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Senate Rejects Alaskan Oil Drilling Bill

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<< 3) Research alternative fuels. >>


I was trying to keep the discussion simple and focused on oil only. Sure we need to keep researching other fuels and we need to keep making our machines more efficient. But that is neither here nor there when discussing foreign oil vs American oil. I perfer not to use American oil, and keep it in the ground available for emergencies. Bush perfers to use up all American oil so we have nothing to sustain us in the case of an emergency. This is true until we have a viable alternative.

Coal can be turned into gasoline but it costs $4 per gallon. We have enough natural gas to meet all our current energy needs - but running vechiles off of it is difficult. Nuclear energy is great if the red tape is removed and safety added in its place. Solar cells are slowly improving. We have lots of potential canidates but at the moment none are cost effective.
 


<< No exploratory drilling has been accomplished in the area except for one well commenced in the winter of 1984-85 on Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation lands southeast of Kaktovik on the Coastal Plain. >>



There are other ways to estimate the amount of oil underground, including geological studies.

Exploratory drilling would only bring the margin of error down. Considering that even the highest estimates are relatively small, your argument is not relevant.
 


<< We have lots of potential canidates but at the moment none are cost effective. >>


[soapbox mode]Bikes are cheap as dirt! Get off your lazy asses and ride your bike to work! Requires no foreign oil! Very patriotic! Get the slim, shapely buttocks and thighs you've always wanted!![/soapbox mode]

Sorry, couldn't help myself.😉


Fausto <==hasn't filled his car up in a month cuz he rides to work.😀
 


<< 3) Research alternative fuels. >>


I was trying to keep the discussion simple and focused on oil only. Sure we need to keep researching other fuels and we need to keep making our machines more efficient. But that is neither here nor there when discussing foreign oil vs American oil. I perfer not to use American oil, and keep it in the ground available for emergencies. Bush perfers to use up all American oil so we have nothing to sustain us in the case of an emergency. This is true until we have a viable alternative.

Coal can be turned into gasoline but it costs $4 per gallon. We have enough natural gas to meet all our current energy needs - but running vechiles off of it is difficult. Nuclear energy is great if the red tape is removed and safety added in its place. Solar cells are slowly improving. We have lots of potential canidates but at the moment none are cost effective.


agreed, but i think we need to move away from solely discussing middle east and american oil, and start to focus on alternative fuels. oil is only a temporary solution... the future of this nation, and frankly of the entire world, rests on a good alternative fuel.
 
actually the economically recoverable amount of oil according to USGS studies is much closer 3.2 billion barrels of oil. Most of the drilling pressure seems to come from political sources.
 
Either way, we really need to develope alternative sources of energy and get out of the iron grip that the middle east has on us.
 


<<

<< We have lots of potential canidates but at the moment none are cost effective. >>


[soapbox mode]Bikes are cheap as dirt! Get off your lazy asses and ride your bike to work! Requires no foreign oil! Very patriotic! Get the slim, shapely buttocks and thighs you've always wanted!![/soapbox mode]

Sorry, couldn't help myself.😉


Fausto <==hasn't filled his car up in a month cuz he rides to work.😀 >>



lol Lets see. 25 miles to work, thats one heart attack every 5 miles.... 😀 😀
 


<< Either way, we really need to develope alternative sources of energy and get out of the iron grip that the middle east has on us. >>



Yes yes YES!
 
Within the last few months, I have become less and less anti-drilling. I feel that it is most important just to get off Middle Eastern oil. It seems like our whole Middle Eastern foreign policy is centered on oil. We went to war with Iraq just because of oil. We are friends with Saudi Arabia jest because of the oil. I don?t mind oil from the former-USSR states, Mediterranean Sea, or Venezuela since our policies towards those countries aren?t shaped by oil. I think the best idea is to just stop driving these SUV?s to downtown from suburbia and start looking at implementing these alternative technologies.
 
McCain voted AGAINST it?

That guy is bucking to lose next time he's up for re-election.

And I know a lot of people in Indiana are unhappy that Evan Bayh didn't vote for it.
 


<< lol Lets see. 25 miles to work, thats one heart attack every 5 miles.... >>


Right, but after about the third attack, you'd start to experience the "runner's high" and really not even notice the fourth and fifth ones, right?😉

Seriously, I know that not everyone can do the bike thing on a daily basis. But the point is that there are other ways of getting around that we tend to ignore because we can. Obviously it will take some infrastructure rearranging to make such things more feasible (more mass transit, better bike lanes and paths, better urban planning so work and home are not so spread out) but until then we can all make an effort to at least carpool or something, right?

I typed this all out in an earlier thread but it bears repeating so I'll cut and paste:

An interesting example of this occured here in Atlanta a while back. A tanker truck blew up on GA 400 right underneath I-285 (the perimeter highway here in atlanta) shutting both down for several days. These are both major commuter routes every day here so this forced a lot of people to explore other means of getting to work. Everyone bitched about this (naturally), but at the same time everyone commented of how much better the traffic was that week, and we had not a single smog alert the whole time (these are very common during the summer here). Everyone suddenly saw the value of mass transit, commuting and telecommuting.......and then promptly hopped back in their cars once the highways were fixed.

This was pretty indicative of the current mindset that we need to work on. Big cars are great and all, but every barrel of oil not needed by the US is just as good as an extra barrel produced in the US.

Fausto
 
oil companies think they could be in there in under 2 years actually producing. all the technology and stuff is has already been developed. building a dirt road to get the initial stuff in takes almost no time.

as for drilling in the gulf, yes, they could do that, and they can drill in wyoming if the price of a barrel goes high enough. companies do have to show a profit, and based on their current projections of the price of a barrel they would lose money. and of course the farther off your projections go the more inaccurate they get. if you had accurate projections you'd be in the futures market. the companies can only run a present discount value out so far before there is enough error in it that its completely meaningless.




<< The fact that we consume such a disproportionate amount of oil as a nation relative to the world population really says a lot.... >>

thats a completely loaded statement. we have a disproportionate part of the world economy in comparison to other countries as well. the only people you could compare us to, on a per-capita basis, is per-capita income rivals. yes, we are above them as well, but not anywhere near as much as aggregate country wide vs all.
 


<<

<< lol Lets see. 25 miles to work, thats one heart attack every 5 miles.... >>


Right, but after about the third attack, you'd start to experience the "runner's high" and really not even notice the fourth and fifth ones, right?😉 >>



HAHAHA I've haven't had "runner's high" since college Now its "runner's fear" 😀

I dont think its feasable where I live but you are right it would help the air pollution in the cities.
 


<< thats a completely loaded statement. we have a disproportionate part of the world economy in comparison to other countries as well. the only people you could compare us to, on a per-capita basis, is per-capita income rivals. yes, we are above them as well, but not anywhere near as much as aggregate country wide vs all. >>


True, true. The point I was making is that we are total oil hogs and don't need to be.

Fausto
 
biking is nice, but it's not going to be widely adopted... urban sprawl, yadda yadda. people like to do what's convenient... not necessarily what's more efficient or better for the environment. maybe i'm jaded, but i don't think it's possible to change the way people do things. i think our efforts are best spent in researching ways to make their actions less damaging. like alternative fuels 😛
 
i don't like being dependent on foreign oil, but i don't think drilling in alaska is the answer.

we could buy & store oil from foreign governments, just in case, for now
(like here)
 


<< HAHAHA I've haven't had "runner's high" since college Now its "runner's fear" >>


Termed "barking at the floor" by an Australian friend of mine.😉



<< I dont think its feasable where I live but you are right it would help the air pollution in the cities. >>


I've got it! <smak!> We'll all go out and buy Segways!!
rolleye.gif


Yup, not feasible for everyone. Could be in the future tho. I'm a big fan of the rails-to-trails programs (turning old disused railways into paved paths). Everyone wins with these: they are cheap because most of the work has already been done (level, bed in place), they are separate from roadways so don't annoy cranky motorists, often cut through developed areas (where offices are now), and are usually quite flat (trains don't like hills) thus easier for the average Joe to ride in to work. Tons of these back in MI...still waiting for them to catch on down here.

Fausto
 
Good stuff!!! Now we need to find some other way to ween ourselves from middle eastern oil and oil in general. We need to acting now so that we can have a better future. Europe and some south american countries are already doing it. Are we going to wait until it is too late and everyone has passed us by? Let's get some clean, renewable energy sources!!!
 


<<

<< Well at least my Senators, Inhofe & Nickles, voted correctly. >>

Mine as well. >>


Puahaha! I don't even have to look to know how Boxer and Feinstein voted 😀

Also, shouldn't the actual state of Alaska have a bigger say in the whole matter?

 
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