Relief is at Hand - Bush Lifts Off-Shore Drilling Restrictions

[neonlyte]

Wow... in ten years oil will be flowing into the USA from the off-shore drilling rigs. That should solve the problem.

Nice election play

 

[R. Richard]

Delete duplicate post.

 

[Carnevil9]

Ummm.... Bush isn't running for anything. And it's been the Democrats who keep restricting off-shore drilling, not Bush.

 

[R. Richard]

Before any oil can flow, Congress also has to allow offshore drilling.

 

[neonlyte]

Before any oil can flow, Congress also has to allow offshore drilling.

Exactly! So a Democratic Congress will refuse to allow off-shore drilling just as voters are paying high gas prices. Great election play!

 

[R. Richard]

Exactly! So a Democratic Congress will refuse to allow off-shore drilling just as voters are paying high gas prices. Great election play!

I would think. Congress now has a chance to explain to the voters why Congress wants them to pay $5 a gallon of gasoline. Congress can use the opportunity to fully explain their position. Great election play.

Meanwhile, Bush has already stated his position and he's stuck with that.

 

[sr71plt]

I would think. Congress now has a chance to explain to the voters why Congress wants them to pay $5 a gallon of gasoline. Congress can use the opportunity to fully explain their position. Great election play.

And I think that is something the voters should hear--included would be a comparison with much of the rest of the world that has been paying $6 and more for a gallon for years. It may really be something Americans should have to hear and think about. God knows they are only put a little curb on their consumption now because reality has hit them square in the pocketbook.

 

[john-the-author]

Wow... in ten years oil will be flowing into the USA from the off-shore drilling rigs. That should solve the problem.

Nice election play

I agree: just when you thought that you'd run out of reasons to want to piss on the Administration, Monday happens.

I've got $29.95 set aside in my checking account for Pay-per-view on that glorious day there's someone in particular skinned alive and rolled in salt.

 

[sr71plt]

Wow... in ten years oil will be flowing into the USA from the off-shore drilling rigs. That should solve the problem.

Nice election play

Actually, I think Bush got tied up in a backsplash two weeks ago when he first challenged Congress to lift the off-shore drilling embargo (as R. Richard posted, Congress has to vote to lift it too). Someone pointed out that he has an executive order in force himself embargoing off-shore drilling and asked him why he didn't lift his part of the action. It took his administration two weeks to process that and to cancel the executive order.

 

[neonlyte]

Actually, I think Bush got tied up in a backsplash two weeks ago when he first challenged Congress to lift the off-shore drilling embargo (as R. Richard posted, Congress has to vote to lift it too). Someone pointed out that he has an executive order in force himself embargoing off-shore drilling and asked him why he didn't lift his part of the action. It took his administration two weeks to process that and to cancel the executive order.

It will be interesting to see how the candidates play it.

 

[Carnevil9]

And I think that is something the voters should hear--included would be a comparison with much of the rest of the world that has been paying $6 and more for a gallon for years. It may really be something Americans should have to hear and think about. God knows they are only put a little curb on their consumption now because reality has hit them square in the pocketbook.

This is a bit misleading. Oil is sold on a world market; but for transportation costs, everyone pays the same amount.

Europe and other places pay more at the pump than we do in the US, but that's because they have more taxes on their fuel than we do. So they are actually paying more for their government, not more for their oil......Carney

 

[sr71plt]

This is a bit misleading. Oil is sold on a world market; but for transportation costs, everyone pays the same amount.

Europe and other places pay more at the pump than we do in the US, but that's because they have more taxes on their fuel than we do. So they are actually paying more for their government, not more for their oil......Carney

Misleading? What the consumer has to pay? I don't think so.

And it's what they were paying in Cyprus when I lived there a dozen years ago (Cyprus being just a hop, skip, and a jump from Abu Dhabi, where they were paying less than a buck a gallon).

I'm sure everyone has a razzmatazz spin they can (and will) put on it. But what you pay at the pump is what you have to pay.

 

[freshface]

This is a bit misleading. Oil is sold on a world market; but for transportation costs, everyone pays the same amount.

Europe and other places pay more at the pump than we do in the US, but that's because they have more taxes on their fuel than we do. So they are actually paying more for their government, not more for their oil......Carney

European governments decided a long time ago that they needed to discourage gas guzzlers. People here drive small cars. The streets are narrow, the parking garages tiny, and lots of people have to parallel park. High gas prices are just part of the mix. Large vehicles simply don't work here. You can't park them and they don't fit on some streets. Even parking lots for stores have small spaces. It sort of feeds on itself. The parking spots are small because the cars are small and the cars are small because big cars don't fit anywhere.

All the years that Congress and the auto makers were insisting that cars couldn't be made more fuel efficient, the Europeans were driving more fuel efficient cars. The big three sell very nice small cars here. They chose to never sell them at home because trucks and SUVs were more profitable and Americans were convinced that they had to drive the biggest vehicle out there. It seems to me that we need to accept that oil is finite, demand is up, and the oil remaining will be increasingly expensive to extract from the ground. The sooner we do, the more time we have to find alternatives.

 

[fifty5]

My opinion, like yours, isn't significant - it's how the markets respond that will make - or not - a significant change.

I'm waiting to see how the market price reacts...

(But my bet - zero stake - is that prices will drop.)

 

[TE999]

Wow... in ten years oil will be flowing into the USA from the off-shore drilling rigs. That should solve the problem.

Nice election play

Factoring in our inadequate and overtaxed refining capacity, fifteen to twenty years is more like it; assuming we start in the next six months which is impossible.

Ditto for tapping our Strategic Oil Reserves, as is always proposed whenever something like this happens.

Currently world wide demand for oil exceeds supply, thus the bidding war and speculation on oil futures, and as a consequence high prices.

This too shall pass. I'm not giving up my truck for an upholstered go-kart just yet.

 

[Weird Harold]

The big three sell very nice small cars here. They chose to never sell them at home because trucks and SUVs were more profitable and Americans were convinced that they had to drive the biggest vehicle out there.

It's only partially the American "Horsepower Addiction" that keeps European models from being sold in the US -- the big stumbling block is US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations requiring specific smog control measures and specific other features -- energy absorbing bumpers, for example.

Many European cars simply can't be made to meet US DOT regulations without destroying the fuel economy that would make them marketable -- despite the fact that most modern European models are actually cleaner and safer than the DOT regulations require even if they don't have the specific, mandatatory, technology the US bureaucracy has determined is the only acceptable way to do things.

Japanese manufacturers have the same problem -- they make some amazingly economical cars for sale at home, but they don't achieve the results in the manner the US bureacracy stipulates, so they can't sell them in the US.

 

[sr71plt]

It's only partially the American "Horsepower Addiction" that keeps European models from being sold in the US -- the big stumbling block is US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations requiring specific smog control measures and specific other features -- energy absorbing bumpers, for example.

Replacing all of the glass with safety glass. We've brought two cars home from overseas. Had to replace all of the glass.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

If something happens to change realistic expectations about future supply it can have an immediate impact on prices. This is demonstrated all the time in lots of markets.

That said, this action is probably primarily political, because I suspect the area a prez can "open" via an executive order is very small indeed. I mean, why would Bush have not opened it before? Because he was worried that political opponents would say he's in bed with the oil industry?

 

[R. Richard]

That said, this action is probably primarily political, because I suspect the area a prez can "open" via an executive order is very small indeed. I mean, why would Bush have not opened it before? Because he was worried that political opponents would say he's in bed with the oil industry?

It is more likely that Bush waited until the price of gasoline forced the typical American consumer to say, "Fuck the environmentalists, drill, dammit!"

 

[sr71plt]

That said, this action is probably primarily political, because I suspect the area a prez can "open" via an executive order is very small indeed. I mean, why would Bush have not opened it before? Because he was worried that political opponents would say he's in bed with the oil industry?

A. Because his father initiated the excecutive ban order to begin with, and because B. he didn't realize it even existed until someone told him about it when he went after Congress to blame for an existing ban.

 

[TE999]

It is more likely that Bush waited until the price of gasoline forced the typical American consumer to say, "Fuck the environmentalists, drill, dammit!"

Fuckin' greenies. Let 'em eat whales.

 

[Weird Harold]

Fuckin' greenies. Let 'em eat whales.

Spotted owls taste better.

 

[neonlyte]

Factoring in our inadequate and overtaxed refining capacity, fifteen to twenty years is more like it; assuming we start in the next six months which is impossible.

Ditto for tapping our Strategic Oil Reserves, as is always proposed whenever something like this happens.

Currently world wide demand for oil exceeds supply, thus the bidding war and speculation on oil futures, and as a consequence high prices.

This too shall pass. I'm not giving up my truck for an upholstered go-kart just yet.

You can get them with upholstery... fuck

 

[cheerful_deviant]

The funny part is, from all I've see, there isn't even all that much out there. I'll have to go hunting for the numbers, but I recall that the estimated 'Low' yeild (a 90% probabaility) was that the fields could, at full production, in 8-10 years make something on the order of 1-2% of total world production. Great, gasoline just went from $4.25 a gallon to $4.24 a gallon. Big freakin deal.

True speculation and the location of the resources come into play but I have a very hard time seeing this as anything more than a political bone. Sorry but it's not going to save anyones SUV.