The gas prices we deserve

[PosterChild]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] By George Will
Jewish World Review

[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Rising in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: "I rise to discuss rising energy prices." The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer's gorge was rising. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
Saudi Arabia, he said, "holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term." Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately." [/FONT]
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Can a senator, with so many things on his mind, know so precisely how the price of gasoline would respond to that increase in the oil supply? Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something, the price of it probably will fall. That is why he and 96 other senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the reserve also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [/FONT]
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One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today's senators — including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain — have voted to keep ANWR's estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market. [/FONT]
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So Schumer, according to Schumer, is complicit in taking $10 away from every American who buys 20 gallons of gasoline. "Democracy," said H.L. Mencken, "is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." The common people of New York want Schumer to be their senator, so they should pipe down about gasoline prices, which are a predictable consequence of their political choice.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Also disqualified from complaining are all voters who sent to Washington senators and representatives who have voted to keep ANWR's oil in the ground and who voted to put 85 percent of America's offshore territory off-limits to drilling. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that restricted area contains perhaps 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — 10 times as much oil and 20 times as much natural gas as Americans use in a year. [/FONT]
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Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are. [/FONT]
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ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware), and drilling along its coastal plain would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington's Dulles airport. Offshore? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged hundreds of drilling rigs without causing a large spill. There has not been a significant spill from an offshore U.S. well since 1969. Of the more than 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 percent — that is one-thousandth of 1 percent — has been spilled. Louisiana has more than 3,200 rigs offshore — and a thriving commercial fishing industry. [/FONT]
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In his book "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence,' " Robert Bryce says Brazil's energy success has little to do with its much-discussed ethanol production and much to do with its increased oil production, the vast majority of which comes from off Brazil's shore. Investor's Business Daily reports that Brazil, "which recently made a major oil discovery almost in sight of Rio's beaches," has leased most of the world's deep-sea drilling rigs. [/FONT]
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In September 2006, two U.S. companies announced that their Jack No. 2 well, in the Gulf 270 miles southwest of New Orleans, had tapped a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil, which would increase America's proven reserves by 50 percent. Just probing four miles below the Gulf's floor costs $100 million. Congress's response to such expenditures is to propose increasing the oil companies' tax burdens. [/FONT]
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America says to foreign producers: We prefer not to pump our oil, so please pump more of yours, thereby lowering its value, for our benefit. Let it not be said that America has no energy policy.
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http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will060508.php3

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[Doomsday101]

That is a shame that China gets to drill via the Cuban Government while our tree huggers continue to prevent our country from going after much needed oil.

[PosterChild]

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

That is a shame that China gets to drill via the Cuban Government while our tree huggers continue to prevent our country from going after much needed oil.

It's a crime that much of Congress fails to grasp the basics of energy economics. Their initiatives are a recipe for continued strife and even catastrophe if they're able to compound our problems with "cap and trade legislation."

[iceberg]

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

That is a shame that China gets to drill via the Cuban Government while our tree huggers continue to prevent our country from going after much needed oil.

Originally Posted by PosterChild

It's a crime that much of Congress fails to grasp the basics energy economics. Their initiatives are a recipe for continued strife and even catastrophe if they're able to compound our problems with "cap and trade legislation."

and if there's an accident, what the other side tends to fear most, happens...we'll take the hit anyway.

so fine. the drill, get the oil/profit and if a problem, we eat it anyway.

great deal, yea.

[Heisenberg]

Just for reference purposes, the USA consumes 20.7 million barrels of oil per day of which we import 10.4 million barrels per day.

Just to give you a guage of just how oil dependent we are and how much money we piss away to other countries.

[BigDPlayer]

Only problem with this premise is that it is the refineries that are making the oil prices so high. Also, IF we drill in ANWR it will only reduce gas prices, at full capacity, by $.05/gallon.

Refineries are THE issue here... and that is a whole other animal of building up infrastructure and investment. As you might imagine...

[Jordan55]

The fact, that neither party has done anything for the last twenty five years to avoid this energy crisis, and have made us totally dependent on outside sources, when we have availability right here in good ole US of A, that we haven't built a new refinery in the same amount of time and have let the oil conglomerates buy out any alternative competition. Now that's what I call a Government for the people.

Brings me to one of my favorite quotes
"I love my country, but I fear my Government'
Always a day late and a dollar short, in this case the dollar has been rerouted at our expense.

[PosterChild]

Originally Posted by Ozzu

Just for reference purposes, the USA consumes 20.7 million barrels of oil per day of which we import 10.4 million barrels per day.

Just to give you a guage of just how oil dependent we are and how much money we piss away to other countries.

What is your source for this number? Do you remember?
Fact #9. America imports two-thirds of the oil it uses

[AtlCB]

Originally Posted by BigDPlayer

Only problem with this premise is that it is the refineries that are making the oil prices so high. Also, IF we drill in ANWR it will only reduce gas prices, at full capacity, by $.05/gallon.

Refineries are THE issue here... and that is a whole other animal of building up infrastructure and investment. As you might imagine...

It's a combination of the two. Currently, we are paying about $4 per gallon. A barrell of oil costs about $120. A 42 gallon barrell produces about 23 gallons of gasoline or 54% of a barrell of oil produces gasoline. The price per gallon of gasoline attributed to just the price of oil is $2.85 ($120*54%)/23. This represents about 70% of the price of gasoline. An estimated 10% or $.40 is profit. About 20% or $.75 is attributed tom refining. As you can see, oil prices have a huge influence on the price of gasoline!

How did you come up with your $.05 estimate?

[PosterChild]

Originally Posted by AtlCB

It's a combination of the two. Currently, we are paying about $4 per gallon. A barrell of oil costs about $120. A 42 gallon barrell produces about 23 gallons of gasoline or 54% of a barrell of oil produces gasoline. The price per gallon of gasoline attributed to just the price of oil is $2.85 ($120*54%)/23. This represents about 70% of the price of gasoline. An estimated 10% or $.40 is profit. About 20% or $.75 is attributed tom refining. As you can see, oil prices have a huge influence on the price of gasoline!

How did you come up with your $.05 estimate?

The EIA has great charts and such on this subject but I can't open the site tonight...here it comes, slow..


Summary
"The opening of the ANWR 1002 Area to oil and natural gas development is projected to increase domestic crude oil production starting in 2018. In the mean ANWR oil resource case, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR reaches 780,000 barrels per day in 2027 and then declines to 710,000 barrels per day in 2030. In the low and high ANWR oil resource cases, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR peaks in 2028 at 510,000 and 1.45 million barrels per day, respectively. Between 2018 and 2030, cumulative additional oil production is 2.6 billion barrels for the mean oil resource case, while the low and high resource cases project a cumulative additional oil production of 1.9 and 4.3 billion barrels, respectively.


Crude oil imports are projected to decline by about one barrel for every barrel of ANWR oil production. Opening ANWR results in the lowest oil import dependency levels during the 2022 through 2026 time frame, when oil import dependency falls to the minimum values of 46 and 49 percent for the high and low oil resource cases, respectively. During that timeframe, the mean resource case and AEO2008 reference case project an average oil import dependency of 48 and 51 percent, respectively. Because ANWR oil production is declining after 2028, U.S. oil dependency rises to 51 percent in 2030 in the mean resource case, compared to 54 percent in the AEO2008 reference case. The high and low resource cases project a 2030 oil import dependency of 48 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR improves the U.S. balance of trade. Cumulative expenditures on foreign crude oil and liquid fuels between 2018 and 2030 are reduced by $202 billion dollars (2006 dollars) in the mean oil resource case and reduced by $135 and $327 billion dollars in the low and high oil resource cases, respectively.


Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR would be only a small portion of total world oil production, and would likely be offset in part by somewhat lower production outside the United States. The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light crude oil prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 for the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high oil resource case, relative to the reference case."

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The full report is there as well, this is just a summary. I bet you are using this source data too. Always best to use source data when possible.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by PosterChild

What is your source for this number? Do you remember?
Fact #9. America imports two-thirds of the oil it uses

I used NationMaster.com, which is a really cool site by the way. I also just noticed that the imports number was for 2005 and the consumption was for 2007. So our imports are probably closer to two-thirds like you said.

[burmafrd]

Love how you never hear from our so called mainstream media about OTHER countries drilling where US companies are not allowed to.

[Doomsday101]

Bottom line is the Dems have had control over both houses for the last 2 years so where is their magic energy bill? Congress has to send a bill to the White House to be signed or vetoed yet they do nothing but moan about the President but where is the action on their part? 0 actions is what this congress has produced!!!! They are against domestic drilling, they are against depending on Middle Eastern oil and they are against sending an energy bill to the White House.

[Bach]

Originally Posted by Doomsday101

That is a shame that China gets to drill via the Cuban Government while our tree huggers continue to prevent our country from going after much needed oil.

What's even more puzzling is there aren't even that many trees off the coast in the middle of the ocean.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Originally Posted by Bach

What's even more puzzling is there aren't even that many trees off the coast in the middle of the ocean.

Ah I see you are sneaky sneaky