Off shore drilling debate needs information
I am posting this in response to Steve Adubato’s suggestion that the debate on off shore drilling should begin now!
The best way to avoid the politicization and manipulation of the debate that Steve rightly criticizes is with science based information, so I was suprised that Steve’s post failed to guide readers to good information.See: http://blog.nj.com/steveadubato/2008/08/let_offshore_drilling_debate_b.html
In the 2005 Energy Policy Act, Congress directed the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) to conduct an inventory of off shore oil and gas resources.
For readers interested in cutting through the politics, here is a link to that Report:
http://www.mms.gov/PDFs/2005EPAct/InventoryRTC.pdf
I don’t have time today to lay out an analysis, but would suggest the following in approaching this Report:
1) go to page 65 and read the caveats before reading the Report – note that inventory is based on “undiscovered” oil and gas deposits – that’s right, totally imaginary resources.
2) Note how little oil and gas are allegedly located off the Atlantic coast. Be sure to note ZERO “known” oil and gas reserves found on page vii of the Executive Summary, and compare this with the “undiscovered” imaginary numbers.
3) compare the amount of energy allegedly located off shore with current consumption rates (this will take some work);
4) Consider economic reality – some energy will be just too costly to recover, even with oil at $200 per barrel. The Report explicitly rejects any economic, access, or environmental considerations.
5) Then after you do all this, ask: what is the off shore wind energy potential? Why aren’t the capacity of wind, wave and solar alternative energy sources “inventoried”.
Bottom line: The Republicans are demagoguing an issue that – at best – could meet maybe 1-2% of total US annual oil/gas demand, but not until over 10 years from now. Drilling – under best case scenarios – would have virtually no measurable impact on FUTURE gasoline prices at the pump, and NO IMPACT on current prices. This is the only “issue” the Republicans have. Pathetic.
(btw, any reduction in the price of a barrel of oil alleged to have resulted from Bush’s announcement of lifting the off shore drilling moratorium BY DEFINITION would be a result of market speculation).
WHERE the HELL ARE THE DEMOCRATS?
All for now.
(ps – I tried to post this information as a comment on Steve’s post but was blocked. Nice, especially for someone seeking “debate”.)
[8/23/08 Update: Menendez: Drilling off Jersey “doesn’t make sense
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880823010
So what is stopping you?
Why don’t you and Steve incorporate, invest in permits, engineering studies, and Environmental Impact Statements, take a loan and start cranking out power?
If Exxon won’t do it, why not compete with them?
Be careful, you might become a ‘filthy capitalist’ along the way.
betternj – why resort to inflamatory rhetoric accusing me of things I never said?
Why not respond to the data posted in the MMS link and the arguments I have made?
Revealing.
How no-nothing Republican of you!
While OUR environment is sacred, you need to address the whole
earth. Red China now “owns” our old pollution, pumped out by our
old plants. A very dirty steel plant bar mill I worked in (seized from
Germany after World War I) was moved to China 20 years ago. Don’t
the air and water transfer these toxins back to us? The only reason
they’re exempt is to let the pensioners, here, glean a profit on the
cheap as they spend our children’s future. As empty factories and
warehouses litter our towns, a look at the global problems propagated
by our “ruling elite” might be helpful.
P.S. Those darned pictures of mushrooms forced an order of mushrooms on my pizza with pepperoni. Thanks!
blarneyboy – thanks.
Agree that entire earth is “sacred” and needs to e protected.
Agree that China is a major problem in oceans and atmosphere, which are both global commons.
Agree that US trade and economic policies have destroyed US manufacturing base (jobs), which is what has created the huge trade deficit with China while allowing China to destroy global environmental resources.
Agree that democracy, the middle class and notions of fairness and equality are being destroyed by the power and greed of what you describe as “the ruling elite”. n and US
AND I love mushrooms on my pizza too!
There is no ” inflamatory rhetoric” in the above post. It is an honest and straight forward question.
If you make the assumption that there IS NO Oil and Gas reserves off our coast, then WHY Prohibit drilling?
If you see such a wonderful opportunity in offshore windmills (even if “uninventoried” then why not save the planet by developing these resources?
Its a fair question, and not intended to be inflamatory.
Take Action instead of Pictures.
Sorry betternj – I was reacting to your warning and use of the phrase:
“Be careful, you might become a ‘filthy capitalist’ along the way.”
The use of quotes clearly implies that I used the term “filthy capitalist”.
Doubtless that the estimate of reserves came from experienced geologists who have studied the strata elsewhere and the geophysical and other data and know what could be there. I doubt it was just a matter of wishful thinking.
That said, I think the push for drilling offshore is probably a bad idea. Even George Bush said we are addicted to oil. You don’t give an addict more of the drug. So instead of drilling for oil, we should use this opportunity of the energy crisis to invest in other renewable energy sources. This is the perfect situation to dust off all those plans that were previously not cost-effective.
unprovincial – the report itself discussed the methodology for estimating the “undiscovered” resources. “Known” and “undiscovered” are very different concepts. Plus, the Report rejects economic, access and environmental constraints in its estimation methodology.
With respect to “undiscovered reserves” as I read the Report, it basically, appears to use a statistical technique based on historical underestimation of reserves. Apparently, reserveves tend to be underestimated by current methods.
I don’t think it is based on geology, but I could be wrong. THis is well beyond my expertise.
And I didn’t mean to imply that it was purely “wishful thinking” – just not money in the bank. This is a key issue, because oil companies have been shown to greatly exaggerate “reservers” – many have been downwardly adjusted recently.
unprovincial – one more thing.
You are a trained geologist, so why don’t you look into this issue and report back?
My background would probably be irrelevant as oil companies guard their data better than the military. No one knows what they are looking at until they have their leases on the books. And even then all you know is that they might want to drill there.
The issue of off shore drilling, as I see it, is a question of how much pollution are we willing to tolerate.
In all things, we accept a level of imperfection. We tolerate a little trash on the side of the road. We’re okay with a few cigarette butts here and there. We’ve gotten used to the bottles and cans on the highway off ramps.
But how much oil well leakage are we willing tolerate washing up on a Jersey beach? Remember the late 80s? We had trash washing up on the shore from NY garbage operations. It almost destroyed a season of tourism at the shore. The financial loses were staggering. Trash on the shore is easy to pick up. Trace its source, pick up and you’re done.
It’s different with oil. It’s toxic. It smells bad. It sticks to people, animals, docks and boat hulls. It stains the sand. It doesn’t clean up in one season (Prince William Sound/Exxon Valdez). The potential for an economic disaster to befall the NJ tourism market is too great to risk.
And if the oil companies are so sure it won’t happen, they won’t mind posting a $1 billion dollar clean up bond, underwritten by the knucklehead politicians who are nothing more than shills for Big Oil.