In case you haven't been paying attention, the hue and cry for drilling offshore now is based on half-truths, misconceptions, and outright lies.

FACT: expanded drilling will nothing to improve gasoline prices until several years from now.

FACT: even when the added supply of oil actually hits the pipeline, it will be a tiny portion of the oil bought and sold in the USA - too small to have any significant impact on prices.

FACT: there is no reason to believe that the 'new' oil will enter the US markets. It will be sold to the highest bidder (so much for helping lower gasoline prices).

FACT: even the die-hard apologists have admitted that conservation will impact consumption - and prices - immediately and significantly. The tire pressure/tune-up tactic can produce immediate results that will absolutely reduce costs for Jane and John Public.

And the biggest current reason for ignoring new drilling as a panacea for energy costs: All the new drilling that the oil industry demands will not impact - after many years - our oil supplies much. Wild-ass guesstimates range in the 6%-10% range. More cautious estimates are that offshore and ANWAR drilling would increase supplies less than 2%.

Do the math. And then consider that the US Government https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html tells us that 12.6% of oil produced in the US is exported. Forget all the new drilling crap - all of the oil that we think we need is being produced already - but it's being sent overseas. Keep that oil in the USA and the world's oil producers will be at our door begging us to buy more from them.

Add in sound conservation and re-opening previously abandoned wells.... oil prices will tumble, and we will once again be dealing from a position of strength. It sucks to have a bunch of 3rd-rate humans having us over (metaphorically speaking) a barrel - an oil barrel. We need to have Americans take back America from Big Oil.

Labels: anwar, big oil, cia, offshore, oil exports, oil production