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Originally Posted by Shelby&Seymour  This IS a very good point, but from what I understand, it would take YEARS to accomplish getting our sources "tapped"........ if what I have heard is true. |
While it's true that it would take some time to get the first barrel of oil it would only take a matter of hours for the
news that congress has approved drilling to be spread around the world. The market reacts quickly to risk. If there is a certainty that more product is coming the prices will reflect that. If all we accomplish is keeping the price in the $2 range for the next decade while the resource is brought to market....at least it's not $4.
If we had begun drilling ten years ago when the effort began we would already have the resource in the market...the fact that it will take a while is no reason to delay any longer. We may be ten years form bringing the product to market but we may be fifty years from replacing it, which should we focus on?
Even if we didn't need oil for our cars and trucks we can't do without it. Are we prepared to do without air travel? We're nowhere near any type of energy source that will give us the ability to fly. Most of the basic needs of our economy are tied to oil and the petroleum products derived from oil. Sterile packaging, plastics for our healthcare system come from petroleum, what will replace them? The oil based compounds that we make tires from? How about the base products that go into road construction and repair? What will we build roads from?
If we are to remain a super power, we must face the facts about energy. Without a steady supply of cheap energy our economy will stagnate, look around the world, the evidence of this is everywhere.
Consider this solution, we open offshore drilling (we have the best safety and cleanup record in the world) and ANWAR. The resulting effect on the oil future market is immediate and substantial. Secondly we begin opening coal reserves to reduce the price of electricity with the understanding that we are going to begin building nuclear (nucular if your reading this W) power plants. The beauty of nuclear power is that since it's difficult to bring the reactor up and down it's helpful to find ways to use the extra energy during off peak times...this makes hydrogen energy much more feasible. Right now it takes more petroleum energy to produce hydrogen than we get from the hydrogen. If we have a very cheap energy source we can devote to separating hydrogen and oxygen....viola! Endlessly renewable energy from water.
If we let party affiliation and willful ignorance work to keep us bickering about who did what we'll lose our standard of living, and possibly our freedom. There are common sense answers staring us in the face. If you have a party hold their feet to the fire and expect results...if you don't get them....kick their sorry butts to the curb.