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  • commenter
    carbonates
    Sep 22 07:15 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    Okay, record rig counts this year in the US have only produced 8% year on year production increases in natural gas, creating the possibility of lower natural gas prices for some time to come. Most of those wells were not even planned over two years ago. Many of them weren't even planned a year ago. Current estimates of total natural gas reserves in the US are up dramatically from only a year ago.

    I think your premise is radically WRONG. It seems to me the facts are already there to support more drilling as both a way to increase domestic production, drive down prices for hydrocarbons (already happening for natural gas), and reduce the trade deficit. Increases in production this year certainly support that. You don't seem to understand that the period you are using to prove your data includes significant periods of oil prices near $12 a barrel and longer periods below $25. Next you are going to tell me that having sex does not lead to more babies.

    I think you've done a good job of choosing your data in such a way that it matches your hypothesis. As an exploration geologist, I disagree with most of your "facts."     Reply
  • commenter
    Energy
    Analyst
    Sep 22 07:04 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    I would hope everyone noticed the author’s investment position in alternative energy, and the need for all energy prices to remain high in order for his companies to have any chance of a big return. Many of these firms may become the failed dot.com’s of this decade. To use his own words, alternative energy “is not the basis of a reasonable strategic energy policy, it is simply the chant of special interests (like Tim) who want to make money for themselves” while steering us down a grossly overpriced and underpowered road of alternative energy. Beyond that fact, his statistical analysis misleadingly and nefariously focuses on just US oil production, and attributes the “Drill, baby, drill” statement to increasing just US oil production, which is a massive misrepresentation of the phrase. I know, I was on the floor at the RNC in Minneapolis, leading the cheers as a Texas delegate, which were not just yelling to drill for US oil. We were calling for US drilling in general, and thus for US natural gas drilling, as well. Clearly, natural gas drilling is probably the biggest threat to the economics of the author’s alternative energy companys' investments. In fact, most rigs in America today are drilling for natural gas, not oil.

    Let’s be clear about one certain fact: if the incredibly manipulative Democrats in Congress (and the White House) 10-15 years ago had lifted the ANWR & other Alaska coastal plain (NPRA) drilling prohibitions, as well as the offshore moratorium, the Alaska pipeline would probably be filled today to its old capacity of 2 million barrels/per day, with nearly an additional 1 million barrels/per day (5% of US oil consumption).

    If you go to Boone’s website, and see his goal of displacing that amount of foreign oil with “alternatives” (which his biggest one is clearly stated as natural gas) , we’d already be there. What’s even more absurd in the energy debate is the fact that Boone also correctly states on his website that every one of his giant wind turbines produces energy equivalent to just 12,000 barrels per YEAR; yea per YEAR, not per day. That equals the equivalent of 32 barrels per day per windmill, nearly equal to a stripper well in America today. That means you’d need 31,250 giant wind turbines 24/7 year round in constant wind, to equal 1 million barrels per day. What a farce! Where would we put 31,250 wind turbines???? The greenie freaks would scream “Not in my backyard” (NIMBY) across America. In response to many questions, he publicly states his main push is truly for more natural gas drilling, and windpower is secondary to that.

    What’s even worse is that if we had lifted the offshore moratoriums 10-15 years ago, our major eastern/midwest US cities and manufacturing businesses would right now have billions of cubic feet of more offshore natural gas available daily, and prices for that commodity would likely be lower. Remember, the five producing platforms off Nova Scotia Canada produce a whopping half a bcf per day. Our offshore East & Florida coast areas likely contain many dozens of trillions of cubic feet of gas, when combined with similar giant onshore natural gas resources, could power America’s electrical utilities, manufacturers, and residential communities for half a century. Just imagine another hundred or so of those platforms randomly scattered up and down thousands of miles of our East and Florida coastline, and you’ll understand the true intent of the phrase “Drill, baby, drill”, of those of us that yelled it: to benefit our oil AND natural gas supply.

    Ultimately, the substitution effect of energy economics should drive each energy application in the economy toward the lowest priced fuel, whether it be coal, natural gas, oil, or nuclear. You’ll notice, I did not mention any so-called “alternatives”. That is because they are still frightfully expensive, even inconvenient to use, and require high oil and gas prices. Sadly for the economy and citizens of our great country, Democrats, liberals, and most all greenies quietly want to keep oil (read: gasoline) and natural gas prices high by restricting access to new natural resource supply sources all across America. They believe that this is the critical foundation of making many alternative energy applications magically economic. Horribly and devilishly, they continue to use the power of government to restrict our access to new, cheaper supplies (large (very economical) undiscovered reserves) from historically more economic sources, in order to try and make widespread use of alternative energy sources artificially commercial. Thankfully, the market for energy from coal, gas, oil, and nuclear, could save us from their high prices, if we only reject their nefarious leadership.

    However, Biden/Obamaites are already telling us that paying much higher prices for energy/alternative energy products (electric cars etc.) is somehow “patriotic”, like Biden’s statements on higher income, capital gains, corporate, and estate taxes. Most all of the alternative energy applications will be hard pressed to be economic for major, widespread applications to our nationwide industrial, commercial, and residential consumption. That is why America must continue to “Drill, baby, drill”, as one of the few, reasonable energy engines for our economy for decades to come. To produce pages of statistics, as was done for this self-serving article by an alternative energy investor, just proves once again, the old adage of “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure”. Beware America! Coal, nuclear, and “Drill, baby, drill” are our only real hope for decades to come. We’ll need the cheapest BTU’s we can generate, and no alternative is likely to contribute in a major way, without government market manipulation to raise the cost of historically more cost effective sources. Drill, drill, drill, drill (oil & gas), dig, dig, dig, dig, (coal), and build, build, build, build (nuclear)!
    Reply
  • commenter
    Jimbo
    Sep 22 06:45 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    I have to second the ideas of Huangjin and HappyCajun. Nancy Pelosi, who recently was quoted as "saving the planet" has let the cat out of the bag. She voted against the ANWAR drilling resolution in 1996 and Bill Clinton vetoed it, saying it would be ten years before we got any oil. Well, it is now TWELVE years and and we are still degrading our currency by buying oil from countries who hate our guts. For the benefit of other posters and readers, I rode a bicycle to work, 3 to 6 days a week, for the last 19 years of my full time employment. We have composted our household garbage for at least 30 years. We have a very efficient solar water heater that is saving us at least 50 dollars a month. I was an early contributor to Green Peace until I began paying close attention to their material. The author may not be a member of what I call the "greenie conspiracy" but there is a significant element of the green movement that would drastically cut the world population and take us back to the 18th. century with sail, animal, and human power as the sole means of transportation. This group are really neo-fascists who seek to remove national sovereignty in favor of "world government". If you want to know how that will work, just look at the current U.N. Lest you think I am a nut case, log onto "the Green Agenda". I have fought urban sprawl all my life. In 1962-65 I taught at a college in upstate New York and road bus transportation almost every day. Yes, Europeans do have very good public transportation systems, but in my frequent trips to Europe in the past , I saw almost empty buses and rail cars, (except at rush hour), and the Euros do like their cars.I see natural gas as the logical fuel for heavy trucks, busses, and taxis. I would be delighted to have alternative fuels for vehicles but there has to be a transition for technical and infrastructure development. Lastly< I would place an import tax on all hydrocarbons for outside North America and Columbia. The tax should be rigidly tied to development of alternative energy. Reply
  • commenter
    Jakester
    Sep 22 06:18 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    U.S. Natural Gas Production was up 9% from Q1 2007- Q1 2008. As others have pointed out, your article by not including gas is somewhat misleading..... Reply
  • commenter
    Geol
    Sep 22 05:18 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    We need to pursue energy independence on all fronts, oil, nuke, coal, nat gas, solar, wind, hydrogen, and conservation. An important and often overlooked part of conservation is population control. Every problem we have pertaining to natural resources and commodity scarcity is exacerbated and further complicated by an exploding population. We aren't very smart as a species. Reply
  • commenter
    Chris B
    Sep 22 05:17 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    User 267315,

    I've seen France / Germany and you're exactly right. Perhaps these economies and parts of Asia will be the survivors in a world of scarce oil. They've already built the infrastructure. Meanwhile, here in the US, we are still in denial that there even is a problem. I'm afraid we won't make the transition to an inevitable future gracefully.

    Americans feel privledged to pay thousands of dollars a year in depreciation, insurance, fuel, and maintenence so we can sit in traffic for hours. Plus tens of thousands of us are killed each year in cars but because cars are such a cultural institution, we never question them. Imagine what our economy could be like if we could reduced these wastes of life and money.     Reply
  • commenter
    dondon
    Sep 22 05:17 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    You emphasize that between '99 and '08 there was a threefold increase in drilling but that domestic production continues to decline. If companies were actually allowed to drill where there were substantial amounts of oil would the decline have occurred? Reply
  • commenter
    User 243904
    Sep 22 04:55 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    Misleading chart. Rotary rigs in service does not represent only oil drilling. In fact, gas rigs make up 79% of the total rigs in service. Reply
  • commenter
    elcopone
    Sep 22 04:53 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    What about the environmental (and possible economic)impact of consuming more oil? I'm not even talking about the impact from drilling. It seems the environment takes a back seat again. Reply
  • commenter
    User 267315
    Sep 22 04:53 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    Market forces are not necessarily the best mechanism. Market forces encorage pollution - only government accomplished a rollback of air and water pollution in the US.

    As an American living in France, I think the Americans could learn something from looking outside their national borders. The French get 80% of their electrical power from nuclear and another 12% from hydro. Per capita French energy consumption is 60% per cent of the Amerian level and the average Frenchman emits six tons of carbon dioxide versus twenty one tons for the average American.

    You can live in France and live well without owning a car due to one of the best public transport and train systems in the world. I can hope on a train and be in London's center in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

    And this system, which clearly to superior to the American system in terms of energy independence, global warming, and efficiency, was not a market developement, but a political decision.

    As an economist, I regret having to remind some of you that markets are means to ends, not sacred cows.

    Reply
  • commenter
    Chris B
    Sep 22 04:38 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    You'll never convince some people that oil will end one day. It's like a religion to them that oil is plentiful and just waiting to spurt trillions of barrels out from under the seabed off Daytona beach and that this will drive gasoline prices back down to $0.70/gal. They just know it's there. They have faith, and care little about what science or economics has to say. You might as well be a biology teacher trying to teach them about evolution. They don't care about your facts or your thousands of studies. The idea itself is too threatening.

    Instead of using North America's last remaining oil reserves to build the post-petroleum infrastructure of transit rail and compact cities, it looks like we'll use it to maintain the GMC Tahoe 50 mile commute lifestyle for another few months. It will be interesting to see how the economy functions when $25/gal biofuel is the only fuel available and everybody is crammed into our deteriorated inner cities because personal transportation is too expensive. That will be the price of denial.     Reply
  • commenter
    Geol
    Sep 22 04:34 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    The only question I have is, what percentage of the rig increase from 2000-08 were drilling for natural gas and not oil. I am betting it is a higher percentage than in the past, which would account for some of the continued decline in oil production. An important point left out was that our domestic natural gas production continues to increase and will for years to come and a lot of those rigs were probably being used for that purpose.
    No one with a brain thinks or proposes that we can drill our way out of this, but as was stated, we could decrease the rate of decline, which is better than not decreasing the rate of decline. Drilling is one small part of a comprehensive effort which should include, alternative, nuclear, wind, solar and conservation. Most importantly increased drilling could make a real difference in natural gas production and natural gas should be a major component to energy independence.     Reply
  • commenter
    Tadpoles_UK
    Sep 22 04:23 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    Oil Geo and Happycajun have shown the fallacies in the 'statistical analysis' done for this article. (Typical of what financial analysts do across many industries they don't understand.)

    The biggest fault though, is the assumption that the federal government is capable of creating a sensible energy policy. It's not - irrespective of which party is in power. As already mentioned by several above - market forces are the best mechanism.

    Destin Dome is an example of known deposits (mostly gas) that are currently off-limits because the formation lies off the coast of Florida. Drilling there WILL pay dividends, even though it will not solve the 'energy problem'.     Reply
  • commenter
    hotforoil
    Sep 22 03:56 PM
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    The lack of success for the current drilling is because they can't drill where the untapped fields are. Always the same refrain, it will be "whatever so many years" before it will ba available, so why bother! Todays Drilling technology is miles ahead from ten years ago. Wells are drilled in a quarter of the time required than then and the new enhanced recovery techniques and production proceedures are vastly expanding the amount of hyrocarbons recovered from new field discoveries.

    Ostriches!     Reply
  • commenter
    Brian
    Pursley
    Sep 22 03:48 PM
    My Website
    Why "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Does Not Translate Into Effective National Energy Policy [view article]
    Like the peak oil cultists Simmons and Pickens I'm actually invested in oil and I profit from the myth of scarcity based upon ignorance of modern Russian petroleum science. Domestic drilling should be illegal forever. And you should pay me $1000 per barrel for my oil. Reply
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