Thursday, June 26, 2008

Dear Nancy: You Just Don't Get IT!

I came across this today, while visiting the official web site of the Speaker of the House:

The Democratic-led Congress is moving America in a New Direction for Energy Independence—working for consumers to lower gas prices, make America more secure, and launch a cleaner, smarter, more cost-effective energy future that creates hundreds of thousands of green jobs and reduces global warming.

This chart may have more to say than the above paragraph.



Just thought I'd pass that on. The Dems are quick to blame the repubs, but they've had two years, and just last year a huge energy bill was passed, but had no provisions for drilling.

On Pelosi's web site, her argument is "The bottom line: America has only 1.6% of the world’s oil supply, but we use 24% — so drilling isn’t much of a solution at all."

That's like comparing apples to oranges. First of all the 1.6 percent figure is proven, tapped reserves (actually, according to Oil and Gas Journal, it's more like 1.8 percent, but let's not nit pick). However, if you include oil shale, and figure that there are more unproven reserves, the figure goes much higher. Some estimates I've read say that we have more than a trillon barrels of oil yet to be discovered. That's more oil than Saudia Arabia has.

The 24-percent figure is our consumption of world production on a daily basis. The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels a day out of a world production of 86 billion barrels.

You just can't use the two figures in a direct line of reasoning like this. And her complaint that oil companies already have 68 million acres leased doesn't wash with me either. Leasing land doesn't mean there is oil to be drilled. First, you have to have permission to drill, then you have to go find the oil, then you have to drill.

Time to get started, don't you think?

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