Survey: Should America Drill, Drill, Drill?

Just like Karl Rove used the gay marriage referendum as a fear tactic to get people to vote Republican, they are now going to use the threat (or blackmail) of higher gas prices to get people to vote Republican during the next election. Then they will be able to drill anywhere they want. Gas prices will remain the same, or continue to go up. And oil executives will continue to reap the benefits of million dollar Christmas bonuses, while the middle class and poor suffer.

What are the efficiency ratios for off shore and deep water drilling? I'm talking about power out / power in ratio. Are we so addicted to oil that we are willing to produce a barrel of light sweet crude and use most of it to produce another barrel of deep sea oil? There are many cheaper alternatives that allow us to net energy rather than waste it just to keep the greasy Cheney crowd on their thrones. This does not even address the CO2 crisis, the foundation of which is excessive oil addiction.

No, not now.

This entire issue is driven by oil majors wanting to have more reserves listed on their balance sheets to keep their stock value up. There aren't enough deep drilling rigs and people to explore and exploit the existing reserves, so no other explanation makes sense.

By mid-century, world prices for oil will be so expensive and so vital to making the technologies for producing renewable electricity that it will be viewed as fooling to use it for fuel. Instead, refining processes will be tipped for producing molecules that are feedstock for polymers, coatings and resins necessary to build wind turbines and solar panels.

Leave the oil in place until we have made that transition.

How about:
"Yes, because it will be too little, too late, and is just a populist diversion"

If we opened up the shores and ANWR for drilling it would shut the Republicans up and allow real people to do real work on sustainable energy.

I second John Laumer...save it for later...Dan B

No!!! The small amount of oil we would obtain is NOT worth it. The problem is NOT that we need more oil drilled - it's that the oil is almost gone - and it's horrible for the atmosphere. We need to find alternate means... not drill more.

I honestly don't think it matters if we drill offshore or not. We should avoid the ANWR because it sets a bad precedent for lands set aside for nature. But offshore drilling will have insignificant impact on oil prices and will not affect our oil supply much.

As for John's comment that we should leave it until we'll use it fr something better than fuel, there is merit to that. However, by the time we derive all our energy from non-fossil fuel sources, it should be easy for us to synthesize whatever chemicals we need directly, without using oil. We can do that now; the main reasons we don't are that it would take more fossil fuels to power the process than we'd need if we just used oil, and because oil has so far been cheap enough to make it the better option economically. There is a maximum possible price for a barrel of oil, set by the fact that anything we can do with oil can be done without it.

It would not good because the Earth will be getting hotter. The idea is not to use as much oil and go away from gas. Use solar when possible.

you people need to realize the fact that oil prices are way to high and off shore drilling would help lower them and with the money saved we could further research alternative fuel sources giving us temporary relief at the pump and buy time and help in the long run to eliminate the necessity for oil

you people need to realize the fact that oil prices are way to high and off shore drilling would help lower them and with the money saved we could further research alternative fuel sources giving us temporary relief at the pump and buy time and help in the long run to eliminate the necessity for oil