President Bush, responding to the national outrage over soaring gasoline prices will be calling on Congress to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling . The issue of offshore drilling is being deeply debated and becoming a hot-button issue in the campaign. President Bush in a press conference today strongly supported drilling, arguing that it would greatly enhance supply and take pressure off of oil prices.
Well and good. But if this is the moment to consider opening large swaths of offshore federal lands to drilling it should also be the moment to consider the creation of an American National Oil Trust, much in keeping with the highly successful and citizen-owned Norwegian Oil Trust.
The offshore federal lands belong to the public. Their potential is enormous. The federal Energy Information Agency estimates that roughly 75 billion barrels of oil in the United States are off-limits to development and roughly 16 billion barrels are covered by the offshore moratorium.
We are also a nation who for good or bad have lost our trust in the oil industry to develop our national patrimony in a way that benefits all Americans. Certainly their policies to date are veering the nation toward environmental and economic disaster. Just imagine the extraordinary benefit that would accrue if the net proceeds of an oil trust would be directed to a massive national program developing alternative fuels and alternative energy programs rather than the bottom line of additional billions for Exxon Mobil, Chevron, et al. To calculate the values at stake one could fairly estimate development costs of $30 a barrel (and that is probably very high) to be deducted from today's $130/bbl price, times 16 billion barrels offshore alone -- well you do the numbers. A staggering amount of wealth that belongs to the nation's citizens rather than ceding it to the oil companies at giveaway conditions and buying it back at extortionary prices at the pump.
Let me cite some history showing that "hands on" government in situations of national need is not new to our experience. During World War II the nation's railroads were nationalized and administered by the U.S. Railroad Administration. Then there is the Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A.), a powerful and successful example of a governmental enterprise bringing enormous good to a region.
At another time of crisis there was President John F. Kennedy challenging a then-gluttonous steel industry with a forceful scolding, shaming them into compliance:
"Simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel and other leading steel corporations increasing steel prices by $6 per ton constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest in this serious hour in our nation's history, when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking reservists to leave their homes and families for months on end and servicemen to risk their lives..."
Then, the steel companies backed down. Now the oil companies' bottom line just gets fatter. And there is no one in our leadership seriously holding them to account.
A National Oil Trust could be organized without undue hardship. Certainly there are qualified and talented oil people who would welcome the challenge of serving the nation in such an enterprising endeavor. They could readily replicate what the oil companies would be doing, which is to lease offshore drilling platforms to drill, and contract out the needed seismic testing to site the rigs. And if they strike oil or gas, the infrastructure will come. And from beginning to end it will the nation's resource to the profit of all its citizens.
As background, know that Norway, after Saudi Arabia and Russia, is the third largest exporter of oil in the world. Its National Oil Trust turns over its proceeds to the Government Petroleum Fund to help fund both pensions and to keep the money in trust for future generations.
Replace ALL Coal Nuke and imported oil for 1T$ in less then 10 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/01/01_203.html
HE CALLS FOR OIL DRILLING JUST AFTER WAR CRIMES HITS THE FRONT PAGES.
YOUR DISTRACTED!!!!!!!!
WAKE UP DON'T LISTEN TO HIS LIES ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do not hold your breath as drilling will not occur anytime soon.
the major oils already lease over 60 million acres of federal land
which they do NOT drill. There will be a bill before the congress
which proposes fining the majors for any tracts they do not drill on.
Forget that, they have too much money and nfluence in Washington.
Wouldn't it be a good idea if all lobbying had to be video taped and provided to the public?
Ok, here are my thoughts!
1. Take all the leases back by using eminent domain .I believe we have a national defense issue at stake. Give these leases to anyone who is willing to start drilling in the real near future! Note that it would still be several years before any oil would would be pumped.
2. Establish an Apollo program for developing alternative energy.
3. Set a goal of getting as many vehicles off the road as possible by upgrading, building and making mass transportation more available.
4. Forget 1 - 3 the president and congress do not give a crap about us anyways.
5. We need someone good at organizing to kickoff a national day of protest in which the truckers, the commuters and any travelers either stay home for the day or take to the roadways but then turn the keys off. Quiet protests do not acocmplish anything with the with the arrogant bas@#&s in Washington.
Why sign onto the republican plan? This "well and good" comment is something like saying "whatever it takes to maintain our non-negotiable lifestyle" is fine with you. And maybe it is, i don't know your motives. we are not even close to what can be defined as hardship that 33 other countries in the world are experiencing.
But it is acceptable that you have acknowledged that there is an energy emergency even if what you endorse won't help us for 10 years from now.
Let us all do what we can for our community, family, and ourselves to cope with the beginnings of the "Long Emergency".
Peace, out.
Because he, like the rest of us has to live in reality? We can no more conserve our way out of this than we can drill our way out of it. The two have to go hand in hand. Supply must be increased while demand is decreased.
GO TO HYDROGEN AND GET OFF THE OIL NIPPLE.
TIME TO WEAN OURSELVES FROM THE BARREL!!!!!!!!!!!!
it's not a primary source of energy
Sounds like Socialism to me
Tote that barrel.
Don't conserve a thing, just
Blow it out your tail.
(Sung to a refrain from 'Old Man River' in 'Showboat')
1. No shortage of supply now or in the relevant future
2. No spike in demand, in fact it's down the last 6 months
3. Oil costs about $2 a barrel to produce which nets about 20 gallons of gas.
4. Something along the lines of a 2000% increase of money sunk into commodity trading over the last few years courtesy of deregulation.
5. Wingnuts beg to drill more when the oil industry itself doesn't even utilize already approved leases. Something along the lines of 75% of current approved leases to drill are sitting there untapped.
WHY ARE WE PAYING $4+ a gallon for a product that costs about a quarter to get to market.
I challenge any wingnut to add this up and make a logical case for drilling before we first repair our markets.
Would you suggest trading of all commodities be outlawed. Many farmers who produce wheat or corn (and the prices of those commodities are up at least as much as the prices of oil - an inconvenient truth about how those greedy, power-hungry farmers do things) would not be happy about that.
Do you actually think that all of the leases that are out there have oil or gas under them? This is why they call it exploration. 52 cards in a deck and only 4 aces -- imagine that.
Economics 101 - 3 variables exist - supply, demand and price. If you are interested in lower prices, then more supply is good and so is less demand. More supply is not the only answer. Less demand is not the only answer. One has to wonder why the USA stands alone in not developing its God-given natural resources in the same way as, say, those environmentally careless Norwegians?
What makes a wing-nut a wingnut is they don't do the research cuz their mind is made up, not to be troubled by the facts.
1. You are correct- there is no shortage for those countries that have the dough. If you live in a poor country, you are S.O.L.
2. No, there is no spike in demand as it is a steady climb based on world population growth, and expansion of wealth and demand in producing countries and China and India.
3. No, i dont think so. you can barely make a pot of coffee for less than $2.
4. Sorry. i dont know what that means.
5. Cant dis-agree.
6. Because any commodity that is necessary to 6.5 billion people is going to be at the edge of affordability- always.
When it comes to an energy emergency, one has to make sense of it on their own, as their is a lot of shaded stats, motives, and propaganda to sort thru.
Im done.
Peace.
What I don't understand though is the huge level of ignorance of the wingnuts followers who buy this dril more garbage. We don't have a nationalized oil industry so therefore there is NO CORRELATION BETWEEN DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION AND LOWERING OUR PRICE AT THE PUMP!!! Fools such as Hannity keep saying drill but Exxon will just sell it to the highest bidder. If this oil was to be sold only to the US at @20 a barrel it would help. But then Conservatives would go crazy over that too since their loyalty is to the fantasy free market ideology, not reality.
Any additional production would just sit in tankers out in the ocean because there's nowhere to put it, we barely use what we produce currently! & OPEC would produce a few million barrels a day less and we'd be in the same physical supply situation as we currently are.... which isn't bad at all since there are no shortages!!!!