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Blog Entry 13 of 13 Civilization is Overrated
For those that pay some attention, does it feel like our nation, our culture, our world is heading down hill at an accelerating pace? As we ride this runaway train (that some people mistakenly call progress) one has to wonder where we'll end up and who'll survive the wreck.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~CivilizationIsOverrated

The Myth of "Our" Oil
Contributed by: Dean Tebbe   on 8/6/2008

With all the noise about off-shore drilling, ANWR, oil shale, etc, it seems to me that there is an important distinction that's being completely ignored. It's being ignored by the Republicans in Congress, who are using the oil situation as a way to woo back blue-collar voters. It's ignored by the two major presidential candidates as they continue the daily pander-a-thon. And it's largely ignored by the media.

There is this notion that public lands, and whatever they hold (oil, minerals, water, etc), belong to the American people, a kind of public trust. I would guess that most people subscribe to that thinking.

Recently many have put forth the idea that if we could just access the oil (crude, oil shale) under these public lands we could lower our dependency on foreign oil and thereby lower gas prices. All that's needed is to allow the oil companies to lease the applicable areas for oil exploration and we're on our way to energy independence, lower prices at the pump, and the continuation of the American lifestyle. Sounds simple enough.

However, a distinction that's missing is that as soon as these public lands are leased for exploration and production, they cease to be public. The oil or shale under the ground now becomes the property of the corporation that obtained the lease. It's not "ours' anymore.

Even if all the proposed US oil exploration took place, found large deposits, and somehow yielded a million barrels a day (1Mbpd, which would be huge), that oil wouldn't offset the price of gas here any more than the same find would in Somewhere-istan. That's because oil is a global commodity and global production (and demand) largely determine the price of oil. Corporations would have no obligation or incentive to sell that oil for a lower price to anyone, including Americans.

So setting aside the possibility that any of this oil would actually come to market inside of 5 - 10 years, the best this 1Mbpd would do is raise the world rate of production by about 1%. Obviously, that doesn't seem like enough to significantly move prices.

While I cringe at the potential for environmental disaster, I accept that the US will ultimately be ravaged in the search for energy. But, any suggestion that drilling "our" oil will somehow lower gas prices now, if ever, is at best a political stunt, and at worst, lying.




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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Lisa Arata
posted on 8/8/2008 @ 9:38:57 AM
(Not Rated)
Good Point. All of these political lines being fed to us are oversimplified and preying on our ignorance, and we need to hear this. We also need to know that many other "solutions" cause other problems. Why can't we be told more openly? Axes to grind.
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Dean Tebbe

Highlands Ranch , CO

Dean Tebbe has posted 13 blog entries and 13 comments since joining on 3/7/2006. Dean Tebbe 's average blog rating is 4.72.
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