i'll gladly start this wildfire

[TeyshaBlue]

I'm glad you included yourself in that statement, since that's exactly what you're doing.

For compe ive leases, the primary term is 5 years. (1/2 decade)
For non-compe ive leases, the primary term is 10 years. (1 decade)

Here are all the clauses: LINK

So, all the Goat Pastures can be returned in 5 years... but they're not. Requests for drilling permits have actually been going down for the last few years. Somehow there's interest in retaining the land, but no interest in actually exploring it.

In all the leases I brokered, and there were hundreds of them, I never saw a compe ive lease granted. And judging by the fact that non-compe ive leases out number compe ive by a significant margin until recently, I would have to concede that my experience reflected only non compe ive leases.

Experience is not always the best instructor as was illustrated in this case.

Thanks, amigo.

[shelshor]

Imagine a chaise lounge, a couple of Coronas', picturesque, if I must say so myself.

...

Looks like $$$$ to me

If the danger of spills is so high, why haven't there been any during any of the recent "killer" hurricanes? Surely a storm strong enough to wipe out large portions of a city wouldn't have a problem taking out a flimsy drilling platform

And where does this figure of 10 years to get gas to the pump come from?
Is there an actual study or do ented facts to support that, or is it dogma from the anti-drilling folks?
The reason I ask is that from the first phone call from a lease hound wanting to lease some of my land to having a producing oil well & 3 natural gas wells was only 19 months.
And the biggest delay was getting the 37 people who either own or farm various plots of land to agree on routes for the pipelines to connnect everyone's wells to a central battery

Can we add Bushmills & La Gloria Cubana Serie R to the Coronas?

[boutons_]

"where does this figure of 10 years to get gas to the pump come from"

getting somebody to drill on your land is a lot easier than finding a available offshore drilling rig, and laying pipeline from the rig to the refinery.

even dubya's own energy agency, polluted and compromised with oil men and oil lobbyists, says 2030 before any significant oil would onshore, and its impact on gas price would be negligible.

[ElNono]

In all the leases I brokered, and there were hundreds of them, I never saw a compe ive lease granted. And judging by the fact that non-compe ive leases out number compe ive by a significant margin until recently, I would have to concede that my experience reflected only non compe ive leases.

Experience is not always the best instructor as was illustrated in this case.

Thanks, amigo.

No problem, we're all trying to get educated here. Myself included.

[ElNono]

I was originally under the impression that the rise in the price of oil was on the speculators, because that's where everyone was pointing the finger, but lately the edge has been taken off of that angle. It's like everyone that stands to make a profit is playing a big game with the (helpless) consumer.

Here's yesterdays quote from Bernanke:

Bernanke Defends Oil Speculators

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in testimony, yesterday, in his Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the U.S. Senate, defended oil speculators by saying:

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com...eculators.html

What's your take on that El?

As the blog mentions, supply has risen sharply at the beginning of 2008. Which pretty much contradicts the price surge we've seen (I mean, besides of the value of the dollar decreasing substantially). He mentions that oil stocks are not growing, but in fact they are. Even in the US, the gasoline stock rose 900,000 barrels to 211.8 million barrels in the first week of July (LINK)
I do agree with him that at the very least, the futures market need more transparency. I mean, if the speculators have nothing to do with the whole price surge, then why not take a look there and make sure that's the case?
Again, you can't do too much about that specific problem, but at the very least you could at least take a look at make sure what's going on is simple trading by uninterested parties.

[ElNono]

Looks like $$$$ to me

If the danger of spills is so high, why haven't there been any during any of the recent "killer" hurricanes? Surely a storm strong enough to wipe out large portions of a city wouldn't have a problem taking out a flimsy drilling platform

Remember the Exxon Valdez? That it hasn't happened doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't happen. As a matter of fact, we all experienced first hand the kind of damage a big oil spill can produce.

And where does this figure of 10 years to get gas to the pump come from?
Is there an actual study or do ented facts to support that, or is it dogma from the anti-drilling folks?
The reason I ask is that from the first phone call from a lease hound wanting to lease some of my land to having a producing oil well & 3 natural gas wells was only 19 months.
And the biggest delay was getting the 37 people who either own or farm various plots of land to agree on routes for the pipelines to connnect everyone's wells to a central battery

Can we add Bushmills & La Gloria Cubana Serie R to the Coronas?

I'm going to quote from this (LINK) book, that explains a bit what's involved:
1) Identification of an exploration target
2) Land Acquisition (lease)
3) Approval for an Application to Permit to Drill (APD)
4) Exploration Drilling
5) Well Completion (for production)
6) Additional APD approvals for development wells
7) Full field development and Production
8) Cessation of economic production, well plugging, and reclamation.

This entire process generally occurs over a 20- to 40-year period, depending on the size of the field.

[boutons_]

"WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to pressure energy companies into drilling for oil on lands they already leased from the federal government, calling the legislation a sham."

but giving more OCS leases to oilcos isn't a sham?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/us...gewanted=print

[jochhejaam]

Here's a good article on ANWR (read quickly, before the trolls find it and trash another thread).

Natives support Republican goal of drilling for oil
Estimates indicate that 10.6 billion barrels of oil lie beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and as much as 750,000 barrels could be pumped from there daily.

When 10 Republican congressmen — 9 of them freshmen facing a crucial re-election in November — set boots on tundra today in Alaska, they’ll meet with native villagers who will likely agree with them on the need to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But political opponents <democrats> and environmentalists
say the GOP journey to one of America’s northernmost outposts is a “junket” and a “public relations stunt.”

The Republicans, including Reps. Bob Latta of Bowling Green and Jim Jordan of Urbana, Ohio, say the trip is a fact-finding mission. But they also admit it’s an effort to generate public support for expanding America’s domestic supply of oil by drilling in the known reserves of ANWR.

Several residents of the small native village of Kaktovik who were contacted by The Blade Friday by telephone said the majority of the residents lean in favor of drilling for oil because of the economic benefit it would bring their community.

“More people support it here than don’t,” said Adam Linn, administrator for the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation.

“We don’t care for environmentalists. We’ve got our own criteria. As long as the animals are not harmed and we can still hunt them, that’s fine,” Mr. Linn said.

“A gallon of milk costs $9 here.
That’s how high the cost of living is. If they open ANWR, it’ll cut down on our prices.”

The trip, which began Friday in Washington and ends tomorrow night, takes the GOP House delegation to Colorado, Fairbanks, the oil town of Deadhorse at Prudhoe Bay, and the native village of Kaktovik.


The Gwich’in people, native to ANWR, oppose drilling for oil on the reserve and consider the coastal plain a sacred place where the caribou birth and nurse their young.

On Friday, the “American Energy Tour” visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., where the group viewed projects including plug-in electric, solar, and hydrogen-fueled vehicles and a “wind-to-hydrogen” project.

The trip is being funded and facilitated by the Bush Administration. President Bush hascalled for drilling in the coastal plain of the 19-million-acre wildlife refuge north of the Arctic Circle.

The best estimates of the volume of oil beneath ANWR are about 10.6 billion barrels — a lot of oil, but a fraction of the total known reserves in the world of 1.2 trillion barrels.

Some estimate that, if fully developed, ANWR could produce 750,000 barrels of oil daily — compared with current national daily consumption of 21 million barrels of oil.

‘It’s beautiful here,’ a resident says of ANWR. ‘We’ve got fields of flowers right now.’

“Everything helps, and 10 billion barrels is not an insignificant amount,” said Michael Steel, press secretary for Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio), the House minority leader who organized the trip.

A political issue
Recent polls show that the American public supports drilling in ANWR, and Mr. Steel predicted most Democrats in Congress would vote for it as well.

“It is the <democratic> House leadership that is avoiding letting that happen,” he said.

Critics of the congressional trip abound.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <she, of the 13% favorable "failed" Congress> (D., Calif.) issued a statement linking the House Republicans with the “failed policies” of President Bush. She said oil companies already have leases to drill on 68 million acres on land and off shore that they have not exploited.

“Opening new lands to drilling won’t save Americans one penny for at least a decade,” <that's good, because me and...well, everyone I know will still be driving> Mrs. Pelosi said, again calling on Republicans to support her call to release oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) called the trip “a junket” and “a public relations stunt at taxpayers’ expense in an election year <paraphase; "I wasn't invited, and it was initiated by Republicans">.”

“The Boehner-led delegation wants to send pretty pictures back home when the picture isn’t pretty at all,” Miss Kaptur said in a prepared statement, adding that families are being “stretched to the limit” while oil companies revel in historic high profits.

“What’s next on their agenda for Big Oil, drilling in Lake Erie?” Miss Kaptur asked. <how troll-like of you Marcy>

Mr. Steel said he’s heard no calls for sinking oil wells in the Great Lakes.

An up-close view
Residents of Kaktovik, the small village at the northern tip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, support drilling by 78 percent, according to a survey done several years ago.

Marie Kaveolook, a part-time school aide, said the community is united in opposing off-shore drilling from ANWR.

But she said the technology of accessing and transporting oil is improving.

“It would help a lot because the cost of living here is very, very, very, very expensive,” Ms. Kaveolook said, quoting the price of a round-trip to Fairbanks at more than $700.
There are no roads leading out of Kaktovik.

She said the village has seen numerous fact-finding delegations come and go.

“They come every year. They just ask the same old questions. It seems like to me it’s the same old thing every year,” Ms. Kaveolook said. “They should have done this 20 years ago.”

A town resident who opposes drilling is Merylin Traynor, who moved to Kaktovik 14 years ago and manages the Waldo Arms hotel.

“I would say [opinion is split] 50-50. I think some of our younger people want to keep it as it is, so they can go hunting and fishing as they’ve learned from childhood,” she said.

She admitted the development would be an economic benefit for the people in Kaktovik.

“The locals here could have jobs,” Ms. Traynor said. She said the perception that the coastal plain is a desolate wasteland might be understandable for people who are used to seeing trees.

“It’s beautiful here. We’ve got fields of flowers right now. The birds nest here. We’ve got polar bears,” she said.

A sacred place
The native Gwich’in people who live about 150 miles south, also in the refuge, are said to oppose drilling.

Emilie Surrusco, a communications coordinator for the Alaska Wilderness League, based in Washington, said the Gwich’in consider the Coastal Plain a sacred place where the caribou birth and nurse their young.

“The Gwich’in people have been depending on the porcupine caribou herd for thousands of years, and without the costal plain they wouldn’t survive. It’s a huge issue to them,” Ms. Surrusco said.

She said the 2,000 acres cited by proponents of drilling as the total size of the drilling installations don’t explain that it would be a total of 2,000 acres made up of widely separated drilling facilities connected by roads.

“They’d have to connect the various wells that are spread out across the coastal plain. There’s nothing there. It’s really the biological heart of the refuge. There’s a lot of wildlife that live on the coastal plain,” Ms. Surrusco said.

Nature and development
Mr. Linn said the Kaktovik village owns 90,000 acres in ANWR and expects to reap lease payments for the use of the land, as well as benefit economically.

He disputed Ms. Surrusco’s predictions about the porcupine caribou herd, saying the Prudhoe Bay drilling to the west has not harmed the caribou.

“They say the caribou die off. But those guys live hundreds of miles away. We’ve seen it in Prudhoe. There’s caribou right there in the oilfields,” Mr. Linn said.

A written position of the Kaktovik community that it says has been held for 20 years states: “We would support oil exploration and development of the coastal plain provided we are given the authority and the resources to ensure that it is done properly and safely. Without the necessary provisions to ensure this protection, we would not.”

Contact Tom Troy at:[email protected] 419-724-6058.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll...WS09/413279489

[jochhejaam]

Drilling in ANWR would affect only 2,000 of the 19,000,000 acres.

[ElNono]

LOL... we're still waiting for your rebuttal(s) on this thread: LINK

But hey, I called it: You were going to keep on posting articles from political hacks instead of actually bringing anything to the conversation.
Your act is getting old and predictable...

[jochhejaam]

LOL... we're still waiting for your rebuttal(s) on this thread: LINK

But hey, I called it: You were going to keep on posting articles from political hacks instead of actually bringing anything to the conversation.
Your act is getting old and predictable...

There’s nothing there to rebut. There was quite a bit of info posted as to why gas prices have skyrocketed, and there wasn’t so much as one word of rebuttal from one poster, it amounted to nothing more than a hodge-podge of silliness and insults, something more expected and typical of grade school kids, than adults.

.
And to the surprise of absolutely no one, the same ol’, same ol’ from you here; an article about drilling on the ANWR was posted, information that could have elicited intelligent dialogue, but instead, it serves as the catalyst for your M.O. to kick in;

1. You trash the writer as a political hack, even though you don’t know diddly squat about him.
2. You have no comments about the article.
3. You engage in a little ad hominem.
4. You crouch in waiting for the next opportunity to do the same.


That shtick you brought to the forum is already heavily in use, and unless you aspire to being a parrot (I freely admit you’re good at it), you’re better off saving your breath

[ChumpDumper]

How much would unlimited drilling in the US lower the price of gas?

[ElNono]

There’s nothing there to rebut. There was quite a bit of info posted as to why gas prices have skyrocketed, and there wasn’t so much as one word of rebuttal from one poster, it amounted to nothing more than a hodge-podge of silliness and insults, something more expected and typical of grade school kids, than adults.

.
And to the surprise of absolutely no one, the same ol’, same ol’ from you here; an article about drilling on the ANWR was posted, information that could have elicited intelligent dialogue, but instead, it serves as the catalyst for your M.O. to kick in;

1. You trash the writer as a political hack, even though you don’t know diddly squat about him.
2. You have no comments about the article.
3. You engage in a little ad hominem.
4. You crouch in waiting for the next opportunity to do the same.


That shtick you brought to the forum is already heavily in use, and unless you aspire to being a parrot (I freely admit you’re good at it), you’re better off saving your breath

I'll give one more cause for rising oil prices that have nothing to do with Congress. Requests for drilling permits have gone down in the last few years. Oil Co's are still sitting on acres of land that are producing absolutely nothing. Some of them haven't even been explored yet.

What you make of that? What does Congress has to do with that?

You keep posting political propaganda but actually don't refute anything we counter with. I can just as easily go to some Dems blogs and start posting political garbage like you do.

Do you actually have anything to say, or you just going to keep on moving on to the next blog when your arguments are shown to be weak sauce?

I'll give you another cause, that the current Fed chairmain acknowledged in his last economic report, and we already discussed in another thread:
The depreciation of the dollar under this administration. Thanks to the billions we spend monthly in the stupid Iraq war. Interesting it didn't make your top 10 list, considering it has had more direct impact than all that global warming nonsense that made it on the list.

I meant if you read the thread. The original article that started the thread was just as stupid as yours, blaming Congress for the Oil prices. Now go back and read the responses.
In a nuts :
1) Congress did nothing to increase the demand for oil worldwide
2) Oil Co's are not drilling in the acres they already leased. Congress have nothing to do with that.
3) This Congress has actually been trying to pass legislation preventing further land leases until Oil Co's explore the acres already leased. So it's not like the Dems are against drilling, they're just against land hoarding by Oil Co's. Interestingly enough, Republicans opposed this measure.

Again, go back and read the thread. The arguments from that political hack have been refuted already.

And BTW, correlation is not causation. You need to demonstrate the cause, otherwise you can blame anything on anybody.

These are all valid points, which you failed to argument against.
But wait, you're going to post another political blog entry parroting how the Dems control oil prices, because you're not here to argue. You have no points to make, other than you hate Democrats. We get it. Your is weak.
What's even funnier is that I'm not a Dem, I'm just pointing out the hollowness of your 'posts'.
I'm moving on until you bring an actual valid point.

[jochhejaam]

How much would unlimited drilling in the US lower the price of gas?

I don't know, and I've stated that the days of cheap gas are over, I'd be shocked if we ever see it under $3.00 a gallon again.

As far as why the oilco's aren't drilling on their current leases? You'd think that considering the questions surrounding it that the info would be readily available, but I don't find an official explanation from the oilcos or anyone else.
Without anything to go on, other than blogger conjecture, my guess would be that there's not enough oil in the leased areas to make it worth their while.

[jochhejaam]

I've e-mailed my Congressman, Bob Latta, as to why the OilCo's aren't drilling on the already leased land.

I'll fill you in with the response he gives.

[jochhejaam]

You have no points to make, other than you hate Democrats. We get it. Your is weak.
What's even funnier is that I'm not a Dem, I'm just pointing out the hollowness of your 'posts'.
I'm moving on until you bring an actual valid point.

More presumptive b.s. from you. Posting an article that says the Dems are responsible for high gas prices hardly equates to "hating the Dems", and I've never said you were a dem (so where does the funny part come it?), and I couldn't care less what your political affiliation is.

Jack Kelly writes for a liberal newspaper, one whose owner has endorsed Obama while acknowledging his disdain for Bush. Even though he probably disagrees with many of Kelly's articles, he nonetheless respects his opionions enough to faithfully post his editorials on a weekly basis.
Yet you, who know nothing of the man, label him a "tool" because he doesn't see things the way you do.

Tom Troy, even though you know nothing about him, is labeled a "political hack", why, solely because he publishes an article you don't agree with.

You are a genuine pompous-ass, and in light of that I consider your "moving on" a good thing.

[ElNono]

More presumptive b.s. from you. Posting an article that says the Dems are responsible for high gas prices hardly equates to "hating the Dems", and I've never said you were a dem (so where does the funny part come it?), and I couldn't care less what your political affiliation is.

Ofcourse you hate them. That's why you actually take the time to add your own editorial comments taking pot shots at anything a democrat says in the articles you post, and don't do the same with the Republicans. If you truly wanted to show your view as unbiased, you would leave the articles alone. Then actually substantiate why you disagree with their accounts.
To be honest with you, I think Pelosi is a , and as I said many times this is a terrible congress. Now, from there to suggest they control the price of oil isnot just a stretch, but a flat out lie.

Jack Kelly writes for a liberal newspaper, one whose owner has endorsed Obama while acknowledging his disdain for Bush. Even though he probably disagrees with many of Kelly's articles, he nonetheless respects his opionions enough to faithfully post his editorials on a weekly basis.
Yet you, who know nothing of the man, label him a "tool" because he doesn't see things the way you do.

Writing for a liberal newspaper doesn't make him any less of a tool. , I could even see why a liberal would want this guy to present the conservative opinion. To put an analogy, Stephen A Smith, works for arguably the largest sports network in the planet, and he's still a tool.

Tom Troy, even though you know nothing about him, is labeled a "political hack", why, solely because he publishes an article you don't agree with.

It's not a matter that I don't like it. It's an issue of flat out lies. Congress does not control the price of oil. I mean, if they did and now that's a democrat majority, you know full well the Oil Cos would not have 2 consecutive quarters with record profits, while we struggle at the pump.

You are a genuine pompous-ass, and in light of that I consider your "moving on" a good thing.

I try to be as pompuos-ass as I can be. Thanks for the compliment. You actually brought some valid takes of your own that are worth discussing. I know you can do it, you've done it before.

[ElNono]

I've e-mailed my Congressman, Bob Latta, as to why the OilCo's aren't drilling on the already leased land.

I'll fill you in with the response he gives.

Thank you. I'm honestly curious to hear what he says. I would also have loved to hear his take on why they're not letting go of the leases (and the land) after the primary period even when they didn't even started exploring the area.

[jochhejaam]

Ofcourse you hate them. That's why you actually take the time to add your own editorial comments taking pot shots at anything a democrat says in the articles you post, and don't do the same with the Republicans. If you truly wanted to show your view as unbiased, you would leave the articles alone. Then actually substantiate why you disagree with their accounts.
To be honest with you, I think Pelosi is a , and as I said many times this is a terrible congress. Now, from there to suggest they control the price of oil isnot just a stretch, but a flat out lie.

I despise certain parts of the Dems platform, but that's a far cry from hating the Dems, heck, half of my relatives are Dems and I get along with them famously.
Do you hate people based on them having different beliefs than you?

Writing for a liberal newspaper doesn't make him any less of a tool. , I could even see why a liberal would want this guy to present the conservative opinion. To put an analogy, Stephen A Smith, works for arguably the largest sports network in the planet, and he's still a tool. It's not a matter that I don't like it. It's an issue of flat out lies. Congress does not control the price of oil. I mean, if they did and now that's a democrat majority, you know full well the Oil Cos would not have 2 consecutive quarters with record profits, while we struggle at the pump.

People are looking for reasons as to why the gas prices have skyrocketed, he gave his, and for the most part his reasoning was sound. That's not to suggest that I agree with the contention that the Democratic Party is solely responsible for the oil prices, because I don't, not at all. I believe they've contributed to it, just one reason of many.
(I consider Smith to be an irritant...perhaps we have different definitions of what "tool" means).

I try to be as pompuos-ass as I can be. Thanks for the compliment

.
Had I known you'd wear the label as if it were a badge of honor, I would never have said it.

You actually brought some valid takes of your own that are worth discussing. I know you can do it, you've done it before.

I believe you've actually brought a couple yourself, so you've done it before and you can do it again!






And I will get back with Latta's response, I'm expecting something along the lines of; "we're looking into it".

[clambake]

joch should have watched the oil execs when they were called to capitol hill.

[ElNono]

I despise certain parts of the Dems platform, but that's a far cry from hating the Dems, heck, half of my relatives are Dems and I get along with them famously.
Do you hate people based on them having different beliefs than you?

No I only hate stupid people.

People are looking for reasons as to why the gas prices have skyrocketed, he gave his, and for the most part his reasoning was sound. That's not to suggest that I agree with the contention that the Democratic Party is solely responsible for the oil prices, because I don't, not at all. I believe they've contributed to it, just one reason of many.
(I consider Smith to be an irritant...perhaps we have different definitions of what "tool" means).

Not it wasn't. None at all. It doesn't address the direct factors that contribute to increase in Oil prices. It only focuses on this theory that if we drill more, we will decrease the price of oil. Which is a complete fallacy.

Had I known you'd wear the label as if it were a badge of honor, I would never have said it.

We're just having fun here. Some people take all this stuff too seriously.
I mean, I do when I have to pay $70 at the pump, but not at SpursTalk. I may argue at length with you, but it truly never is personal. It's a freaking Internet forum after all!

[jochhejaam]

I've e-mailed my Congressman, Bob Latta, as to why the OilCo's aren't drilling on the already leased land.

I'll fill you in with the response he gives.

Thank you. I'm honestly curious to hear what he says. I would also have loved to hear his take on why they're not letting go of the leases (and the land) after the primary period even when they didn't even started exploring the area.

Finally got a response <emailed him 24 days ago and again 17 days ago>, here it is;

Dear <this poster>,

Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns surrounding the rising costs of energy. Over the past several months, I have heard from my cons uents in the Fifth Congressional District regarding the rising cost of gasoline and the need for the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign oil. I believe that the United States needs an energy policy, and steps must be taken towards energy independence to keep our energy affordable. I appreciate you taking the time to communicate your thoughts and concerns to me.

Currently, the United States consumes approximately 24% of the world’s energy. As more countries become industrialized, there will be an even greater demand for energy. By 2015, China and India together will exceed the United States’ energy consumption. By 2020, China alone will consume more than the United States. China is increasing offshore energy production to reduce its own dependence on foreign oil by growing its production capacity at an average of 15.3 percent per year, with plans to make offshore production their largest source of oil by doubling production by 2010. The Majority Democrat leadership opposes domestic offshore energy exploration and production, making America the only developed nation in the world to restrict access to offshore energy supplies. China will invest $24 billion in coal liquethetion technology, while the current Democrat leadership continues to exclude coal from our energy policy, even though the United States has 24% of the world’s coal reserves.

President Bush recently lifted the executive order ban on drilling for oil on our continental shelf We have approximately 86 billion barrels of oil offshore that can be recovered. We also have 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that can be recovered on and offshore. Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming have an estimated 2.1 trillion barrels of oil shale. Again, all the above resources are being blocked by the Democrat leadership in Congress. For our country to survive, we must have energy for manufacturing that createsjobs. We, as a country, don’t have the luxury of time. We must act now. According to the National Manufacturing Association, the Fifth Congressional District has the 9 largest number of manufacturing jobs out of four hundred thirty-five Congressional districts. Our district is also the number one agricultural district in Ohio. We need oil for farmers’ combines, fertilizers and chemicals. We must ensure that we are never held hostage with food the way we are with energy.

The U.S. must explore and drill for oil domestically, and it must be done in a safe manner to preserve the environment and keep emissions low. I recently visited the Alaskan Arctic coast with other members of Congress to see firsthand the different areas that contain large oil reserves. We currently import over 65% of our oil. We cannot rely on oil from the Middle East or from dictators for our thture. I support opening up Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil drilling. We are only talking about 3 square miles in the 19 million acre refuge. ANWR is the size of the state of South Carolina. There is an estimated 10.3 billion barrels of oil in ANWR, and it can be recovered with a very small foot print. A site of less than six acres can drill laterally eight miles away. Another important fact is that at its height, the Alaskan pipeline carried 2.1 million bands of oil a day. Today that number is 700,000 barrels a day. If oil in the Alaskan pipeline drops to 300,000 barrels a day, it will be out of operation. American would have to import more oil to make up for the loss.

Alternative energy is another way that will help lead the U.S. towards energy independence. Northwest Ohio is home to an ethanol plant, wind turbines, and solar panel manufacturing. We also have a process for coal gasification and for developing a hydrogen engine. We need to continue to develop these forms of energy as we decrease our dependence on oil. There are possibilities for more wind turbines in Northwest Ohio, along with more homes utilizing solar panels for energy. On our way to Alaska’s North coast, we also toured the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado where these alternative energy sources are being perfected.

On May 15, 2008 I introduced House Resolution 1206, a resolution that contains a 5-point plan for Congress to use in developing our energy policy. This plan is one example of how the United States can take serious action towards lowering energy and gas prices. The five points of H. Res. 1206 include:
• Promoting the expanded use of alternative and renewable energy resources;
• Increasing our domestic refining capacity;
• Promoting conservation and increased energy efticiency;
• Expanding research and development, including domestic exploration; and
• Enhancing consumer education.

Expanding commercial access to renewable energy solutions, building new nuclear facilities, developing clean coal technology, and increasing domestic exploration will help the United States become more self-sufficient and less dependent upon Middle Eastern oil. Please be assured that I will continue to work with my fellow members of Congress on this important issue. The future of our country depends on a proactive approach to creating viable solutions for individuals to care for their family’s energy needs.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any concerns or questions you may have related to federal issues. You can reach my Washington, D.C. office by phone at (202) 225-6405, or by email through our website at http://latta.house.gov. It is an honor to serve you.

Sincerely,

Robert E. Latta
Member of Congress



Regarding my original question about drilling on already leased land, he blew me off. I guess they didn't have a form letter that dealt directly with the question. I'm left to assume that they don't know why...

[Wild Cobra]

Regarding my original question about drilling on already leased land, he blew me off. I guess they didn't have a form letter that dealt directly with the question. I'm left to assume that they don't know why...

My understanding is that all that leased land is in one form of development or another. Test well, permits, etc.

Notice how the leftist pundits say we are not drilling it... they don't say the oil companies are not trying, right? They just imply it.

[ChumpDumper]

How much will opening up all of the ocean and ANWAR to drilling lower the price of gas at the pump?

[Wild Cobra]

How much will opening up all of the ocean and ANWAR to drilling lower the price of gas at the pump?

Hard to put a value on it, but it will be significant.