Senate Green Lights new Alaskan Oil Spigot

Evan:

Why the h*** didn't they just buy the Athabasca Tar Sands in Northern Alberta? That's a turn-key operation and you'd get oil immediately.

Even building a pipeline down into the U.S. would be way faster and cheaper than the ANWR. Though I suppose the ANWR is a good long-term fallback.

 

Evan:

HAHA now that the secret is out, I guess I should give directions to my place for the troops to pick up their free coffee and cookies?

 

Oops, I think Celine Dion is now prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

 

Dividing 6 billion total barrels by 20.8 million barrels used per day in the US, it appears that ANWAR contains only 288 days' supply of oil.

This doesn't seem like enought to make any tangible difference to us. But I suppose it will make somebody a ton of money.

 

Aiiieee! Our superior weapons are no match for their Easy Listening technology! Brain.... turning... to.... mush!!

(Not to mention that they're years ahead of us in donuts. The Tim Horton Defense.)

 

That should be the one-line summary for the 8-year Bush Presidency: "A few people made a sh*tload of money."

 

The media is throwing out 30 billion barrels up there so it's good to see your more accurate 6 billion barrels. This is an important point. According to the most recent USGS, there are only 5-6 billion recoverable barrels that are likely to be gotten out with a high degree of assurance.

That number might be as high as 10 billion that is recoverable for a reasonable investment but the assurance for that higher figure is lower.

According to our own governments survey, the 20 to 30 billion figure that the Bushies and our corporate owned media is throwing around is unreasonable. Yes, there could be 20 to 30 billion barrels up there, but that 20 to 30 billion is spread all over the reserve and not just in that 2000 square acres that will be drilled, and the cost to get all that oil out would be so expensive that oil would have to be over $150 per barrel to even consider it, never mind the destruction of millions of acres.

All for a miserable 288 days worth. And you know what, this drilling is not only a cornerstone of Bush's energy policy, it's pretty much his only energy policy.

 

The vote in favor for the drilling makes me sick. I agree with others saying that the extracted oil won't make a dent in our ever-growing appetite. My opinion is if the government spent even half of what they spend in oil exploration, they could easily find ways to lower our consumption by 1 million barrels a day.

Refining hybrid or fuel cell technology, promoting the reduce-reuse-recycle theme, and lowering electric and gas consumption in residential, commercial, and industrial settings among others would make a huge difference. If just more than a select few cared.

I have to chuckle when I hear people complaining about the gas prices going up. Personally, I believe that gasoline prices have been so low that gasoline consumption continues to climb. Only when the price goes up do people actually think about conserving fuel and think, "Gee, maybe I shouldn't have bought that H2 last fall."

Congrats to you on reading my first post on Prius Chat!

Jeff "Zep" from Wisconsin

 

Sarcasm mode -

We need this oil as Americans because it's impossible for GM, Ford, and Chrysler to make the cars as efficient as they were in the early 80s! They just don't have the technology for that!

-Sarcasm off

-m.

 

Unfortunately, Americans are being mislead again. The bulk of the Alaska oil will not be coming to America. Oil is a global commodity market. That oil is closer to another market that has more money to buy it and they also own a large portion of US debt. Sorry folks, but that oil will make more money for Bush et al in China. We lose wildlife acreage so that Wallstreet can stave off depresion. Americans will continue to see rising gas prices and dependence on the middle east (and hence, war).

 

Darwood has it exactly right. That Alaskan oil does not belong to Americans, it belongs to the oil companies and if they can get better prices elsewhere, they sure will do it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Anyone who doubts this ought to look at the geography.
Q: Where are US refineries?
A: Gulf of Mexico.

Q: Which is easier and hence more profitable, shipping oil to Japan and China, or finding a way to get it to the gulf? (Panama canal? new pipeline?)
A: Not the gulf!

Q: Who do oil companies serve?
A: There stockholders, and hence profit motives.

Q: Who does Bush serve?
A: The oil companies, as well as other big aging business
(IE: SS "personal accounts" is a giveaway to stock brokers and an underhanded way of preventing a depression, and hence a needed revolution in the way the US economy works). War is a hidden way of subsidizing the oil companies, GM, and the huge defense industry)

But you all know this huh? That's why we bought Prii. But what else can we do besides bend over and take it from BushArabia and China?

 

Sorry about the rant. but this pisses me off. Mostly because 99% of Americans continue to just nod in agreement to what they hear on TV, (regardless of political affiliation). Why doesn't the media wake up Americans by telling the whole story? Oh yeah, the media is controlled by those same money interests.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prius04\";p=\"73133)</div>

I heard a good one-liner when Dubya took office for the first term:

"George W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton have one thing in common. They both like to drill the s*** out of everything in sight!"

:lol:

Seriously: I'm all in favor of phasing tax increases on gasoline, natural gas, and electricity to more closely align with EU countries. The best way to change consumer habits is by hitting them in the pocketbook with price increases.

ANWR might be a good fallback position but will not be ready in time to make any difference. In 10 years, the Chinese will own most of the public debt of the Western Industrialized nations, plus most of the proven oil reserves especially in Canada.

So in 10 years, we may very fondly look back on oil being "only" $56 a barrel.

 

I agree that that 56$ will seem very cheap in the not so far off future.
But I don't think China will continue to accumulate US debt.
They started down this road as a way of keeping there amazing expansion going. Without borrowing to us, their cheap goods stop selling here due to recession. But they are realizing that they are now tied to us and if our economy collapses, so does their's. Asia is generally trying to diversify over to Euro's, Rubles, others, and esp. Oil reserves. But they are forced to do this slowly, or their vast holdings in dollars would become worthless. There slow sell off of US Dollars is why the dollar is appearing to fall, then stabilze, then fall a little more, then stabilize. They want out of dollars but have to do so without causing a panic. When they have successfully reduced their holdings in dollars, they'll have us by the balls.

Please, people, stop buying cheap plastic crap from Wal-Mart and etc. that you don't need. Starve the beast.
The other problem, is how do we elect politicians that are not backed by large status quo dependent corporations? Or who say they will raise the price of gas? The media and the 2 parties simply block the access to the lemmings er...American Public whenever someone starts connecting the dots. Even with the internet people are waking up far to slowly to change things in time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"73251)</div>

:lolup:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood\";p=\"73256)</div>

A good well thought out post.

They already have us by the balls, and they know they only have to slightly twist to make us twitch and pay attention. There is a giant global Ponzi Scheme going on right now with the public debt of all Western Industrialized nations.

The future does not bode well for us, but the truly nasty stuff won't happen all at once. It's amazing the s*** you can get away with if you just sneak in a little bit at a time.

Did you see the commercial where the frog is sitting in a pan of room temperature water? You try to pour in boiling water and the green froggy jumps out.

However, if you slowly ramp the water temperature taking one hour to reach 100 C, the froggy will happily sit there until it boils to death. The great mindless beast we call "society" is exactly the same. So they won't shock the monkey.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood\";p=\"73256)</div>

Ah, the "Wal Mart Effect." Many fine documentaries on this subject. Long story short: too late.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood\";p=\"73256)</div>

Impossible. We can't. As I stated in a previous post in a different thread, Joe Q. Public has been so dumbed down thanks to decades of the flickering box (Television) that everything has to be packaged into a "feel good" 30 second soundbite. And most of that will sail over their heads anyway thanks to ADHD.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood\";p=\"73256)</div>

Oh, how about a State owned media outlet, like the Crown Corporation CBC - Canadian Broadcast Corp? All the news the government sees fit to print.

Look at the low voter participation here in Canada. Folks simply tune everything out and then stick their heads in the sand. Or snow. Whatever the season may bring.