What do you think? To drill or not to drill, that is the question. M

New debate erupts over offshore drilling
Dave Montgomery | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: June 21, 2008 02:37:02 PM

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McClatchy Washington Bureau | 06/21/2008 | New debate erupts over offshore drilling


WASHINGTON -- For decades, giant drilling rigs off the Texas and Louisiana coastlines have plumbed the Gulf of Mexico for vast oil and gas riches, creating jobs, bolstering state revenues and perpetuating a vibrant social structure in coastal communities.

To the West, drilling rigs also operate off the Pacific shoreline near Santa Barbara, Calif., but to many residents, they are vile reminders of a 1969 blowout on an offshore rig that spewed a giant oil slick into the Pacific. The ecological disaster contributed to the creation of Earth Day the following year.

"It still has an impact on our consciousness," says Linda Krop, an environmental attorney in Santa Barbara. "You don't see oil on the beach any more but it's very high in people's awareness and their concern about any more development."

The experiences in California and the Gulf Coast states offer contrasting case studies as $4-a-gallon gasoline accelerates calls for vastly expanded offshore drilling to boost U.S. oil and gas supplies. Offshore drilling is currently permitted off four Gulf Coast states, Alaska and a sliver of California but is banned elsewhere in the United States.

President Bush and presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain reopened the national debate over offshore drilling this week by calling on Congress to lift the ban that prohibits new oil and gas production off most of the East and West coasts and a section of the Gulf Coast below Florida.

The proposals generated a fierce push-back from many Democrats and environmental groups, who accused Bush and McCain of being in the pockets of Big Oil.

McCain's rival, Sen. Barack Obama, noted Friday in Jacksonville that McCain had once favored the ban and charged McCain with violating the "bipartisan consensus" that had protected Florida's coastline for decades.

"The politics may have changed, but the facts haven't," Obama said. "Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today, it would not lower gas prices next year and it would not lower gas prices five years from now.''

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National Debt =

I have already made my opinion clear on this...

Drill Here... Drill Now... Pay Less.

Michael, wasn't it you that told me that we could only post a few paragraphs of a story? Or does that rule only apply to select sources, or certain posters? Could you please define the rules for me... Thank you.

I love the way the republicans are trying to say that more land for the oil companies will drop gas prices.

Its an obvious ploy since even if we did give the oil companies everything they wanted they still wouldn't be able to actually get oil out of the leases for up to 10 years.

The oil companies have huge tracks of oil rich land to drill on they just aren't doing it. Giving them more oil drilling sites doesn't change the fact that they aren't building refineries or drilling the oil they already have the chance to drill.

Bush just wants to make sure his buddies in the Oil industry get everything they want while he is still president.

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Walt Whitman
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences."

Just like ten years ago, the DNC is stalling this issue because they're in the pocket of the Greenpeace idiots.

Just the NOTION of drilling offshore in America as a serious idea will drop global oil prices. What's more, until you can get the green idiots to allow nuclear energy and accept the fact that electric cars can't happen without nuclear, we'll need oil to power our country. Why buy it abroad when you can make it yourself? Do you think ranchers buy their steak at the grocery store?

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"Bring me that horizon".

Again 10 years ago the Republicans controlled congress so the blame the people that didnt get it passed 10 years ago.

Again this is just a strawman argument. The land the Oil companies already have the required leases for allow them to get to more then 79% all the oil they could possible get.

This is just another grab by the Republicans to take advantage of the price of oil to give the Oil companies more and more.

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Walt Whitman
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences."

There are thousands of species of shoreline wildlife that depend on "estuaries" along the coastlines. Before I could say yes to offshore drilling, I would want to see that we could actually do it safely, such as European nations. I would want to see some type of effort to assess how much oil is at stake.

I have no illusions about this being a band aid approach to a humungous issue. I would like to see Chevron develop oil extraction technology for deep sea drilling for the new massive oil field found off the coast of Brazil. So far, it looks like the biggest oil field ever found.

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If as you say, the oil companies are not going to drill even if the ban is lifted, then what's the big deal?

Seems to me that you anti-oil folks would love for the oil companies to PURCHASE a lease from the government, and do nothing with it. That's free money for the upcoming Obama administration to spend on entitlement programs.

Yea nice way to change the subject.

Don't answer the issues just make up some ridiculous story about how the democrats should be happy that the republican party wants to increase Oil profits without doing anything real about prices.

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Walt Whitman
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences."

Here goes the negative name labels again.

It is called a cost-risk analysis. Offshore drilling would take years to get online and start pumping oil. How much oil is out there? What type of oil is it? The type that is relatively simple to refine into gas? The risk in Florida and California are oil spills that will jeapardize billion dollar tourist trades.

Obama cheap shot. And by the same rationale, if it is McCain it would mean more money to pump into gargantuan military spending or spending as we wait for the "job to get done" in the mideast.

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I agree. There's no evidence that opening up offshore drilling will bring any relief at the gas pump anytime in the near future. This is just a cynical ploy by Bush (to make it look like he's "doing something" about gas prices, even though it's not likely to help the consumer anytime soon) and the oil companies (who are taking advantage of the high prices - which are reflected in their record profits - to get their grubby hands on even more oil in the ground.

I'd like some assurances that the next time they spill oil into the environment, the response from the oil companies will be rapid and thorough, unlike their response to the Valdez incident.

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January 20, 2009 - The end of an error.