Simon,

Two questions.

I have seen somewhere that oil companies have numerous leases in US territory on which they have not chosen to drill. Don't know the reasons. Do you know how we can get more complete information?

I realize that our gasoline prices are causing some discomfort but are we sure they have reached a level where we want to drill areas heretofore closed? I wonder about a future armed conflict in which it would serve us well to still have our own resources rather than consuming them now for greater comfort.

Answers:

1. I don't know the answer to that. Sometimes leases are not developed due to no oil or unprofitable amounts.

2. By the time new oil supplies come on line our enemies should be heavily addicted to their high incomes. It would devastate them. In the mean time the high prices will cause a change in the transportation fleet to more plug in hybrids and other fuel saving autos (higher mileage).

Here is a look at that:

Why high oil prices are good by the Futurist.

The high prices for oil amount to a way for oil producers to do a leveraged buy out of the USA. This is a very bad idea.

The Futurist link is interesting. But his scenario works only as long as electricity in the U.S. and other advanced nations is available at reasonable prices. The problem is that the domestic anti-energy forces are hostile to all practical forms of electricity production, not just to oil, and they have the ability to greatly slow the building of powerplants and transmission lines.

David, there is still a strong benefit to plug-in electric even if we can't build new generating plants or new power lines. The plants must keep generating at night and in off hours because the turbine output can't be stored very well and it is not efficient to shut it off. Therefore, any power use during those off-hours is not a net drain on the system.

The perfect approach is charging the car batteries between midnight and six AM, then doing the daily commute on the 40 to 50 mile plug-in range.

You can add western Canada to the "NO" zone. No offshore exploration allowed. It has been off-limits for about 30 years now.

I was an office flunky for a small oil company in Kentucky many years ago. Oil leases are public records. They are filed with the state or county of the lease site, I forget which. Oil leases are automatically canceled if you don't produce within a standard time frame. The site owner usually gets 1/8 of the oil as a royalty. Many transactions in the oil business are similarly not fixed price but based on the current price of oil. As crude prices change, what you pay to produce or refine changes.

Many people mistakenly think oil companies keep all the money between their cost of production when oil was cheap, say $20, and current price. They don't. Oil compay income is a lot like a real estate agent, if home prices go up or down their fee, in dollars, adjust up or down.

Drilling for oil is not the answer. it will only prolong our addiction to oil, rip up valuable pristine wild lands and will not help in the long run it will also continue to contribute to global warming.

What we need is a renewable energy plan and alternative energy! Clean energy is the best solution for this planet. It is quite simple and we have the technology. We just need to move AWAY from oil drilling and oil. We need to develop solar panels in sunny regions such as deserts, electric vehicles, replace cars with hydrogen vehicles, experiment more with ethonol and biofuels. Have bio diseal in trucks. Convert planes over to non polluting sources. Convert businesses to wind and solar power. We also need to force the gas companies like exxon and mobil to build alternative energy islands and refueling stations for hydrogen vehicles and electric cars. If we do this we will be on the right track. Oil Drilling, Dirty Coal, and Nuclear is not the answer. it will only prolong the climate crisis.
So I say NO DRILLING
FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, CLEAN ENERGY, THE RIGHT ENERGY POLICY FOR AMERICA

Jeff,

You are forgetting about the starving poor in the world. What will they do while the plan (already underway) takes effect? Oh I forgot. Starve.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. The humanitarian impulses of Real Greens™ are a wonder to behold.

BTW warmist scientists say there will be no warming for 10 years. There is plenty of time. And if CO2 is a response to climate change (think oceans) and not a forcing then it won't make any difference (except to plants they will like it) what we do about CO2 production.

I always wondered why Greens have it in for plants.