Alaska drilling victory!

nobodythere

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nN21310460&imageid=&cap=

This has made my day :):)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

"It is a 2,000-acre limitation," Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, referring to the amount of land within the refuge that would be opened for drilling. "If we can do anything more to help decrease our reliance on oil imports, we need to do it."

don't know or care too much about this, but that's what's stuck out most for me. If it's only 2000 acres.. what's the fuss? Most animals adapt pretty easily, they'll be fine.

nobodythere

For me it's more of a corporate greed thing than an animal thing...

saibhne

Someone correct me here if I'm wrong but they say that there are potentially 10 billion barrells of crude to be found in the area. As far as I can tell the current daily consumption of crude oil in the U.S. is 20 million barrells approx.. (check:http://www.eia.doe.gov ) This gives an annual consumption of about 7.8 billion barrels.

On those figures the amount of oil available in that neck of the woods is worth about 19 months usage to the American public at most. One would assume that the future of the U.S. oil supply won't be significantly affected by the absence of this oil. Is there something I'm missing here? Bar the obvious profit to be made is there another reason why the Republicans would want this relatively small amount of oil to be extracted?

nobodythere

It's sort of a temporary solution to a permanent problem. The longer we can hold off the oil peak, the longer the shareholders of oil companies are kept happy and hence the longer the oil employees get to keep their jobs.

10 billion barrels isn't all that much either considering that not all of it will be extracted and there will be so much oil used to extract that oil.

It pisses me off that people are ignoring the oil peak. The way I see it, the older generations have screwed us over for their own temporary wealth. The longer we choose to keep the small minority of oil tycoons on top, the harder the fall will be when the oil peak finally crashes into us. Instead of trying to cushion our fall we're just closing our eyes and pretending that we're not falling.

netwhizkid

grasshopa wrote:

It's sort of a temporary solution to a permanent problem. The longer we can hold off the oil peak, the longer the shareholders of oil companies are kept happy and hence the longer the oil employees get to keep their jobs.

10 billion barrels isn't all that much either considering that not all of it will be extracted and there will be so much oil used to extract that oil.

It pisses me off that people are ignoring the oil peak. The way I see it, the older generations have screwed us over for their own temporary wealth. The longer we choose to keep the small minority of oil tycoons on top, the harder the fall will be when the oil peak finally crashes into us. Instead of trying to cushion our fall we're just closing our eyes and pretending that we're not falling.

I completely agree and this government are really jepordising our own future with their complete screwed up planning laws. Where I live has the potential to be the "dhawa oil field" of Ireland with Wind Energy they have only allowed for 100 wind turbines to be built the first of which was fully erected this week. It is a thundering disgrace the way they are holding back wind energy, My area alone could have at least 1,000 Windmills producing many gigawatts. To hell with the "natural beauty" I think nothing is more beautiful than watching a Turbine blade turn in the wind. The really adds some character to the landscape imo.

nobodythere

Really interesting actually, I didn't know that anybody disliked windmills until I saw people objecting to them on TV on the ground of general ugliness! I think windmills look lovely.

Dr_MalPractice

corporations are required BY LAW to maximise per share value. in theory i have no problem with that. the problem is that they are obligated to do so with no regard for what are termed 'externalities'. to you and me that includes such things as
enviornmental destruction,
knowingly producing, for example, cars whose fuel tanks are known to explode in certain collisions.
skimping on maintainence schedules, (a favorite with oil co's)

Sorry about the rant, i just finished reading 'the corporation' by Joel Bakan. there's an educational section on oil companys in there. i recommend both it, and 'no logo' by Naomi Klein.

My 2 cents on the windmills, i frequently pass a windfarm just outside Tralee, and they look bloody smashin. And when you consider that kerry is producing more green energy than can be used by the county domestic/residential sector are using, they start lookin even better.