Lawyers, Obama, And Oil, Oh My! -- And Still They Don't Get It!

Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production.

But, as Obama no doubt knows, much of the NPR has already been leased, yet those leases have not generated any oil production. Why is this? Not because there aren't enough leases, but rather, as we pointed out here, because the necessary infrastructure doesn't exist: the Corps of Engineers has not been able to get a permit to build a pipeline. Further, the projects that oil companies have already proposed in NPR have been tied up in litigation initiated by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups. Leasing more acres won't solve these problems, it will only lead to more litigation. Of course, the Democrats have always been better at producing lawsuits than producing oil.

DKK
Powerline blog -- The Dishonesty Of Barack Obama Part II

 

Drilling Is Winning And It Is Pissing The Hard Left Off -- Even The Messiah Get's It!

Well it looks like someone in the Obama camp finally got the message ... the American people want to drill. So naturally, when it is politically convenient, Barack Obama has now changed his stance on drilling. Is he just pandering to the voters? Probably. But boy did this policy change get the liberals' boxers in a bunch. Seems that the Messiah may be trying too hard to paint himself as a moderate ... don't worry all you Daily Kos kids ... Obama really is far more liberal in his policies. Once he is elected, he'll be back to his same liberal agenda. So just hang tight.

Here's what Obama said in a speech last Friday in Florida, "My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices ... If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."

This is definitely a different tune than Obama has been singing ... he used to be opposed to more coastline drilling and complained that oil companies are not exploring the areas that are currently open for drilling.

Hey .. the goal is his election. His true slogan is not "yes we can." It is "whatever it takes."

Neal Boortz

It's The Gas Pump, Stupid!

DON WADE:  HOW TO GET ELECTED IN 2008 

The new bumper sticker for this year’s winning political campaign, regardless of who the candidate is, will be:

                                    IT'S THE GAS PUMP, STUPID!

Because the American people want one thing more than anything: their American lifestyle. And that lifestyle is threatened by a couple of things:

1. Oil prices

2. Environmental extremists

The winning political message is going to be:

You elect me, and I will vote yes ---to drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

You elect me, and I will vote yes ---to drilling for oil off the Atlantic Coast and the Pacific

                                                        Coast.

You elect me, and I will vote yes ---to drilling in Alaska’s Anwar.

You elect me, and I will vote yes ---to oil shale extraction in Colorado.

I will vote yes for more refinery construction.

I will vote yes to nuclear power plants.

I will vote yes to wind farms and hydro-electric dams.

I will vote yes to subsidizing research into alternative energy sources.

Vote for me and my energy plan will radically reduce your gasoline price at the pump.

Vote for me and every product you buy at the supermarket will come down in price radically because the energy to produce it will plummet. 

Vote for me because I want what you want… the American way of life.

                                                                                              

I don’t know which candidate will express this message, but the one who does… will win. And that’s not just the presidential race, that’s in the congressional races, as well.

If you embrace that message, you will be elected because that’s what Americans want. 

                                    IT'S THE GAS PUMP, STUPID!

Don Wade AM co-host of the Don Wade and Roma show on WLS
DKK

Democrats Are Lost In ANWR Wilderness -- Even Snopes Reports The Truth!

Snopes -- The Truth About ANWR.

Bush Says Drill, Oil Prices Drop -- Artic May Hold 90 Billion Barrels, 12 Years Total US Demand!

Don’t look now, but investors and speculators have taken notice of the political metamorphosis among Americans on domestic drilling — even if American politicians have been slower to do so.  Since George Bush rescinded the federal moratorium on off-shore drilling and since demand for higher domestic production has increased in the face of $5 per gallon gasoline, the price of crude has dropped over $20 a barrel in less than two weeks.  The stock market has improved and the dollar has strengthened at the same time

Hot Air -- Oil down, dollar up since Bush rescinded drilling restrictions

Precisely what I said would happen!

The Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil, more than all the known reserves of Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Mexico combined, and enough to supply U.S. demand for 12 years, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
One-third of the undiscovered oil is in Alaskan territory, the agency found in a study released today. By contrast, a geologic formation beneath the North Pole claimed by Russian scientists last year probably holds just 1.2 percent of the Arctic's crude, the U.S. report showed.

Bloomberg

Republicans have a plan to solve our energy problems -- The American Energy Act is an all of the above plan for American Energy.  But they need your support, call your congressman today and demand a house vote on this bill!
DKK

Dolly To Hit Texas/Mexico -- Oil Prices Drop As Dolly Steers South

Rain started to fall along the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Dolly — upgraded in force from a tropical storm — closed in on towns straddling the Mexico-Texas border.

The Category 1 hurricane was expected to strengthen slightly before making landfall Wednesday and bringing with it up to 15 inches of rain.

Dolly was upgraded from a tropical storm Tuesday afternoon, and sustained winds have strengthened to about 85 mph. At 5 a.m. EDT Wednesday, the storm's center was about 65 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, moving northwest at about 8 mph.

Click to view live Doppler radar of the storm
Click for the latest maps and information from the National Hurricane Center

A hurricane warning was in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi and in Mexico from Rio San Fernando northward.

Fox News

Crude oil fell more than $3 a barrel, dropping to a six-week low, on forecasts a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico will miss oil installations. Also, the dollar gained versus the euro, reducing the appeal of commodities.

Oil dropped below $126 a barrel, down more than $21 from a record $147.27 on July 11, as Hurricane Dolly moved toward the Texas border with Mexico. The dollar rose on signs that US interest rates may increase. Senate Democrats yesterday cleared the first hurdle for legislation that aims to curb speculation in energy markets.

"There are dual causes to today's move lower," said Brad Samples, commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Ky. "There's a strong move by the dollar, which always puts pressure on energy prices. We aren't worried about Dolly anymore, also putting pressure on prices."

Crude oil for August delivery fell $3.09, or 2.4 percent, to settle at $127.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price since June 5. Futures are up 69 percent from a year ago. The August contract expired yesterday. The more-active September contract declined $3.40, or 2.6 percent, to settle at $128.42 a barrel.

Boston Globe 

Ten Years To Get Oil -- My ASS!

A Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst said in a report there is a lot of offshore crude that can be produced relatively quickly. The problem: It is located off California, where politicians have built careers opposing new drilling.

The Minerals Management Service said that of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in off-limits coastal areas, almost 10 billion are off the coast of California.

"California could actually start producing new oil within a year if the moratorium were lifted," the Sanford C. Bernstein report said, because the oil is under shallow water, has been explored and drilling platforms have been there since before the moratoria.

DKK
American Thinker -- Republicans Could Tap a Gusher of Support Off the California Coast

Republican Congress Delegation Goes To ANWR -- Finds Nothing, Because There Is Nothing There

(O)ff to ANWR with several House colleagues. Their trip is intended to draw attention to ANWR as an ideal place to drill for oil. Michele writes:

Let’s be clear about this. The Coastal Plain of ANWR, also known as the 1002 Area, is neither wilderness nor refuge. It was set aside by Congress and President Carter in 1980 for future oil development. Development would be limited to 2000 acres of the Coastal Plain or 0.01% of the entire 19.6 million-acre refuge. These lands were set aside for America to produce its own energy resources. What are we waiting for?

ANWR can economically produce over 10 billion barrels of oil.

DKK
Powerline Blog

'If we can't drill our way out of our immediate problems, there is no immediate solution.'

A blog about US politics has this comment:

The time for talk is over. We can't drill our way out of this and both his and Gore's plan point us in the right direction. We need to just do it.

I got news for him. If we can't drill our way out of our immediate problems, there is no immediate solution. Why? It is a matter of logistics and infrastructure. Our experience with the transition from wood to coal and coal to oil is instructive. Those transitions took about 75 to 100 years. Why? Whole new methods of production and infrastructure had to be developed. It is a problem of capital and logistics. Take our automotive fleet. It turns over at the rate of about 6% a year.

Let me point out again that no one is saying to JUST drill!  But to do everything BUT drill is simply, well f'n idiotic!
DKK
Power and Control Blog (Rockford's Own! -- Rockford Bloggers)

Democrats Anti-Competition Energy Bill

The bill, which the House was to vote on later on Thursday, has a "use it or lose it" provision that requires oil companies to diligently develop their existing federal leases or turn them back to the government before they could obtain new acres to drill.

"By blocking some firms from competing for new leases, this legislation would further increase gasoline prices that already exceed $4 per gallon and result in unintended consequences due to litigation," the White House said in a statement.

DKK
Reuters -- White House threatens to veto drilling legislation.

Green Fantasies -- Failing Economy!

As a disreputable sort, I freely confess to having a fondness for oil. Actually, I have a mild crush on all carbon-emitting fuels that feed our prosperity. But I'm especially fond of cheap oil. For many years, those who spread apocalyptic global-warming scenarios have warned me that a collective national sacrifice was needed to save the world.

One option, we were told, was to make gas artificially expensive, forcing our ignorant, energy-gobbling neighbors to alter their destructive habits.

Well, here we are. At $4 a gallon for gas, we already have a flailing economy. Isn't it glorious? And isn't it exactly what many environmentalists desired?

The problem is that there is no feasible "alternative" fuel that can haul food from farms to cities, produce affordable electricity for your plasma TV and drive your kids to school. Not yet. It can happen, of course, but only (to pinch a word from enlightened grocery shoppers) organically.

The problem is that when "green" fantasies crash onto the shores of economic reality (as they did with corn-based ethanol), we all suffer.

Don't worry, though, congressional Democrats have a bold plan. Hold on for 10 or 15 years and they'll have a bounty of energy options. They promise. But no oil shale. No clean coal. No nuclear power. And definitely no more oil.

DKK 
Denver Post - Faster, Washington! Drill, Drill! 

As ForThe Press -- Guys, Hey Guys, You there?

He says drill. Oil prices drop immediately. The press doesn’t see the connection.


And on top of that, dropping oil prices now are a bad thing.

To recap: President Bush officially announced at a press conference a lift on the presidential ban on offshore drilling — at 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, oil prices began a slide from about $145 a barrel to just under $130.

That’s a 10% drop.

How has the press reported this?

Read the summary of the reportage, but needless to say they mentioned just about everything but the above.
DKK
Don Surber -- Ignoring Bush

Manzullo Reacts To President Lifting The Executive Ban On Offshore Drilling

“We are one vote away from easing our dependence on costly oil and reducing gas prices in America,” Manzullo said. “I urge Speaker Pelosi to allow us to vote to end the Congressional ban on offshore drilling so we can increase our supplies of homegrown energy. Americans have had enough of these record gas prices and higher natural gas prices are just around the corner. It’s time for Congress to act.”

Congressman Manzullo  reacting to the news that President Bush has lifted the ban on offshore oil drilling which leaves only the Democrats in Congress blocking oil exploration.

This is right on the mark!  While the Democrats hold their hands over their ears screaming, "lalalalalalal you can't get the oil for seven years, I can' hear you lalalalalala!"  The American people and the Republicans keep saying, "seven years is better then ten, or even never so lets get started now!"

I can't recall a time when the people of the country have called for action on an issue of national importance such as this and have been completely rebuffed by their Representatives.   

We have entered a time where the Democrats like Obama and Manzullo's opponent have virtually told the American people, "let them eat cake!"  (Our policy is drive smaller cars and wait for the wind is the actual line).

DKK

Representative Don Manzullo

Bush To Lift Executive Order Banning Off Shore Drilling -- Congressional Action Required To Proceed

The White House says President Bush is planning to lift an executive ban on offshore oil drilling. The White House says President Bush is planning to lift an executive ban on offshore oil drilling.

In a Rose Garden statement on Monday, the president plans to lift the ban. But by itself, the move will not lead to more drilling off America's coastline.

That just leaves the Congressional ban that has to be lifted.  Nancy Pelosi says the call for more drilling is just  a hoax but $4/gal gasoline says otherwise.  Those prices are affecting every aspect of the economy today so the pressure on Congress will be immense.
DKK
ABC News

Markets Work -- Gas Usage Drops As Prices Rise

As average gas prices hit a record high of $4.108 a gallon this week, the government released new data showing that drivers have cut back their use of the fuel to levels not seen in five years.
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. has been above $4 a regular gallon for more than a month, AAA reports, putting a dent in gasoline demand.
Even through the Fourth of July weekend -- a time when Americans traditionally get on the road -- gasoline consumption dropped 3.3% from last year to 9.347 million barrels a day, according to weekly data .

DKK
WSJ

Seriously, We Can Drill Our Way Out Of This!

Jed Babbin: “Democrats have voted three times against increased oil production in the last year. They are content with rising prices.”

Babbin has a simple response to the Democratic Party line of “We can’t drill our way out of this problem.”

Babbin: Yes We Can.

“More than three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia are embedded in Western states’ oil shale, estimated at 800 billion to 2 trillion barrels of recoverable oil,” Babbin wrote.

As long as it's not all we do we can too drill our way out of this mess, I have said this repeatedly!   What we can't do is conserve our way out of this.  Our society is 50% more efficient now then we were 30 years ago, yet we are using nearly 3 billion barrels more oil today then we did then.

DKK

Don Surber -- Gasoline Wars 

Wait, I Pay HOW MUCH In Gas Taxes?

Earlier I had posted a summary of the gas taxes here in Illinois, well here is a handy chart of the prices state by state.

Click for larger image.



Keep this in mind as your planning your vacations this summer.  Oh and remember that local taxes may apply, for example while this lists Illinois as 66.5 cents the same gas in Chicago would have taxes of 82 cents.

DKK

Graphic via Coyote Blog

About Those "Unused" Oil Leases -- A Lie By Any Other Name

To deflect the GOP effort to relax the offshore-drilling ban – and thus boost supply while demand will remain strong – Democrats also say that most of the current leases are "nonproducing." The idea comes from a "special report" prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Resources Committee, chaired by Mr. Rahall. "If we extrapolate from today's production rates on federal lands and waters," the authors write, the oil companies could "nearly double total U.S. oil production" (their emphasis).

In other words, these whiz kids assume that every acre of every lease holds the same amount of oil and gas. Yet the existence of a lease does not guarantee that the geology holds recoverable resources. Brian Kennedy of the Institute for Energy Research quips that, using the same extrapolation, the 9.4 billion acres of the currently nonproducing moon should yield 654 million barrels of oil per day.

Nonetheless, the House still went through with a gesture called the "use it or lose it" bill, which passed on Thursday 223-195. It would be pointless even if it had a chance of becoming law. Oil companies acquire leases in the expectation that some of them contain sufficient oil and gas to cover the total costs. Yet it takes years to move through federal permitting, exploration and development. The U.S. Minerals Management Service notes that only one of three wells results in a discovery of oil that can be recovered economically. In deeper water, it's one of five. All this involves huge risks, capital investment – and time.

If anything, the Democrats ought to be dancing in the streets about "idle" leases. It means fewer rigs. The days of hit-or-miss wildcatting have been relegated to the past by new, more efficient technologies, such as seismic imaging, directional drilling (wells that are "steered" underground) and multilateral drilling (multiple underground offshoots from a single wellbore).

At the same time, finding new reservoirs has become far more complex. Except for a few very large fields discovered decades ago like Prudhoe Bay, most recent discoveries have been smaller, deeper and less concentrated. The U.S. needs a continuous supply of discoveries to replace declining wells.

Yet companies are not allowed to explore where the biggest prospects for oil and gas may exist – especially on the Outer Continental Shelf. Seven of the top 20 U.S. oil fields are now located in analogous deepwater areas (greater than 1,000 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2006, Chevron discovered what is likely to be the largest American oil find since Prudhoe, drilled in 7,000 feet of water and more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor. The Wilcox formation may have an upper end of 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil and should begin producing by 2014 – perhaps ushering in a new ultradeepwater frontier.

Likewise, in April, the U.S. Geological Survey revised its estimate for the Bakken Shale, underneath the badlands of North Dakota and Montana. The new assessment – as much as 4.3 billion barrels of oil – is a 25-fold increase over what the Survey believed in 1995. Such breakthroughs confirm that very large reserves exist, if only Congress would let business get at them.

All of which has Democrats sweating bullets. The leadership is desperate to avoid debating a Department of Interior spending bill, because they know Republicans will offer amendments lifting the drilling moratorium that may peel off some Democrats. Last week, Chairman David Obey shut down the Appropriations Committee rather than countenance more domestic energy production. Given Democratic energy illiteracy, this is a fight the GOP can win if it keeps up the pressure.

DKK
WSJ -- Obama's Dry Hole

Markets Work -- US Oil Consumption Drops To 2002 Levels

For most of the post-WWII era US oil consumption went up year after year. One deviation from that came in the early 1980s. An even longer lasting and probably permanent deviation from that trend is developing. Americans have traveled back in a sort of time machine to 2002 levels of oil usage.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration revised downward U.S. April oil demand by 863,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 19.77 million bpd -- 3.9 percent below year-ago levels. The revision, which showed April demand was the lowest for the month since April 2002, came even before gasoline prices surged to new records in June.

But on a per capita basis the reduction in oil usage is even larger since the US population grows about 1% per year. So has US oil usage per capita gone down 10% since 2002? 

DKK
FuturePundit -- US Oil Comsumption Falls Back To 2002 Levels

American Views On Energy And Environment Predictably Changing

A new poll shows high gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans’ views on energy and the environment. More people now say expanding oil drilling and building new power plants is a bigger priority than energy conservation.
The poll by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants more important, compared with 35 percent in February.
The Pew poll of about 2,000 adults conducted in late June shows the shift toward energy development across the political spectrum including among Democrats, political independents, liberals and young people.

This was titled, "An unexpected result of high gas prices," but I'm not sure why Knoxvilletalks didn't expect it, it is an economic reality with the increase in demand and price.
DKK
Knoxville Talks