Obama's Brilliant Drilling Strategy
I want to point out something that jumped out at me as soon as I heard about Obama's offshore drilling plan, but which no one else has mentioned:
Obama is okaying drilling off the coast of Republican states, while not allowing it off the coast of Democratic states.
This is so perfect: they have been demanding offshore drilling for years, despite the fact that it will do almost nothing to alleviate our energy problems- well, let them have it. In the meantime, we in the Democratic states get to protect our coastlines.
This is one great president.
Obama is okaying drilling off the coast of Republican states, while not allowing it off the coast of Democratic states.
This is so perfect: they have been demanding offshore drilling for years, despite the fact that it will do almost nothing to alleviate our energy problems- well, let them have it. In the meantime, we in the Democratic states get to protect our coastlines.
This is one great president.
Comments
Here's another opinion from David Roberts of grist.org:
The most important thing to understand about President Obama’s announcement on offshore drilling is that it’s mostly for show. Its intended effects are political — corralling more Senate votes for a climate bill and defusing anticipated voter anger over gas price spikes. Even on those grounds, however, it’s unlikely to succeed.
Oil companies aren’t even drilling in most of the offshore areas they already have leased — some 34 billion barrels worth of leases are going unexploited, mainly because the cost of offshore drilling is prohibitive at today’s oil prices.
According the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there likely won’t be any oil from these new offshore areas until 2017, and full production won’t ramp up until 2030. Even when it does, it will produce some 100,000 new barrels a day — about 1/1,000 of total global supply. The impact on oil prices will be “insignificant,” says the Energy Information Administration, and it won’t make America any less dependent on foreign oil, either.
That's fine for mindless entertainment (professional wrestling?), but reality is usually much more complex than that.
Not that I have anything against mindless entertainment, I just don't need it 24/7.
All Republicans view things that way. They will do anything to damage Democrats, no matter how it hurts our country. The recent health care debate is a perfect example.
The post was written in a "us vs them" manner hence my remark. Pardon me, but I feel like you are being over critical.
As for the drilling, the largest oil deposits that have been discovered in recent years have been in the Atlantic. Just look at Brazil and its new found supply of oil. The point may not be to keep prices under $3 a gallon rather to give us the gas when we will need it most, in the future. While we are steadily switching to more efficient cars as well as fully electric cars (we still need to rework the grid), many cars, ships, and planes will still use oil in 15 to 20 years. Better to have oil rigs set up and ready to go then have our economy crash and burn because of a law that says you can't look or drill for oil in the Atlantic.
Although I wouldn't dispute your assessment of future need, I believe you might be overestimating the actual potential.
I don't have a strong opinion on the drilling. I live in an area where the beaches (Jersey shore )probably generate in the 100's of millions of dollars for the state's economy. (Long Island, NY less, but still significant).
I've never heard of any significant oil deposits offshore here and I doubt there will EVER be any offshore drilling here.
I'm no expert on energy, a very complex subject and I doubt you are either.
I would have to defer to the U.S. Energy Information Administration on this one.