ANWR drilling no solution to gasoline costs, Kerry says

adn.com ^ | March 31, 2004 | LIZ RUSKIN

[KQQL]

WASHINGTON -- While blaming President Bush for the high price of gasoline, his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying it is no solution.

"We deserve an administration that doesn't fake it to the American people and pretend that somehow by drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge we can deal with the problems of America," Kerry, D-Mass., told university students in San Diego. "We can't provide the supply of oil America needs from the Alaska wildlife refuge or from any other source in the United States, because we only have 3 percent of the world's oil reserves."

[Puppage]

None of these are in the same league with Saudi and Iraq

Of course not, never said they were. But, I figure evey bit we can get without "their" assistance is well worth it.

[Dr. Frank fan]

It could help, but really not very substantially.

Because.....?

Really, the only long term solution to our dependency on foreign sources of energy is to develop non-fossil fuel sources.

Go ahead, be my guest. Meanwhile my car takes gas. Gas comes from oil. Our nation contains much land under which is oil, that we're not getting. Can you explain why not?

We *have* to pull away from this dependency on nations that don't like us

Right. That's what we're trying to do. They're our primary supplier, yet we have supplies in our own backyard, which we're not getting for some reason. Yet so I suggest we actually *get* that stuff from our backyard (so we don't have to get it from their monopoly) and people like you say "no, that's not gonna work". ????

while ANWR would help, it's not a solution in itself by any means.

Who's claiming it's a "solution by itself"? Call it a step in the right direction. I hope you're not arguing we shouldn't take that step because it's not a "solution by itself".

[Army Air Corps]

Well, friends and relatives in the industry are disgusted with the sluggishness of the bureaucracy. Most Americans have no idea just how long it takes to tap oil in a pool. You do not just set-up a drilling rig and start drilling. The reams of paperwork and the MONTHS of waiting for all the clearances makes the time from discovery to pumping average 2 to 3 years. Sometimes, the lag time is 4 to 5 years.

[CollegeRepublican]

Really, the only long term solution to our dependency on foreign sources of energy is to develop non-fossil fuel sources. As dirty as the phrase "alternative energy" is to many conservatives, it's a basic national security issue. We *have* to pull away from this dependency on nations that don't like us, and while ANWR would help, it's not a solution in itself by any means.

Bingo. You are exactly right.

[RightWhale]

Anyway, go ahead and develop ANWR. I don't see any problem with doing that except Alaska won't get as sweet a deal as they did with Prudhoe Bay.

[Eva]

I heard part of Rush's show (I forget who was doing the show) and the guy was talking about how the Bush administration has ignored the problem in Venezuela. Well, I would just like to remind everyone that the Democrats held up the Bush nomination of the undersecretary of state in charge of Latin American affairs over the demand to lift sanctions on Castro's Cuba until after the Chavez problem had escalated out control.

[RedMonqey]

Let's see:

Kerry doesn't support drilling in ANWAR but the locals in Alaska do

Kerry supports Alteranative Power (wind mills) but the locals in Massachuecttes DONT!

Yep, just what one expects in a liberal energy policy.

[GailA]

drilling the ANWR

[CollegeRepublican]

http://www.changingworldtech.com/

CWT is the owner and developer of processes that convert industrial waste and low-value streams into fuels, oils, gases and carbons, with no hazardous emissions into the environment.

[GailA]

that BLACK STUFF is HURTING US hanoi john

[RightWhale]

The paperwork process for the North Slope Gas Pipeline was estimated to take 5 years. Then they order pipe and it would be at least another 2 years after the pipe arrives from Japan or wherever. Figure 10 years until gas flows.

[GailA]

There are IDLE oil wells in Olney/Lawrenceville/Robinson, Ill. The refinery there was finally dismantled and sold to a third world country. They started going idle in the early 80's. A few are still seen pumping slowly, but most are idle.

[Iron Matron]

Let's also keep in mind the number of wells in the US that went dormant due to excessive costs related to federal regs

Nobody really wants to hear this, it sounds too much like the truth /sarcasm

[Army Air Corps]

Yep, we should have had such plants in operation five years ago. The amount of coal that the US still has could be converted to enough oil to be petroleum-based demand well into the next century and beyond. Personally, I like the promise of biofuel. It makes use of much our existing infrastructure and motor vehicles would need minor conversions. Nothing like GROWING your own fuel to allow us to thumb our noses at OPEC; they can't eat oil...

[RightWhale]

According to Peak Oil, even if they start building enough plants now to make a difference, we are going to be in a period of such high oil prices that we'll crash and burn anyway. The plants needed to be constructed 20 years ago when we could afford it.

[marron]

There are a couple of things to remember. First is that strong prices are a pain at the pump, but they encourage drilling. Most new oil is not in OPEC territory, which means that OPEC loses market share by pushing prices up.

There is new oil coming on stream every day. The Chad pipeline just finished, which represents a chunk of production coming; the Ecuadorian pipeline just finished which represents another chunk of production. The Caspian production is steadily rising and yet another pipeline is underway, Iraqi production is going up, all over Africa and Latin America new production is coming on stream. Russian production is up about 10% for the year. OPEC has little control over prices in the long run.

Second is that the key to energy independence is to have a multiplicity of sources. We already have that, and the situation is improving looking ahead. OPEC can jack the prices in the short term in hopes of affecting the elections, but long term they can only pump, or not pump and see themselves replaced by other oil sources.

Gore used to promote the idea of $3 a gallon gasoline in the hopes of encouraging alternative energy sources. His hope was to see the money going into government coffers, of course. But the effect is the same as the price rises due to market conditions. Higher fuel costs encourage alternatives. It encourages drillers to punch new wells, it encourages people to shift to smaller vehicles, with no need of a mandate from Washington. And it encourages people working on new technology to push ahead.

If you are interested in job growth, all of the above puts people to work, and people in my area are running themselves into the ground working overtime as they clean out old wells and punch new ones. People have to learn to stop fearing Arabs with oil. When they say they are cutting production by 2 million barrels a day what they mean is that Venezuela can't even produce its quota due to political problems, and there is a lot of new non-OPEC oil coming on stream, and they are losing market share. Thats what it means. And the picture isn't getting any better for them.

[backhoe]

I will add some relevant info relating to this here:

-Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Some links--

[knarf]

On the Quinn in the Morning show this morning, at the very end, he took a call from a geological scientist aligned with the oil industry and he (the scientist) said that we are banned from drilling all along the East coast and the Gulf.

Canada, he further mentioned, drills up to the US line in Lake Erie for gas, but is forbidden to take oil if it's there ... they have to plug it.

If the EPA can stop our drilling and acquiring our own oil, we are then forced to get foreign oil ... subjecting ourselves to OPEC and the resulting gas prices.

Socialists must become extinct!

[RedMonqey]

"Hmmm, the oil that we used in WWII must have appeared by magic"




Big Oil is using the "secret formula" that converts salt water into sweet Texas Crude but only when our "Illuminati" masters deem necessary to use it.

(sarcasm off)

[RightWhale]

we should have had such plants in operation five years ago

We'll have a big problem, but developing countries such as China will need more and more and more, and it won't be there. China will be in a big hurt, even worse than us.