Posted on 06/11/2008 7:53:31 AM PDT by tobyhill
WASHINGTON — With oil and gas prices reaching record highs and little relief in sight, Republican members of Congress are looking at a long-sought, but so far unsuccessful plan to open American shores up to more petroleum exploration.
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa. is leading the charge Wednesday, when he'll push for an amendment to a spending bill that would open up U.S. waters between 50 and 200 miles off shore for drilling. The first 50 miles off shore would be left alone.
"For 27 years, Congress has deliberately locked up vast offshore oil and natural gas reserves," Peterson said, according to USA Today. "With the price at the pump increasing daily — with no end in sight — and the cost of natural gas trading at record levels, Congress needs to unlock these reserves."
Most oil production and exploration has been banned since 1981.
According to Peterson's office, the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates that 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas can be found along the U.S. outer continental shelf, the area affected by the ban.
Peterson is not alone in his desire to open up the shelf. An effort to unlock the resources has been underway in Congress in recent years, and several interest groups are backing the effort, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Don't forget the 1995 Presidential Veto of a bill authorizing drilling in ANWR.
$4 gasoline is also part of X42's "Legacy".
Price will never be a National Security issue and would be struck down in a blink of an eye by the courts.
bump
SOME of the Pubs sided with the 'Rats - those individuals, along with the Rats with which they conspire, should be unemployed now.
And a carrier battle group ordering the Chicoms to immediately cease operations inside our 200 mile limit or be blown out of the water.
This letter is going to Congress under the title Congressional Energy Treachery.
Congress is absolutely, personally liable for increased foreign oil dependence and cost. Their propaganda attacks and show trials on “BIG OIL” obscure profit percentages in line with other industries. Their legislation subsidizes and requires burning in our gas tanks food people should eat. We experience higher prices, while 10,000’s of people starve to death in other countries. Their legislation leads into a black hole of foreign subservience.
So-called windfall profit taxes are government fraud. Economics teaches corporations are tax collectors, and not taxpayers. Corporation budgets include income tax provisions as a cost of doing business. All oil companies would face increased costs from a windfall profits tax, and would easily pass the cost on to consumers. Congress would receive the windfall profit by enormous tax enrichment from consumers, while expending no effort except deception
The only price collusion and obscene profits are found within OPEC. They in turn question why we don’t drill for oil off our shores, in the west, and in the Alaskan wilderness (really a desert)? Why don’t we build refineries, and allow factories for conversion of oil shale and coal deposits to oil products?
Drilling for our own oil and building refineries make us energy independent in the short term. Heavily subsidized so-called alternative energy sources provide miniscule additions to the national power grid. The only real alternative energy source providing prodigious energy increases is nuclear power. Building nuclear power plants provides long-term energy independence
Price is not the National Security issue, as you note. However, the potential for extreme disruption of supply due to reliance on foreign producers IS a security issue. Also, the realization that the monies going to some ME entities as payment for crude oil are likely being used to fund the jihadists and insugents against whom we are engaged in the WOT...that is a National Security issue, regardless of the price of crude oil.
I believe a National Security case can be made.
The nerve of this ARROGANT b*tch! She and her groups have been standing in the way of drilling for TWENTY SEVEN YEARS and now she has the nerve to say that we shouldn't drill because it won't increase the supply for 7-10 years!
Listen, Binns, you arrogant, self righteous, A$$HOLE! How long would it take to increase the supple if we NEVER drill for more oil?
Here is her email address. Let her have it. holly@environmentflorida.org
Reality is, that just starting to “drill here, drill now” would drive oil prices down.
We elect the dumbest of the dumb over and over again.
That’s not the problem. The problem is the anti-trust crusaders from a century ago. They broke up Standard Oil and that made this possible.
How long before "renewable energy sources" have any measurable impact on supply?
Probably at least seven to 10 years.
Renewable estimates are that they could cut dependence by 20% in the next 22 years.
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Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. -- Thomas Paine
(I apologize if are on the list and don't want to be, or are not on the list and want to be. My computer crashed, and the program I used would not restore my files from the backup.)
I just hope we are all pissed off enough to do something about this.
I say follow the money. There is no way it is not flowing from the Middle East to these “environmentalists”. Why else do they oppose oil AND nuclear power, a non greenhouse source of energy?
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