Coastal Drilling - For or Against?

[traderx]

The question is not whether there will be drilling in the Gulf and the Atlantic. There will be; it's just that US drillers will not be there along side China, India, Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. The sad irony is that the US would be the most careful and thoughtful concerning safety measures as compared to those countries.

 

[Beach Runner]

I just might be voting for Obama instead of McCain. Obama is on CNN right now saying that there is absolutely no evidence that offshore drilling will lower gas prices and that he is against offshore drilling.

I remember emailing Jeb Bush a few years ago stating my opposition to offshore drilling in the Gulf. His return email said that he was against it as well. I guess his big bro disagrees.

 

[ASH]

If McCain said he was for drilling, no matter how Obama felt, he had to take the other side. It is an election year.
Of course, all bets will be off once someone wins the whitehouse. Uhhhh....New evidence has suggested that I should switch my position on drilling in.........

Good point Traderx on ethics, I would tend to agree.

 

[6thGen]

I just might be voting for Obama instead of McCain. Obama is on CNN right now saying that there is absolutely no evidence that offshore drilling will lower gas prices and that he is against offshore drilling.

I'd sure feel a little better if the potential leader of the free world had taken an economics class at Harvard.

 

[Beach Runner]

I'd sure feel a little better if the potential leader of the free world had taken an economics class at Harvard.

Or at the Naval Academy from the one who admits that economics isn't his strong suit. But it's possible he took an economics course there, not that that would make him an expert. I guess that why Presidents need a Cabinet. Who can be an expert at everything?

 

[6thGen]

Or at the Naval Academy from the one who admits that economics isn't his strong suit.

Absolutely. I just think McCain has a little better chance of listening when someone whispers "Shut up, stupid. When supply increases and demand remains constant, price is forced down." In homage to WFB, if I could control Obama!s teleprompter, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

 

[traderx]

The argument against drilling leaves out the greatest pro, that if the world does run out of oil, we are sitting on huge reserves while we buy it from the Saudis, Canadians, etc for relatively cheap, while US companies and workers help them extract it. That being said, I'm all for exploiting the reserves we have, watching for innovation as the price of fuel increases, and Obama! turning water into oil at the Canaan wedding. I'm also completely against energy independence.

Why?

 

[JustaLocal]

"The Late Oligocene regression ... was responsible for major changes in the depositional history and development of the Florida Platform. The Georgia Channel System provided an effective barrier to siliciclastic-sediment transport onto the Florida Platform, allowing the platform to persist as a subtropical carbonate bank. The depositional environments of the Florida Platform and the Bahamas Platform were very similar until the Georgia Channel System stopped intercepting the siliciclastic sediments, and since the latest Oligocene the depositional environments of the two platforms have been significantly different. The Bahamas Platform persisted as a carbonate bank, while the Florida Platform was increasingly dominated by siliciclastics." p. 61 The Geology of Florida by Randazzo and Jones

Very good book for anyone interested in Florida Geology!

Coastal drilling, or drilling in ANWR is just a temporary stopgap - we need to start taking a good hard look at our consumption habits and change them voluntarily before we are forced to extreme measures.

Water and oil/energy are the 2 biggies right now and part of the reason they are an issue is because of excess and bad planning, not a true scarcity.

I agree. No matter what we do, eventually oil will become too scarce. I think the sooner we learn how to live without so much of life dependent on it the better.

If McCain said he was for drilling, no matter how Obama felt, he had to take the other side. It is an election year.
Of course, all bets will be off once someone wins the whitehouse. Uhhhh....New evidence has suggested that I should switch my position on drilling in.........

It really disappoints but doesn't surprise me from McCain - it is rather the Republican position. I'm particularly disturbed by the stance that it is okay to drill off of Florida but not in ANWR. I just don't buy that there is a distinction. Either you are for drilling in ecologically sensitive areas or not.

It is sad that Obama will also probably endorse drilling off the Florida Coast at some point.

I hope we (the entire world, not just the US) can get over the reliance on oil sooner rather than later.

 

[6thGen]

For the same reason that I am against other forms of protectionism. Energy independence requires us to buy only from inside the country, and requires us not to sell until every need here is met. It automatically eliminates other potentially better options, and it creates a limited autarky, which makes people poorer.

 

[soappedaler]

Drilling for oil or gas off the coast of Florida will result in degradation of our waters and beaches even if no petroleum reserves are found.
Before moving to Florida in 1991 I was a petroleum geologist and studied coastal processes at LUMCON one summer. Have any of you ever been to the uninhabitated islands off of Louisiana's coast? The beaches are strewn with trash, Light bulbs and milk cartons everywhere. I questioned the professor and he said it comes from the oil rigs. Drilling rigs and production platforms are little towns. Do you think for one minute the oil companies are hauling all their trash into port by boat? Drilling mud is a caustic chemical; do you think it's all disposed of properly? Back in the 80's when Chevron was drilling in Mobile Bay they had all kind of higher than normal standards for the operations. Still they got caught dumping drilling mud over the side in the middle of the night. So what, they pay the fine. Sort of like some developers around her. Get caught breaking the law, pay the fine, just part of the cost of doing business.