by Pops » Sun 13 May 2012, 09:22:14
2.
There is plenty of oil, "They" won't let us drill.There is lots of oil but like most knee-jerk political arguments, this one ignores the important issues by attempting to lay blame for the entire situation at the feet of a favorite scapegoat. We see that here at PO all the time, every thread has at least one poster who blames the situation (whatever it is) on a particular politician or interest group no matter how tenuous the link.
I suppose there are people who would say there is no place that should be off limits to drilling, They would be more than happy to have a rig set up on the Capital Mall, their favorite fishing hole or their kid's school playground. For those folks I suspect strip mining and clear cutting is a sign of progress and think acid rain cuts the road film on their 4x4 better than detergent – or at least the persona they hope to project requires they act that way. But, if there is even one place a person can admit they'd hope to not see polluted, then it is only a matter of degree between them and Earth First.
You can say there is a "lot" of oil off limits but you need to define "lots". There is maybe a couple of years' worth of US consumption off the west coast, maybe a year's worth of the east coast (or maybe a couple month's, who knows) another 2 or 3 years' worth under the North Slope of AK. So just for perspective, if we could get at and burn all the off limits oil overnight, in all likelihood it would last less than 10 years. That's just a guess from a quick glance, I'm open to other opinions.
Besides, we are going to need that oil in the future to upgrade kerogen and steam clean tar sand.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/technolog ... Prices.htm
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)