Just over half (51 percent) believe offshore drilling would lower gasoline prices in 2009, while 49 percent disagree. (Results of the opinion survey are based on telephone interviews with 1,041 adult Americans conducted in late July. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.)
Political Pandering Fuels on Consumer Fears and Fantasies
It’s hard to imagine how so many people can believe that adding more offshore oil rigs to America’s coastlines will lower gas prices enough to make a difference, let alone within the next few months, but people will grab at just about any straw when their wallets and their families are affected.
Let’s get serious. Everyone from the American Petroleum Institute to the U.S. Energy Information Administration has said repeatedly that it would take years, probably decades, to start producing oil from any new offshore leases, and even after the oil was flowing the effect on prices would be negligible. And that doesn't even begin to take into consideration the potential environmental costs of placing more offshore oil rigs along America's coastlines and burning even more fossil fuels over the next few decades.
McCain Promises to Lower Gas Prices with Offshore Drilling
About the only person saying that more offshore drilling would provide a quick fix for high gas prices is GOP presidential candidate John McCain, who says it could all happen in just a few months if Congress would just give the oil companies what they want: unrestricted access to America’s coastal waters.
Most Republicans in Congress, including McCain, are in favor of lifting a federal moratorium on offshore drilling that was established in 1981 to protect U.S. waters, arguing that more offshore drilling will increase domestic oil supplies and lower gasoline prices. Democratic leadership wants to keep the ban in place, believing that more offshore drilling will do little to lower prices and would pose a serious threat to the environment.
Democrats Bow to Public Pressure
In response to growing public pressure, however, both Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have said they would be willing to consider including offshore drilling as part of a broader energy solution. Meanwhile, Pelosi has challenged those who support an increase in offshore drilling to prove their case instead of offering more overheated political rhetoric.
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Comments
Offshore drilling in Florida’s Gulf waters is a land-grab by the oil companies. Just a couple of years ago they were allowed to lease huge areas of the Gulf about a hundred miles from shore. So far NOT ONE exploratory well has been drilled in that area. Now, while national anxieties are running high, they want to use the situation to allow drilling much, much closer to Florida’s shores.
Greedy liars and pigs! We give the oil companies tax-breaks for exploration and huge stretches of Gulf bottom to drill but that’s not enough for them.
-Those of us who own & drive cars are the greedy pigs. The oil companies give us only what we demand.
-While they have leases already for sites 100 mi offshore, they are unused because they are too inaccessible (too expensive to develope), hence the need for better sites.
-Your odds of dying in an auto accident are much greater than the odds of an environmnetal disaster from an offshore rig. Do you stop driving?
-New drilling could produce oil in only 2-4 years. Will we not need oil by then?
-The recent run up in oil prices was driven by speculators. The support for off-shore drilling has already lowered the price by discouraging the speculators.
-Democrats are beholden to illogical environmental causes. Changing positions under changing conditions is called “adaptation”.
-The real reason we should not increase American production at this time is for strategic purposes: we should use up THEIR oil before we use up OURS.
I have not seen any estimate that says it will take more than 3 – 5 years to get an oil rig up and pumping oil.There is a bottleneck in units that drill and place the rigs but that can be remedied. Prices are already going down at least in part because of off the record increased production from OPEC and the calming effect of the possibility of drilling. Prices are affected by supply and demand and perception. If the buyer thinks that the supply will increase they will pay less for the future. If the future brings less we pay less at the pump. If this talk of drilling does nothing else it will hold down the price at the pump at least a little. When the first rig spouts off our coast in a new region it will fall even more. Insisting differently only shows that you do not understand market forces nor the futures market.
In partial response to Guido and Mike about the length of time it would take to start producing oil from new offshore leases, the American Petroleum Institute says at least 5-10 years, and longer in deepwater areas where no infrastructure currently exists. Bush-appointed officials at the US Energy Information Administration say new offshore drilling would have little or no effect on US oil supplies until 2030. In contrast with you guys, I haven’t seen any credible sources that suggest it would be less than five years.
(a)That delay is due to the legal hassles the Greenies impose on the licensing: http://www.api.org/aboutoilgas/sectors/explore/importanceofoffshore.cfm
(b) The point still remains, and also applies to developement of new nuclear plants, it will take time to bring these energy sources on line. Will we not need the energy in 5, 10 or 30 years? The sooner we start, the sooner we have the result.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/anwr/methodology.html Drilling a land based well in warm climate apparently takes less than a year to complete. ANWR is a special case due to weather conditions allowing work only 3-4 months/yr. and to construction of new pipelines. Lower 48 off-shore sites don’t have those technical problems. Legal hassles provide the unnecessary delays.