The oil in ANWR and the Gulf of Mexico isn't going anywhere!

[krispos42]

It's been there for 300 million years or so! It doesn't have an expiration date, a pump-by date, a sell-by date, or a freshness date!

If we don't assign drilling rights this year, we can do it next year.

Or the next decade.

Or the next century.

Or the next millenium.

THE OIL WILL STILL BE THERE

The Chinese aren't going to secretly bore a hole on a chord line from Beijing, under the Pacific Ocean, through the Earth's crust, and suck the oil out from the bottom of the reservoir!

We're probably going to need to drill there one day. We're still going to need crude oil even if we are 100% gasoline-free and diesel-free because it is a valuable component of plastics and fertilizers and such. We won't need 22 million barrels a day like we are now, but we'll still need some crude oil.

So let's wait until the 68 million acres that the oil companies ALREADY have leases on but aren't doing anything with are pumped mostly dry before we start issuing ANWR and Gulf Coast drilling permits.

When those acres are down to, oh, say, 5 million acres that are virgin, then let's start exploring for Gulf Coast and ANWR oil.

It will take decades to get that far, and we'll have much better safety equipment and cleaner drilling techinques by then. Hell, they don't have the drilling equipment to even start drilling in those 68 million virgin acres, much less ANWR or the Gulf Coast!

This isn't rocket science. The prohibition against ANWR and Gulf Coast drilling can be lifted in a day, if need be. Congress can act fast when it needs to. And when you take into account the current level of equipment limitations and the fact that there is no worldwide shortage of oil available to the market, it only makes sense to wait as long as possible to drill and pump in the most enviromentally sensitive areas of the planet.

And let's suck up as much foreign oil as we can first so that when we have to start pumping ANWR and Gulf Coast oil at more-expensive future rates than the current $130/bbl or so it is now, the money isn't still going to some fundamentalist, theocratic, ruthless, misogynistic dictator or kingdom,but to us.


Okay, rant off. :-)

[Lint Head]

1. The internal combustion engine is an antique concept and so are republicans.

Republicans will go the way of the Whigs the Tories and Neanderthals. :deM;

[krispos42]

3. The IC engine works pretty well, it's the fuel that's outmodeled or nearly so

And would have been if we'd got our butts in gear a couple of decades ago.

The modern IC engine does a pretty decent job of turning liquid or gaseous fuel into power on a small or medium scale, on demand, and with a rapid response to changing power requirements.

Obviously an electric motor would do better because of mechanical simplicity, but the established IC engine that burns ethanol or biodiesel closes the carbon cycle, especially if the biofuel is processed through renewable resources. The ongoing problem with batteries is that the power storage per pound is very low and the recharge time is very high compared to fluid fuels.

The impending dissolution of the Republican Party is something I hope to behold in my lifetime, though! :-)

[DCKit]

2. Now that you've explained how to do it, expect a giant sucking sound from China.

Thanks a lot, Hitler.

[krispos42]

4. Ah, we'll just trick them into tapping into a sewage treatment plant instead!

:rofl: