First Impressions on this Offshore Drilling Political Issue
It's interesting that I had no idea that America had a ban on drilling off it's shores. Must not matter in Alaska because there is a lot of drilling going on up there and in fact there's some major debates going on about where the continental shelves begin and end up there because the Arctic has a lot of oil in it yet to be tapped.
Now to set the record straight I really do not think that Drilling for oil off of mainland America will tangibly effect the price of gas at the pump, sorry to burst that bubble for anyone who thought otherwise. I sit on drilling rigs day in and day out and I still pay around $4.00 a gallon. Vicinity has nothing to do with it, Oil is a commodity that is bought and sold globally because it has value anywhere in the world, and the reason why the price is so high is because of speculation by traders and consumption by emerging superpowers such as China and India which are consuming much more gas than ever before.
The reason why American politicians, most notably the Republicans are pushing now for drilling to happen off American shores is because THERES A LOT OF MONEY TO BE MADE NOW! There is a certain threshold where it becomes profitable for an energy company to pursue oil fields in wealthy nations. You see, rich countries like America and Canada expect a much higher wage than one in Africa or Brazil, they also have stricter environmental and safety standards than poorer nations. This means that the company cannot drill with old or sub-standard equipment either. There is a major overhead when it comes to keeping up with environmental and safety regulations, I know this because I'm part of that overhead, and I do pretty well for myself. What this all means is that when prices are below that threshold it is better to drill in undeveloped nations where the cost of production is lower. When the price is high it becomes worthwhile to explore near richer nations with higher overhead costs.
Overall I don't really see why Americans wouldn't want offshore drilling occurring near their country. Offshore drilling means more jobs and more domestic revenues. Environmentalism is a concern, but being a developed nation the regulations will be much higher than a third world nation, and since we know that demand is not going down is it not better to have oil companies operating where they have to be more accountable for their actions?
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When the price is high it becomes worthwhile to explore near richer nations with higher overhead costs
This is the one part of your essay that I didn't understand. Would you please explain why this is so?
This is so ironic. Just today- June 25, 2008 - the US Supreme Court ruled that Exxon is not responsible to pay for the Exxon Valdez incident which occurred twenty years ago. 11 million gallons of oil were spilled and Exxon was ordered to pay originally five billion in punitive damages, It was later reduced to 2.5 billion by a lower court and then reduced today by Supreme Court to roughly 5 million, which is approx. the compensatory damages already paid. This means that 33,000 people who had businesses along the shore, or worked in various industries, or had business in any association with the 1200 miles of coastline that were affected- restaurants , fisihing business, etc.--- receive 15,000 USD in total for their loss, back in 1989. And that is all they get.
Meanwhile, first quarter profits this year were Exxon Oil were ten point nine billion dollars.
How did this happen? Once again idiot politicians on both sides. The Supreme Court judges (who are appointed for life) were appointed by Bush and Reagan. And during Clinton's presidency, what few supreme court judges remaining, who were liberal-minded, instead of retiring, (some of them were in and out of hospitals, because they were so decrepit) during Clinton's tenure, so that he could appoint another liberal judge in their stead, hung on to their posts until death, assuming that Gore was shoo-in.Then they prompltly died during GW's presidency, assuring he would replace them with a judge more of his pleasing. In essence those myopic judges screwed their own party and the American little guy for their own selfish reasons. We now have a Supreme Court of Republican right wingers who just ruled in Exxon's favour. In other words, clean up was not the responsibility of the oil company that caused it. If the world thinks that the politicans in charge currently in the US are only sticking it to the little guy outside of the US currently, they only have to look at this incident to see how we aren't getting any kisses here before we get screwed here, either. It's a wham bam, thank you, world and thank you , too, Joe America.
If Obama has any sense at all, he'd better use this as a campaign tool. Instead we have that other self-serving jackass talking about offshore drilling. Good Lord, I would just love to hear the spin the rightwing little guy puts on this. I am so mad about this, I want to spit.
You have a good point about age. I can't remember to attach a website URL to an email I send you, because I'm getting old, but that horrific oil spill and its aftermath I remember very well. And you're right also about the nightly news. Obam's talking about child rapists not getting the death penalty- that ruling is getting lots of press. Let's see if they put the Exxon Supreme Coourt ruling ont news for more than a minute, as you say. Grrrr. Senility's starting to look more attractive by the day...At least then I won't remember anything bad and I can go smiling into my grave....(sigh)