Bush to lift offshore drilling ban

[OH-JJ]

Originally Posted by aggie99

I don't see anywhere where I noted fish and coral not liking osffshore rigs??

well you also should realize that if we move our oil supplies from the mid east to the US it actually reduces our crude oil consumtion, since oil tankers burn the crude oil in the tanks. and the trip from the mid east to the US consumes nearly half of the tanks.

[aggie99]

Originally Posted by OH-JJ

well you also should realize that if we move our oil supplies from the mid east to the US it actually reduces our crude oil consumtion, since oil tankers burn the crude oil in the tanks. and the trip from the mid east to the US consumes nearly half of the tanks.

I am aware of the benefits of patching the problem and drilling offshore, I just get annoyed that we have known about this issue for over 50 years and made little to no progress in planning for this day. We saw what happened in the 1970's when production dropped 5% and prices nearly quadrupled and yet we seem shocked when it happens again.

[mchain]

I think we should drill to reduce our dependence on foreign oil while continuing to pursue alternate energy options. Seems like people think that if we drill then we will stop exploring other options.

[OH-JJ]

Originally Posted by aggie99

I am aware of the benefits of patching the problem and drilling offshore, I just get annoyed that we have known about this issue for over 50 years and made little to no progress in planning for this day. We saw what happened in the 1970's when production dropped 5% and prices nearly quadrupled and yet we seem shocked when it happens again.

Well depends on how you look at it.

First off we are nowhere near running out of oil.

Besides the environmental concerns one of the reasons that we prevented tapping our offshore fields was so that we would have them when the mid east exhausted theirs. then there is the cost of taping the fields in the Dakotas.
However with the increased demand from Asia (mostly India and China) it would be prudent to shift our source to our own supplies.

[Vercingetorix]

DevilDiver, did you really mean to allow multiple selections? And, no offense, but you may wish to make the poll anonymous. You'll get more responses.

[MSilvia]

The way I see it, with China driving up demand AND holding the IOU for the trillons in new US fiscal defecit, we might need that oil in the future to sell to the Chinese in exchange for debt forgiveness more than we need it for our own use.

[OH-JJ]

Originally Posted by MSilvia

The way I see it, with China driving up demand AND holding the IOU for the trillons in new US fiscal defecit, we might need that oil in the future to sell to the Chinese in exchange for debt forgiveness more than we need it for our own use.

we would not send the oil from the proposed fields to china. it is too far.
we would send oil from Alaska. as that is where most of it goes anyways.

[SlvrDragon50]

I still think this. Is the wrong approach.

So the gas price is around $4.30 / gallon

A hybrid can yield a mpg of around 45-60
An average car probably from 1998-2004 probably has mpg around 15-25

Switching to a hybrid is like cutting down fuel prices in half or more. This in turn reduces carbon emissions, quite a few people will enjoy the much quieter car as well, and it is an upgrade from most older cars.

The population is realizing this as in 2000, only 20,000 hybrids were produced. Today, there are 400,000 in use! We need to learn how to ween ourselves off of oil, not simply find some more so wecan have a few years of cheaper prices.

[ReefHound]

Hybrids are great once you get past the $30,000 price tag and wait list.

[georoc01]

Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50

I still think this. Is the wrong approach.

So the gas price is around $4.30 / gallon

A hybrid can yield a mpg of around 45-60
An average car probably from 1998-2004 probably has mpg around 15-25

Switching to a hybrid is like cutting down fuel prices in half or more. This in turn reduces carbon emissions, quite a few people will enjoy the much quieter car as well, and it is an upgrade from most older cars.

The population is realizing this as in 2000, only 20,000 hybrids were produced. Today, there are 400,000 in use! We need to learn how to ween ourselves off of oil, not simply find some more so wecan have a few years of cheaper prices.

The problem is that lets take the Ford Escape Hybrid, it gets about 30MPG vs the 20 MPG the non hybrid version gets. It costs $7,000 more with a battery that has an unknown shelf life. Even at $5 a gallon its going to take about 85,000 miles to hit the break even and if you have to finance your vehicle, its going to be even more than that.

So I guess it depends where you are from an economic version and what kind of premium you would pay for a hybrid vehicle. Personally, I am waiting for the plug-in version of the Escape Hybrid, which will supposedly get close to 100MPG. Now we would be making some progress!