even the fault of rich Republican billionaires sitting in their mansions yelling "Not in my back yard you don't! You'll lower my property values!"
It is because it's in the oil companies' best interest to their huge bottom lines and rich stockholders not to increase refinery capacity. Every time an existing refinery goes down, it becomes another excuse to raise already obscene gas prices and, by coincidence, their profits.

Quoted from the article:

"Oil companies are quick to point out that no major spills occurred in waters adjoining Texas, Louisiana and Alabama when Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita tore through the Gulf of Mexico in 2004 and 2005."

Take a look for yourself to see how Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coastline of Louisiana :

http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/da...

Any oil spill is enough to ruin a local economy along the beaches that's depended on local visitors & tourism.

Maybe drilling right now will now lower the price. However sitting on our backsides as Barak (Dr. No (drilling, nukes, oil shale, coal)) Obama is preaching will only result in continued upward pricing.