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The Spectacle Blog
Some key facts are likely to go missing from mainstream media reports as President Obama discusses energy policy. In the end, civilizations decline because of policy choices, not so much because of a natural process of osmosis. Let’s unleash this industrial giant again and make the 21st Century the next American Century.
The U.S. Possesses Unmatched Natural Resources
* According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), America is endowed with 163 billion barrels of recoverable oil. That’s enough to maintain current rates of production and replace Middle East oil for over 50 years.
* CRS places America’s natural gas potential at 2,047 trillion cubic feet; this is enough to meet demand for 90 years.
* The Department of Energy estimates that oil shale from the Green River Formation has 1.38 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. That’s more than five times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Production
* From a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, world oil consumption is expected to grown by an annual average of 1.6 million barrels per day through 2012.
* According to EIA, supply from Middle East and North Africa is uncertain due to expectations of continued unrest. Meanwhile, non-OPEC countries (excluding the U.S.) are expected to have a slight increase of production in 2011 followed by a decline in 2012.
* EIA projects that U.S. crude oil production will decline by 100,000 barrels per day in 2011 and by a further 160,000 in 2012.
* Currently the United States produces 2.63 billion barrels of oil per year, yet our consumption rate is 6.85 billion barrels/year (CRS).
Gulf of Mexico
* Of the 30+ rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico at the time of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, 7+ have left due to lack of permits. Seahawk Drilling declared bankruptcy due to the inability to obtain permits.
* The Gulf area alone could potentially lose more than 8,000 jobs with the general United States losing more than 12,000 jobs in the first 6 months of the moratorium alone.
* 220,000 barrels of oil per day can be extracted from the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil & Gas Prices
* West Texas Intermediate and other crude oil spot prices have risen $15/barrel since unrest in the Middle East and North Africa began in mid-February.
* EIA expects the retail price of regular-grade gasoline to average $3.56/gallon in 2011, 77 cents/gallon higher than 2010 and about 40 cents higher than previous projections.
* Gasoline is expected to average $3.70/gallon during the peak summer driving months.
In President Obama’s Own Words
“But as we cut through all the talk and the politics in the energy debate, we can see what the debate is really about. We see the family that thinks twice about what they’ll spend at the grocery store this week, because they’ve been paying $40 to fill up the tank for the last month. We see the grandmother who isn’t sure how’ll she’ll make her Social Security check cover January’s heating bill. The autoworker that isn’t sure what the future at Ford holds for him. And the mother who sees turmoil in the Middle East and worries that someday her son might have to fight to secure our oil supply. Ultimately, we see a nation that cannot control its future as long as it cannot control the source of energy that keeps it running.” - Senator Obama, speech at Resources for the Future - September 15, 2005
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More Blog Posts by Kevin Mooney
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/11/some-key-facts-to-keep-in-mind
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jharp| 3.11.11 @ 2:00PM
I see you didn't bother with any links. So we're just supposed to take your word for it?
TAS, really? That is who we're supposed to trust.
The same TAS that posts lies and garbage day after day.
I have no idea if your claims are accurate. But since you lie on a daily basis and no links I'll assume you are lying.
Tell me. Why didn't our oilman President and that republican controlled Congress do so much as lift a finger?
"According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS)"
Too funny. Is this the same as the non partisan Congressional Budget Office? The CBO that you wingers claim just make sh*t up with ObamaCare reducing the deficit by $200 Billion?
God you people are stupid.
Libtard Emulation Mode| 3.11.11 @ 2:10PM
jharp covered all the talking points I wished to address.
jharp| 3.11.11 @ 2:16PM
There's more.
"American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained."
Hmmm. Taxpayers are paying the bill and they won't publish the documents for all to see.
http://opencrs.com/
I wonder why that is?
God you people are stupid.
dc| 3.11.11 @ 4:35PM
Help us, enlightened statist, what should we do to increase domestic energy production? Grow more corn? Burn more wood? How progressive.
Have you ever read a CRS report? If you had, you'd know that while they do vary in quality, they (like the CBO) answer the questions that are asked by the Congressmen/Senators who commission the reports. Which is why the CBO under Pelosi can come up with wholly ridiculous numbers "proving" that a government mandate to spend a trillion dollars will "save" money, and why the CBO under the current Congress can come up with something entirely different. It depends upon what statistics they are given and what they are asked to produce. If anything, the CRS is more independent because the questions asked tend to be more open-ended. But you wouldn't know that, since you get your news from People magazine or E! television.
Now, idiot, take a quick walk around your kitchen, if you have one. I'll assume just for argument's sake you have a refrigerator. How did it get there? Who made it, and how? What raw materials went into it, and where did they come from? How is cold-rolled steel made, and with what fuel? How do the rare-earth minerals that run the icemaker get from somewhere in Wyoming or Kazakhstan to your kitchen? Now, if you can answer any of these questions, you might just come to the conclusion that increasing the price of fuel by government fiats (the various bans on drilling for oil, which your Dear Leader has expanded while lying constantly about what his bureaucrats are actually doing) will increase the price of every commodity that our awful American capitalist system has made so routine that even pukes like you can afford them.
So, if you don't like the many things that very bright, entrepreneurial businessmen, not to mention miners, manufacturers, and truck drivers, have provided you, you're free to do without. Just go live in a cave, burn wood to stay warm, and, overall, just leave the rest of us alone.
But since I know you can't do that, I'll leave you to playing with yourself fantasizing about what great men Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot were for running such efficient concentration/death camps--the logical end of your assinine policies. Go to hell, and stay there.
jharp| 3.11.11 @ 6:42PM
"Help us, enlightened statist, what should we do to increase domestic energy production?"
Have you ever heard of "green energy" you dumbsh*t?
Or "renewable energy"?
God you people are stupid.
Moonbeam| 3.11.11 @ 7:03PM
Whoa, man, great answer. Green rules, man. I love you, bro. I just wish you'd stop referring to God, man. Not cool, bro.
Larry| 3.11.11 @ 10:56PM
jharp, if I were the moderator, I would have deleted your comments a long time ago, since they are neither thoughtful or relevant. Especially this one! Green energy? Like, wind, you mean? As unreliable as one can get? Really reliable. Or the Volt? All 281 of those cars they've sold? With 40 miles cruising range, a four hour charge time, and an engine that takes only premium unleaded gas? What do you propose to do in the next 100 years while we are waiting for this vaunted "renewable energy?"
You are an ideologue, nothing else. Don't waste our time with your irrational screeds.
All American American| 3.12.11 @ 5:49PM
Come one man you can use wind to power your car. Just put 'er in neutral and point her downwind. Yeah that's the ticket!
Oldefarte| 3.12.11 @ 1:35PM
Barry, is that you? Where's Eric? You two are hiding/blogging from inside Eric's D of J office in D.C., right? Tell the truth, we know it's you two, Jharp!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 3.13.11 @ 2:16PM
Yeah, dumbars, that 'green energy' is the residue currently found in Japan's lower coastline. Oh, as to 'renewable energy' try installing a windmill on top of you vehicle [no doubt your bicycle] and see how far it gets you [PS, good luck when they're no wind]!!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 3.13.11 @ 2:11PM
Damn, is Obama an OILMAN? Shazam, gadzooks! Also, we didn't realize that the defecit could be reduced $200 billion by Obamacare-----shazam II [any moron would know that you don't can't reduce/cut spending by ADDING 30 MILLION HEALTH INSURANCE CLAIMANTS to the rolls]. My God, FORREST GUMP WAS CORRECT AFTERALL!!!!!!!!
Conservative Bob| 3.11.11 @ 4:05PM
It is a matter of both economic and national security necessity that we find and develop all of our domestic coal, natural gas, and oil resources.
The left claims to be concerned about good paying jobs yet strive to restrict and reduce domestic energy production.
The left claims to care about the middle class while supporting policies that cause the price of gas and oil to skyrocket.
Forcing us to buy our energy from unstable and unreliable foreign sources puts our economy at constant risk and is a clear and present danger to our national security.
It is well past time that we take an honest look at our energy policy and recognize that we need to develop our domestic resources.
WL| 3.11.11 @ 9:51PM
PLEASE!!!! Calling all morons. ...all BUFFOONS who believe that this LIAR is for "drilling"...step forward...
And show what and egghead looks like. As you listen to his bold faced lies about it...Believe him...and can't figure out why
A FEDERAL COURT IS HOLDING HIS ADMINISTRATION IN COMTEMPT FOR REFUSING TO ISSUE DRILLING PERMITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes I think that Americatitanic is too far gone with the stern about to point to the sky and the whole thing drop to the bottom of the icy water.
Nite| 3.11.11 @ 11:09PM
Obama still has the unrealistic liberal pipe dream of "high paying green jobs". That has been a real boondoggle and most of these start up companies have gone belly up. The technology is simply not there yet. The Democrats want to tell the populace where to live, what to eat, what kind of car to drive, and basically how to spend our money as long as they approve. We need a Republican President who will utilize our own energy sources and the good jobs will return. However, the longer Obama and his minions are in office, the worse the job prospects in this country will be, and the higher the cost of energy, food, and basic needs.
Mimi| 3.13.11 @ 8:12AM
Not to mention the stench left. !
We know how Spain and Portugal 's venture in
Not to mention the "STENCH" they left !
orbit7er| 3.12.11 @ 12:39AM
Kevin Mooney's comments unfortunately do not comport with the facts.
Actually the fundamental cause of rising oil prices is quite simply that we are running
out of cheap oil. This is not news - decades ago such intellects and inventors as
Thomas Edison, Nikolai Tesla, Henry Ford and many others realized that the world
only contains so much oil from millions of years of past fossilized life on Earth.
In 1970 as sagely predicted by prominent US geologist M King Hubbert, the US
went past peak oil - the point at which 50% of oil is gone.
See:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil.....sld007.htm
Why did the BP Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe occur, the worst environmental disaster
in US history? Because they were forced to drill for oil 1 mile below the ocean!
All the easily found oil is long gone ...
Recall that just a few years after the US passed peak oil production that the Arab Oil Embargo in
1973 crippled the US and led to a Recession. Why? Because the US was forced to import foreign
oil as it had no capability to produce more of its own oil.
Now the WORLD has in all likelihood passed peak oil production.
The International Energy Agency has admitted as much along with James Schlesinger,
the first Energy Secretary of the US, CIA Director and War Secretary, hardly a crazed radical
who stated at the latest Association for the Study of Peak Oil Conference:
"... everyone recognized that there were limits on our capacity to increase the production of crude oil, as we have, steadily, since World War II. That Peakists were no longer a beleaguered minority, that they had won.."
This means that oil globally will only get more and more expensive.
The best series which investigates this issue from well-known experts of diverse opinions is
the Nations "Peak Oil and Climate Change" series:
thenation.com/article/157434/peak-oil-and-changing-climate
If oil is running out regardless of speculators what can we do about it?
We need to cut oil usage wherever possible.
And the biggest oil usage for the US is cars.
In the US Transportation accounts for 70% of oil usage, 38% of greenhouse emissions, and oil
imports account for over 50% of our trade deficit.
We have a solution at hand which goes back to the first Republican President Abraham Lincoln:
revitalize our 233,000 miles of existing rail and actually start usimg the Rails
we have.
The current Federal highway system was a vast subsidy which provided 90% of
its funding from taxes. We cannot afford those hundreds of billions of subsidies
to government roads anymore.
As William Lind pointed out in:
http://amconmag.com/article/2010/aug/01/00023/
the Federal Highway system is one of the major government subsidies of our time
replacing for profit tax paying transit systems with massively subsidized tax gobbling roads.
WL| 3.14.11 @ 12:24AM
SHUT UP...You are so ignorant, that you aren't even worth the time to tell the facts....
BUT here's one or two little ones...Genius.
1. Are you aware that nearly ALL of our "tapped out" oil fields and wells are being "RETAPPED" because they keep filling up? Yes. Do you research moron. They are because we are now learning that they refill because the tiny fraction of the earths oil that we have pumped..... is just the tip of the iceberg.
Fact 2 for the fool in row know nothing: Do you realize your types in the late 70's were predicting that we only had 20-30 years or oil left....???did you know that Mr. Knowitall??? huh did ya? That was 40 years ago brainman...
You are a brainwashed rube.
Eddie Willers| 3.12.11 @ 7:21PM
Just think of the number of jobs that would be created by removing restrictions to drilling. That's a selling point I haven't seen pitched.
e cowan| 3.12.11 @ 8:16PM
As far as I can see - the main thing to keep in mind is - you can't believe much, if anything, of what he says.
Mimi| 3.13.11 @ 8:19AM
What happened in Spain and Portugal's venture in GREEN ?
Providence has not helped the Dem's and their plans.! Everything they try...fails! On top ofthat they can NOT be trusted.
We must get back to work drilling and do our best to provide our own ENERGY. Doing the responsible thing in providing for our own needs . as a FREE society must.
Strudwick Wickerwire| 3.13.11 @ 3:05PM
I sure wish I had a fuel tank that took only $40.oo to fill... Has Obuckethead ever filled-up anything???