Question for those who say drilling for oil will not help?

I have heard the argument that drilling for oil would not benefit America because the shortage of oil is a myth----and the real problem is a lack of refineries-----I agree we are in bad need of refineries-----but how do you explain away the fact we are importing aprox. 70% of our oil?





Wouldn't harvesting our own resources help to decrease our energy dependence?





Wouldn't it be nice to quit funding the very people that hate us and aim to do us harm ?Question for those who say drilling for oil will not help?
Are you kidding, look at what Nancy Pelosi just did, she dismissed the House of Representatives at 11:30 AM for their 5 week vacation, just so the vote to drill offshore would not come up for a vote. The republicans stayed in the house and continued to argue as though the House was in session.





Over the past 14 years, democrats, historically have been against offshore


drilling, changing coal to liquid, drilling for shale oil for which there is a global supply of approximately 2.8 to 3.2 trillion barrels and 75% of that within the borders of the continental United States. They have also voted against building additional refinery capacity





Yes it costs more to produce this type of oil but it would put a final end to our dependence on foreign oil. This is where the Government needs to step in and penalize oil companies that send our oil offshore, make it much easier to just keep it here than to pay stiff taxes on exports.





My guess is that OPEC oil prices would drop like a rock.Question for those who say drilling for oil will not help?
I can't understand everyone's shortsightedness. If we had drilled years ago, we could be reaping the benefits now. It takes time. We need to drill now to open up channels for future generations. Only trouble is, big oil companies age getting rich because the costs of the drilling now has reached outrageous proportions and the';expenses'; they say they will encounter for the proposed new drilling will be so expensive, oil prices will go up again and the big oil profiteers will continue to have multi billions is record yearly profits. That's a problem we really need to look at because That is what makes new drilling %26amp; exploration unfeasible.
It fascinates me that people keep saying ';our oil';.





The US government leases land to oil companies. They drill and it's THEIR oil. They have no obligation to even sell it in America and they ship from here to other countries everyday. They are not going to give us a price break because their going to sell it wherever they can make the most money.





The refineries is also total bs. When is the last time you saw a cloth mill, a shoe factory or any other plant built in the US (except foreign car companies). The oil companies build refineries where they can make the most money (low wages).





But talk about nationalizing ';our'; oil fields and the conservatives go nuts.





You can't have it both ways.
First, there is not enough oil in those reserves to achieve energy independence.





Second, any oil production is years away.





Third, why does it seem wise to consume the last oil reserves we have rapidly versus trying to actually conserve this precious and finite resource.





Fourth, developing alternative energy will provide energy independence and national security; help our economy through manufacturing and technology; save on healthcare costs that are caused by a polluted environment. Thus, a myriad of pressing domestic and global issues can be better addressed in this manner.
easy answer:





The way NAFTA is set up,


whatever Exxon-Mobile drills for


will go on the world market to the highest


bidder.





McCain likes NAFTA the way it is and doesn't


want any changes or modifications done to it because


he personally owns a lot of stocks in companies that benefit


from Bush's tax cuts to corporations that get cheap labor overseas.





He is totally against Obama's reforms to NAFTA that reward


American companies that hire Americans because that would


cut into his 'status quo' stock investments.





McCain's plan does NOT work.





If Americans don't want to pay high prices for oil,


China certainly will -- and buy it straight from Exxon/Mobile.





FACT:


New American oil drilling in it's prime will only increase


the world's oil supply by slightly less than 1%
I feel that the ';oil shortage'; is a myth and the proof is that when Bush lifted the ban on drilling, the price of oil immediately dropped and we are now seeing cheaper prices. Where I live it's over 40 cents cheaper than it was but drilling will give us more oil and more is without a doubt better. If this isn't proof enough then nothing will convince you. I've worked in the oil business and I live 8 miles from a refinery and several of my business clients work at that refinery so I get info free and easy.
We have to start somewhere, back in the 70's we had a shortage and the way to solve that problem was to have odd and even days to get your gas. They went by your license plate, if the last number was odd you could only get gas on an odd day, ex. 3rd, 5th, etc. We have to do something, we need to process our own oil, as well as alternative energy. Sitting back and doing nothing like Pelosi, isn't getting us any where.
Not without refineries. Which the oil companies have not built any of in over 15 years--in fact they bought out and closed most independant refineries. We are EXPORTING crude oil because ter eis no refinery capacity fo rit.





Which begs the question. We do not need to be wasting money on drilling for oil. It's an obsolete technology and there are better alternatives.





Those alternatives--electric cars, solar an dwind power, etc. are here NOW. Not ';decades in the future, as the right wing claims.'; I f they don't know what's on the market, that's their fault. Their ignorance is no basis for public policy.
It would also keep $70 Billions here in the USA that would generate jobs rather than sending it overseas for countries who hates us to build up an army to try and destroy us. 20 years ago, the ';liberal Times magazine'; claims that we are in a mini ice age and now they are claiming that we have a global warming problem. The local meteorologist can't even get tomorrow's weather right let alone 50 years from now. There is no global warming and we are not destroying the environment so Drill Drill and more Drilling is needed.
NO, it doesn't matter. Oil is bought and sold on a global market, also where the price is set. Just because it is drilled here doesn't mean it will stay here. That and the amount that could be possibly produced by the deposits in the U.S. would barely be 1% of the total world production.





Yes, it would be great to become energy independent. It is just not going to happen solely by drilling for more oil.
oil is a global economy young lady don't believe McCain rhetoric that we can start producing our own oil and that would ween this country off foreign oil . we are drilling in Alaska right now but none of that oil reach the American pumps it go to INDIA . drilling offshore want bring the price of gas down until 2020 and then it would only be 6 cent on the gallon . don't be a fool for the political pandering from McCain and the republican party yamster
Wouldn't it be nice to quit refining oil for other countries and using that gasoline here in the states?





You do realize we refine oil in the US for other nations right? Thats why drilling wont do much good, it wont lessen our dependence either because they'll sell it on the open market, not just to us.
One more time...and this time TRY TO PAY ATTENTION!!!





Drilling for more domestic oil will do VERY little to make us less dependent on foreign oil because it will be SOLD ON THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET.





In other words it will simply go in a big pool with all of the rest of the oil in the world and be sold to the highest bidder.





It WILL NOT, I repeat WILL NOT be retained exclusively for the U.S. market. It will also not amount to much for years to come.





Before you suggest keeping it exclusively for U.S. use...posting that particular question will earn you the extreme and many times abusive disdain of the ';free market capitalists';.
Actually, we do have an oil supply problem -- inventories are flat or falling and production has been flat since 2005 in the face of growing demand.





Drilling will help some, but not enough. Without a massive buildup in alternative energies we face a growing energy crisis.
Understand this very well: Some people don't WANT the USA strong.





A strong USA doesn't want ';change';. That may be the cry of my party right now ';Democrats';, but Republicans use it as well at other times, and frankly, so do our enemies and even envious allies.





People screamed for 'Change' when President Reagan was helping pop the illusion the USSR had put up. People would have screamed for 'Change' when Kennedy was dealing with Cuba.





Some people want us to fail.





Ignore them, push forward.
We have enough refinery capacity, we don't have enough oil reserves. People should start thinking about that, oil shortage is not a myth, oil will run out someday... The super rich oil industry CEOs care only about their profits, and they oppose buildup in alternative energies.
The United States is the worlds Third (3rd) largest petroleum producer, though it has only the 12th largest crude reserve.





In 2006 the U.S. produced more than 8 million barrels of oil each day,


But it consumed more than 20 million per day !





Canada is our chief supplier of foreign oil.


(saudi arabia is 2nd)





To answer your question - the United States does Not have near enough domestic oil to quench our demand.


The more of our oil we pump - the sooner it will run out !
Drilling off-shore in the US would produce an increase in national production of 7%.





The US produces only 10% of the total world oil production.





That means that when all is said and done, drilling off-shore will increase the world output by 0.7%





Do you think that 0.7% will affect the price of oil?
I've got a better idea, how about using American know-how and ingenuity to find a better alternative fuel source? (If we can go to the moon in less that 10 years, we can certainly do this.)
Drilling might drop the price of oil about 10 cents in about 10 years. What we need are real alternatives to oil.
Mr Flip flop didn't tell you how much Oil we have in the coast! A drop in the bucket! A few cents off in Gas after wont help us at all! Bad Economy the more we pay in Gas!
We can't drill enough to make a difference.