Posted on 07/09/2008 7:30:40 AM PDT by Belasarius
One of the benefits of being around a long time is that you get to know a lot about certain things. I'm 80 years old and I've been an oilman for almost 60 years. I've drilled more dry holes and also found more oil than just about anyone in the industry. With all my experience, I've never been as worried about our energy security as I am now. Like many of us, I ignored what was happening. Now our country faces what I believe is the most serious situation since World War II.
The problem, of course, is our growing dependence on foreign oil – it's extreme, it's dangerous, and it threatens the future of our nation.
Let me share a few facts: Each year we import more and more oil. In 1973, the year of the infamous oil embargo, the United States imported about 24% of our oil. In 1990, at the start of the first Gulf War, this had climbed to 42%. Today, we import almost 70% of our oil.
This is a staggering number, particularly for a country that consumes oil the way we do. The U.S. uses nearly a quarter of the world's oil, with just 4% of the population and 3% of the world's reserves. This year, we will spend almost $700 billion on imported oil, which is more than four times the annual cost of our current war in Iraq.
In fact, if we don't do anything about this problem, over the next 10 years we will spend around $10 trillion importing foreign oil. That is $10 trillion leaving the U.S. and going to foreign nations, making it what I certainly believe will be the single largest transfer of wealth in human history.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I’m ok with wind power here in Kansas. I’m already seeing some windfarms out west. Smells better than feed lots. But I’m not sure I trust Mr. Pickens. He tried to buy our basketball coach.
T. Boone is trying to scare you because he’s jumping into the wind market in a big way. If he was serious he would be calling for nukes and clean coal. Instead he’s going with wind which is a perfect match for the hot air he’s expelling.
I live in a community of 1600 people and we have our first windmill, positioned near one of the schools. It is expected to completely power the three schools with energy left to sell. Sounds like a plan.
Exactly! Guys like T. Boone know how to make money and that is to drive markets. He's in the driver's seat of the wind farm market right.
Colorado shale oil is estaimted at 2 trillion barrels. ANWR with new seismic surveys probably holds upwards of 50-70 billion barrels. And God only knows what the restricted areas of the continental shelves hold. California offshore is loaded with crude oil.
Domestic drilling + coal + nuclear + other = we'll be fine.
I’m for wind...and everything else, so long as there are as few subsidies as possible.
But this statement, “Natural gas is the only domestic energy of size that can be used to replace oil used for transportation” I don’t think is accurate. Coal to liquid fuels could partially replace oil for transportation, as could other biofuels. And...just like the Panhandle to Canada is the “Saudi Arabia of wind” (interesting concept he invents here of “wind reserves”), there is probably 3 times the energy in coal in our ground than Saudi has in oil.
Then...add on top of that advances in renewable fuels (cellulosic, biodiesel), and THEN....open up OCS, Anwar, and make shale legal again. Throw up a bunch of nukes especially in the west. Even go ahead and do some of the green conservation crap just to make people feel better.
Really, there is not an energy problem that this country can’t solve. It’s just colossal stupidity, demagoguery and lack of will that has gotten us where we are.
Mr Pickens has put his money into wind and wants some return and will promote it.
Why not use all of our options!
Drill, clean coal, wind, solar, nuclear....my car doesn’t run on anything but oil related products but if we can shift some of our other energy needs to the other forms of energy we’d be in better shape. It can’t be a ‘this or that’ it’s got to be all the above!
Agreed. Since nukes and coal power generation are developed (and not “green”) he’s shifted his play to wind.
T. Boone always looks out for #1 first. He will make tons of money on his Mesa natural gas holdings, should we switch to natgas transportation.
He is also in the process of stealing scarce water from the Ogallala Aquifer in the Texas Panhandle and selling it to Dallas in a scheme that would net him multi-millions more. He did this by installing his cronies on the Water District board, thus assuring approval in spite of strong objections by ranchers. Some Republican congressmen from W TX are trying to block the project now.
When one deals with T. Boone, you’d better be aware of how he operates.
Not to mention 500 billion in the Bakken.
The second half of your post pre-empted mine, as well.
You are literaly correct in that “God only knows” what lies under OCS.
Interestingly, every time we are allowed to look it is always a LOT more than we thought (unlike Mexico and Saudi who are already on the downside of the curve).
Yep! I forgot that one!
Even if we drill in Anwar and off shore tomorrow it won’t solve our long term strategic needs.”
I’m not so sure.
I do think, as everyone here is saying, that we should do all of the above.
But the public needs to understand that Anwar OR off shore would be very, very big. Anwar PLUS offshore pretty well rips the heart out of OPEC.
So...drill, plus “all of the above” and we are truly energy independent.
“Why not? My understanding is we have enough domestic oil and natural gas resources to last hundreds of years.”
Oh sure!
That’s just if you consider hundreds of years to be “long term!” /s
>> T. Boone is trying to scare you because he’s jumping into the wind market in a big way. If he was serious he would be calling for nukes and clean coal.
Agreed. 2004 proposal to the Putas in Washington: 1/Drill in ANWR, 2/Drill offshore, 3/More nuke plants, 4/Clean coal for stationary power use, and 5/Back the EPA off a bit. Jorge Boosh, having shot his wad on the attempt at revising Social Security thing, did nothing. There are VERY few places where wind generators can be placed, especially in the Northeast.
btt
Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s the Gulf of Mexico was considered played out. Then seismic technology advanced to 3D and drilling technology advanced to deep water and the Gulf of Mexico was active again in the deeper waters with major finds. Now there is a find in the Gulf of Mexico of 15 billion barrels called the "Lower Tertiary Play." This is at really deep depths both water and subsurface. Technology is catching up to be able to extract from this large reservoir.
Oil literally seeps from the ocean ground in Southern California. That place is loaded. We need to seismic survey explore there now.
I'm for all of the above. Wind is fine - just as long as we don't keep all our eggs in one basket.
The downside ?
In April 08 we imported 1.1 million barrels a month of ethanol MORE than we imported in November of 07.
We are going down the same path with ethanol, that we went down with oil, that is, it's cheaper to import than develop our own.
Drill Here, Drill Now
Complete horse crap! Bush has been pushing energy proposals for domestic exploration, nuclear, and coal since 2001. Blame the Congress of DEMs and RINOs, not Bush.
Right now, we need to drill and drill and drill --- drill in ANWR, more off shore drilling. What do you think the oil barons of a century ago would be doing today?
>>>>>We have a golden opportunity in this election year to form bipartisan support for this plan.
Fat chance.
Think of converting diesel powered engines in buses & trucks to LNG/CNG power first; this is being done now. A variety of power sources for cars will come along later.
As always, the environMENTAL extremists will stand in the way. If there is a massive effort made to expand wind farm electricity production, then prepare for a massive legal battle from the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, et al, and their congressional 'Rat allies to hamstring it every step of the way. All it will take is just one bird that's on the Endangered Species list getting mangled in a windmill, and the whole shebang will be shut down.
Meanwhile, China continues to build one new coal-fired power plant per week ...
oops.... make that rely, not “reply”.
I agree with you. Nuke has proven economical. Not sure Wind power has.
TBP will be attacked and accused of having a financial stake in this, but you know what, we all have a financial stake in this crises.
Has anyone done a study of what will happen if we seriously remove wind energy in the midwest? Will we have drought in the East?
Pickens is like an old robber knight that spends his life raping and pillaging and then founds a monestary right before he dies. He knows how much oil and coal we have. We don’t need wind to be free from foreign oil.
I also agree with wolf that we should pursue both. We can start implementing wind faster than nuke. However, I think nuke takes less land, generates less noise and is the best long-term solution.
At $150 a barrel, hopefully that technology is moving pretty fast now....
Baker Hughes just opened a technology research factory to design the drilling equipment necessary for drilling to extreme depths under extreme temperatures and pressures.
So this brilliant man never worried about the energy supply till now.
Where was he when Iraq marched into Kuwait and continued on nearly to the Saudi border. That as about oil, if I recall correctly.
Did he think the terror attacks by middle easterners would never impact our energy supply.
Hard to take this man seriously and frankly I have seen his ad in the Wall St. Journal and I don’t believe we get 70% of our oil from foreigners unless he is counting Canada and Mexico as foreigners.
It’s a plan until they find the first dead bird and then the wailing and gnashing of teeth will begin.
BINGO!
T. Boone “Self Serving” Pickens is no different than those who slant studies, surveys, the MSM, politicans, developers and many others. When they pay, they expect something in return. It is just the nature of capitalism.
It is always interesting to see where someone as "successful" as Pickenys is investing. His money, the money of others, who knows?
He has never called me with some inside information and I sure he never will.
Always follow the money trail!
I disagree with him on NG. The price to heat my small house is already high. Additional demand for it is going to cause problems. The wind power sounds like a good idea, though.
The stupidity and lac of will reflect the "useful idiots" and the demagoguery is driven by those who wish to take over this country and change it. All their policies, what few they have, they are mostly "aginners," have proved failures wherever they are tried. The only value to them for anyone is the power it gives those who govern.
Yep... There are approximately 3 TRILLION barrels of oil in oil shale reserves, world-wide. Of that 3 TRILLION barrels, the US has at least 62% of proven oil shale reserves, or about 2 TRILLION barrels.
The cost to refine that shale is estimated to stabilize around $50 per barrel.
We could cut the price of oil by 65% in the next 2-3 years. And with 2 TRILLION barrels, at a daily consumption rate of 20 million barrels, means we have 100,000 days of reserves. That's 274 YEARS of reserves - longer than the US has been a country!
And note this means NO drilling offshore, or in ANWR. No, it would be drilling and mining in those "evil Republican" areas of Utah, Wyoming, and Southern Colorado. None of those pristine places the Left likes to trumpet.
And IMHO it is exactly what we should be looking to do. We could develop the shale oil fields faster and for lower cost than ANWR, and we have 40+ TIMES the payout. Likewise coastal; just go ahead, say we'll give the libs the offshore and ANWR if they give us the shale oil access.
Add up the potential reserves off-shore and in ANWR, you're around 200 billion barrels, about 10% of what the shale oil hits. If we're going to spend 3-5 years developing these sources, do it in ANWR where we have the biggest reserves.
For those reading, all those links above are from Wikipedia, the perfect source for countering environmental/liberal folks. To them Wikipedia is a wonderful source, so use that source to counter their own arguments.
Avacado.....
Sounds like you are in the Industry. So this is why Pelosi and Company and the Greenies won't let them site survey ANWR! with the new technologies! The place is probably loaded with more oil than we can imagine! Those B@$+@^&s !
And the Dim congress in its wisdom outlawed this last year.....
Correct. Wind power is only a money-maker because it receives $23.37 per MWhr in subsidies; nuclear receives $1.59, predominantly as insurance guarantees.
Has anyone done a study of what will happen if we seriously remove wind energy in the midwest? Will we have drought in the East?”
I’ve never heard this. Can you elaborate?
Right on! For years t. boone has been trying to coerce municipalities to convert their government vehicles to natural gas. With this scheme he has both ends covered, natgas and wind.
If we could harness his hot wind we could be on our way to independence. I see a lot of similarities in T. Boone, Jerry Jones (Cowboys owner) and Ross Perot.
Yep... The Republicans and conservatives are going about it wrong. Rather than pushing ANWR and coastal drilling, we need to push shale oil. It’s 10 times more proven reserves, it does not “spoil” any of the area the public has been led to believe is pristine. It won’t obstruct “views” or threaten to destroy beaches with leaks or accidents.
We should stop shouting “give us ANWR!”, and start shouting “give us Wyoming!”
Injunctions against domestic drilling and the improvement of refineries must be removed immediately. All the sleight of hand in the world will not do enough in time enough. We have plenty of oil to keep us going far beyond the foreseeable future, until we can reasonably shift to workable alternatives.
Don’t tell me this wasn’t planned long ago. Our do-nothing-good-for-the-country Congress needs to be thoroughly flushed. Our very way of life (freedom) is being extremely diminished! The water is getting far too hot for this old frog!
“There are VERY few places where wind generators can be placed, especially in the Northeast.”
I drive from San Antonio to Colorado Springs to perform my reserve duty, and every time, I see more and more windmills. We have them coming through SA in pieces every week, headed for installation on the Caprock or further up the panhandle. ‘Course, everything’s bigger in Texas...
Colonel, USAFR
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.