Democrats try to spur oil exploration »
Posted By ybdogsct 1 year, 5 months ago in NewsRepublicans blocked a Democratic bill to spur exploration in areas where drilling has already been sanctioned. A supermajority was needed. Democrats were calling the bluff of Republicans on their persistent demands for more domestic production. "Drill on the leases you have or let somebody else do it," said Steny H. Hoyer (D-MA).
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ybdogsct1 year, 5 months ago
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/us/18cong.htm...
"Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to spur exploration in areas where drilling has already been sanctioned. A supermajority was needed. Democrats were calling the bluff of Republicans on their persistent demands for more domestic production. "Drill on the leases you have or let somebody else do it," said Steny H. Hoyer (D-MA).
Democrats offered the legislation to show that they favored increased domestic oil and gas production, but want it to take place where drilling is already allowed. They said oil could be produced more quickly from those areas rather than in new locales. Democrats say oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres they could be exploring.
Senator Harry Reid took steps to start debate on a measure intended to curb speculation in the oil markets, trading that members of both parties have said is the cause of at least some of the jump in oil prices."
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bigurn1 year, 5 months ago
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The Democratic majority is trying to pass a law this is already on the books, for all intents and purposes. It is the appearance of progress, without any real progress.
If it were economical to explore for oil on the acreage, the oil companies would be doing it. They know it is more expensive than even the current high prices to find and convert this low-quality crude (if found at all).
This is a snowjob.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 5 months ago
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Since refineries in the U.S. are at capacity more supply won't matter much domestically. I understand many producing wells were capped off in the US in the early 9os because the price of oil wasn't high enough to bother with...I wonder how many have been put back in service now that the price is jacked?
If you remember, oil from the national reserve (which US tax payers bought to begin with) was "released" after Katrina but was sold on the international market, not domestically. The benefit to citizens was psychological if at all, the oil industry got to sell the oil twice. Originally to the government and again on the international market at top dollar. This is a kneejerk reaction that benefits the oil cartels in lieu of a sane energy policy. (Not whatever Cheney and oil industry execs cooked up in secret behind closed doors.)
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CHAM1 year, 5 months ago
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Yes Radio I have been asking the same question. How many capped wells are out there right now? Could anything be quicker than opening a capped well? When I drive to Wal-Mart, I pass several visible capped sites. I have no idea how many other capped sites I can't see.
And then there's the leased land ( mineral rights ) that is just waiting for action. Why not utilize that resource?
Selling on the International market should be against the law if the stockpile is less or even close to demand. Why? Simply because our sick Government is threatining war if the access is blocked in the Straights of Hormuz, that mean some of us die, or maimed for life to secure a profitable venture for Big Oil. Isn't blocking the flow to America what happens when Big Oil sells what stocks we have internationally? If you don't agree, why not?
All this crap is just a gambit by Big Oil and their enablers to get deeper into your pockets.
How many closed refineries are out there?
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AnteUp1 year, 5 months ago
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I cannot find the comments that Rahm Emanuel made on
the House floor regarding lifting the offshore drilling
ban. So this is the gist of his logic:
One of his daughters loves chocolate - she REALLY loves
chocolate, but they have a rule in their family: she must
finish what is already on her plate BEFORE she can have
chocolate.
A simple but apt demonstration of the scam our current
administration is fronting for Big Oil. They pretend not
to know that their plate is full. We should all let our
Congress know that we WANT them get dessert first - huh?
And that has WHAT to do with high gas prices?
And that will help us HOW??
Complete fiction is being sold - why are people buying???
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antibrainwasher1 year, 5 months ago
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50% of the american public can't name the vice president, shotgun chickenhawk Dick
50% of 'mreicans believe in endtimes rapture, and creationism, and the earth is 4000 years old.
50% of 'mericans don't vote.
Democracy is a joke, line your birdcages with the consitiution and the bill of rights. America is for sale, and public school funding is going to boeing for starwars, and to air bus for fuel supply jets.
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CHAM1 year, 5 months ago
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Anteup. I think you just explained it accurately. Big Oil has a full plate already but they're not satisfied. They also want whats on your plate and my plate and everybody else's plate.
And they take that extra and see it to a neighbor then call for more ways to get stuff on your plate ( so they're have a bigger stockpile to take from).
Anybody that thinks Big Oil is for America is ripe to buy a Bridge to nowhere in Alaska.
Above in the thread I noted the threat to start a war if the flow of oil is blocked by someone other than big oil.
See, according to the Cabal in Congress, its OK for Big Oil to sell our Oil resources for Big Oil benefit, but its not OK for some Foreign source to keep their Oil from beimg taken by our Big Oil.
I'm in favor of Nationalizing our energy. Or threatining to if Big Oil doesn't operate in America's best interest.
Enough Americans and non-Americans have died to feed our Big Oil companies.
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ningyo1 year, 5 months ago
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yes harry someone else IS doing it--the chinese right off the florida coast in a deal with cuba--does that make any sense--and oil is a commodity like wheat or gold..it doesnt come in a barrel labeled "product of USA"--we need to allow drilling where the reserves actually are..not where we want them to be--its all about the hammerlock the environmental wackos have on the dems..pelosi and boxer in particular
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Gransater1 year, 5 months ago
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Allow them to drill where the oil reserves actually are....
In a lot of cases they don't know for certain where the oil is. Many oil companies have in the past bought rights for oil exploration, leases in the Gulf of Mexico, for a lot of money, just for the right to drill in that specific place. Yet after several millions of dollars, in fees for this right, and despite the fact that many adjasent leases are often explored from a centraly located lease, many more still go unexplored with no future plans for explration. It's all a game of locking up acreage before someone else gets to it. I say use it or loose. The holding period seems quit long, and I question if there is a renewal mechanism, and if so for how long.
One reason for the slow exploration may be the lack of availability of rigs, and qualified personnel to man them, in a responsible manner. There may be a couple of dozen idle rigs for offshore, but they are idle due to missing or faulty vital components. cont
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Gransater1 year, 5 months ago
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In order to drill us out of the current mess we'd need at least a few hundred rigs to start ops, and as mentioned above, we just don't have those kind of structures sitting around.
Suposing we did, and suposing we had the personnel to work on them, they all find oil, where are you going to refine this oil, domestically? We don't have the refineries to do it with. As a matter of fact, oil companies are trying to get rid of them. There were a couple for sale near Corpus Cristi not long ago. Reason stated was that they couldn't sell enough of their product and stay in bussiness, acording to the paper.
Drilling isn't the answer. Yet some companies refuse to turn to alternatives. It really won't be long before electric cars are a reality. Observe the I think it was Brittish battery powered vehicle currently making a trip around the world. If I recall correctly, it is in the US west coast as we speak.
Just blame it all on the environmentalist, and burrow your head in the sand.
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MRCOFFEECAKE1 year, 5 months ago
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I thought that the high price of oil that we pay is due to the high demand of a growing Chinese economy. We buy their goods at Walmart, which puts them to work (for .55/hour) and allows them to buy cars.
Well, if that's true, then the oil they get offshore should lower the demand on the oil we have available to us..Or is that a lie too??
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Ratskii1 year, 5 months ago
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ningyo, someone said that this isn't happening right now -- that China has a deal with Cuba to explore for oil off of Cuba's coast, but there is no done deal as far as an actual lease signed yet. Does anybody have a source that will get to the facts regarding this rumor?
Given the penchant of some folks on propeller to use sources that exaggerate (putting it kindly), I'd like to see some some information regarding China's drilling activity in our hemisphere.
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antibrainwasher1 year, 5 months ago
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Can anyone think of any reason why any senator would vote against making oil companies drill on land they already have or unplug wells before they opened other land?
Why would republican senators block this?
The only reason can be republican senators care more denying dems a victory than helping the economy and environment.
Its a dramatic example of partisanship over what's best for the country.
We have to REDUCE our carbon emissions from fossil fuel. REDUCE.
We have to find non CO2 producing energy sources NOW. All the talk of drilling more for cheaper gas is INSANE.
Money is more important than life itself...the republican slogan. I guess they think they are safe in their office buildings and suburban houses....think again republicans. When the food supply starts to dwindle, you'll be just like the poor people, hungry. When the ice caps melt and change the ocean currents, and the ocean level rises about 10 meters...
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AnteUp1 year, 5 months ago
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Continued:
This is standard for guys like Brooks and Kristol, who feel
that our country is not at it's best - nor sufficiently
strong - UNLESS we are at war. What kind of people would
be unhappy when we are not engaged in a conflict? Take it
a step further - when there is no threat? They are actively
trying to find an enemy so we CAN go to war. These are
Neocons - this is only part of their ideology.
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tiredofwhiners1 year, 5 months ago
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Can anyone think of any reason why any oil company wouldn't drill on land they already have or unplug wells before they opened other land?
Two examples:
One of my Aunts had a few gas wells in New Mexico. That was in the 1960's. She wasn't allowed by the government to sell the gas and they were capped by govt edict. She was mad about that but couldn't do anything about it.
Four years ago an oil company applied for a permit to drill on a lease they had bought in Florida. They had spent a lot of time and money to study/explore it. After 2 years and 100's of calls and letters, the permitting bureauocracy denied the permit. They said the lease only allows exploration, not drilling. So the oil co. filed a lawsuit and after 2 more years, the govt. decided to buy back the lease. They were out of luck and you can't defy a govt bureauocracy.
Just 2 examples I know of.
My common sense reason is: If there is profit to be made and they feel they will be allowed they will drill.
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wtagg1 year, 5 months ago
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Cake and eat it to.
They probably don't want others to have access to explore the area. They are lock in at a lease price and if they let it go, it might be more expensive to re-lease it.
Oil is the status quo. If we want to continue to follow instead of lead, then oil is the perfect path. It keeps us beholden to countries that don't necessarily enjoy our company. It provides money for the weapons that are being put into the field against our troops. Oil is a huge security issue for our country.
We need to explore and develop technology that we can market to the world and make money off of them for a change.
That's being conservative. Conservatives conserve. Conservationism.
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tchef1 year, 5 months ago
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This is typical. If drilling in Anwar was the answer George could have opened up those areas when he had full support in congress. But he didn't. Why? Because it isn't the answer.
The Republicans had 6 years to get all the things they are crying about now done and didn't. Ask yourself why.
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tiredofwhiners1 year, 5 months ago
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The price of oil wasn't $130 to $140/barrel 6 years ago. Better late than never. I thought the majority in congress is Democratic for 2 years, while oil has shot up to historic highs. If drilling should be only at existing leases, why did our congress wait until now to push drilling there? Ans: See above first sentence, and lack of foresight. I don't pin blame on one party or big oil, I blame it on the entire 9% approval rating congress. I'm not sure ANWR oil was known about 6 years ago. Since they can't explore there, they still may not know how much oil is actually there.
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chevydog1 year, 5 months ago
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tiredofwhiners1 year, 5 months ago
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Right on! There was probably some democrat and republican, liberal and conservative long ago telling us that we should drill here now and develop alternatives to oil, and nobody listened, especially the politicians. Now they're listening.
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tiredofwhiners1 year, 5 months ago
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I see the usual blaming of big oil, Republicans, conservatives for all our energy problems. I submit that all who drive gasoline cars that use gasoline, ethanol or electricity made with oil, coal or natural gas and use other power using devices are the lackeys of big oil and are to blame. How about blaming big coal. More of our energy comes from coal than oil. Be like Ed Begley on the Green Channel and pump for 15 minutes on your exercycle generator to make toast in the morning. (I would do that if I had one and wasn't so lazy).
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antibrainwasher1 year, 5 months ago
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Big Oil, big coal, or lots of small ethanol producers....still doesn't address the crisis of CO2 concentation acceleration which will kill the planet.
Solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear.....anything but more CO2.
Why we haven't already converted? Follow the money. Why the converstion is still about drill dreill drill? Follow the money. Why is there an organized extreamly well funded anti-global warming smear campaign? Follow the money. Why environmental concerns are not even in the discussion? Follow the money.
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tiredofwhiners1 year, 5 months ago
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Norway has large oil platforms off their coast. It provides a large part of their national income. They sequester the CO2 that comes up to below the ocean floor. Not sure that works long term but it is being done and adds to their cost of production. Of course the oil is still going to be burned and put CO2 into the air. But at least they are doing something to reduce CO2. My point is that a very liberal country and a big fishing nation (read: they don't want to destroy the fishing grounds) that believes in global warming is drilling offshore, because it is their own and brings in big money to their economy. The UK also has offshore oil, no problem for them. It's all about economics and money. Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, even China now, and others, all drill offshore. Should we be the only ones to limit such drilling?
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KISA452a1 year, 5 months ago
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Interestingly, if US companies drilled offshore with all our regulations the drilling would seem to be safer and more environmentally friendly than say, Venezuela, China, etc. There might be an argument not to drill if no one else was going to do it, but that argument just holds no water any more.
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antibrainwasher1 year, 5 months ago
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Lead, follow or get out of the way. Us non-elites need lower gas prices, lower heating bills this winter and lower inflation.
You are some sick puppy. The elites are the billionaire oil CEO's and the millionaire republican senators and the military industrial CEO cheney who are obstructing progress.
Amazing how hypocritical, how self absorbed you must be to not see you are doing EXACTLY what you accuse progressives of doing.
TB, lead, follow or get the hell out of the way, because we are sick of swiftboating morons brownshirts in the party of the republican billionaire elitist aristrocracy, calling the working and middle class progressives "elitist". Jesus on a jet ski, it just doesn't get any thicker that that.
Its like your republican skull has been beat so hard with a stupid stick you can't see yourself in a mirror describing yourself and accusing dems of being you.
I guess pigs never get tired rooting in their own sh*t
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TonyByron1 year, 5 months ago
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The headline should read: "Democrats try to spoil oil exploration".
Why do the Democrats oppose further exploration to find US oil and gas reserves? Are they happy that the US sends hundreds of billions of dollars overseas?
Oil leases are a gamble by the oil companies that the millions of dollars they spend on the leases plus actual surveying and drilling (additional millions)will return a profit. It's a win or lose gamble by the companies but it's a win-win for the government and the taxpayers. The taxpayers get paid for the lease even if no oil is found. The taxpayers make even more money if oil is discovered. Sounds like a good deal to me.
The dems and the eco-nuts in the party have been blocking expanded exploration of our own resources for decades to our detriment.
Lead, follow or get out of the way. Us non-elites need lower gas prices, lower heating bills this winter and lower inflation.
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unome21 year, 5 months ago
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Big oil corporations not only control the price of oil but they control our politicians and our military.
We sure aren't in Iraq and Afghanistan for the American People.
While we suffer more for the price of fuel they enjoy record profits.
I doubt drilling offshore would change this scenario.
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kzimm631 year, 5 months ago
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So we are in Iraq for the oil? A war that has almost cost us half a trillion dollars and more than likely plays a big part in the state of our current lousy economy. So you are saying we started a war to take their oil. Where do you see the benefits of that? At the gas pump? If that was the plan behind this war that plan failed miserably!
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Endoscopy1 year, 5 months ago
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Propeller posted this above who I am responding to.
CHAM
You are hilarious. The reason for the oil going outside the country is a little thing called logistics. How do you economically get it to our refineries? Oil is sent to the closest location of demand. 80% of our outside purchased oil comes from Canada and Mexico. The rest from South America ans a little from the middle east.
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CHAM1 year, 5 months ago
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unome2 is right. Completely right.
Know how to get an extra million barrels of Oil per day for use in America?
Stop selling that million barrels per day out of the Alaskan pipeline to Foreigners!
That amount of oil would erase the shortfall.
See how simple it is?
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unome21 year, 5 months ago
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Yeah, Maybe we should bring our soldiers home for summer recess as well.
In fact I think this might be an excellant idea , as long as our congress and president are at war they should stay in session, No vacations, no more weed whacking for bush on his ranch.
All in favor say yea!
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kzimm631 year, 5 months ago
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Over the past few months I have heard the arguments on both sides of this "drill don't drill" debate. I personally think it has to come down to what the American people want!!! That is what a democracy is all about. If a representative in the house or the Senate feels strongly one way about something but their constituents feel the other way they need to go with what the constituents want and against what they feel. This is democracy. If the American people want more drilling then more drilling it needs to be if they don't want more drilling then don't expand drilling. What is so wrong with each representative going back to their constituents and get a feel for what they want and vote on this issue accordingly. It would be really interesting to see all the polls on this issue and see what the American public wants. On a side note I think it is disgusting that they are all going for summer recess and letting this hang out there without deciding one way or another!
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