Hate to tell you Don, but we are hitting high oil production because of others, not Obama. Any change in the oil industry plays out 5-10 years from now. Obama has reduced the number of leases and their length (if you can get one) over his tenure. He's blocked one of the most important pipelines to date thanks to his 'green' lobby. We have literally hundreds of pipelines that criss cross this country now. We have a massive pipeline that runs right through Atlanta that runs from the gulf to the northeast. They alternate between crude and refined gasoline. Its been there for YEARS.
Our production of oil right now is in spite of Obama, not because of him.
As far as higher MPG, I'm glad we've made those advances no matter who gets the credit. It's better for everyone.
What worries me the most is our industry has only one product it can burn, and every single airline is beholden to it. Could be trouble ahead.
Red...sorry for the thread hijack. I'll say this and then be done with it so that we can get back on original topic.
The President is opening up oil and gas leases left and right. But he wants it done safely. That's why Keystone XL was blocked. I realize, like you, that we have pipelines all over the place. But this one was posing just too great a jeopordy to Midwest underground water supplies. Having said that, I do believe that if the proposed route gets modified a bit then the project will get approved. The other thing that has to change is the exporting parameters. As it stands now, a fair portion of that oil can be exported to China and other places rather than being kept for the U.S. domestic market. So in essence, this extremely dirty tar sands crude comes down the pipeline, endangers our water supplies and our environment should there be a leak (and they ALL leak to varying degrees), then the refining process belches out the most toxic waste into our air and the refined product gets loaded onto ships bound for someone else. Hardly fair to the U.S. This must be changed.
U.S. crude oil production has jumped 14% from 2008 to 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas production is up by about 10% over the same period. The Obama administration plans to sell off oil and gas leases on 38 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor.
The leases could yield as much as 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the Interior Department estimates.
The Administration also has plans for a dozen more lease sales through 2017, which it estimates will open up three-quarters of the recoverable oil and gas below the outer Continental Shelf.
All fine, as long as it is done safely. But we also must remember that even if the Drill Here Drill Now pundits got their way, it would take years for such action to move the markets and since we only own 3% of the world's oil reserves, the impact would be only 1 or 2 cents of price reduction.
I think we all can agree that fossil fuels are damaging to our environment and are a finite supply. They will run out. How many wars will be fought over that dwindling supply in the future? We must step up the pace of clean alternative energy solutions...or we will make ourselves extinct through our own hand. I am reminded of a lesson from the past - the last tree standing on Easter Island.
uke:
