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To drill, or not to drill. That is the question. This is a good answer.
Energy has become one of the most profound social and political issues in our lifetime. I say that because it affects every living breathing soul. And what we do now as a country will define our strength as a nation for the 21st century.
A few weeks ago I contacted Robert Rapier, a highly reputable energy expert, and asked his opinion on the drilling debate. I did this because congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle seem to be playing hard and loose with the facts. Robert just posted an informative summation of the issue on his blog and proposed a reasonable compromise. You can find it here.
IMO, I like the idea but I think any compromise that is made should occur once the Bush administration is out of office.
I encourage you to send the link to your friends so that they can arrive at a more educated position about the subject.
And I invite everyone to comment so we can learn even more.
Comments (13)
Rec'd. I don't agree with his conclusion (that we should open up some of those areas to drilling and use part of the proceeds to fund alternative fuel research), but that's based purely on my strong cynicism of oil and gas companies and not because of his analysis. I found his analysis to be very well thought out and of sufficient detail.
July 23, 2008 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got a lot of that cynicism as well.
Thanks to the Bush administration and the energy and financial sectors, there's a shortage of trust around the world right now.
And it's become increasingly clear how intertwined the three are.
July 23, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny, I just saw Pickens' commercial for the first time last night, and it prompted me to visit his excellent website:
http://www.pickensplan.com
July 23, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good Post thanks. Agreed that you don't stop fighting the war while your looking for another route....Compromise is fine. Alternatives are fine. What isn't fine is not doing anything......However, T Boone Pickens is a snake in the grass. First thing wind ...next he wants to dominate water....We need to start nationalizing these systems before they get into the hands of Industrialists and they start rationing water based on ability to pay.
July 23, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know Rapier from his many posts at the Oil Drum, and his analysis seems reasonable. I tend to agree with Simmons that it makes sense for the govt to fund exploratory drilling in these regions so they have some idea what is there. People are already calling ANWR a second Prudhoe Bay with very little evidence.
I don't believe Pickens is out to save America, but he knows that there will money to be made in alt fuels. I suspect that long range, NGas and fuel cell vehicles will be the province of the remaining rich, though. The rest of us will be pedaling or using short range EVs.
July 23, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amory Lovins was on Charie Rose recently discussing energy and the drilling issue.
Here's the link:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/07/15/2/a-conversation-with-amory-lovins
July 23, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Face it, we're going to drill. We're going to drill everywhere. Unless some miracle energy source gets invented in the next several years that solves all our problems. When gas is 10 dollars a gallon, long before that, and when poor people are freezing to death in the winters we're going to drill. At that point most people wouldn't care if every polar, penguin, and caribou died because we drill.
Liberals need to have drilling as part of their plan or they'll never sell it to the general public. It will have to be part of a compromise that includes conservation, investment in alternative energy sources, changes in public transportation, funding of research into alternative energy sources, etc.
Liberals can take the issue away from the republicans and have it be part of a comprehensive plan or they can leave to the republicans to sell as the solution to our problems. Just as Reagan sold pie in the sky with his "morning in America" line and the public swallowed it whole so it could easily happen again.
July 23, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oceankat, the democrats do have drilling as part of their plan to help transition. 58 million acres, as I understand it, are already open for exploration.
Not only that, but "the amount of undiscovered oil in areas open to exploration is more than twice the estimate from areas off limits to exploration". (from Rapier's blog)
And yet no drilling has occurred. Why?
I think, in large part, the Democrats allowed the Republicans, once again, to frame the perception of this issue.
July 23, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The number of oil and gas permits on federal land doubled in the last five years, with no effect on price or supply."
This is from Tim Egan's piece in today's NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24egan.html?hp
The way to get off oil is to get off oil, not to try and buy time. Why not be leaders?
July 24, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
For some reason politicians are reluctant to say"it is time to get off oil" the entire gas tax holiday was a pander to the we have all the oil we need crowd, and was an attempt to keep the SUV crowd happy.
I hope gas stays expensive and miles driven keeps declining while people take public transportation more seriously.
July 24, 2008 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
My seven-month-old son is having a very hard time sleeping through the night. He wants to be comforted at 11:00, and he wants to be fed at 2:00. We had tried everything but the process some people call "crying it out", and others call "extinction."
We've just started with extinction. People say it's brutal, but it works. We've discovered that the former is true, and are hoping that the latter is true as well.
But it's damned hard to sit around and do nothing while your child screams its head off for three hours straight in the middle of the night, every night. I suspect that the same thing is hard for a politician to do as well.
July 24, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
My reaction is this outline for a 10 year moon shot for energy:
Remove ALL subsidies on oil, and related services immediately
Remove ALL subsidies on coal in 5 years
Heavily subsidize existing wind and solar technology but create an industrial photon tax on that taxes (TB Pickins) for sun energy falling on real estate zoned for wind and solar farms within the US boarders
Heavily subsidize private alternative energy R & D
Create the National Non-carbon Energy Administration (NNEA) and begin funding at $500 Billion per year forbidding private sector outsourcing.
Provide University endowments to create programs through Ph.D.s in energy; science, engineering, development, management and policy.
July 24, 2008 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about we re-visit the "ownership society"? If you're going to change fundamental energy usage, you need to address why people own cars, currently.
You need to have publicly available transportation that actually gets people where they need to go. I think that this includes having transportation depots where you essentially rent a large car to go to another depot, with all the other people that have to get there (or in that direction), too. You'd have much less car ownership, or need for one, this way. (And I buy the Chris Rock theory of gun ownership here, where guns were inexpensive and bullets cost a fortune, gas for private use should cost a fortune.). The damn railroads in this country should actually work, and that's how people should move long distances.
We have a theory that "everybody should be able to do anything that they want to" in this country, and it always lasts until reality sets in. We have speed limits in this country, now, and at one time we had none; as soon as there were enough accidents and people protested the new speed limits, the majority said to those protestors, "Are you nuts?", and meant it wholeheartedly. We are now approaching that time, for energy usage. And it will require regulation to make it happen.
July 24, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
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