More Offshore Drilling Does Little at the Pump: EIA

More Offshore Drilling Does Little at the Pump: EIA

news.yahoo.com

Allowing oil drilling in U.S. offshore waters that are now closed to energy exploration would do little to lower gasoline prices paid by consumers, the government's top energy forecaster said on Wednesday.

In response to record pump prices, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and President George W. Bush this month called for Congress to end its moratorium on drilling off the East and West coasts and in Florida waters, leaving it up to each affected state to decide

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[edit on 6/26/2008 by Keyhole]

Why are people like McCain and Bush pushing for this offshore oil drilling?

McCain and Bush said the additional oil supplies likely to be found in the closed areas would help reduce gasoline costs.

To appease the public.

They want the public to believe this will lower gas prices.

BUT ....

However, Guy Caruso, who heads the federal Energy Information Administration, said consumers would see little savings at the pump.

"It would be a relatively small effect, because it would take such a long time to bring those supplies on," Caruso said during a briefing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the EIA's new long-term international energy forecast. "It doesn't affect prices that much."

Most energy experts say it would take five to 10 years to find oil in the closed areas and bring the crude to market.

They are ignoring the main reasons why the oil prices are so high, hoping the general public won't realize the real reasons why the price of oil is sky high.

Even if these areas started producing oil today, the price of oil wouldn't go down until the dollar gets stronger and the speculating ends.

They don't want to fix the "Loophole" that is allowing big companies to speculate on oil prices, one of the factors raising the price of oil, because those "big companies" do a lot of lobbying (bribing) to keep the "loophole" there.

But you also have to remember that Bush is/was an oil man. He wants to see all these areas opened up. Now he found the perfect justification for opening them to oil exploration.

I personally don't mind if they open these areas up to oil drilling.

I just don't like the way they lead the public on, will this make us less dependent on foreign oil, eventually, will this "fix" the price of gas, NO.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 6/26/2008 by Keyhole]

Why is the main argument to this always "it will be years before this hits prices at the pump"?? If we start now we're a few years closer to "years" than we will be if we start down the line. It only makes sense to use our own natural resources before other countries set up shop just outside of our jurisdiction and slant drill into our oil stores.

reply to post by BlueTriangle


Like I said above, I have no problem with opening these areas to oil drilling.

I just don't like the way they try to make it sound like this is going to be a "quick fix" to lower the gas prices.