A June 24 letter-to-editor, Key West
Citizen:
Here are a few more facts about oil
drilling
I thought I'd add some facts to the very good points made in the
last few days of letters regarding oil. This information comes
from the government's own Web sites, even though it certainly
doesn't match what we're being fed by any of our politicians and
the oil companies.
Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for
development of public lands increased by 361 percent. Yet, look
at the gasoline prices. More drilling does not equal lower
gasoline prices.
The Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill
on public land, and yet only 18,954 wells were actually drilled.
There are nearly 10,000 permits stockpiled.
The government doesn't believe, nor do I, that these oil
companies are buying up leases that won't produce oil. Of all
the oil believed to exist on our federal lands, 79 percent of
the oil is located in areas that are currently open for
drilling. (And yet, the oil companies want more leases.) It is
believed that this could produce 4.8 million barrels of oil each
day. That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, cut oil
imports by more than a third and be more than six times the
estimated peak production from the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge [ANWR].
In fact, a lease that was sold under the Clinton administration
abuts ANWR — the National Petroleum Reserve. Estimates are that
it contains up to 80 percent more oil than ANWR. Unfortunately,
it also contains very critical habitat, just as does ANWR. And,
under the Clinton administration, legislation was passed to
allow Alaskan oil to be exported. Dennis Henize is right — our
oil is being sold to the highest bidder, and being refined in
China.
I've heard arguments that criticize anyone against drilling by
saying it's only a few wells. I don't consider thousands of
wells a few, and also [those arguments] neglect to mention the
casualty of the area where those "few" wells are located. Also
needed around oil wells are miles and miles of new roads, dozens
of waste dumps and a network of pipeline to transport the oil.
Not to be dismissed are the offshore drilling casualties that we
are all familiar with.
While I am no proponent of drilling offshore any of our coasts
or in ANWR, I think this information shows that the oil
companies do indeed consider us "sheeple" as Michael Shields
pointed out. When 79 percent of the leases aren't even being
drilled — and we know this is where large amounts of oil are
located — why in the world are some of our Republican
politicians and pundits continuing to condemn environmentalists
for not allowing us to drill in ANWR and other environmentally
sensitive areas and then subsequently blaming us for increased
gasoline prices? Hmm.
We need to stand up, shed our sheepskin and insist on the truth
and encourage our government to spend more money on alternative
energy sources. Our world depends upon it.
Sherry Phillips, Big Pine Key
A June 23 letter-to-editor, Key West
Citizen:
Offshore drilling would mean negligible
savings
In the most recent bloviating from the oil industry and its
apologists, lobbyists and deluded advocates, comes the
surprising declaration by Gov. Crist, who now says he is for
offshore drilling, as is Sen. John McCain, both reversing their
positions of only a brief time ago. ...
Drilling offshore the Florida Keys and in Alaska does not
achieve any measure of energy independence from the oil cartels.
The industry says it will make a difference only if it can have
free reign over any source yet unexploited to lower the price of
gasoline and heating oil.
... It was then, and is now, all about profits. The industry
whines that its billions of bucks aren't enough and its profit
margin is a measly 8.5 percent. ...
Bush's own Department of Energy has found that drilling in the
Alaskan refuge would only result in prices being lowered by 75
cents a barrel, and not until 2025. It lowers gasoline by a
whopping 2 cents a gallon.
Now McCain and Crist say the 18-21 billion barrels offshore must
be tapped. The same DOE says it would reduce oil $1.50 a barrel.
Together, a 6-cent reduction per gallon. In 17 years.
So where are the real profits? Look at the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act, aka the Enron Loophole Act, which deregulated
the futures market. Energy companies bought up futures and
created a shortage on paper, when none actually exists. ... The
pump jack-up exploits consumer fears, who are now primed to
accept any measure, like offshore drilling, even when
irrational. ...
Asking to rip up more offshore, when the industry already has
millions of untapped acres, is rapacious. Last week, the
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported:
"Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the
equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively
adding eight times as much oil to their own stockpile as the
U.S. has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last
five years." The industry has bet we are willing "sheeple."
The Enron Loophole, whose revocation McCain had once supported
and now has lobbyists on his staff resisting its enforcement,
reveals the real design in this misguided, insane ploy that
saves a couple pennies. Common sense is totally lacking. Oil
companies need to stop fooling the public. Their gain. Our pain.
Michael Shields, Key West
A June 22 letter-to-editor, Key West
Citizen:
Environmentalists not to blame for gas
prices
In the debate about drilling closer to Florida's coast or in the
Arctic (Alaska) National Wildlife Refuge, nobody mentions that
there really isn't such a thing as "domestic" oil.
When oil comes out of the ground, unless in Venezuela or a few
other countries that have nationalized oil production and
supply, it goes onto the world market, where thanks to the
"charge what the traffic will bear" mentality of greed, the
world price gets slapped onto every barrel.
Do we see oil company executives on TV saying that if they can
drill in ANWR or closer to Florida's coast, they'll keep the oil
in the U.S. and give us a special price on homegrown? I haven't,
but I don't watch much TV.
We've helped boost the economy of China by insisting on cheap
goods they produce, and now their economy is such that they, in
essence, can outbid us on oil that comes out of our ground. One
of the down sides of globalization has come home to roost.
Don't blame environmentalists for high prices of oil or
gasoline. It's not a shortage of U.S. refineries that's causing
high pump prices. Refineries in the U.S. have been operating at
below capacity for quite some time, whether it's a deliberate
tactic to keep prices up, or due to shorter supply of crude
because the developing world can now afford to outbid us.
Dennis Henize, Cudjoe Key |
