Domestic oil drilling: response from US Senator

[lbeels]

I sent an email to my 2 US Senators; Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer regarding lifting the ban on offshore drilling. Here is Senator Feinstein's canned response I'm sure she has sent out to thousands of people.

Can anyone here answer questions I have about her response? What's the truth? I've put my responses below in red after Senator Feinstein's.

Thanks

Thank you for writing to me to express your support for increasing
domestic oil and gas exploration. I appreciate hearing from you on this
important energy issue, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

I share your concern that rising energy prices are placing a burden on
American families and agree that it is important for the United States
to continue to develop its oil and gas resources in concert with our
efforts to reduce demand. I do not believe, however, that the United
States can drill our way out of these record energy prices. According to
the Department of Energy (DOE):

-The United States consumes more than 20.5 million barrels of oil per
day - or 25 percent of total global consumption - but has less than
three percent of the known global reserves; (I have heard that we have enough oil in America to last us 200 years)

-Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas
exploration would not increase domestic crude oil production until 2018 (So what. Just because your zucchini's take weeks before they are ready for harvest, does that mean you won't grow them?)

-Additional oil production from opening ANWR is estimated to yield
745,000 barrels per day - or 3.6 percent of daily U.S. consumption - and
would reduce the price of oil by no more than $1.44 per barrel; and (?)

-Lifting the Federal moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural
gas production or prices before 2030. (?)

You may also be interested to know that between 1999 and 2007, the
number of drilling permits issued to the oil industry increased by 361
percent. Over the same period, however, gas prices increased from $1.25
per gallon to over $4.00 per gallon. The oil industry also has access to
significant oil and gas resources on federal lands and waters that they
have yet to use. According to the Department of the Interior (What's this about? She makes it sound like there are plenty of areas to drill for oil here in the US already).

-The majority of crude oil and natural gas believed to be available on
the OCS - 79 percent of oil and 82 percent of natural gas - are already
available for drilling through existing leases; and (Is this the same offshore drilling that President Bush has OK'd? Maybe the oil is in the smaller percentages of the OCS not available for drilling?)

-Nearly 64 million acres of federal land and water leased to the oil and
gas industry are not being used to increase domestic production. (Is it possible that this area is not good for drilling for oil?)


Instead of initiating oil and gas exploration in places like ANWR and
the OCS, I believe that the United States needs a long-term strategy to
address our dependence on oil. We must take steps to increase the use of
renewable energy and maximize current supplies by supporting energy
efficient technologies. Please know that I appreciate hearing your
support for increasing domestic oil and gas exploration, and I will keep
your thoughts in mind as I continue working with my Senate colleagues to
strengthen our national energy policy.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have additional comments or
questions, please contact my Washington, D.C. staff at (202) 224-3841.
Best regards.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

[Issachar]

She is simply stating the reason why Democrats are not willing to allow ANWR drilling and some off shore drilling; that the oil companies already can produce more than they are with leases they already have. I've read enough to know that some of that is accurate but not enough to know how extensive.

In very recent years, there has been a lot of complaints of oil companies capping wells. Why are they not pumping them?

Issachar

[savedatcamp]

Those Democrats that do not want to drill had the same lines sent to them thru some sort of osmosis wks ago while they slept, those insane talking points :rolleyes. The same words come out of their mouths constantly....we cannot drill outselves out of this problem and it will take 10 yrs. Blah, blah blah.
And by the way I would almost consider waiting 10 yrs for some zucchini as my garden is lousy this yr from way too much rain and very creepy bugs. :scratch
Blessings to all,
savedatcamp

[out of the box]

(I have heard that we have enough oil in America to last us 200 years)

I'm pro-drilling, even in ANWR, but this business about 200 years of oil is tinfoil hat territory unless there are some new, credible sources that I'm not aware of.

[rishi]

I do support sucking every last drop of natural resource the earth has to offer so we can drive our hummers to the pool 2 blocks away, and at the same time I can see the need for more conservation.

I may sound like a shill, but I assure you I have no "green" ties, nor "oil" ties.

I have heard that there is leased land available for drilling that is not being used right now. There are capped wells. There is no crude shortage, but refining shortage. There are many arguments for and against these statements. But we still need to look at the basics - and if I'm wrong, someone please let me know.

"We" will not be drilling ANWR for oil. You and I have nothing to do with that. Big multinational oil companies will. Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, etc. Big multinational oil is not in this for goodwill or peace offerings. They are in this for money. Right now Exxon is making 50 billion a year in PROFIT. Do they want to make less profit? Will they sell this "American" oil to America for anything less than market price? What about all the "American" oil we use right now - is it being sold to us for anything less than market price? Whether we buy Canadian oil, Saudi oil, American oil, European oil, it's all being sold at market price.

So...eventually we get a lot more crude in the market. "Prices MUST drop" is the thinking. Unfortunately, we can't drive our Hummers on crude. We can't make plastic out of crude. The dead dinosaurs need to be refined into useable products. Again, if I'm wrong, please let me know, but I think this is the bottleneck. We'll just have tankers of crude sitting at docks waiting to be refined.

And the last piece in my thinking is the "eventually" part. We won't get anything useful for 10 years by destroying ANWR. Yes, long term thinking is good. But when we get to year 9 and gas is $50/gal, are we THEN going to start thinking about the future? In the next 10 years we should be working on renewable alternatives - not waiting on more gas. By then we should be in our hydrogen powered DeLoreans (time travel option package may not be available in all markets :)) Long term thinking is necessary, but applied to a finite resource makes it futile. I have 10 cans of beans. After a week, I have 5 cans left. Now I'm wondering how I can stretch those out. 2 weeks later, I have 2 cans left...now I need to stretch out some more... and so on. When dealing with a finite resource, there will always be points to stop and re-plan. So although people are saying that we need to be thinking long term and 10 years to get more oil is just an example of long term thinking, I'd probably deem 10 years as longer framed short term. I don't know about you, but I expect the human race (trib or not) to be on this planet for more than 10 or 200 years.

In my opinion, (and everyone can say "I told you so" if things turn out otherwise) but I expect this drilling to have only minor effect on gas prices - probably just enough to keep us from seriously investing in alternatives.

[lovinlife4]

I think we do need to drill. God blessed us with resources too and yet we would rather send billions of dollars elsewhere. No wonder other countries don't want to increase production. They probably think we are nuts. And politicians need to stop thinking only on party lines. It's really ashame, isn't it?

[Joseph The Carpenter]

The demoncrats have said they want to take over the oil companies. They will use the current situation to their advantage.

[kenny1659]

The oil companies can DRILL in their offshore tracts that they lease from the goverment for hundreds of millions of dollars BUT, they cannot PRODUCE their leases. Chevron drilled in the Gulf of Mexico on a lease and found vast quantities of natural gas but after more than 20 years of not being able to get a permit to produce what they found they sold their leases back to the goverment and went elsewhere.:ohno

[Renee]

The oil companies can DRILL in their offshore tracts that they lease from the goverment for hundreds of millions of dollars BUT, they cannot PRODUCE their leases. Chevron drilled in the Gulf of Mexico on a lease and found vast quantities of natural gas but after more than 20 years of not being able to get a permit to produce what they found they sold their leases back to the goverment and went elsewhere.:ohno

Now thats treally sad.:shocked:tsk

[PRZ-Him]

Ibeels: That looks like and sounds like the letter that I got from our
Senator in Missouri sent me :rolleyes