How to get the economy moving? ... Drilling Oil!
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I just can't help thinking about our economy and how one single element could turn it around VERY, VERY quickly. The element - oil.
Despite the propaganda being fed to us by the mainstream media, the US has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and most oil producing nations. One report shows that just the reserves in Alaska, if allowed to produce, would make Alaska the sixth top producer in the world. ... and then add all the other US reserves to that!
The question that comes to me is "Why are we sitting on one of the richest resources in the world and NOT being ALLOWED to produce it?" Even if we wanted to go total nuclear and wind here, eighty percent of the world would still buy all we could produce. Drilling here would pump billions of dollars into the economy, put hundreds of thousands of people to work, GDP would go up drastically and gross revenues received by having all those people working and paying taxes would take a major chunk out of the deficit. Also, we would be free of the stranglehold by the Arab Cartel. (At any time they could shut off the supply to the US and we would be defeated in six to eight months as all our cars, planes, ships, etc. would come to a screeching halt.) Best of all, those "money-hungry" oil companies would spend their own money (not our tax dollars) to make it happen. The peripheral benefits are too numerous to list.
The only thing I see as to "why NOT produce" is that it would take a large number of people off of government dependence - which is totally opposite from what this administration is fervently trying to do. The government, while under democrat control over the past 60 years, nationalized millions of acres of oil producing land, made them National Parks be-crying the need "to preserve our country's natural resources" and then totally banned commercial oil production on most of them and severely limiting the rest.
They made it illegal to do shallow water drilling off the US coastline where it could be recovered inexpensively and allowed deep water drilling not expecting anyone to try it. (Not only did they try, but were ultimately successful.) The first time they got the opportunity (BP oil spill), Obama shut that down - saying it was too risky to the environment. ..... but then sent BILLIONS of dollars to Brazil and Venezuela to do deep water drilling and committing the US to buy what they produce. (This follows their agenda of redistribution of wealth - take from the rich US and give it to poor.)
In an economy already wheeling under the stress of unemployment, Obama single-handedly wiped out the coastal economies of many states. Not only were the rig workers out of work, but all the support businesses - the restaurants, stores, housing markets, clubs - every business that made a living taking care of the workers and equipment they used or benefited from the workers' families and paychecks - all suffered.
Lastly - refineries. There has only been ONE new refinery built in 30 years. In a recent Obama speech, he espoused the necessity for new ones to be built, but he added that it must be done "responsibly". The un-said part of his speech is that his environmental czar, etc. have created so much "red tape" that NO proposed refinery has proven "responsible". These rules are absurdly restrictive - like proving that no sand beetles would be killed by the hundreds of new employees that would be hired. (I just made that up - but the real restrictions ARE that cumbersome.) Just as the government devastated the logging industry for the sake of the spotted owl, just to find out (after the lives of hundreds of families were ruined) that the owls thrived better in nearby barns and fields outside of the forest.
Bottom line - add me to the "drill here, drill now" crowd. Sitting on the richest resource in the world until it becomes worthless is ridiculous. Opponents that say it would take years to be productive - I say "bunk". IF it will take years to bring it to market - SO WHAT? At least it will be coming. Also, hundreds of thousands of people would be put to work in the meantime while getting it. I see it as a winner in both cases.
Just as entrepreneurs developed ways to drill several miles under the sea, all we need to do is set the rules and turn them loose on domestic drilling. If there is a window of opportunity to make money, someone will develop the way to do it. Given the chance, my bet is that oil would get to market faster than the best optimist could project. Make it worth their while and they will find a way to do it quickly. .... and we can only better the economy of our country for doing it.
Doing nothing when we could be generating millions into the economy is just CRAZY.
I say DRILL HERE - DRILL NOW!!!! No doubt about it.
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I totally disagree with Obama, but I do not hate him. He is just executing the instructions of those that put him in office. He is simply a puppet moving according to the strings being pulled. There in lies our problem.
I don´t know where you take your numbers from. My understanding is that the US holds less than 2% of worlds known oil reserves. There may be much more oil resting below the soil, but does that make a difference?
At current rate the known oil reserves will be exhausted within the next 12 to 15 years. So there better be much more oil still undiscovered and unexploited to let the next 2 generations on this planet get by.
With 2% reserves and 20% of world consumption i would say the US is close to those economies that don´t have any oil at all.
In respect to oil, the US is heavy on dope. 70% go into transport. Cut the average gas mileage by 20% and you have the same effects as doubling the domestic oil production. What is easier to do?
Here is a little research that you can use to expand your "understanding" ... lol
I originally heard of the reserves while I was studying geology in college in the 70's. There are huge reserves that have been sitting because technology made it cost prohibitive to recover. Times have now changed and techniques have developed to efficiently expedite recovery. Oil shale still has challenges, but if given the incentive, entrepreneurs will develop ways to recover all of it.
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Here is an excerpt from Next Energy News - Feb 13, 2008
(http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-ne
Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x
America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.
In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.
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This is just one of MANY reserves not tapped. You can do a search for "U.S. oil reserves" in Google or Metacrawler and you can get the details that the mainline media seems to be unable to find when they publish their misleading articles.
You are right that oil is finite regardless of how much we have. It is mandatory that we transition off of it. What I am encouraging is to harvest all we can while it is still valuable and let it heal our economy. A hundred years from now oil should be worthless and any oil still in the ground will be wasted resources.
Rheagl - Bakken formation, oil shale, .. all good reserves for future exploration. The things is, if you thoroughly read information currently available in internet, then the reserve numbers dwarf down to 10% of what was initially published. Especially Bakken Formation is a good expample for the spread between growing figures of how much is potentially there and how much can be technically recovered (even at higher cost).
Please keep in mind the US is consuming somewhere around 20 billion barrels per year. Technically exploitable Bakken oil in the range of 20 billion barrels is good for one single year of US consumption. That is no strategic option.
Rhe, I still hate him, I have NO respect for anyone like him. He promises, and you find out it was a lie. In 2 1/2 years he has accomplished nothing, except Bin Laden. All he supposedly said was, go ahead. He was already "wanted dead or alive" by Bush. Tough decision! H
This is from the Daily Caller - March 10, 2011
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/10/new-report-says-
Senators James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ranking Member of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, will release a report Thursday from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) showing that the United States’ combined recoverable natural gas, oil and coal endowment is the largest on Earth.
Russia comes in as a close second with recoverable fossil fuel reserves, followed Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and Canada.
According to the new report, an updated version of a 2009 paper, the United States’ resources are larger than Saudi Arabia, China and Canada, combined. The report estimates that the U.S. has 163 billion barrels of recoverable oil and enough natural gas to meet the country’s demand for 90 years.
The CRS report is being made public at a time when oil and gas prices are skyrocketing and the Department of Interior is embroiled in a battle with oil companies over offshore drilling.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/10/new-report-says-
CHRIS57 - Where are you getting the "20 Billion" figure. I have read several recent articles and the HIGHEST noted is 11 billion.
Here is a report from Energy Tomorrow - June 1, 2011
http://blog.energytomorrow.org/2011/06/drilling-do
Drilling Down Into The Oil Reserves Numbers
By Mark Green | Wednesday 1 June 2011
You've probably heard the line: The United States holds 2 percent of the world's oil reserves but consumes 25 percent of the world's oil. It's boilerplate rhetoric for folks who'd like Americans to think the United States is both running out of its own oil and using too much of everyone else's. President Obama has used this misleading line in two major policy speeches recently, and others have followed suit.
Let's focus on the first point. The 2 percent stat lacks context and a false impression results. The figure refers to "proved" reserves - that is, an official classification of oil "that has been discovered (and) is economically and commercially viable," says API's Marcus Koblitz.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski discusses further in a Washington Post op-ed:
"In truth, 'reserves' is just one of several categories used to quantify oil and, on its own, misrepresents America's potential. To classify a barrel as a reserve, you have to drill, prove the oil is there, and meet strict criteria established by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's not an easy process."
The chief problem is in using the 2 percent figure by itself - without also mentioning that the United States has billions and billions of barrels of oil that's off limits by federal policy, classified as undiscovered, technically recoverable resources (UTRR) and not counted with the proved reserve. That's more than 116 billion barrels of UTRR oil on federal lands, according to government estimates.
Takeaway point: You can't talk accurately about U.S. oil reserves without also noting that there are other, vast repositories of oil that can be accessed.
Here's another way we know that "undiscovered" oil is there: Even though the United States consumes billions of barrels of crude oil a year (5.34 billion last year from domestic and imported sources), the statistic for the country's proved reserves hardly changes from year to year. In fact, the Energy Information Administration reports that between 2008 and 2009 proved reserves actually increased. Murkowski puts it another way: "While our nation's oil 'reserves' have never reached 40 billion barrels, we've managed to produce nearly 200 billion barrels since 1900."
That's because new oil sources are discovered and come on line. For example, there's been lots of news recently about the Texas oil shale formation known as Eagle Ford. The New York Times reports the field is one of about 20 new onshore fields that some say could collectively increase U.S. oil output by 25 percent within a decade. "It's the one thing we have seen in our adult lives that could take us away from imported oil," Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey McClendon tells the Times. "What if we have found three of the world's biggest oil fields in the last three years right here in the U.S.? How transformative could that be for the U.S. economy?"
The answer: hugely transformative. Accessing oil that's right here at home would have tremendous impact on jobs, economic growth and energy security.
Rheagl - thanks for correcting. I got the millions barrels daily mixed up with billions per year figure. Nevertheless it is some 20% of world consumption and the hint should be that it is not any more 25%.
That is to say growing BRIC economies take more and more share of world consumption, consequently the US looses consumer dominance in the world oil market.
All talk about undiscovered oil reserves is void, because while the US may have lots of oil still hiding in the ground, what makes you think the other parts of this planet don´t have similar shares of oil undiscovered?
Because current world reserves last 12 to 15 years, we need lots of hidden reserves to get by for the next 50 years.
Had business in Russia a month ago. Russia certainly is a country with high reserves and much higher production than consumption. Guess what gas prices at the filling stations in Moscow were: 4 USD/gallon, and gas shortages in remote Transural and Sibiria because Lukoil and Gazprom thought they would make a better deal by selling on the world market (China, India..)
Any increase in domestic oil consumption will only benefit the big oil companies, at the gas station you won´t see a dime.
Rhe, B.O. only wants to destoy the country, so he can rebild it his way. H
HS - This is not a "bash Obama" page - although His actions are playing havoc with our economy, etc. I feel that Obama truly BELIEVES that government is the answer to all problems and he is just following what he believes.
We believe in the free enterprise and entrepreneurship that this country was founded on. Herein, we can express such and defend our stand. I welcome opposing discussion as that will lead to better knowledge and understanding, but it must be tempered with validation - and not just rhetoric.
So too, I hold our posters to the same standards. For this page, feel free to address HOW Obama's policies pertaining to oil affects our pocketbooks (as they are unlimited), but please refrain from common degradation ...... whether it is justified or not. LOL
Rhe, Evidently you are not from Chicago, therefore you do not understand how he operates. He is all agenda driven, and harm will come to anyone in his way. Don't be fooled H
CHRIS57 - I strongly disagree that ONLY "big business" will benefit. That statement is straight from the liberal propaganda department.
First off, how much money that the big, mean, oil companies make for their stock holders (which many retirement plans - likely even for someone you know - are dependent on) is irrelevant. They will spend billions of dollars putting people to work and buying durable goods in an effort to make that profit. Hundreds of thousands of individuals will be put to work, companies that supply the sites and workers benefit and the economy would see benefits almost the day the announcement is made that domestic production is in gear.
This would be long-term recovery, not just temporary work while roads bridges are built. These people would have lasting jobs for as long as the reserves last. 10 years or 90 years does not matter. The boost to the economy would be tremendous.
The mindset that "big business" is a living entity is warped at best. All businesses do is spend money on employees and production, pay almost 40% of profits in taxes to the government (one of the highest rates in the world), then splits up the profits into future research and stockholder dividends.
I am still looking for this guy "big business" that is supposedly hording all the money. If you think that big oil companies are going to make out like bandits, then GO BUY THEIR STOCK and you will get part of it. Instead of calling for their failure - make money from them. That is free enterprise. The only thing to stop you is rhetoric.
"It is only people who don't own the stock that do not want a business to profit."
As to reserves, what is yet to be discovered is a bonus. Just extracting, refining and producing the KNOWN reserves is more than enough to take care of our economy for generations. History indicates that once production is permitted, everyone with the ability will try to develop ways to get it. The cry of "gold in them there hills" (black gold that is) will spur a surge of exploration. It is just human nature. I feel that the known reserve estimates would QUICKLY change.
As to the mistakes that Russia made, I will have to research it. From my limited knowledge, I do not think they embrace capitalism as we do. Thus it would have been the failure of their government to capitalize on the resource. (Maybe someone with working knowledge of Russian economics and government will chip in to the discussion.) If I get time to research it, I will let you know. At any rate, there HAS to be a lot of Russian people getting paid and local businesses profiting by the production. It sure can't produce itself. lol
Rheagl - the discussion in your hub (and in other hubs) worries me a bit. I have the impression that you all want to push domestic production to reduce gas price at the filling station.
Actually that means you want to isolate the US from the world oil market. That is an illusion. To do that you would have to increase domestic production ten times. And you would have to control oil imports/exports, otherwise the oil goes where highest price is payed.
All the discussion about domestic production diverts from the issue that the US economy is much less energy efficient compared to other developed economies (Japan, EU) when it comes to fossile fuels. Any increase in world market oil price hits the US economy twice as hard as others. I think focusing to get more energy efficient is much more fruitful.
Economy in Russia! Good point, Russia is rich in natural ressources. The money earned from exploring, mining and selling those commodities was/is in the hands of 4 types of oligarchs:
1. the smart and criminal ones (Beresovski..),
2. the smart and not politically alligned ones (Chodorkowsky..),
3. the politically alligned and shrewd ones (Abramovich..)
4. The ruling class of Russia (Putin, Medvedjev..)
1. and 3. don´t live in Russia and their money is not in Russia, thats why i call them shrewd, they live in the UK (Abramovich, Beresovski) or in Israel. Chodorkovsky was in Israel, his only mistake, he returned to Russia. The people don´t get anything. But that´s the same in the US.
You are right, it will take several years to get enough functioning refineries built to affect the gas pumps. But that is not what counts - allowing companies to produce is what will turn the economy around.
Hundreds of thousands of people would be put to work just to retrieve the oil from the ground. Many more thousands would be put to work manufacturing the equipment needed. Housing around the sites would surge from the influx of new workers needing a place to live AND now having a steady income to pay for it. Entertainment facilities near the sites will flourish as all these workers will need to release on their off days.
This is not new. In the gold rush days it was the saloons and stores that sold mining equipment that made most of the money. Entire cities popped up anywhere that active mines were established. The same happened accross Texas, Oklahoma, ect. when oil was first discovered.
Turn free enterprise loose again on finding and recovering oil and we WILL experience the same economic boom - again. Leaving billions of dollars of oil in the ground until it becomes worthless is absurd.
Drilling here and drilling now, capitalizing on this incredible resource we have available at this point in time, is just the right thing to do.
I see you did not allow my comment, I've NEVER done done that. H
HS - This link is about recovering oil to turn the economy. If you want to bash Obama, just make it topical to the subject. ... and use facts - not rhetoric. Like you, I could fill this page with the mistakes I feel Obama has made. However, I am focusing now on the need to Drill here and drill NOW!
Rhea, I know a woman that worked for BP, just below the board. The first woman to run an offshore rig, run the Gulf of Mexico and run The North Sea. Until recently worked with MIT concerning oil. I know mot info.
The price of oil went down.50 the day Reagan announced we would drill more. I wrote about our illustrious Presient, and the way he operates because he is our biggest problem. H
No problem, just tie your comments to the content. Don't just say he has an agenda. Most readers do not have time to research so just blanket statements to just "bash" the administration are a waste of space.
If you would like to expound on how his "agenda" is the drive for his preventing oil recover - that would work ... and there is a ton of data for you to utilize.
Increased production would bring down the price of oil, but as long as it has value we should be putting it to work.
Rhe, If you go to my site, you can give any opinion you want to. H
Rheagl
A TERRIFIC expose of how the people have been lied too.
Profit is good,the government gets 40% for starters plus 18% more in royalties when the oil comes out of the ground.
Thank you J.E.
It is truly amazing that the government is preventing the recovery of oil when it would generate enough money to pay off the deficit and could quite probably fund all the Obama-care debt currently being targeted at our hip pockets. lol
Rheagl
An article ‘’ China seeks Latin Nation Commodities’’ by Ian James of Associated press appeared in our local paper on 6/7/11.
The following are exerts from the article.
http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_163315/contentdetail.
Latin America is blessed with a wealth of natural resources such as oil, copper and soy and seeks investment and loans to capitalize on them. CHINA NEEDS THE COMMODITIES to keep its economy growing and has about $3 trillion to burn.
CHINA LENDS AND INVESTS tens of billions ………. In return for a guaranteed flow of commodities ……..OIL.
Obama recently gave Brazil a huge loan and a permit to drill in the gulf. Petrobras ,the Brazilian owned company ,stock was purchased by George Soros shortly after Obama took office. The recent moratoriums imposed by the Obama administration for more than a year forced drilling platforms to leave the gulf for other countries. Presently the Obama regime was held in contempt of the courts by a federal judge who twice ruled that the moratoriums were illegal.
We have a president that has contempt for the US Constitution and The Rule of Law.
The sad thing is that nothing can be done as long as the Democrats are in power. The Democrats control 2/3 of our government as far back as 2007 when they won majority control of the House and Senate.
In addition to OIL the country has an abundant of natural gas reserves. Natural gas is clean and efficient. Producing both commodities in the US are being held up by the Obama administration.
EXCUSE ME for lengthy reply.
Good info Jon.
Here is another excellent insight from the American Thinker - July 18:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/06/drill_
Drill here Drill now works - because it already has!
Alan Aszkler
Once again the fraudulent message from the environmental activists in the EPA is being echoed by a willing media, claiming drill here drill now won't have an effect on gas prices when there is irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Where is the proof you ask? Currently there is one commodity that has not adjusted with inflation, is not tied to the devaluation of the Dollar, nor follows the rise in Gold and Oil.
America's Natural Gas is trading at 2003 rates and when adjusted for inflation is closer to 2000 rates. Why? Because multitudes of Americans are developing this vast resource not a handful of multinational concerns. They are bringing an abundant supply of American energy to the market; in New York State alone we have over 3000 gas wells.
Drill here drill now works! American ingenuity in energy technology has fostered a boom in natural gas prospecting. Hundreds of small to medium size American energy companies are creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs developing Americas vast natural gas deposits, leading the way for this energy of the future.
The same will hold true for gasoline. America produces about 6 million of the 20 million barrels a day of the national consumption. Current worldwide proven reserves equal 1 trillion barrels of oil with another 1.7 trillion in current and undiscovered reserve growth. Developing America's oil reserves by following the Natural gas trend will bring gas to about $1.90 a gallon at the pump. Allowing development of America's reserves alone would alleviate or dependence on foreign oil. Factoring in the estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil shale deposits America has over 250 years of oil reserves. The evidence is irrefutable we can do the same for Oil as is being done for Natural Gas. It's time to stop the government moratorium on domestic energy development and fuel the engine of American economic prosperity.
Rheagl
Obama and the Democrat Senate want to repeal $4 billion of oil and gas subsidies to the oil companies and add additional taxes to their product. Obama recently announced that the government is going to release more areas for leasing. He didn’t announce that he would RELEASE permits for drilling. The lease announcement again is a cover up to what he actually is doing to the production of oil and gas.
Today the Ethanol industry is getting a $5 billion subsidy to produce a gasoline mix that will cost more than gasoline, to an idiot that really don’t any sense.
Rheagl
Unemployment went up to 9.1% today. They just don't get it yet.
Get the drills moving and put people to work! It is just too simple.
HERMAN Cain TRIED TO explain what the administration was doing to stop the oil flowing.
Shell Oil just spent $2 billion in Alaska on a site, permits were ready to go. The EPA stepped in AND stopped the procedure and demanded that the new regulations will need to be used. The timing was pre meditated to stop oil production.
MORE JOBS LOST and profits. Oil companies pay 40% taxes on profits PLUS A FEE ON EACH BARREL PUMPED.
Navajo Generating Station Arizona 6/29/11
The station provides 95% of the electricity needed to deliver water from the Colorado river… The US EPA is set to release NEW emission regulations……The plant has installed $45 million in new controls for nitrogen oxides.EPA favors a different control system that could cost $1.2 billion to install and would require millions in additional expenses every year to operate
It‘s important that Congress and the Obama administration recognize the impact the EPA would have on CAP and it‘s customers.
America needs to wake up before the nation is destroyed by the BUFFOONS IN WASHINGTON.
Thanks Jon.
That is just wrong. I just wish we could get this message out to the world. If people could just get a grasp on what is happening, I know it could make a difference.
Rheagl
I watched the Obama news conference on Wed. Another pitiful example of blaming the Republicans and Congress. Not once did he mention that the Democrat Senate is not doing the job.Obama mentioning that his daughters get their work done on time was a laugh. The Senate and Obama don't have a 2012 budget, the house presented heir’s months ago. WHOIS HOLDING UP THE SHOW ?
Harvey Stelman 11 months ago
After the Iranian hostage crisis (ended by Reagan) Ronald Reagan stated that the U.S. would drill heavily. That day prices came down .50 at the pump.
Clinton said it would take ten years before they produced, so he didn't.It's more than ten years now.
Obama doesn't want to do anything positive. Not knowing history he says, it would take ten years. The truth is, it can be done in five years.
Like you say, Obama gives Brazil rights to drill in the gulf. Then he insults American by saying, we will be a great customer for Brazil.
I HATE him, and all he stands for. He is the first unAmerican President. H