Todd Twilley: Offshore Drilling? Yes!

[Editorial note from Dano: Folks, this post is by regular commenter, Todd Twilley. As such, we cannot in good conscience hold steadfastly to our own rules regarding "keeping it neutral." Todd's post clearly reflects his ideology, but that's okay...he's just filling in for me this week. I will comment on his and Reed's posts as if Reed and I were debating, here. I encourage the rest of you to withhold judgment on the neutrality issue and comment as normal otherwise. Thanks for the assistance, Todd!]

Anyone who argues that offshore drilling is the magic bullet in energy independence is crazy. They are also crazy if they don't believe alternative energies should be explored. So I'm not going to argue offshore drilling is the be-all and end-all to energy independence. And I'm not going to say we shouldn't encourage businesses to improve alternative energy technology. What I am going to argue is that offshore drilling, actually using our own resources, is essential for our country's economic well-being until alternate technologies advance.

Offshore drilling will not allow for new American oil to be put on the market overnight. Its silly to suggest it can. But just the threat of America drilling and using its own oil resources sends a shiver down the spine of our enemies who control the oil markets. Here's the proof: On Monday July 14, President George W. Bush lifted the ban on offshore drilling and urged Congress to do the same. (see http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2008/07/bush_lifts_ban_on_offshore_dri.html). That week, oil dropped $15 a barrel - a downward trend in oil prices that has continued to this day (see http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2008/07/bush_lifts_ban_on_offshore_dri.html).

Everyone knows OPEC controls the price of oil by how much they allow on the market, much as DeBeers controls the price of diamonds. And just like DeBeers' diamond resources, there's plenty of oil in the ground. This drop in price proves that OPEC is scared to death that we are going to drill for our own oil. Now Iran (who are not our friends, guys) says that OPEC needs to lower production to raise the prices of oil. Iran wants us to suffer economically. Iran has the alibi that the stronger dollar is the reason for the price drop in oil, and while the depleted value of the dollar has certainly contributed to the rise in the price of oil and gas (thank you, financial industry bailouts), it's recent recovery nowhere compares to the spike in oil prices we experienced during that dollar decline.

From OPEC nations to Russia, the countries that are out there who have oil are not our friends. And it's not a Bush foreign policy issue, either. They've never been our friends during the Industrial Age. We must show them we are serious and have a backbone. OPEC has held the power for decades. And now Russia is buying up oil reserves throughout the world. (see http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=69918).

Even if we don't use it. At least we need to find the oil and drill it. If we must, we can put a cap on the wells offshore and, should we need to show Russia or OPEC a thing or two, just haul an oil platform out to them and start pumping.

An estimated 18 billion barrels of offshore oil is now banned. Under the joke of a plan for "opening" offshore drilling proposed by the Democrat-controlled Congress, 90 percent of that would still be off limits. Democrats are not using logic here. But they are selfishly trying to win votes from their paranoid supporters. That's because its hard to defend the evidence above and say that offshore drilling won't have an impact on oil prices. Just talking about it has had an effect. Its a lot easier to use scare tactics and propaganda to argue against offshore drilling. Here are the arguments, in short, against offshore drilling and why they are faulty:

1. Storms such as Hurricane Ike shut down offshore rigs, divert tankers, and shut down refineries. What happened in Tallahassee wasn't a result of Hurricane Ike directly. It was more directly a result of the Tallahassee Democrat, group think and mass hysteria. It's unlikely anything short of a concentrated terrorist attack that takes out all our refineries would cause any true gas shortage.Oil rigs can be restaffed and operational usually within a couple of days after a storm event. It takes about the same two days to reroute tankers. Oil refining is the first industry behind hospitals and government to get working in a devastated coastal city.
   
2. Another argument is alternative energies. The legitimate alternative energies are susceptible to natural disasters, too. What happens when a tornado wipes out a windmill farm in the Midwest or a solar farm has an uncharacteristically low streak of mostly cloudy days? What happens when those dependent on hydro power experience a drought? And what happens when a nuclear power plant is targeted by terrorists?

Speaking of alternative energies, the ones mentioned above are the only true alternative sources. Our leaders in Washington want to divert our attention with hopes of Ethanol or hydrogen powered cars or even plug-in vehicles. Energy is energy folks. Hydrogen and Ethanol take too much energy to make them a worthwhile option. Technology may improve on the hydrogen end. But use of Ethanol is simply a special interest ploy to get Midwest farmer votes. The end effect of Ethanol we've seen in an increase in almost all types of food products. It's about the corn, which is the basis for all meat and dairy (it's what the cows and chickens eat). But those farmers who have raised feed are turning to Ethanol, not because its more profitable in the free market, but because the government is subsidizing Ethanol.

The problem with alternative energies such as nuclear power plants are that the same people who oppose offshore drilling have so burdened those who might invest in nuclear power plants with heavy regulation that it makes investment in this clean energy nigh impossible. The problem with wind and solar is that our technology is just not there yet to harvest enough energy. It's getting better all the time, but it needs to get a lot better before wind and solar are viable options. We'll be using oil primarily for the next 30 years until these technologies can advance far enough, I predict. Even if it's sooner, we'll still need the oil for plastic.

Then there is the environmental aspect. As far as oil spills, human error in transport causes oil spills, not offshore drilling. We're going to import oil from somewhere. There's a less chance of a transport disaster by transporting it a few hundred miles off our shores than from thousands of miles away.

But what about the oil when it is actually burned? Global warming. That's a whole other debate. But man-made global warming is about as real as the Tallahassee gas shortage. Or I should say it was as real as the Tallahassee gas shortage before everyone in the city went nuts. I just hope we burn enough oil to ensure we avoid the coming ice age. See these two links for proof on that: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2008-09-09-farmers-almanac_N.htm

and http://www.dailytech.com/Sun%20Makes%20History%20First%20Spotless%20Month%20in%20a%20Century/article12823.htm.

Reed: Drilling to Economic Salvation? It Just Won't Work.

Imagine this scenario if you can. It's a Friday afternoon in Tallahassee, and six hundred miles away a town is bracing for a dangerous hurricane. You've decided to take off work early because, after all, it's Friday, and there's a football game tomorrow. You need to get home and get ready for the big weekend, but first you have to stop for gas. You reach one station, and the line at the pumps is reaching back into the road. You ease by that one, only to be greeted by a repeat of the same at the next station. Two miles up the road, a clerk is changing the price on the sign from $3.79 to $5.49 per gallon. The last station between work and home has strung yellow police tape around its pumps - no gas.

Actually, you don't have to imagine it. It's exactly what happened Friday, September 12, 2008. And it is a telling reminder that, in spite of what self-serving politicians and oil company executives may be preaching, America cannot drill her way to energy independence.

Hurricane Ike was a telling reminder that Tallahassee, and indeed our entire nation, is, as President Bush said in his 2006 State of the Union message, "addicted to oil." The President went on to say that the addiction could only be broken by pledging to invest in alternative fuel sources and reducing oil imports by 70% by the year 2025.

President Bush was right then. He is wrong today when he suggests, as does Senator John McCain and other politicos on both sides of the aisle, that we must boost production through more drilling for oil at home.

According to Randy Bly, spokesperson for AAA Auto Club South, Tallahassee could see gas prices at $6.00 a gallon and spotty availability later this month, if Ike-related damage to refineries in Houston were severe. "We're in for a bumpy ride, quite frankly, over the next couple of weeks," Bly told Nic Corbett of the Tallahassee Democrat (Sunday, September 14.)

And that, my friends, is the number one issue. Let's for a moment ignore the environmental impact that offshore drilling, and drilling in sensitive areas such as the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, might produce. Let's set aside the notion that our "addiction to oil" is fueling a climate crisis of unimaginable consequences. Let's even skip over the recent revelation that employees of the agency in charge of collecting the money for the oil leases owned by the United States government were engaged in a "sex, drugs and light sweet crude" debauchery with representatives of the very industry they are supposed to be regulating.

Let's instead concentrate on the means through which we turn the oil we purchase on the world market into the gasoline we so desperately demand - refining. According to news reports, one Houston refinery that shut down in anticipation of Ike refines almost one in every four gallons of gasoline sold in the United States. Think about it - in less than a week, our ability to produce gasoline was reduced by almost 25%.

Why? Because we are refining all the oil we can possibly refine right now. Currently America has 151 operating oil refineries, at least twenty-five in Texas alone, and each one has been operating at peak or near-peak capacity. Regardless of the fact that it would take many years to produce a single additional barrel of oil if restrictions on drilling were lifted today, increasing our domestic output simply means we would be sitting on that surplus oil for months - because we don't have the ability to refine it. Thus, gas prices, the raison d'etre for the "drill here, drill now, pay less" crowd, cannot and will not be affected by increasing crude supplies from domestic sources.

And the refining capability of our nation is not likely to change, in the short or long-term. An issue of "Alexander's Gas and Oil Connection", an industry publication, said in July of 2001 that the U.S. "appears to have built its last refinery" (volume 6, issue #13, July 17 2001). The article noted that no new refinery had been constructed in the U.S. since the mid-seventies, and "petroleum industry experts say anyone would be crazy to launch such an effort." Several reasons were given for this outlook:

• Refineries are not particularly profitable.
• Environmentalists fight the process from beginning to end.
• Government red tape makes the process all but impossible.

Let's just skip over the last two and concentrate on reason number one - "not particularly profitable." We must remember that all the oil produced today in the United States doesn't just appear in American refineries and wind up in American's tanks. Because the oil is "owned" by the oil companies, it goes on the world market and is snapped up by the highest bidder. Our refineries are not profitable because they are simply seen as a "cost of doing business" by the oil companies. This will not change until and unless America nationalizes its oil reserves.

And this will not happen. Capitalism, or consumerism as we practice in America, relies not on nations but on markets. And today's market does not reflect a short supply of available crude oil. OPEC's recent decision to reduce output by over 500,000 barrels a day (see www.sltrib.com/business) to maintain the price of oil at or above $100.00 per barrel indicates that countries such as Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia can easily dictate the price of oil regardless of supply surpluses or deficits.

If America were to allow more lands such as ANWR to be open to more drilling, best case scenarios say we could be pumping oil in five to ten years, according to the Spero Forum, a pro-drilling publication (http://www.speroforum.com/). OPEC at that point would merely reduce output further, thus continuing to control prices in spite of our efforts to control supply.

So it is clear - America cannot drill her way to energy independence, because America is but one of many players on the world market. China and India will be a much larger force as their demand grows. So, as President Bush said, we must defeat our "addiction to oil" by increasing our use of biofuels, harnessing solar and wind power to heat and cool our homes and light our streets, and allow American ingenuity to trump the power of the oil companies and their political cronies to control our destiny. This will take dedication, perseverance, money and hard work. But I believe we are up to the challenge.

We must be. The future of our nation and, indeed, our planet, demands no less.

Guest Debater

Hello, folks, and thank you for your continued patience as we await Dano's return to full-time debating. We're happy to report that he's doing well and continues to improve daily. Thank you for your concern and good wishes.

In the meantime, our friend and frequent contributor J.T. (Todd) Twilley has graciously agreed to "stand in" for Dano while he hones his cognitive skills a little more, and we flipped a coin yesterday. Todd and I will debate the pressing issue of whether or not the U.S. should begin opening up more oil leases, offshore and in other areas, for drilling. Based on the toss of the coin, Todd will take the "pro" side of this debate and I will argue against. Our posts should be up by Monday or so, ready for your comments.

As always, we will look forward to what you have to say, and may we all learn something in the process.