Harvery

Offshore Drilling in the Eyes of Presidential Hopefuls

You are the worst kind of political commentator, Jason, you dismiss your political opponents as stupid while hiding behind your own truthiness and faux-nonpartisanship. Unfortunately for you, the truth is a little more in depth than your four bullet points and is probably far different than your conclusion.

"We need to get rid of that dependence, not find a way to extend it."

If you see a solution that would remove our dependency on oil within the next ten years then you should inform us. This is, after all, an investment website, and you will be making us all very, very rich. In the meantime, oil is still a vital commodity in the global economy, and it is utterly foolish to neglect our own resources because, in the future, we'd like to be able to stop using it.

"Offshore drilling will have no measurable impact on gasoline prices for at least 10 years."

The current price of oil considers its current scarcity, so even if the first oil from this plan will come to market in ten years, the price will be reflected in the market well before that. This is simple, Jason.

"Even then, the amount of oil added to the nation's intake would be so small that the price per gallon would drop somewhere on the order of 5 cents."

What evidence do you have of this? Since you are just "reporting the facts," presenting ample evidence for this statement should be quick and easy. In my estimation, the extremely high short-term price elasticity of demand of oil would cause a large decrease in price in response to relatively small marginal increases in supply. But you apparently know future prices and market responses, so I guess I shouldn't be arguing.

"For such a small -- come on, meaningless -- benefit, we're going to further damage the already reeling environment?"

First, I said earlier, the benefit is not meaningless. But more importantly, what damage will offshore drilling do on the environment? There has not been an oil spill from an offshore rig since 1969, and safety, environmental and technological standards have improved mightily since then. If offshore drilling is so bad for the environment, we should stop it in the Western Gulf of Mexico. Oh, that would be irresponsible and cause a tremendous increase in oil prices...but I thought offshore drilling would have minimal effect on prices?

"I've written to subscribers extensively on this issue, and how we've had the ability to drive nothing but all-electric vehicles (not halfway hybrids) for the past fifty years."

Do you know how electricity is made, Jason? Do you expect that the enormous increases in electricity demand caused by this electric car culture of yours could be supported by renewable energy? In case you are unclear, natural gas is an important component of clean energy, and there is an abundance of natural gas off our coasts. So offshore drilling could be a key component in your fantasy fro the future...care to reconsider?