According to the Government Accounting Office, US reserves of recoverable oil, NOT including the also-vast deposits in Canada, are approximately equal to ALL the worlds proven reserves.
Of course, unless the US gets a whole lot more intelligent between now and November, will the voters wake up and vote out the current occupants. and even then, only if the Republicans talk about this endlessly.
Let’s see, oil at about $30 per barrel, would allow us to pay off the national debt, fund Medicare and Social Security, without bankrupting the young, thus allowing them to take care of their own retirement planning.
It would also allow the funding of alternative energy and space-based mining research programs, all the while letting the Anti-Civilization ‘cultures’ in the middle east subsist on sand.
It wouls also tend to shut up those various imams who claim that they are favored of allah because they gots all the oil.
But with Obama whoring out to the control freaks, er, environmentalists, why would we want to use our own oil?
ReplyDeleteI just hope the Republican elite does what it should this year.
"Of course, unless the US gets a whole lot more intelligent between now and November, will the voters wake up and vote out the current occupants."
ReplyDeleteEven though Obama Inc. would never consider this type of exploration, the knowledge of these oil deposits can't be new. Numerous Republican and Democratic administrations must have known this. While the GAO auditor acknowledges "socioeconomic" problems extracting the shale oil, I don't think the full impact on the environment is covered in this article. Don't get me wrong, I'm no global warming lemming but the costs (economic and otherwise) of extracting shale oil are huge.
Look at some of Canada's experiences for examples. Most of our shale oil is owned by foreigners. There just isn't enough money in Canada to extract it so the oil fields have been sold.
That is not to say that I think the US shouldn't pursue the exploration and extraction of shale oil, just that it may not be as easy and cheap as this article implies.
And Just WHY Do We Need The Middle East?
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm in it! :D
Annie, of course I do not mean to include Israel (and especially you ;) ) in that general denunciation.
DeleteHeh. I knew that Dances. I just felt like being funny. :)
DeleteHere in Israel we're lucky we don't have your problems (though we have plenty of our own :o ). But thankfully we've also discovered shale gas and natural gas off our coastline and near Cyprus, so with a little (lot) bit of luck and international cooperation we'll be able to stop importing expensive fuel or being dependent on hostile countries like Egypt - who have now cut off their oil pipeline to Israel.
Let them drink oil is what I say.
Your comment is very insightful Fay. Unfortunately, each American administration has kicked the can further up the road until...well, until we're HERE.
ReplyDeleteWe could have, and SHOULD have, been diligently working on improved technology to harvest the natural resources we possess. Instead we've doinked around with it, wasting billions and getting just south of nowhere.
Our corrupt representatives do not have the political will to reallocate our treasure toward making America a safer, more self-reliant place with growing opportunity for the next generation.
Can Romney turn things around? He'd have to boot a lot of fools to the curb. ALLOT. He'd also have to knock off the pandering and get down to brass tacks, the way Reagan did.
We'll see.
Unfortunately, each American administration has kicked the can further up the road...
ReplyDeleteWell, Dick Cheney was working on the issue! Really, he was!
The technology has improved a ton - which is why we can even talk about extracting that oil at all.
But like Fay said, it's not easy.
I've been following the whole "Peak Oil" discussion for a while. It's the typical "Malthusian vs Cornucopian" debate. I'm not enough of an expert to even have a decent opinion.
But I will say that while the oil may not be "gone", it's becoming apparent to me that the cheap oil is gone - at least in North America.
Whether or not we can extract the shale oil etc is more dependent on whether we can sustain a prosperous enough economy to make it worth extracting. If we can't, then it's lights out (maybe literally).
Interesting comments, thanks all. I keep coming back to this from lady red:
ReplyDelete"Our corrupt representatives do not have the political will to reallocate our treasure toward making America a safer, more self-reliant place with growing opportunity for the next generation. "
This has to change now before it's too late. It seems that there are more real people entering politics willing to make the unpopular decisions to turn their states around (Christie, Walker, Daniels, etc.) so I have some hope. When hearing J. Brown discuss possible solutions for CA's dire financial straits, he and others never mentioned - never even mentioned! - pensions and benefits associated with them.
Whether or not we can extract the shale oil etc is more dependent on whether we can sustain a prosperous enough economy to make it worth extracting. If we can't, then it's lights out (maybe literally).
ReplyDeleteYes lewy, that's it exactly. We have to get back to the economy that made America great...vast leaps in technology, manufacturing of superior goods at an affordable price for the common family (which plays into what florrie said about pensions/benefits), a trade surplus (we haven't seen THAT since 1975!), a strong dollar, AND a working society dependent upon their own skills, education, and work ethics to climb the ladder of success and attain personal prosperity.
And the big banks/brokerage houses... good Lord, we have to figure out a way to let them FAIL without bankrupting the nation. This is getting ridiculous. Lewy, I'd love to read your thoughts on the latest JP Morgan fiasco.
I agree with florrie; it's imperative that we elect more newbies to congress in 2012, and expel the multi-term snakes that infest Washington. The guys/gals we have now are incompetent fools.
lady red - still trying to figure out JPM - heard just this evening that the loss is more like 3 billion, not 2.
DeleteAs for the shale - this article gives a good flavor of the day to day, month to month business operation in shale country.
What I took away from it: yes, regulations play a part in costs - but so does good ol' fashioned supply and demand. The break even price for the Bakken oil is about $70 a barrel - pretty much guarantees we're not going to see $2 gas again.
Lots of energy out there, folks- it's just a matter of oil being priced to the market at a point where the alternatives become feasible. Here, an article on methane hydrate technology and NG extraction:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/neil-reynolds/methane-hydrate-technology-fuels-a-new-energy-regime/article2433611/
I am guardedly optimistic that in my lifetime, I will see the (non-IL) ME reduced to utter irrelevancy and its former benighted, backward state. And, as annie and I have discussed, the Israeli NG fields are truly a game-changer as the Arab ME degenerates into utter chaos and Arab energy supplies to IL are threatened.
Earl! Long time no see! Good to "see" you around again :)
DeleteRe the Israeli natural gas finds, our Energy Minister has been visiting Texas to learn more about gas and shale extraction.
Because of the Egyptian reneging on their gas contract with Israel, we're going to be suffering a shortfall in the coming year, and hence higher electricity prices. Don't even ask what my last bill looked like. Talk about electric shock!
From the JPost article:
Noble Energy’s current estimated target date to begin gas production at Tamar is April 2013.
While it would be ideal to accelerate the production start date even more, in light of the gaps in natural gas supply that will likely occur between the end of Israel’s Yam Tethys source and the beginning of Tamar, the minister said he is not yet sure if Noble Energy will be able to expedite the process further.
“Regardless we are following closely what is taking place because we would like to see this project being finished as quickly as possible,” he said,
The minister also indulged in some uncharacteristic wishful thinking about Egypt:
With Egypt’s decision to end natural gas exports to Israel, the southern neighbor will not be filling in any of these gaps at the moment. But Landau expressed hope that the Egyptian gas flow to Israel would eventually recommence.
“We will do whatever we can to see that it continues in future,” he said. “We see this agreement as an anchor, as the most important derivative we have within the peace agreement.”
“We will do whatever possible,” Landau continued. “But again, the Egyptians have their own responsibility to this agreement.”
Those natural gas fields can't come online quickly enough for me.