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Past time to drill offshore and in ANWR
STORY TOOLS 
More from Pulse"We can't drill our way out of the problem." Sorry, but this is not true. Congress is trying its most to make the American people suffer as much as they can so that, come November, we will all, lock-step, vote the Democrats into the White House to give us some "hope" for the future.
Well, guess what? The American people are not that gullible. We are told we have oil in oil shale, offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, yet, we have laws in place so we cannot recover the oil. We are protecting everything from the caribou to, I am sure, some obscure insect. The only thing we are not protecting is the American worker and his family. He is left to somehow make it on his own, pay for $5-a-gallon gas, put up with substandard public transportation, find money to pay for increased food and appliances (yes, related to the oil problem, due to increased shipping costs and competing for fuel use).
Meanwhile, he reads about "pork barrel" spending on studies on snails, buildings in honor of the people wasting his money, "splash and dash" fuel subsidies to Europe, and some sort of proposal to tax him on his carbon footprint?
Oh, yes, we have enough coal to last hundreds of years and we can make it clean, too. We know how to build safe nuclear power plants. (The French get 80 percent of their power this way; the Japanese 40 percent.) But, wait, none of these expansions of energy processes is allowed, either. Congress has effectively put America in a position of weakness security-wise and energy-wise. Congress has made us slaves to OPEC and the dictators who control their oil. We learn Russia is self-sufficient and is the new oil power in the world, with most of Europe dependent on it for its energy needs. China is considering drilling off the coast of Florida, but in Cuban waters. We can't drill in our own waters!
While drilling is not the total answer, we have to start protecting the American worker now, and drill. The speculators will get out when they see more oil coming on the market to increase the supply.
When drilling is discussed, we are reminded of the Santa Barbara oil spill — that was in 1969, 40 years ago! Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf, but no oil was spilled from the hundreds of platforms. We have improved from 40 years ago in safety measures.
Congress must put the American worker above the special-interest groups, the environmentalists and all the groups that don't put the worker first!
I like caribou, but if something has to give way to progress, it's the animals, not the millions of Americans who have to support and feed their families every day.
Listen, Congress, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, all you who do not want to drill, the American public has had it with your pandering and do-nothing-to-help-us attitude. The defining issue in November is staring us in the face: It's $75 to fill up the gas tank. Don't tell me about alternative-energy vehicles. They are not here and they are not on the market yet and will not be for a number of years. You told us biofuels would help, but they made food prices higher and are no cheaper than gasoline.
The logic is simple. There is a shortage of oil. Other countries want it, too. We use a lot and we don't have alternative ways of getting around. We have poor public transportation and the lifestyle of Americans is built around the automobile. We import a lot, but we have enormous untapped supplies in our own country.
Therefore, we should drill right here for it. This would also reduce the dependency in the future for foreign oil. We are told it will take 10 years. We were told that 10, 20 years ago, and we did nothing. If we would have done something then, we would have more oil now! So, drill now and help Americans.
Congress, take the ban off drilling. Do something for a change!
Opposing drilling, nuclear and coal is sending a death sentence to our way of life and the American economy and the American worker. I will not vote for anyone opposed to drilling in our own country in November's election.
— Robert W. Coshland lives in Ventura.
Posted by cassandra2 on July 6, 2008 at 8:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Coshland is wrong. He is having a tantrum instead of paying attention to facts.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about--we are at peak oil. Supply is static since '05 though the industry tries to cover its prior lies about reserves by giving figures in "liquid fuels" so that ethanol, tar sands and any oleant but your salad dressing can count.
We will never have cheap oil again. It isn't speculator's messing with the market, though they probably do that. It isn't failure to drill in coastal waters. It isn't those pesky moslems refusing to jack up availability. We have simply reached the point where it is not economically feasible to increase supplies significantly. Not in coastal waters Not in Alaska.
And it never will be again.
Posted by Cg on July 8, 2008 at 10:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There is plenty of fossil fuel accessible to the US to get us to the time of a better energy base in this country. The 800 pound gorilla in the room is Congress.
Contracts for US lands currently held by corporations for oil drilling rights should be reassessed immediately--biggest potential producers first--and a strong arm of national crisis applied to renegotiating drilling time that starts now. It's 10 years past time to open ANWR, expand off-shore, and double the capacity of each nuclear plant currently on line.
The crisis is not so much about the price of oil in July, 2008. It's about the shredding of US savings, the transfer of large portions of US wealth at the speed of an ATM, resulting now in plunging dollars, imprisonment by speculation. The final question is, “who do we want to own us and our assets as we start up from rock bottom?" if we continue down the current path of national hand-wringing.
Several hundred men and women have been entrusted by law with the power to act. What are they waiting for?
Over 150 million US citizens show their patriotism every day through the sweat equity of work. They build lives, and dreams, for their families and communities. Is it right that their equity is sold out from under them by a few hundred trustees, who carefully plan and fund campaigns for themselves, but fail to take effective action on the most serious crisis we face?
Posted by brenrek on July 15, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've lived in the Santa Barbara/Ventura area for the last 37 years. There's a lot of oil offshore (and up in ANWAR), but only a few drilling platforms. The locals have taken a "not in my backyard" position for years, and always blaming the '69 oil spill as evidence of why we shouldn't be drilling. Even today, I hear people complain about the oil spill when they get tar on their feet at Goleta beach. Ever heard of the Goleta tarpits? Duh! UCSB was built on one! The tar isn't coming from a decades-past oil spill; it's coming from the tarpits! China and a few other countries plan to drill offshore in international waters, and they laugh at us because they know we passed laws preventing our own drilling. 70% of Alaskan voters are in favor of drilling up in ANWAR, and who better than Alaskans know what's best for their state? We can and should drill offshore and up in ANWAR.
Talk of alternative energy is all well & good, but it takes time and lots of research to bring them to fruition. You can't legislate technological development, and when you rush a technology, you waste a lot of money, and you get a lot of disillusioned customers. Nuclear energy *IS* available now, but even if the energy companies were allowed to build power plants right now, it’ll take several years before they’re online. Unfortunately, too many people equate nuclear energy with nuclear bombs, and nobody wants a nuclear bomb in their backyard. Solar, wind, and sea energy technologies simply aren't there yet. Hydrogen powered cars are coming, but not soon enough. Even hybrid technology (still in its infancy) isn’t fully developed & realized.
Let's drill offshore, build more oil platforms, and solve the current crisis. Then we'll be in a much better position to develop and transition over to newer, cleaner energy technology.
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