White House threatens to veto oil drilling legislation

[DeclinetoState]

Misleading headline, IMHO.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday threatened to veto legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives that would force oil companies to give up undrilled federal leases and ban the export of crude drilled in Alaska.

The bill, which the House was to vote on later on Thursday, has a "use it or lose it" provision that requires oil companies to diligently develop their existing federal leases or turn them back to the government before they could obtain new acres to drill.

"By blocking some firms from competing for new leases, this legislation would further increase gasoline prices that already exceed $4 per gallon and result in unintended consequences due to litigation," the White House said in a statement.
Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1733004620080717?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true)

[DoctorDoom]

ANY energy-related bills that the Pelosi-Reid gang of thugs approves is be definition disastrous for America. That's a Universal Truth.

[Maggie_T]

Yesterday morning, I was watching the early news on TV. Bush talking about the oil crisis (courtesy of our do-nothing CONgress) to the press.

At one point, a (S)Limey reporter asked Bush why shouldn't Bush tell Americans to drive less and to wear sweaters, like they do in glorious Europe.

Man, I nearly had a fit. And Bush's answer was tepid, at best. I would have given him an earful. In the first place, I would have told him that Americans are not socialism's victims like they are in Europe (not yet, anyway). Secondly, I would have told him that I (Bush) am not a socialist tyrant who tells American citizens what to drive and what to wear.

Bush did manage to say something to that effect later on, but he sounded wobbly.

I was on my way to dental surgery and it was just as well that they put me under, or they would have had a very upset and restless patient on their hands. :mad:

[DesertFox]

In the first place, I would have told him that Americans are not socialism's victims like they are in Europe (not yet, anyway). Secondly, I would have told him that I (Bush) am not a socialist tyrant who tells American citizens what to drive and what to wear. Agreed, but my "in the first place" would have been: THIS ISN'T EUROPE, ASSHOLE. Europe long ago gave up the fight against Leftism, and when you do that, you get shortages and high prices.

My "in the second place" woulda been: DO I LOOKING LIKE JIMMY EFFEN CARTER? I HATE sweaters and refuse to wear them and wouldn't recommend a sweater even to Jimmy Effen Carter.

My "in the third place" woulda been: THIS IS AMERICA, SLIMEHEAD. Driving is what we do. If you don't like it, go home. It's been 232 years and you mouthy Brits are STILL hanging around.

[Lazarus]

Bush should have reminded the Leftist propoganda monger that THIS nation is built on the premise of protecting the freedom of the individual to pursue happiness...

When the earth is full to bursting with the very substance we need, its illogical and immoral to artificially deny its use to the people...

[Maggie_T]

Agreed, but my "in the first place" would have been: THIS ISN'T EUROPE, ASSHOLE. Europe long ago gave up the fight against Leftism, and when you do that, you get shortages and high prices.

My "in the second place" woulda been: DO I LOOKING LIKE JIMMY EFFEN CARTER? I HATE sweaters and refuse to wear them and wouldn't recommend a sweater even to Jimmy Effen Carter.

My "in the third place" woulda been: THIS IS AMERICA, SLIMEHEAD. Driving is what we do. If you don't like it, go home. It's been 232 years and you mouthy Brits are STILL hanging around.


:lol:

The above just comes to prove that we need people like you running for prez, Fox.

[DeclinetoState]

We should be forever thankful for the likes of George Washington who made sure that the opinions of our European brethren don't mean a lot (anything at all, really) to us.

[Maggie_T]

Well, it seems to mean a bloody lot to liberals. :mad:

Oh, wait ... liberals' Americanism is merely an accident of birth ... ok, never mind.

[The_Sonarman]

It's been said many times before but it bears repeating.

There isn't oil under each of those existing lease acres. This is a Straw Man, built by the Democrat slime.

My company has instruments which identify where the oil actually exists. There isn't any reason to drill in areas where there is no oil. Oil companies already know where there is, and isn't, any oil on those existing leases.

a. They don't drill where there is no oil.
b. They do drill where there is oil.

It is that simple.

It costs incredible money to drill per day. Just leasing a small rig can cost well over a 1/2 million US Dollars per day. Just for reference, that fee is called the "day rate". I do not include the other costs, such as crew salaries, high insurance costs, environmental impact extortion paperwork, etcetera. Nor do I include the enormous lawsuits that get pushed through onto Big Evil Oil from time to time.

These oil wells aren't drilled in a day, either. It can take years to get a rig scheduled to be on your site. "We" oil drilling and exploration scum don't just run down to the Oil Rig Wal-Mart and buy a rig. These things are booked multiple years in advance. Sometimes, "we" even have to build them special. Royal Dutch Shell just sent another big rig into the Gulf, after years of building it. The cost.... 5 billion US Dollars +. Yes, that's 5 billion dollars for one rig. That's just the cost to build it. It doesn't include the cost to hauling it to the drill site, anchoring it, staffing it with personnel, drilling, and resupplying it from shore. Those are huge costs as well.

So, now the brainiacs of Con-gress are demanding "we" oil scum drill in areas where there is no oil first? That's insane. A dry hole (i.e. no oil) is a mistake that costs multiple millions of dollars, with nothing in return. It is insane to waste resources on drilling a known dry hold. That just requires oil scum like me to jack up the price of the oil I do find, to make up for all the unnecessary dry holes. If my memory serves... isn't "the current problem" oil costing too much? One great way to reduce that is to avoid drilling dry holes where there is no oil.

Many people figure we oil scum are sitting on couches made from stacked 100 dollar bills. It ain't so. Notice the cost of that one rig I just mentioned? 5 billion USD isn't chump change, even for Royal Dutch Shell. That came from previous years "profits", getting plowed back into finding new oil.

By the way, why is Big Oil "bad"? I'd really like to know. Big Oil doesn't take your money by threat of force, as does Government. Big Oil hires people like me to go out, finding hard to find oil, drills it, produces it, turns it into fuel for your cars, trucks, trains, and planes, and sells it to you at a pretty crappy rate of return, truth be told. It's dangerous work, too. Men die and are injured doing that each and every day. They have to go into nasty countries where the living conditions aren't considered fit for livestock in the US, and crews are regularly kidnapped for ransom. Some are killed.

Why isn't Big Government "bad"? They take your money, and give you nothing in return except bigger and bigger illegal intrusions on your privacy and freedom each and every day.

Big Government isn't just "bad". It is an intolerable "evil". I am less and less willing to live as a slave to this monstrosity. I am more and more willing to die trying to fix it. It would be a worthy and honorable end to my days.

Sorry.... rant boiled up out of me.... couldn't control it.

[DesertFox]

Sonar just made this a Hall of Fame thread by explaining some of the realities of the oil bidness that most of us didn't know.

Thankee, kind sir.

[The_Sonarman]

The "best" thing that could happen would be to get the damned government and environmental brain dead idiots out of my and the oil industry's way. Do you know what happened the last time "we" drilled and drilled and drilled and overproduced about 10 years ago? The price fell through the floor. "We" were selling 12 dollar a barrel oil for years.

That is what happens when you get the idiots out of my industry's way. This current high price is entirely of drilling restrictions from congress in the midst of rising demand. I don't swear it will fall back to 12 dollars a barrel, since China and India are increasing their usage. I do know it will fall far back.... just get those congressional idiots out of the way.

While that's going on, "we" can push and experiment with other ideas. I have no problem with nuclear.... but it generates electricity and steam only. Until you have an electric car that makes decent mileage and doesn't cost an additional $30,000 apiece, oil is still the way to go with mobile vehicles.

Wind power is a joke, unless you have nuclear or coal or oil fired electric generators as well. Wind isn't consistent.

Of everything "out there", the only thing that doesn't have to be massively subsidized to force it into the market is nuclear. Nuclear is profitable on it's own merits, and they are numerous.

The nuclear industry would benefit greatly if the mountains of artificial red tape, years of building permit paperwork, and environmental impact study paperwork got done away with. The enviros have intentionally "required" all that damned idiot paperwork, just to delay and kill the entire nuclear industry with startup charges, lawsuits, etcetera.

I would personally love to see the enviro terrorists criminally charged for all the damages they've caused "Big Nuclear", and I do mean charged financially and criminally. Every one of those idiots, from it's paid leadership to it's idiot minions sending in their subscriptions, need to be held financially accountable for those damages.

Oil is also completely indispensible in the petrochemical market. Think "plastics", visavie the movie "The Graduate". Imagine "no drilling" visavie the Dimwit o'crats. Where do the plastics of modern life come from? I can't make plastics from recycling bat guano, or holding hands singing kumbayah.

Even the Discovery Channel stuff about Willie Nelson and his Biodiesel is crap. It's still 80 percent diesel, with a mere 20% bio additive. Hello? Does anyone but me notice that something called "Biodiesel" is still mainly Diesel... and very little "Bio"? Even "Willie Nelson" hasn't done away with Diesel.... another product of Evil Big Oil and their Evil Oil Rigs. But, to listen to the praise and laurels, he's solved The World's Problems. Hell's Bells.... you can run a diesel engine on pure peanut oil. The only problem is..... what does a gallon of peanut oil cost? I guarantee it's not less than diesel.... or we'd see peanut oil entrepreneurs (people like me) rushing megatons of peanut oil to the market. I'd be one of the first to do it.

[DesertFox]

Getting in the Left's way of grasping just how much oil there is in the earth, is the idea that God made it that way so we'd have it to use. They don't believe in God so they have no reason to think the earth wouldn't run out someday. Of course, they have other reasons also, such as their love of drama and of power.

As I've noted before, when we finally get to Jupiter and Saturn we're going to find more oil than we know what to do with. Imagine space tankers the size of whole states bringing hundreds of millions of tons of sweet crude to refineries on the moon, or even on the earth. Entire buildings made of fire proofed plastic. Nothing rusting anymore. Hoo-eee!

[DoctorDoom]

By the way, why is Big Oil "bad"?Because it's Big. The small-is-beautiful neo-luddites believe that any company bigger than the local mom-and-pop store is EEE-vill. Thet's why they go after Wal-Mart, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, Big Automotive, Big Computers, etcetera. The only Big thing that those Mother-Jones-reading imbeciles want is Big Government.

[DoctorDoom]

Entire buildings made of fire proofed plastic. Nothing rusting anymore. Hoo-eee!Make them out of styrofoam. That schitte NEVER goes away.