Offshore Drilling and a 10 Year Plan
With the executive ban on offshore drilling officially lifted by President Bush, the deciding factor now lies with Congress and the legislative ban that must also be lifted in order for drilling to occur. If this were to happen actual prices at the gas pump would not immediately decrease. The White House openly states there is no “quick fix” for the price of oil however starting now can help in the future. More politicians are openly expressing their support for allowing offshore drilling and exploration.
Florida Congressman, Jeff Miller (Rep.) was previously opposed to offshore drilling. He has recently stated it may be time to lift the ban and begin to use the resources available to us. In an NPR news article dated July 14th Congressman Miller is quoted, saying:
“I think when the public begins to change their tune … then elected leaders need to be paying attention as well. The breaking point seemed to be $4-a-gallon gas,”
A fiscally conservative group of Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition are also in favor of opening new areas for drilling. A recent CNN Opinion Poll and a Gallup poll show that American’s want to drill. Why? Do people really believe that the price of gas would decrease immediately? Are we, as American’s, tired of purchasing foreign oil?
While the debate about drilling domestic oil continued this week, Al Gore presented an aggressive energy plan for America. A 10 year plan Mr. Gore likened to the Apollo Moon Project, stating that it may seem impossible but it can be accomplished. Mr. Gore emphasized:
“Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind,”
Can we combine efforts? Offshore drilling and Mr. Gore’s 10 year goal are both things that will take time. A balanced approach is necessary to accomplish Energy Independence and to decrease (or end) our dependence on oil. Domestic drilling is not the answer, however, it is part of the process.
Related Posts:
- Al Gore’s Call for 100% Renewable Energy Within 10 Years
- Potential McCain Running Mate Florida Governor Charlie Christ has Green Cred - Is it deserved?
- Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling, Why it Matters and Why it Doesn’t
Photo Credit: Nantaskart! via Flickr Creative Commons License
One thing that troubles me is the focus by some on immediate results. America did not get into its present energy situation overnight and will not solve the problem with a crash program that focuses on only short term solutions. There is no equivalent of gastric bypass surgery here and even if there was, I would not recommend it.
For example, it is going to take some time to undo the effects of 30 years worth of not building new nuclear power plants. We have people who know what they are doing, but their skills are a bit rusty and they want to move cautiously and get it right.
The fact that it may take 10-12 years to build our first new nuclear plant (from the time of project start, which is actually a couple of years in the past) is not terribly troubling when one considers that the new plant has a likelihood of operating for 60-80 years based on what we can see from our existing plants.
Drilling off shore is also hard work, but look what happened in Norway and Great Britain when they discovered oil and gas in the North Sea. In each case, they developed excellent technology and supplied abundant, low cost energy for several decades. Sure, there is no panacea, but we will be using large quantities of controllable energy for as long as we have a functioning society, so we need to keep investing in new supplies to replace the ones that we are using.
Weather dependent sources like the sun and wind are destined to forever be supplements that show up when and where they want. I like power supplies that free me from the weather, not those that make me even more vulnerable when bad weather happens.
[...] Boone Pickens Says Peak Oil Reached, Plans World’s Largest Wind Farm Offshore Drilling and a 10 Year Plan Solving Energy Crisis Demands a Sustained [...]
The first question we all need to get answered is: why will it take 10 years (TEN, count ‘em) after the drilling ban is lifted before we can take advantage of the oil?
The main reason is infrastructure, which means how we get the oil from the oil well to homes and businesses.
As in, for example, pipelines.
To do that, oil companies need to pass environmental hurdles that are extremely time-consuming. Why aren’t we asking, instead: Gee, how long would it take if there were no environmental hurdles?
This is such a critical issue because even if it is wind power or solar, it needs to be delivered from its source. Same issue: environmental regulations.
Let’s examine how we have tied ourselves into such tight environmental knots that we have allowed ourselves to become engaged in the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, and it is being transferred from us, to our enemies.
We can’t have our cake and eat it too. There are tough, grown-up choices to be made.