Don’t fall for it.
Lower gas prices is such a lovely thing to imagine. It’s not going to happen by drilling in the ocean. This is just a scam to get the American people, by playing off their anger and woes due to high gas prices, to urge congress to lift the ban that Bush has lifted on offshore drilling. The ONLY people this helps is the oil companies.
The scam is to convince us that as soon as the ban is lifted all of a sudden we’re going to see gas prices start plumeting down, down, down, maybe even faster than it went up. What they DON’T tell you is that the companies that get the permits and land leases to drill in the ocean are the ones who own the oil. Not the US. In other words, these internation gas and oil companies who we all know are only interested in making obscene amounts of money want us to give them the ability to make EVEN more money. These companies aren’t obligated to sell the oil they extract to ONLY the US. They are international companies who will sell i to the highest bidder. The oil will also go to places like China, France, and Russia.
Besides all that, assuming they give all the oil to us (which they won’t) we won’t even really see a drop of oil come from those places for almost 10 YEARS! Even then the change in gas prices will not be drastically changed. We will only see a relief of pennies of the price per gallon.
This is just one last desperate attempt by Bush and his republican cronies who are in the oil lobbyists pocket to try and give the oil companies one last hoo-rah before Bush leaves office.
For example, the number of oil and gas permits on federal land has doubled over the last 5 years and there has been absolutely no impact on the price of oil . In fact, as everyone is fully aware of the prices just keep going up and up. This shows that finding new sources of oil doesn’t really mean squat.
What we need to do instead of focusing on how to get MORE oil is finding ways to get AWAY from oil. We really don’t need it anymore. The reality is that oil is a thing of the past and we have PLENTY of sources of alternative energy that we can utilize but companies that rely on profits from oil dont’ want it to happen. People are also afraid of taking that big step that we need to take in order to make this happen. It’s understandable though. It’s a new concept that will change our country and the world.
We can run cars off electricity, biodiesel (much different from ethanol), and natural gas. We can get electricity from wind power, solar power, hydro power. It may be a very long time before we start to not need oil at all but we need to start to make the change now.
If you think about it, we can’t even get oil out of these places that we are being deceived into believing is the ONLY solution to high gas prices for about 10 years. By then the little baby steps we’ve been taking towards alternative energies bay be huge steps and oil may start becoming obsolete by then. We will have felt pretty dumb for letting these companies tear up the land and destroy the ecosystems of the areas they will own permits to.
Here are some articles to read:
Drilling Won’t Dent Gas Prices
The Oil Man Cometh
Here’s some pictures to remind you what’s at stake:
The spots they want to open up to offshore drilling are the same spots where the coral reefs that are already in jeaopardy from climate change and pollution. Not only does the oil damage the very fragile ecosystem of these areas but even the detergent that is used to clean up the spill is also toxic to the animals and wildlife in the area.
August 5, 2008 at 10:12 pm
[...] though we are not getting the full story on offshore drilling the republicans showed an act of defiance trying to drive home the idea of how [...]
August 5, 2008 at 10:47 pm
The only energy or oil monopoly in this country is a governmental institutionalized monopoly on our country energy market. The legislative branch has been engaging in anti-competitive energy practices from drilling to building new refineries and much more. They are in clear violation of the
“Sherman Antitrust Act
This Act expresses our national commitment to a free market economy in which competition free from private and governmental restraints leads to the best results for consumers.” http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm#file
Clearly the governmental restraint are in violation of a free market economy and is criminal negligence on the part of the liberal politicians who are the real cartel that profit in taxes more then 3 to 1 to the oil companies that actually work for their money and then have to pay taxes on top of that. So when Oil profits go up the tax revenue increase is 3 times that of the oil companies. So who do you think is the real cartel???
This criminal incompetence of the democrats and legislative politicians anti free market energy economy in allowing American companies to meet American Oil needs is in need of change and with bush opening up offshore drilling it is time that we conservatives take a page from the left wing play book and for us to us the judicial system in upholding our laws and open up drilling.
Why dose the Senate call for investigations on big oil? Because they are trying to transfer the blame off of them by placing the blame on someone else. By placing the blame on the oil companies and keep people from seeing that government is the true problem they are able to offer false hope in an effort to gain more power and money from taxes while eliminating a free market economy in our country and forcing us to send our money to unfriendly Middle Eastern countries.
August 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I just ran across this interesting article “Drill Here, Drill Now,” that delivered a number of interesting points about offshore drilling. One interesting fact is that 620,500 barrels of oil ooze organically from North America’s ocean floors each year, compared to the average 6,555 barrels that oil companies have spilled annually since 1998. It’s an interesting article and i suggest you read it.