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Though he supports offshore drilling, Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) “challenged Gov. Charlie Crist and John McCain’s implication that drilling could lower gas prices anytime soon.” Rubio told the Miami Herald today that Crist and McCain are making a “disingenuous” and “flawed” argument:
“For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country is disingenuous and a flawed argument..."
"Oil drilling could take 10 years before any oil is pulled out of the ground, and there are a large number of leases held by oil companies that are not being exploited now. We can't say we need more until we've exploited those.'' LINK 2
Originally posted by Animal
reply to post by tom goose
wow. now my head hurts. unless i am mistaken you said two, opposing things, int hat post.
Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres
of federal land and waters that they are not producing oil and gas (Figure 4).
Oil and gas companies would not buy leases to this land without believing oil
and gas can be produced there, yet these same companies are not producing
oil or gas from these areas already under their control.
If we extrapolate from today=s production rates on federal land and
waters, we can estimate that the 68 million acres of leased but currently
inactive federal land and waters could produce an additional 4.8 million
barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.
Proponents of drilling in Alaska are most often focused on a 1.5 million
acre area in the 19.2 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Established in 1960 and expanded in 1980, ANWR includes a 1.5 million acre
area of the coastal plain known as the A1002 area@ which requires
Congressional authorization before oil drilling may proceed there.
However, in addition to ANWR, there are another nearly 91 million acres
currently open to leasing in the Arctic region of Alaska, including onshore and
offshore lands. Oil and gas companies have leased only 11.8 million of the 91
million acres.
On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79% of
federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.
Onshore, 62% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully
accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands
and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use
planning or environmental reviews.