Offshore Oil Drilling Scam

Isn't it curious that the Bush Administration is stopping solar projects on public land at the same time pushing for lifting the off shore drilling ban? Administration Freezing New Solar Projects

$20 million has been spent to oppose Cape Wind.

The energy industry has spent buckets opposing increased auto fuel efficiency.

This Washington Administration has actively stymied any efforts to promote alternative energy and create a sensible energy policy.

The following are telling you we're at the end of World Oil production (T. Boone Pickens is telling you estimates of oil reserves are being provided that are unsubstantiated and meaningless to sell the propaganda):

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett: Peak Oil

T. Boone Pickens Promotes Wind, LNG

This from the Florida CFO:

“I think this is a very shortsighted approach to put our economy at risk for oil drilling along the coast when we all know that the first drop of oil wouldn’t even come for ten years,” Sink said. CNBC

Off Shore Drilling: Are Americans Being Snookered?

Wind is already more competitive than electricity generated from new nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

Newsweek in McCain's Power Outage
EIA: The projections in the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.

Something that takes 22 years to deliver significant results hardly qualifies as a "short-term" solution. Why would it take so long? To vastly oversimplify: First, the government has to identify properties to be leased and hold a lease sale. Then, winning bidders need to contract with drilling rigs (all of which are booked for the next five years, according to the New York Times), drill exploratory holes and analyze core samples - "They drilled 75 holes in the North Sea before they figured out the geology" sufficiently to begin drilling productive wells, says Lucian Pugliaresi, president of the oil industry-funded Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. And then, if oil is found, companies would have to order and put in place production equipment, build pipelines to get the oil to shore, and get various permits and environmental analyses every step of the way.

Bush has argued that one of the reasons gas prices are climbing is that offshore areas remain off-limits to drilling. His administration claims that as many as 18bn barrels of oil could eventually be harvested from US coastal areas. Guardian

NRDC clearly laid out the folly of offshore drilling (emphasis mine):

Oil companies and their allies in Congress claim that drilling in America's oceans and coastal areas would help solve the energy crisis and have proposed ending the 27-year moratorium on new offshore drilling. But offshore drilling would neither solve our energy needs nor significantly lower gas prices. Instead, drilling would harm America's economy, health, oceans and coasts.

Proponents of offshore drilling claim it would reduce gas prices, even though the Department of Energy has determined that it would not significantly do so. Oil companies currently have 5,500 offshore leases they are not drilling, and with 80 percent of the untapped oil in offshore areas already open to development, they do not need access to more areas to increase supply. And while the U.S. oil industry says it wants even more access to sensitive ocean areas to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries. This proposal is simply a way to give oil companies unfettered drilling access to our oceans and coastal areas.

In addition, opening up additional offshore areas to drilling poses real threats to our ocean and coastal ecosystems and economies. Offshore drilling creates toxic waste products that contaminate fish and marine life. Offshore wells emit air pollutants that are known carcinogens, cause respiratory problems and worsen global warming. And current cleanup methods can only remove a small fraction of oil spilled in marine waters, where it is toxic for most species.

America needs real, long-term solutions for the energy crisis, but oil companies and their allies are not delivering them. We need to use less oil by improving energy efficiency and utilizing renewable energy. In doing so, we can achieve energy independence, fight global warming, and jump-start our nation's economy.

NRDC said this about Cape Wind Opposition:

Lobbyists' Influence Game

Why would Congressman Young be so interested in wind power projects located nowhere near his state?

One answer might be that his longtime friend and former Alaska state environmental official Guy Martin, has been hired by a group of wealthy families trying to block a proposed wind farm several miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Martin works for the Washington firm Perkins Coie, one of several giant Washington lobbying firms hired by a coalition co-chaired by Bill Koch of the Koch oil and gas conglomerate, Doug Yearley, former CEO of Phelps Dodge, and other wealthy Cape Cod landholders. The group has spent close to a million dollars trying to influence lawmakers against the project.

Cape Wind Provides Clean Energy

The Cape Wind project would provide 420 megawatts of electricity from 130 emissions-free turbines. That is enough to supply 75 percent of power needed on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

By using clean energy instead of fossil fuel electricity generation, the Cape Wind project will eliminate approximately 360 tons of particulate matter, 2,400 tons of sulfur oxides, 800 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 1,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide for every year of operation. That will reduce respiratory problems and other pollution-related health effects, as well as reducing the carbon pollution that causes global warming.

Maybe, as consumers of energy, we should speak out on the flawed public policies supported by lobbyists and generous campaign donors. Maybe we should heed the words of oil man, T. Boone Pickens and his campaign to promote wind and LNG. And when the energy experts say that 20-30% energy reductions are easily achievable, maybe they're right and we should listen.