Off Shore Drilling VS. Alternative Energy Debate

With gas prices continuing to rise to record highs, controversy is brewing in Washington about what the government should be doing to get those prices at the pump back down. George W. Bush and his team have advocated lifting the ban on offshore drilling to try and find untapped sources of oil under the ocean. Looking to score political points among frustrated Americans in the upcoming election, John McCain has adopted Bush's offshore drilling plan, with promises that it will drive the price of oil down. Barack Obama and most democrats have fought the plan, saying it can have potentially grave effects on the already ailing environment. Environmentalists have pointed to large oil spills in the ocean caused by offshore drilling, like the disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara spill. So what's really going on here? The truth is that even if offshore drilling is done safely and without harm to the environment, which is more likely with today's modern equipment, offshore drilling will probably not have much effect on oil prices... now or decades from now. The Department of Energy said that offshore drilling would probably not have any significant effect on oil production for over 20 years, and there are questions about just how much oil we could actually extract if we began offshore drilling. For example, it is estimated that there are 17 billion barrels of oil untapped in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge... enough to satisfy American consumption of oil for just two years. This sounds like a lot, but the oil would be traded internationally, meaning it would last much less than two years... and if it takes decades to access all of it, that will just amount to a drop in the bucket towards solving the energy crisis, and not a real solution. As always, the best thing we can do to stop skyrocketing gas prices is to find alternate fuel sources for our cars, electricity consumption, and everything else we use oil for.

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[KripDrip]

green energy is for weak smelly pot smoking hippies. Im gonna be a real american man and drive my gas guzzling truck.

[danmarino1970]

@cbunk81 Big petro suppresses green and know that it works..but they can't make the same money with green technology..so they will lobby congress, pay off the heads of the green innitiative within the u.n (and their scientist) to come up with a "carbon tax" which will make manuf. almost impossible and make the petro elites very wealthy (kickbacks) china is 10-15 years ahead of the pack when it comes to green (and #2 when it comes to fossil fuel consumption) but are top producers of everything.

[cbunk81]

@danmarino1970 enough with the same old cliche"They have raped and pilaged the earth enough" how about letting the free market dictate what technology works. Quit forcing this green crap down my throat, I've tasted it and don't like how the government is making it more expensive to go about doing my normal buisness.

[PaulYves64]

WEC 2010 and their site energy2point0 is the place we all should be debating in order to get all stakeholders around a same community energy2point0 The only way to have a constructive debate... AND the big GUYS WILL LISTEN...

[danmarino1970]

There is no debate. Its as easy as choosing life and death. Green sustainable energy is a reality. Electro magnetic motors, solar, air. The energy cartels of this country have cornered the market for the past 150 years.. They have raped and pilaged the earth enough. Their time is up.. time to say YES to LIFE.

[Darkwizzrobe]

I find it funny that we can't drill off shore, but its OK to fill the oceans with wind mills.

[ToddAldrich]

With the In-Situ process it is profitable at a price as low as $30.00 per barrel.

Even if it is not profitable till $70 per barrel, it is worth while to allow it - because if President Obama succeeds, it will rise far higher than that.

[Axbent]

oil shall is not as profitable, if at all to make gasoline from! Ure wrong...

[ToddAldrich]

(cont) They isolate each one to distract you from the whole. A single rain drop is not significant either, but when combined with others, the power it has is incredible - just look at Hurricane Katrina.

This is what the left does when isolating oil sources. Each one individually does not add up to a whole lot, but together they MORE than meet the worldwide shortage. AGAIN. Look up the Green River Formation - there is enough oil there ALONE to meet current U.S. demand for more than 100 yrs