Reid Offshore Drilling Plan Splits Dems

The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has split the Democratic front opposed to drilling with a plan that would open new areas for exploration.

Reid's proposal was meant to insulate Senate Democratic candidates from public anger over gas prices. Instead, it has created a divide with liberal colleagues and drawn fire from senior House Democrats.

A group of influential Senate and House Democrats has sided with environmental groups against Reid to call exploration in new areas unnecessary.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[UnbiasView]

Anyone want to know why we are going to drill?

9% approval rating for the Dem lead congress

70-80% of Americans support drilling

You can't run on an energy policy without oil for at least another 30 years and if you say you don't want to live off of foreign oil, get your own.

[leduck]

so drill your drill holes
what are you waiting for
and what ever scraps you manage to get, wont make much difference
we'll still be oil importers

[Viper]

Not as much and the price will be lower than it would... which means lower trade deficits and a stringer dollar...

Regards

[nippersdad]

"70-80% of Americans support drilling." First I have heard about it. Everything that I have read would lead one to believe that the American people recognize this as yet another scam. We have been giving these oil companies subsidies to explore public lands that they have already leased....and yet they have not put them into production yet. What gives? Why give them yet more when they have obviously not taken advantage of eighty percent of that which they already have?

[UnbiasView]

"yet they have not put them into production yet'

I have heard that talking point from Pelosi a few times but one of the questions you should be asking is why the same people that say that aren't telling you "XYZ location has this much oil on it and you aren't drilling"

Maybe it is because the Dems are uninformed or maybe it is because there isn't any or enough oil there to make it worth while.

[leduck]

so go ahead, drill off the coast
if it's further off the coast in hard to get places..., it's not cheap oil
2. it doesn't amount to that much anyway
3. time problem, it will take a while to extract

just don't fool yourself into believing it will solve all our gas problems

[DesertLight]

just don't fool yourself into believing it will solve all our gas problems

That really is the bigger issue. I totally favor solar and wind energy. We must do something besides sit around and depend on foreign oil. Doing nothing is a disaster and we will still need oil for some time. We should move forward and move on.

[UnbiasView]

If you believe we will need oil in 20 years then I see no reason not to drill while the other things are being developed.

FYI, if you don't want to depend on foreign oil . . . get it domestically.

[condew]

How about T. Boone Pickens wind farms? I tend to believe that will have an effect faster than drilling, and that energy will no be so easily sold to other countrys.

[bayside]

In Europe where they have had high gas for a long time now ,they have cars that run on water and air..Put some money into that What about the ocean waves, harnessing that to get power...We used to be a smart nation that didnt need to destroy nature..Oil companys wont like it but tough..We dont need them........

[wiseapple]

More drilling is the pinnacle of absurdity. More drilling in areas where there is a risk for widespread environmental disaster is moronic. Any newly-drilled oil wouldn't hit the market for a decade. The world will be beyond oil by then. Don't be tools. This knee-jerk response to the increased price of gas shows everyone that we are nothing but marshmallows. Use the higher prices to begin the process that every responsible individual must come to grips with- like a fire escape plan, if you will. Conserve, become more energy-conscious, learn of the new technologies, invest in them and use them!

[DesertLight]

Any newly-drilled oil wouldn't hit the market for a decade.

Not true. Transocean just set a record in Q@tar,

HOUSTON, May 21, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Transocean Inc. (NYSE:RIG) today announced that the Transocean jackup GSF Rig 127 set a world record for the longest extended-reach well ever drilled at 40,320 feet (12,289 meters) MD (measured depth) with a 35,770-foot (10,902-meter) horizontal section. The well was drilled offshore Qatar in 36 days and incident-free. The new record of 7.6 miles is also the first well in the history of offshore drilling that exceeds 40,000 feet (12,191 meters). The well surpasses by approximately 2,000 feet the prior extended-reach record of 38,322 feet (11,680 meters) MD set by another drilling contractor with a land rig drilling at Sakhalin Island earlier this year.

[wiseapple]

Well, well, well. You sound really pumped about this.

[UnbiasView]

"Any newly-drilled oil wouldn't hit the market for a decade. The world will be beyond oil by then."

That is the craziest thing I have ever heard, there is a 0% chance that we will not need oil in 10 years. Take a look at the timeline of getting cars off the roads that use gasoline, it's at least a 20-30 year project.

[wiseapple]

You can get gas and diesel from Fischer-Tropsch technology. The feedstock for this can be biomass, wastes of all sorts, or natural gas if need be. And that is just one source of fuel to transition away from foreign oil. We can leave the frickin' petroleum where it lies and get on with progress. If we remain an oil-based economy in the future, we'll never get out of debt.

[jay1975]

If you think the world will be beyond oil in ten years, you are in fantasy land. Do you think that every car in the US will be replaced by electric or hydrogen by then? It will take a long time before we are off oil. Do you even have a clue as to how many of our daily products are made from oil? Those same products cannot be delivered without a semi that uses diesel to power their engines. Will all of the tractor trailers be "green" in ten years? We must continue to use ,and explore for more, oil until such a time when we can move beyond oil. The seed has been planted and people are waking up, but until the "green" tech is cheaper and readily available to everyone, we have no choice but to use oil.

[optech007]

"Those same products cannot be delivered without a semi that uses diesel to power their engines."

Not only that, the asphalt we use to pave the roads is a petroleum product. Maybe we can pave the highways using wind and solar.

[wiseapple]

No not every car will be replaced by electric or hydrogen in ten years. But if a certain percentage was replaced with either hybrids of electrics or whatever is out there over the next ten years, it will be that much less oil we will be using. We are like the third largest producer of oil in the world, and our oil fields won't be dried up by then.

There is biodiesel for you tractor-trailers. My point is that putting money (and it will be taxpayer money that will be used by the oil companies to drill for new oil) into Big Oil infrastructure is not smart business- it won't pay for itself in the long run. We are better off investing in the greener/cleaner technologies at this time.

[demfriend]

What happened to "Give them Hell Harry"? This seals the deal for me and both Reid and Pelosi should step down and new leaders be selected. It's time after the "Off the table" impeachment and the inability to stand up when fellow dems TRY to do something about the corrupt administration and they have cowered. It's time you went ona visit Harry and see the real facts about the ice shelf melting away the lives of the animals and people at the north and south poles. Shame on you Harry!

[Housewife]

Harry Reid is useless.

[chronic]

Girl, you beat me to it!!! LOL

[milo9]

When can we be rid of this man?

[TNT2008]

Freaking democrats! Why can't my party get their collective $hit together? Let McAchey talk about the oil and drilling; dems need to stick with the economy and why were are in the mess we are. This useless war in the name of OIL! No more war; no more taxpayers' money wasted! If the dems don't wake up soon and stop the bickering that Hi11ary started during the primaries, the dummies are going to steal this one away from us, too! It's ours for the taking and I say let's take back our country!

[DesertLight]

“I don’t object to oil companies doing more drilling where they already have leases,” said Waxman.

Well then, lift the moratorium on the drilling. Any idea of how many million barrels we get from Mexico from drilling in the same Gulf?

[DesertLight]

So, we can just let the Russians drill off the coast of Alaska./

[brighterside]

There is no moratorium on those leased lands for drilling.

Its up to the oil companies to drill. Congress has allowed them to drill but somehow they aren't doing anything about it.

The argument is that they already have 68 million acres that they can drill right now. But why haven't they even start drilling? Yet they want more lands to drill on?

[DesertLight]

Amid soaring gas prices and increased debate over energy policy, President Bush urged Congress Wednesday to end a 27-year ban on offshore drilling in U.S. coastal waters before its Fourth of July recess.

[DesertLight]

Amid soaring gas prices and increased debate over energy policy, President Bu-sh urged Congress Wednesday to end a 27-year ban on offshore drilling in U.S. coastal waters before its Fourth of July recess.

[DesertLight]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/politics/jan-june08/bushoil_06-18.html

[Umberto]

You don't quite understand the issue. The oil companies have millions of acres of land that are currently leased for oil wells. They aren't using all of them and many wells aren't operating at even half their capacity. Use those, not new areas. It's nothing but a land grab for oil companies so they can continue to rape this planet.

[cdub1991]

The oil companies have no interest in creating "American oil." That's not how these markets work. These sites aren't drilled because it isn't profitable to do so until oil hits a certain sustained price point. We get oil from foreign sources because it's cheaper than domestic sources and it maximizes the profits of the oil companies. Period. End of discussion. If the price of oil continues to fall, then watch how quickly the cry for domestic drilling tapers off.

That's why, just to take the contrarian view, high oil prices is good in the long run. The US won't get serious about alternative energy strategies until it makes economic sense to do so. The rising world oil demand and the leveling off (and eventual decline) in supply forces us to start developing and building out the infrastructure for the post-carbon age. The need for oil won't vanish, but decreasing its consumption as a fuel is the future that we should be working toward, not trying to accommodate the needs of oil company share holders.

[gaila]

Hark, you are right. The Dems need to help people connect the dots on this issue. Pictures might work much better than words because it will be harder to spin an inaccurate argument against an effective visual. The Obama campaign and those in Congress who oppose drilling should get on the air waves and send email blasts showing a map with a star in each location where the oil companies have an existing lease, but are not drilling, and (rhetorically) ask why that is. Maybe someone in the media would even get ambitious and investigate that question.

[schicklett3]

The offshore drilling issue is the win for the republicans this year - no matter HOW BAD the bush administration has been, no matter how horrible the republicans have been, the drilling issue will spiral the republicans to wins come november.
People have only one thing on their minds, and its their pocketbooks.
As I said months ago - the drilling issue was a carefully crafted "gift" to John McCain from the Bush Administration, and it's now coming to fruition.
Just wait and see.

[catinca]

But it won't lower the gas prices any time soon. Even Bush has said that. It will just give more money to the fat cats...why do Americans fall for it? We need to find alternative energy sources simple as that.

[Viper]

But it will help keep the prices down when it is being pumped and provides U.S. jobs.

And pls stop thinking about oil as feul.. 50% is not used for feul. And what is happening as OIL goes up, far more dirtier coal is being used... CO2 will go up!

Regards

[Umberto]

But it's a ruse! And it only proves how incredibly stupid the average voter is. I never knew so many average Americans loved Big Oil companies and supported all their back-room deals.

[Viper]

Even if it was ruse... does not change the fact that its a winner...

You will need oil... you use oil from offshore wells.. so stop being a hypocrite... you are also using oil from the Amazon area...

Regards

[cdub1991]

Power is of no value if you are unwilling to wield it. "Insulate senators..." What nonsense. Reid is going to be useless as the majority leader when Obama wins. I know there are many who have greater seniority for the position, but I wouldn't mind seeing Hillary in it. At least she has a pair.

[mediamarv]

Reid needs to go.
He's a doormat unable to recognize an opportunity to trash the Republicants in their own history.

[OhioJan]

Reid, the repubs & the Dems who support their destructive whims are ignorant capitulators!

The oil companies HAVE BEEN sitting on billions of acres of leased land to drill/explore for drilling for 30 or so years now. They don't want to pay for the REFINERIES that they need to process the oil - should they actually FIND any. Then, IF they find oil and then refine the oil, they are just going to sell it to the highest bidders (China and India) because of their ever-increasing hunger for fossil fuels!

Wake up, America and Congress! ANY new oil found will NOT LOWER OUR COSTS NOR will it INCREASE OUR SUPPLY! We MUST demand our government, automakers, and alternative energy producers to develop clean, renewable & sustainable ALTERNATIVES to fuel and energy, instead of continuing to devastate our land, water, and food supplies from toxic fossil fuels!!!

[leduck]

i'm getting tired of explaining why not all land oil companies lease has oil
lets go through the list again though:
is there a reverse fault, an anticline or a salt dome?
is there source rock?
reserve rock that has been through the oil window?
is this rock porous enough and is it permeable enough?
is there a good oil cap
what's the quality of this crude?
is it crude or crud?
is it light sweet crude easy to pump or heavy stuff that flows more slowly?
what's the flow rate?
is it an easy to get source or hard to get?
in other words will it take a lot of money and investment to retrieve?

if anyone of the source rock, reserve rock, oil window, permeability, porousity, good oil cap etc conditions aren't meet, then you will drill for nothing. in other words, you will drill a dry hole.
Oil companies want to make profits
not lose money to make ignorant people happy
this issue is a loser for the dems

[imusintheevening]

If the lease is unproven it is treated as an intangible and if they do a test drill and it becomes a tangible asset they can put the value on their balance sheet and they don't have to extract the oil to get that benefit. So, if the lease is so useless why not make them give it up if they don't produce product from it?

[Umberto]

What? Dude, you must be an oil investor, or trying to protect your cush job as a geologist for Big Oil. Your agenda sucks and hurts America.

[druidlady42]

CAVE IN, CAVE IN, CAVE IN!!! That's all Harry Reid seems to know what to do!

How about demanding UNITY among your Democratic Senators, standing together FOR ONCE, and pointing the finger straight at the Republicans and naming THEM as the cause for the mess we're all in now! Surely, if 51 Democratic Senators could learn to stand together on even ONE issue, they might come up with ONE DECENT BACKBONE!

No, Reid, you're willing to let the Repubs falsely pin this energy crisis on the Dems, let Bush use his BULLY pulpit for force a cave in to his oil buddies, and allow the continued rape of our environment and avoidance of a REAL energy policy, just to keep from being "criticized" by the Minority! DISGUSTING!

Reid has proven to be INCAPABLE of standing up for Democrats and the rest of us who want accountability! Do the right thing, Sen. Reid, and STEP DOWN, so someone who knows how to lead (perhaps Sen. Dodd, Boxer, Feingold) can GET SOMETHING DONE, instead of being a doormat for the Republicans!

[PumaAnn]

Ah, no unity in the Dem party on the hill, either.

Figures that it's not just the campaign.

[naschkatze]

Reid and Pelosi have to go.