New comment on your post #1721 “Meet Heather Wilson”
so if you don’t want drilling in the refuge, and you don’t want drilling off the coast of florida (which has proven oil reserves of more than saudi arabia and the chinese are starting to drill off the coast of cuba), what do you propose we do about high gas prices?
you can’t decrease prices unless you increase supply. we can’t explore for oil in the us, can’t refine more oil in the us, because the environmental lobby refuses to let us do it.
but who whines loudest about gas prices and oil profits? [signed,] jeff
Thanks for writing, Jeff. If you have found me whining about gas prices, please point that out to me. I’ve been meaning for some time to tell everyone that I think gas should be $5/gallon or more. One day, we will look back at $5/gal and think “boy, was that cheap.”
I’m not sure who whines loudest about gas prices. Perhaps someone who owns an SUV, RV, ATV, snowmobile and a jet-ski?
As for profits, I despise many of the practices of the Extractive Industries, especially the bribery of public officials for endless tax breaks that become profits. However, those profits are actually middling as percentages.
The argument of Big Oil versus Alternatives is very much like the argument over cars versus public transportation. Everyone ignores how much we subsidize Oil and Autos when they whine about costs of alternatives.
Oh, but let’s not talk about alternatives. Let’s attack each other while changing nothing. Some plan.
Why aren’t conservatives conservationists? Why doesn’t it appeal to conservatives to conserve oil. There is no better place to store oil than in the ground where it is now — think of those worthless-to-you wild places as savings accounts. Accounts I hope we never, ever draw on.
I don’t see the logic of destroying irreplaceable wilderness for replaceable oil. If you believe oil is irreplaceable, then you must be prepared for the world to end in 50 or 100 years — whenever we run out. Is the plan just to use it up as fast as we can? Some plan.
Let’s go through that again. Pick whatever time span you like between 50 and 200 years. At the end of that time, which may be within your lifetime, there will be zero oil left — none, zip, nada. Now, picture that world and tell me how much better it will be if there is also zero wilderness — none, zip, nada. Some plan.
In less than 200 years, people will think about oil the same way we think about whale oil — how could it have been worth the destruction? Will they also wonder how we could have been so stupid to destroy what we have already for oil? mjh
Nicely put.