Do you think we should expand oil drilling in the United States?

We already do. We produce lots of natural gas and plenty of crude oil.

We already do.
We just import more so that when other places run dry, well still have time.

There is a lot of drilling in our country for both oil and natural gas. if you mean do I think we should drill right offshore or in the Alaska tundra, the answer is no.

Oil will run out whether you drill in the U.S. or anywhere else. What we really need to do is find another way for our vehicles to function. Oil will not be around forever.

We need to drill into our brains and get off oil. There isn’t that much oil here that is economically feasible to get to. We could but gas would be six bucks a gallon. In the middle east finding oil is like finding a puddle in Portland.

Natural gas is a different story. We have tons and should take advantage of it. And plan for the day when it runs out. We are amazingly bad about thinking into the future.

If we secured all of it it would be less than a year of usage at our current rate. There’s just no point. Far better to spend the money on new technology that will carry us through the next 100 years.

I reckon so Jethro

We should be getting all the oil available off our coast. It should be done by reputable people with American government oversight. It should be done in an environmentaly friendly matter. We should make sure Americans get to use this oil and make money from it. If we do not some other nation will steal it. Like China or some other corrupt nation.

America spends more than $200,000 per minute on foreign oil—$13 million per hour. More than $25 billion a year goes for Persian Gulf imports alone.merica’s dependence on oil is a threat to our national security and our economy. Growing demand and shrinking domestic production means America is importing more and more oil each year – much of it from the world’s most unfriendly or unstable regions. We spend more than $200,000 per minute—$13 million per hour—on foreign oil, and more than $25 billion a year on Persian Gulf imports alone.1 By October 2004, Americans had shelled out $249 per capita to foreign oil-interests.

1. The import spending estimate is calculated based on 2003 Energy Information Administration data on U.S. crude oil imports and average annual world oil price, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/petroleu.html#IntlTrade and http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/importexport.html.

2. The export estimate is calculated using 2004 Energy Information Administration data on U.S. crude oil imports and WTI/Cushing spot prices for January 1 to September 29, 2004. http://www.eia.gov

ABSOLUTLY! what do we have to loose… really? Why not tap every last source of domestic land to try and maintain and build our oil reserves to try and keep our money from flowing to counties that fund terrorist groups. We need to drill, we need to drill now, and we need to focus on alternative energy production. If we can wean the country off of utilizing oil for transportation we could sustain ourselves off of our own domestic production.

The biggest producer of oil in the world is Russia, then Saudi-Arabia. In third place being a producer is the USA.

If the US is the worlds third biggest producer, and still needs to import huge quantities from other countries, the problem isn’t who makes it. It’s the US being Big Gulper. It would be good though to find new oil in the US. They found some resources outside California not long ago. Not much, but a puddle. Whatever they might find won’t fix the real problem though.

Now, almost every country in the world depends on foreign oil. Japan for instance depends on imports of just about everything. Is that a problem? No. Not really. The US has for a long time had a minus in trade balance without huge inflation. Now, one can speculate into why that is.

What the problem is, is environmental. That’s it. Rhetoric like giving money to some foreign Arabs, paying the enemy, supporting terrorism is unproductive.

Demand in the world is rising, and it seems no amount of Copenhagen conferences slows it down, and we will use oil up until it’s to costly to collect the last of it. Before that it will most likely be reserved for the military.

Other types of energy sources is definitely needed already, and has to start now. It seems as if nuclear power one of the most important forms of production we will have to rely on at the moment. The US is already planning to build many more than the 104 in existence. China plans and build them so fast they need foreign assistance to educate and man them.

It isn’t a great solution, neither is it a total solution to the demand. It is a energy-production-back-bone solution for most countries to consider. Other energy sources will still be needed. I believe decentralized and locally produced energy will make a big contribution as well.

I think oil companies should be free to pull oil from the plots they own and market it as they see fit.

Michael, great answer! Yes the US is a gulper and that being said only further cements the need for us to tap into our own oil instead of giving our money to people who would rather see us dead! The Colorado Oil Shale has enough oil to supply the United States at its current usage for 200 years. By drilling in the United states and opening more plants we are not only decreasing our dependency on other nations we are also stimulating our Economy and Creating hundreds of thousands of Jobs for US citizens… The benefits are many, as they are for building more nuclear plants as well! ANWR is another area that should be tapped, and for those worried about the environment we have the ability and the technology to be environment friendly… ANWR in size could be equated to placing a US postage stamp on a football field, we are not destroying Alaska….. Heck we can thank Alaska for the largest successful energy project in US history…...

I think Oil companies should be destroyed. Something that essential to the sustaining of civilisation should not be in private hands, but under control of the people, like police, firemen, military, healthcare, schools and general infrastructure.

Fluther’s PDWORKIN STATES: “If we secured all of it it would be less than a year of usage at our current rate. There’s just no point. Far better to spend the money on new technology that will carry us through the next 100 years” This is Incorrect!

At 3.3 Trillion Tons the oil shale deposits in the United States are easily the largest in the world….. Two major deposits are the Devonian-Mississsippian Shale & Green River Formation Shale in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah…..

A huge pool of crude oil has just been discovered off the coast of South America. i wonder who owns the rights to it?

@john65pennington The one with the biggest gun.

@ragingloli
Oil drilling has been historically the domain of people that took great risk and investment in discovering and securing. If companies have spent billions in extracting they should certainly have an interest in the commodity they extracted. Should we punish companies for success in other fields as well by seizing their assets? There’s a name for that. It’s called China.

@john65pennington Those are Brazilian finds. However, the oil is so deep under the sea it is at the fringe of technology to recover it. They will depend on Venezuelan oil and Bolivian gas for decades to come.

@SeventhSense
>>implying that everything China does is bad.

The Shales are an expensive endeavor it is true but one that should at least be contemplated, definitely not a quick fix. ANWR is more readily available and a cheaper solution by far. Both of these options again create US jobs thus stimulating the economy, simple math Private Job Creation (not government job creation) equals economy stimulation…..
Nuclear Power Plants are another very good option and they emit virtually no Green house gases… Yes they are expensive to build but so is buying our oil from other countries… We need to look at the big picture here and realize that money spent today will save us money in the long run!

@ragingloli
Is that a question?

SeventhSense I guess the question to my last response would be “Aren“t we (US) better to invest in our own energy dependence future, then funnel money to other countries?

@Arch_Angel
I think we need to invest in energy sources that are more sustainable foremost and those which will be easily reproducible across all borders. I don’t the US can anymore think of itself as anything less than interdependent with the rest of the planet. But meanwhile pursue those sources which will return the highest yield wherever they are located.

@SeventhSense
An observation.

We should be leading the world in alternative methods of energy production.We are beyond Europe. Why?

@ragingloli
The arrows indicate that you are implying that everything that China does is bad which doesn’t make sense so I’ll assume you meant me at which I’ll just say no I don’t believe that.

@Arch_Angel
You comments remind of Lou Dobbs comments. The problem is the Politicians are too busy being Partisan to think of these common sense things . The extremes on both sides are hurting us all .
Everything from solar energy to wind tunnel technology produced in America could revitalize our economy; but Europe is a head of us. This must change . This technology would mean jobs to engineers, construction people and many others.

@philosopher
There should be wind turbines everywhere. That’s a no brainer in my estimation

There should be nuclear power plants. If people were serious about cutting down energy independence they would use technologies that currently work instead of technologies that aren’t ready for prime time yet.

The largest nuclear power plant in our solar system is ready for prime time use. It doesn’t cause additional strains on our planet’s atmosphere. Drilling is the slowest, dirtiest, and most expensive way to solve our energy crisis.

Dude. If all of these ‘green’ power sources worked as well as oil they would already be in place regardless of how much the oil industry could hobble them.

The largest nuclear power plant – the sun I assume – is incredibly wasteful, directing only the tiniest iota of its power towards the Earth, its third favorite planet. When we can get sufficient power from the sun we can afford to leave the sludge in the ground. But that time is not here yet.

Exciting new technologies are being invented all the time but once they leave the drawing table they turn out to be considerably less exciting.

Only a fool burns his crutches before his wheelchair is actually delivered.

@mattbrowne
Yes the sun is the ultimate power source. It’s been said the sun releases enough radiation to the earth in one hour to power all the planet’s energy needs for a year. That should be our number one focus. Our ancestors harnessed wind, water and sun as well. It makes the most basic sense to utilize those things which do not even need to be searched for but simply harnessed.

@Factotum
Ever see the result of nuclear disaster like at Chernobyl?

@SeventhSense Sure. And coal mines sometimes collapse and oil wells can catch fire. But they rarely do and with due vigilance they almost never do. Chernobyl was caused by bad management as was Three Mile Island. Meanwhile Europe uses nuclear power and doesn’t stress unduly over it.

It doesn’t matter how much we ‘focus’ on the sun. Rather it is how much of the sun science will allow us to focus for energy here on Earth. Science marches on. It doesn’t necessarily break into a sprint just because you throw money at it.

@Factotum
Bad management is an understatement. They deliberately disabled every safety mechanism.

@Factotum
Rather it is how much of the sun science will allow us to focus for energy here on Earth.
???

@SeventhSense What I was trying to say – sloppily – is that we can only get from the sun what our technology will allow. More certainly than we got thirty years ago, but not an amazing amount more. ‘Green’ energy is not a panacea. One day it will be but until then I favor oil.

@Factotum
The old saying is necessity is the mother of invention. It is time Americans wake up and comprehend the necessity for alternative energy sources. We are quickly running out of time to do so.
I reiterate that we should use our off shore oil. We should drill for it without hurting the environment. If we do not eventually some other nation will and they will not care about our environment. This is simply reality. One people like Pelosi choose to ignore.

@philosopher
I agree with you on the alternative energies. But as far as offshore drilling there are limited firms who can do that. It’s not akin to sticking a straw in the sand and extracting the oil. Any offshore venture is a 10–20 year proposition and a major investment of time and money just to tap it.

If we do not drill for it nations such as china may attempt to. They do not care about our environment or even there own environment. If American companies drill we can monitor them .
We need to develop our own energy sources immediately. Many Americans refuse to take this seriously. They still refuse to believe the signs of global warming . They can not comprehend that fossil fuels are running out and the cost will keep going up . It is not in our democracies best interest to support the nations that have most of the oil. They dislike democracies. They are not our allies.

@philosopher
Yes you’re probably right but there’s no future in oil. It’s a dead end. We need to expend the bulk of our resources in alternative energy sources and lead the way in new technologies.

@SeventhSense
I agree with you but I think American’s must start doing what is best for our nation as all other nations do. We do not have be the nation that makes all the sacrifices every time. Our Middle Class hard working people are the ones suffering.
I do not feel that are sacrifices are appreciated by most people in this world. We have to take care of American’s first. Family first. American’s are all family.

It’s not a sacrifice as much as reality. We consume far more of the world’s resources than is due us anyway. We’re hardly sacrificial. We drive giant cars and burn fossil fuels like a drunk at a bonfire. We are light years behind Europe and especially the Scandinavian countries in creating sustainable energy systems. We are a large part of the problem right alongside of China. The US has resisted the Kyoto Protocol at every turn.

@SeventhSense We consume a lot of resources. We also produce a lot of food and goods, which we sell and tax. Some of those taxes and much of the goods go to other countries who ‘consume’ less. New Zealand doesn’t have a military. They don’t need one because they know that a) no one is looking to take them over right now and b) if they did some country that has one would save them.

As for what resources are ‘due us’...who decides what we are due? Do we not pay for them?

As for resisting the Kyoto Protocol we’ve reduced our emissions without signing. Meanwhile many countries haven’t managed to meet the goals they promised under Kyoto.

@Factotum
No one waves the flag higher than me but,
As for what resources are ‘due us’...who decides what we are due?

If the balance is that 20% of the world consume 80% of it’‘s resources while millions starve, then that is an inequity inherent within the world’s system which has been imbalanced for centuries due to the exploitation and rapacious impact on the Third World. And yes many of them we did not pay for but simply stole with bigger guns. To imagine a level playing field where the opponents are all paraplegics is hardly just, nor humane. And of course this was not only the US but the rest of the G8 countries as well. Do you think the civil unrest, war and famine that continues to occur on the African, Asian and South American continents is an anomaly? This is the direct result of centuries of colonialism. The arms trade in Africa has been historic since the days of slavery. The triangular trade of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

What began as modest tinkering in small metal shops, with enslaved African expert-blacksmiths, was fused with Euro-American greed and aggressiveness. The end product evolved into what is today’s high-tech multi-trillion-dollar U.S. arms industry.
kintespace.com

So maybe..just maybe…we may have to sacrifice a caramel frappacino in the name of justice

@SeventhSense We sacrifice real food and money which we send to other countries either as humanitarian aid or by way of NGOs.

@Factotum
No, I agree this is good and America is exemplary among nations in this regard.
We throw money at lots of things but we need to get to the roots. Otherwise it’s like that friend you keep bailing out. It’s a temporary fix but what’s ultimately best is if he gets a job and feels better about himself. Likewise countries with sustainable agriculture and manufacturing bases fare better.

@SeventhSense Amen to teaching men to fish. We have people that try to do that too, though of course most people tend to donate more toward feeding the starving than they do to enabling the willing since they are compelled first by mercy.