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During the reign of BushIIe, the Repub oil god, US domestic production was on a steady but appreciable decline. Why did oil companies not increase production when they had easy opportunity?



Note that when the price spiked in 2008, Gulf oil drilling declined.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pe...pdn_adc_mbblpd_m.htm
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Remember the left's lament during the time of the "Drill Baby Drill" chants. It takes time from when the paper work begins on a permit to when a well is pushing oil into a pipeline for consumption and the left was upset that there is no instant gratification from drilling for oil. Any appreciable increase in production would be from actions that started before Obama's inauguration.
Increase in domestic production does not equal lower prices. That is, unless you want the government to tell the producers how much to produce, where they can ship it & what they can charge. Is that what the advocates of "drill here, drill now" want to happen? Read the following for more info:

"The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher--2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case (Figure 20). Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant." [U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration) http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ae...eranalysis/ongr.html

"So are promises of U.S. oil independence real--or rhetoric? The issue is not whether the U.S. can significantly reduce its reliance on oil imports with domestic, offshore oil, say both [oil expert Robert] Kaufman and [energy researcher Ian] Nathan, but whether there is enough that is recoverable to significantly lower the price of a barrel of oil on the global market.

Even by 2030, offshore drilling would not have a significant impact on oil prices, according to [EIA analyst Phyllis] Martin, because oil prices are determined on the global market. "The amount of total production anticipated--around 200,000 barrels a day--would be less than 1 percent of the total projected international consumption."

And disruptions to the global supply affect the price of every barrel of oil the U.S. purchases, whether it be from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or off the New Jersey coast. "Suppose the U.S. got all its oil domestically, and the price was $100 a barrel. Then the Saudi family was deposed," disrupting that country's oil exports, Kaufman says. "The Saudis produce about 10 million barrels a day of the world's 85 million, so clearly prices would go up, because now there is this big shortfall of oil."

"Do you think oil companies are going to sell [U.S. oil] to U.S. consumers for anything less than top price?," he asks. "The answer is no." [Scientific American) http://www.scientificamerican....-make-us-independent

"Oil, you see, is a fungible global commodity. The oil that one drills for in Texas powers a car the same way that oil from Kuwait does. So the price that Texans pay for oil is determined by global supply and global demand, not how much oil is drilled on the Gulf Coast.

In a market economy such as ours, opening an area for drilling does not mean that the U.S. government controls its destination. Shell and Chevron will be perfectly happy to sell their oil to China if Chinese drivers are willing to pay more than Americans. The U.S. could produce exactly as much gasoline as it consumes and it would still feel the effects of, say, a decision by Hugo Chávez or Vladimir Putin to stop selling any oil. If global supply drops precipitously, global prices will rise, and unless we plan on nationalizing the oil industry--a move I doubt either Democrats or Republicans will endorse--the fact that we are drilling for more oil near our shores won't protect us from the price shock." [Newsweek) http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/...illing-decision.html
quote:
Originally posted by Opie Cunningham:
Buy fuel efficient vehicles. The prices will keep going up due to wall street speculators. The only way to cure that is to adopt renewable energy sources, which is what we should have been doing since the 70's.

We have been. It just ain't working. Due in large part to the fact that the greenies, like Mikey, don't like anything.

They're not so much pro-environment as they are anti-capitalism. They're really old reds turned green who want to drag everybody down to their level.
The price of gas will correct the lack of renewable options. Chinese will buy more cars this year than Americans, and in just a few years they will have more cars on the road, and demand is not going to slow down for 25 years. In 10 years the Chinese will be buying more oil than the USA, driving the price higher every year. We will have $5/gallon gas in 2-4 years. Permanently. As the price goes up, the electric and hydrogen powered cars will become more affordable. As long as the Chinese continue to sell us the rare earth minerals we need. The Chinese own most of the Earths rare mineral deposits.
Even notice that the US will increase exploration and drilling will bring the price down, as futures speculation will decrease in price. Domestically produced oil is inherently cheaper because of transportation costs. Super tankers cost $100,000 per day when tied up in port. Much more when on the seas.

Hydrogen and electric car will require increased electric production. Solar and wind can't produce enough to supply that usage.

The US has plenty of rare earth minerals. Tailings at old uranium mines, for instance, contain plenty of rare earth minerals. However, the environmentalists have shut down the mines. Re-cycling can increase the supply, as well, like we did for chromium.

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