Obama says “drill baby drill”—or does he?
It should come as no surprise that it was all just a diversionary smokescreen:
When you cut through the hoopla, here is what Obama’s announcement added up to:
* Cancelled five lease sales off the Alaska coast that were planned over the next 2 years. One of the areas is estimated to hold up to 77 billion barrels of oil, or more than 3 times US reserves.
* A study of the southern Atlantic OCS, with the findings due back next year….no leasing.
* Delayed a planned lease sale off Virginia until at least 2012.
Sarah Palin calls it “stall, baby, stall.”
Yes, it is nothing more than a head feint designed to make the uninformed think he is “adopting” some Republican ideas as he rams Cap and Tax through.
Think what real drilling reform could do. If ANWR and the area off Santa Barabra (both areas have proven reserves) were opened, oil could be flowing into pipelines in lesss than three years. Many new jobs would be created. Price pressures on oil would be relieved. We could buy less imported oil, thereby reducing our trade deficit and making our energy supplies more secure. California’s financial problems would be alleviated. The Feds would receive billions in lease payments, oil royalties, and taxes from oil companies.
No, that won’t happen. Some one might make some PROFITS. Or there might be an environmental DISASTER. (Like happened to all those wells in the Gulf after Katrina. Oh, that’s right, it didn’t happen.) And, of course, the really big one: The Sierra Club would be really, really unhappy.
Charley, Lucy and the football, writ large.
I have to say that for alaska, this decision is vitally important. Here’s a link in the local paper regarding this story.
“The proposed permit authorizes Shell to conduct a multiyear exploratory oil and gas drilling program with the Frontier Discoverer drillship and support fleet, the EPA said.”
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/04/01/1208265/shells-chukchi-drilling-plan-gets.html#ixzz0jsnElmWW
Environmentalists have challenged Shell in court and have held up past drilling. If they get he goahead to do exploratory drilling in 2010, and it now looks likely thanks to this development, it will be huge for this state and by extension our nation.
It is believed that there are huge oil and natural gas reserves in the Chuckchi. If the environmentalists continue to hamstring Alaskan exploration, it’s only a matter of time till the declining oil fields at Prudhoe dry up and productions stops. at this point the economy of hte state woulddry up also. that is precisely what many environmentalists want. They wish to see Alaska be a giant park. Locked up for them, their friends and the government employees who would get to live here. So while its a mixed bag, let’s see how this shakes out. Believe me, it’s not going to change anybody’s opinion of Obama.