Coastal Drilling - For or Against?

We don't need to drill for more oil, we need to stop wasting the oil we have.

Even if we did decide to start drilling today, it would take years for it to have an effect on prices because the infrastructure isn't ready for it.

We don't need to drill for more oil, we need to stop wasting the oil we have.

Even if we did decide to start drilling today, it would take years for it to have an effect on prices because the infrastructure isn't ready for it.

I agree that we need to become more and more efficient in our use of oil and we need to press hard to find alternative sources. Hydrogen fuel cells seem promising, but an article I read today about Honda says that it will take many years and mass production for the cost of fuel cell vehicles to become affordable. Then, the price qouted as affordable was $93,000 per vehicle. I guess we still have a long wait for truly affordable hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

However, announcing drilling in the Gulf would likely have an immediate effect on the price of oil. Oil prices are up due to current supply and demand issues PLUS the the fact that people believe supply will continue to be tight in the future. The announcement that the US (or any other nation for that matter) will begin tapping major new sources of oil will drive prices down in the short and long term.

The best thing we could do for oil prices is to announce we will immediately begin drilling for oil in the gulf, in Anwar, and off the California coast and we will begin exploiting the huge reserves contained in the oil shale in Colorado and Wyoming.

The US is being hypocritical when it asks other countries such as Saudi Arabia to drill for more oil to help us out when we are unwilling to drill on our own land. We need to go after our own reserves as quickly as possible.

I'm confliced on this. I think if we can be sure it was done safely without the risk of leaks, and as long as the rigs were far enough off the coast so that we couldn't see them, I think so. I grew up visitng Texas beaches though, and have enjoyed the fun filled process of scraping oil blobs off me feet. I would not want that here. But if the reserves out there were large enough, I might be willing to risk it.

Overall, I think the point is mute, much of Florida is against it, and by the time we did drill, electric hybrids will be all the rage. I would much prefer we start building nuclear power plants ASAP - we are going to need a lot of clean electricity to power all our cars.

I, of course, agree with Fisher.

I dont understand how we, the US, can depend so much on other countries to pump up the production of their oil when we have it here on our own land.

As far as the coast of Florida. I don't think that oil wells would be visible from the beaches we all love and dont the underwater structures make for a great ecosystem for the Gulf animals?

Oil prices went up yesterday DESPITE the Saudis saying they would increase the supply because of the weak dollar.

A 93K fuel cell car isn't the only valid option for using less oil.

My major lack of sympathy on this issue comes from the fact that I can still fill my car for $30. Since it's 7 years old and getting more than 30mpg w/ my inefficient driving habits on 30-A, there is no reason why every car on the road can't be getting much better mileage.

Oil prices went up yesterday DESPITE the Saudis saying they would increase the supply because of the weak dollar.

A 93K fuel cell car isn't the only valid option for using less oil.

My major lack of sympathy on this issue comes from the fact that I can still fill my car for $30. Since it's 7 years old and getting more than 30mpg w/ my inefficient driving habits on 30-A, there is no reason why every car on the road can't be getting much better mileage.

That is great that you live and work so close to home. Unfortunately, some people have to drive for a living by commuting or delivering goods. I have been adding Techron to my gas tank and I now get one more mile to the gallon.

SB, why don't you start a new thread on other ways we could use less oil? I, and I am sure others, would like to read what we can do. I would be willing to look at other options - but giving up my big SUV is not one of them. I have made a decision to cut corners in other places to keep it and drive it.

I am wishy washy on this issue -- I am strongly against tar balls, however. I see some wisdom in drilling as part of a COMPREHENSIVE move toward energy independence, but tar balls washing up on FL beaches are the deal killer for me. I would be interested in knowing more about currents and how the beaches would be affected.

I say drill. The Chinese are in the Gulf drilling with/for Cuba. More will follow and here we sit. Also, drill in ABWR and in the Rockies. Environmental groups have been overreactionary in their predictions of diasters. For example, when the Alaskan pipeline was being debated, environmental groups assured us that the caribou would become extinct as a result of the impact on Alaska. In fact, the caribou have flourished during and since the construction of the pipeline. I am all for alternative fuels; meanwhile, let's lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

I say drill. The Chinese are in the Gulf drilling with/for Cuba. More will follow and here we sit. Also, drill in ABWR and in the Rockies. Environmental groups have been overreactionary in their predictions of diasters. For example, when the Alaskan pipeline was being debated, environmental groups assured us that the caribou would become extinct as a result of the impact on Alaska. In fact, the caribou have flourished during and since the construction of the pipeline. I am all for alternative fuels; meanwhile, let's lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

TraderX, I was also going to bring up the China in Cuba "issue". It seems to be another he said, she said. Some blogs say it is a hoax and then others are convinced of it. I for one don't trust either of these countries. What if China was drilling off the coast of Cuba and at a diagonal which tapped into the US's oil???

IBD, we already have several threads about how to realistically reduce gas use just by driving more efficiently and intelligently. Emptying the trunk and not stomping on the gas and brakes would reduce our gas consumption enough to offset the amount gained by drilling in the Gulf or ANWR (which is not a realistic solution because there is no way to get the oil from ANWR to refineries or tankers).

My car gets high gas mileage because that was a priority when I bought it because at the time I had long road trips and long commutes in my future.

on the subject -

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey—conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue--finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).

Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.

Nearly all voters are worried about rising gas and energy prices, with 79% very concerned and 16% somewhat concerned.

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_...shore_drilling_64_expect_it_will_lower_prices

IBD, we already have several threads about how to realistically reduce gas use just by driving more efficiently and intelligently. Emptying the trunk and not stomping on the gas and brakes would reduce our gas consumption enough to offset the amount gained by drilling in the Gulf or ANWR (which is not a realistic solution because there is no way to get the oil from ANWR to refineries or tankers).

My car gets high gas mileage because that was a priority when I bought it because at the time I had long road trips and long commutes in my future.

oops, sorry, this is the first time I have spent more than 10 minutes on sowal in about a week.

Who says that drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would lead to lower gas prices? I bet "we" (read "oil companies") would sell the oil to China and India, where they could get higher prices and more profit margin.

To cut back cost of energy, auto manufacturers should go back to focusing on producing fuel efficient autos. If my dad's 1979 VW Rabbit Diesel can get 53 miles per gallon, there is no reason why today's autos cannot get at least that if not much more. Afterall, technology has increased tremendously in the last 39 years.

For IBD

The Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your Gasoline Consumption

1) Don't drive if you don't have to. Think about it, how many small, wasted trips do you take each week where you drive less than a mile or two? If you’re going to the grocery store to do some major shopping it’s certainly understandable to bring your car, but if you’re just going to pick up a couple items, why not walk or ride your bike? Same can be said for trips to friends’ houses, driving the kids to school, etc., etc. Moral of the story: if you don’t drive you don’t use gas.

2) Minimize the time you sit in idle. Here’s a pretty easy general rule of thumb to remember: if you’re car’s running and you’re not moving, your gas mileage has dropped to zero mpg. I know for many of this, this is probably easier said than done, especially considering it’s pretty tough to avoid the daily rush hour traffic. However, if you find yourself stuck at a stoplight, drive through window, or know that it’s going to be a minute or two before you get moving again, turn off your car (assuming it’s safe to do so). Essentially, it takes about ten seconds worth of idling to use as much gasoline as it would to restart your car; this means if you’re going to be sitting for a minute or two, it’s best to shut the car off and save gasoline.

3) Use nice, steady, and moderate acceleration. A heavy foot means you’re going to get pretty bad gas mileage. Essentially, you’re making the car’s engine work much harder than necessary, and in order to get the required energy to quickly get up to speed, it’s going to need to burn more gasoline. However, you also don’t want to accelerate so slowly that you bog down the engine, as this will reduce your gas mileage as well. Nice and steady wins the race.

4) Drive the speed limit. While the optimal speed for gas mileage is going to vary by make and model, it’s a pretty good rule of thumb that the fast you go, especially at highway speeds, the worse gas mileage you’re going to get. According to FuelEconomy.gov, driving over the speed limit at highway speeds will reduce your vehicle’s gas mileage by between seven and 23 percent. When it’s all said and done, that adds up to a lot of wasted gasoline and a lot of wasted money.

5) Coast whenever possible. By constantly tapping your brakes or accelerating up to stoplights or stop signs, all you’re doing is needlessly burning fuel. By being on and off the brakes, you’re wasting the energy (i.e. burned fuel) it took to get up to speed and then you’ll need to burn more fuel to get back up to speed. By accelerating up to stoplights and stop signs, again, you’re using energy that you know you really don’t need. If you give yourself plenty of room between the cars in front of you, you should have no problem seeing what the conditions are like ahead of you, which will allow you to do plenty of coasting and help you avoid brake tapping and needless accelerating.

6) Reduce drag and keep the windows up. Keep your car as aerodynamic as possible; the more aerodynamic your car is (meaning the less drag that’s put on it) the better your gas mileage is going to be. This means you should drive with the windows up (more on that in a second), the sunroof closed and keep any extemporaneous items (car top carrier, sports team flags, etc.) in the vehicle.

7) Chose between AC and an open window based on speed. Obviously, there are going to be times when it’s warm in the car, you need some air flow and the vent alone just isn’t going to cut it. Now you’ve got to make the choice between rolling down the windows or turning on the air conditioning. If you’re traveling less than 35 mph, you should probably go ahead and just roll down the windows, as there shouldn’t be too much drag on your car. However, once you start traveling above 35 mpg and approach highway speeds, you should keep the windows up and turn on the AC. Regardless of which one you chose, you’re going to reduce your vehicle’s gas mileage, but by following this rule of thumb you can help minimize the effects.

8) Tire pressure. Before you get out on the road, make sure that your car’s tires are properly inflated. Think of it this way; have you ever tried to ride a bike that had under inflated tires? It took a lot more work to get up to and maintain speed, didn’t it? Same thing goes for your car; under inflated tires will essentially reduce your car’s gas mileage by two to three percent. While that may not seem like much, this might - if every driver in the United States improved their vehicle’s gas mileage by 2%, we would save nearly 3 billion gallons of gasoline each year.

9) Replace/clean your air filter. Driving around with a dirty or clogged air filter can reduce your vehicle’s gas mileage by up to ten percent, which at today’s prices, is the equivalent of adding about 28 cents to each gallon of gasoline you buy. It probably takes less than ten minutes to change the filter and will probably set you back less than 20 dollars, so there’s really no excuse to not get this done.

10) Empty out your car. As a general rule of thumb, for every extra 100 pounds you carry around in your car, you reduce its gas mileage by one to two percent; and if you want to get into the minutiae of it, for every extra pound you carry around in your car, you reduce its gas mileage by 1/100th to 1/50th of a percent. So, get the golf clubs out of the trunk of your car and maybe with the money you’ll save on gas, you can splurge and buy the big bucket of balls at the driving range.

TraderX, I was also going to bring up the China in Cuba "issue". It seems to be another he said, she said. Some blogs say it is a hoax and then others are convinced of it. I for one don't trust either of these countries. What if China was drilling off the coast of Cuba and at a diagonal which tapped into the US's oil???

There was an AP article on Friday where Cheney hinted that drilling may be going on near the Keys that was later determined to be false. There is active exploration going on as Cuba negotiates with as many as five different companies about drilling for oil between them and us. The US is banned from bidding on those contracts due to the current embargo situation with Cuba.

Who says that drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would lead to lower gas prices? I bet "we" (read "oil companies") would sell the oil to China and India, where they could get higher prices and more profit margin.

To cut back cost of energy, auto manufacturers should go back to focusing on producing fuel efficient autos. If my dad's 1979 VW Rabbit Diesel can get 53 miles per gallon, there is no reason why today's autos cannot get at least that if not much more. Afterall, technology has increased tremendously in the last 39 years.

Oil is fungible and no matter who we sell the oil to, it increases supply which will lower prices.

Scooterbug44, there was a Mythbusters show awhile back where they tested your #7 idea and found that the mileage difference from windows rolled up/AC on versus rolled down was insignificant. Even the mythbusters were amazed. The drag from the windows being open at highway speed was equal to the fuel used to power the AC.

Number 5 is a really annoying one in city traffic. If you attempt to coast to a red light and leave so much as a car length, some jerk slams into the open spot forcing you to put on your brakes sooner and accelerate again to get to the stop light. :angry:

TraderX, I was also going to bring up the China in Cuba "issue". It seems to be another he said, she said. Some blogs say it is a hoax and then others are convinced of it. I for one don't trust either of these countries. What if China was drilling off the coast of Cuba and at a diagonal which tapped into the US's oil???

BTW, India is also conducting Gulf studies. Yeah, wouldn't it be something if China slant drills right under Corpus Cristi?

Like the US wouldn't do this if they had the chance.....

Oil is fungible and no matter who we sell the oil to, it increases supply which will lower prices.

I disagree. Oil is priced in US $, and until alternative fuel sources are readily available with engines to use them, we won't see prices going down. India and China are growing exponentially, and demand for oil will increase exponentially. Add more supply and it won't change much, IMO.

No one is talking about the unexplored oil in the US being "strategic reserves." What happens to our economy if we use that oil to theoretically lower the price, use it all, and then get cut off from other sources of oil? So much for reserves. I know a hiker who used to carry dog biscuits for his emergency food source. He did so in order to have them for emergencies only. If he used peanut m&m's for the emergencies, he would never have them on hand when an emergency rolled around.;-)

I don't care one way or the other about more drilling, but does it matter in the grand scheme of things if we don't have more refineries to process the petroleum?

I disagree. Oil is priced in US $, and until alternative fuel sources are readily available with engines to use them, we won't see prices going down. India and China are growing exponentially, and demand for oil will increase exponentially. Add more supply and it won't change much, IMO.

No one is talking about the unexplored oil in the US being "strategic reserves." What happens to our economy if we use that oil to theoretically lower the price, use it all, and then get cut off from other sources of oil? So much for reserves. I know a hiker who used to carry dog biscuits for his emergency food source. He did so in order to have them for emergencies only. If he used peanut m&m's for the emergencies, he would never have them on hand when an emergency rolled around.;-)

Whether the end result is lower prices or prices that don't rise as fast as they otherwise would have, when you increase supply it has an impact.

I don't care one way or the other about more drilling, but does it matter in the grand scheme of things if we don't have more refineries to process the petroleum?

This also why ANWR doesn't work - per someone who spent years in Alaska working for the oil companies, there isn't a good way to get the oil to market/refineries FROM there.

A hurricane takes out a refinery or reduces its production and we'll wish for $4 a gallon gas!

Link is to a 1998 ANWR feasibility study by the USGS. It is interesting to note that they were centered on $24 per oil barrel. My, how times have changed. Even at $24, their conclusion was that ANWR drilling, recovery and distribution were economically feasible. Just imagine at $140 or $200 per barrel.

Included are the costs of finding, developing, producing, and transporting oil to lower 48 West Coast market based on a 12 percent after-tax return on investment all calculated in constant 1996 dollars. The chart is read as follows: At a market price of $24 per barrel, there is a 95 percent probability of at least 2.0 BB of economically recoverable oil and a 5-percent probability of at least 9.4 BB. The mean or expected value is at least 5.2 BB of economically recoverable oil at $24 per barrel.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/fs-0028-01.htm

Yes, the oil/reservoirs are there, the infrastructure to get it out isn't!

The pipeline has already outlived its projected lifespan, the decreased flow over the last several years has added wax buildup to the list of maintenance issues, and 50% of the trained personnel who maintain the pipeline are retiring soon.