Offshore Drilling Poll

So your solution is to kill the patient to cure it. Cripple the economy, possibly drive the country into a depression -- which, by the way, would take away a lot of R&D funds to develop these new technologies -- on the off chance there will be a miracle breakthrough in physics and engineering in the next decade. Yeah, that makes sense.

I saw an interview a couple weeks ago with a GM executive in charge of developing the new hydrogen fuel cell cars. She said they're making great progress, and hope to have the first wave of cars on the road by 2013. Even the Japanese automakers are a couple more years away from mass production.
That's not bad, but think about the math here. Five years to get those cars on the road, and the better part of the next decade to phase out gasoline-powered cars and build up the infrastructure for hydrogen fuel. If I'm buying a new car in 2012 that runs on gas, I want to know I can drive the damn thing for 10 years. So you're looking at, say, 2020 before fuel cell cars are the norm. Even then, you'll still have older cars and cars in other countries that run on gas because they'll still be cheaper.
Twelve years is a long damn time to watch the price of fuel go up and up and up. I'd be for limitations on new drilling. Say, a minimum of 60 percent of the oil pumped from new offshore areas or ANWR has to be sold within the U.S. But to do nothing under the assumption these new technologies will be available any sooner than we'd get oil from new drilling areas is absurd.

 

You're right, that's not the solution. But the oil companies are full of shit and can't be trusted. Isn't it obvious they're trying to get their hands on whatever they can while Bush/Cheney still have power right before their influence gets significantly diminished under an Obama presidency and Democratic congress? Nice how they slipped in the no-bid contracts to service the Iraqi oil fields right before the sands ran out on Bush.

My personal opinion is that the oil companies have no interest in increasing production or lower prices. Why would they? They have us bent over a barrel as it is.

 

Sorry. I thought the fact that I was exaggerating some points of the argument was rather obvious. I wasn't completely serious.

But the point stands: the only way to seriously fix this problem is to put serious work into finding an alternative solution to oil. Not just foreign oil, but oil in general. As long as the majority of our country continues to spread outward from city centers and increases its dependence on oil -- domestic or foreign -- we are at the mercy of capitalist oil companies that have every right to turn maximum profit.

Obviously crippling the economy would have a damaging effect, but oil is crippling our economy right now. Sooner or later, it may take drastic measures to fix that problem. And sorry for all of those who think domestic oil is going to fix our problems. It's not. Even if we had the resources necessary to sustain the entire country for an extended period of time on domestic oil, we don't have the manpower or the capacities (read: up-to-date refineries) necessary to do so.

We are, at least right now, at the mercy of foreign oil. And even if we do start limited off-shore drilling programs, we're going to be at least partially at the mercy of foreign oil.

It's a problem we dove headlong into years ago without thinking fully about the consequences. And now when the price of oil rises the proliferation of urban sprawl and SUV buying and needless driving is finally catching up to us. And no one knows what the hell to do.

We created this problem and now we have to fix it. And I think offshore drilling is like putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound.

 

College Journo, I like the way you think.

Hopefully you and your peeps will turnout in November??

 

I agree that people need to open your eyes, but I don't want to eat bark until they do.

 

I think they need to drill but put it into the legislation that oil companies MUST build new refineries and the oil drilled MUST only be sold in the USA. Also, in the legislation kill all subsidies for corn-based ethanol!! It is doing nothing but making skyrocketing food prices go higher.

I know this will never happen b/c no one in Congress has any balls and will never do this.

 

Not going to matter where I vote. He's black. Though I should say, he carried the county I'm from and the county I went to school in and where I'm still a non-resident voter. But he has no shot at winning the state, so my vote doesn't exactly matter more than me feeling good about doing my civic duty.

 

Alas, there's no fair way to legislate against untoward stupidity.

 

How about we use less fuel, walk more, bike more, use less stuff in general?

Oh, sorry. Forgot which country I was in.

 

I voted for "by all means drill." I mean, what could go wrong?