Thanks for pointing out the obvious Joe.

And tell please, why the obvious way to cut oil prices in half, closure of the enron loophole, seems to be experiencing a virtual news blackout?

Even though Barack and a congressional commitee are talking all about it.

Maybe you know some hedge fund managers to ask about it yourself?  Your own hedge fund managers maybe?  Hehey.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Price has so little to do with fundamentals these days, thanks to international bidding in dollars per barrel and the financials such as the commodities and hedge markets, not to mention the "terrorist tax." If the bubble pops, the price will retreat by perhaps half. If we go to war such as with Iran, it might double.

So whoever said prices would be lower [due to increased domestic OCS drilling] are crazy. For a short-term national strategy, I did say that it made sense to push for some offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It won't solve any problems but won't add to any either, and we could benefit from the natural gas. My understanding is that most of the oil is deep, off the continental shelf, and most of the gas is closer in, on the continental shelf (less than 200 feet or so).  

If you look at the map of MMS zones and leases, the East/Florida Zone is where most of the prohibition applies. So you have some inshore natural gas and some offshore oil in what looks like a huge area. I suspect that the fields are not quite as large as one would expect, given such a large size however. I have heard about a decades-old gas field off Panama City and some oil on the deepwater oil in the Alabama Zone in about 2,000 feet of water or more.  Cuba has found a large oil field in their waters right off Key West and I think those are the three hot spots. It is not like a thousand rigs will be visible off the Florida coast, a stupid media trick.

What the EIA numbers say is that as existing fields accessed by offshore rigs become depleted, more fields have to be tapped or the Gulf will literally run out of oil. It almost sounds like you take personal glee in that prospect.  -sam

Onward through the fog

Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico won't "add to any" problems?  How about environmental problems, such as despoiling a natural area and oil spills, which are a constant occurrence at drill sites?

I'll call you're bluff on that one. Prove to me - and all of us Grist readers - that oil spills from offshore drilling is a common & significant occurrence. I don't think you can pull it off. Even during Katrina and Rita, which idled many offshore platforms, spills were remarkably low, like 15,000 barrels.

This is nothing compared to the massive, million-barrel spills of Santa Barbara (1969), Ixtoc (1979), and the tanker ship Exxon Valdez (1989).

Are there huge risks?  Well yes but so is driving down the highway, which results in some pretty good oil spills too.  But I think you're way off base to say the offshore drilling is inherently dirty.  

Onward through the fog

So, you don't care about ruining natural areas by placing oil rigs there?  One must totally lack a connection to the natural world in order to not realize the harm done to natural areas by placing human contraptions there.

And 15,000 barrels of oil spilled is "low"?  I think someone should dump that amount on YOUR home, and you'd change your perspective to a far more rational and moral one.

In addition to those issues and to the inevitable spills that will occur from both the drilling rigs and from ships, all offshore drilling causes ecological damage from dumping "drill cuttings" -- the solids that are brought to the surface in drilling an oil well -- into the ocean.

Finally, I don't have the time, but I'm reasonably certain that all offshore oil rigs leak some amount of oil.  I consider this a spill, even if the immoral jerks in the industry and other supporters don't or just consider it minimal.  Again, anyone who thinks like that should be forced to drink the amount they consider minimal.