Will increased oil drilling help the US solve its energy crisis?
PRO (yes)
CON (no)
The 2008 Republican Platform section titled “Energy Independence and Security” stated the following:
"If we are to have the resources we need to achieve energy independence, we simply must draw more American oil from American soil. We support accelerated exploration, drilling and development in America, from new oilfields off the nation’s coasts to onshore fields such as those in Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska. The Green River Basin in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming offers recoverable shale oil that is ready for development, and most of it is on federal lands.“
Investor’s Business Daily published an editorial on July 3, 2008 titled “Energy Myths,” that stated:
“Many in Congress seem either disconnected from reality or intentionally disingenuous about our energy crunch. They have well-honed negative responses to common-sense ideas about solving our energy crisis, particularly drilling for more oil…
As we've noted before, conservative estimates put the total amount of recoverable oil in conventional deposits at about 39 billion barrels. Offshore, we have another 89 billion barrels or so. In ANWR, 10 billion barrels…
Today, we produce just under 8 million barrels of oil a day from domestic sources. So we could, in effect, boost our energy output 50%, and thus our energy independence, by bringing an additional 4 million barrels of oil to thirsty world markets each and every day…
By 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we will need at least 30% more energy to fuel our economy. Nearly 85% of that increase will come from oil and gas, even with expected gains for alternative energy. Can't drill our way out? In fact, it's the only way out of our energy crisis.”
Red Cavaney, Former President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, wrote in a Sep. 26, 2008 letter to the US Congress that:
“The federal drilling moratoria that have locked up vast amounts of the nation’s oil and natural gas resources for years will expire on September 30. If the right actions are taken going forward, this could mean more ample and secure energy supplies for the American people, more U.S. jobs, and less reliance on imported oil. It could help reduce the costs of energy for transportation, for electric power production, and for home and office heating and cooling.
Our lifestyles, our economic strength, and our national security all depend on ready availability of adequate supplies of energy. If we don’t take steps to control our energy destiny, we put at risk a better future for ourselves and for the generations that follow. Large domestic supplies of oil and natural gas are critical to our energy future. Alternatives are important but cannot yet substitute for the vast amounts of the oil and natural gas we now use and are projected to continue to demand."
Exxon Mobil stated in a Sep. 23, 2008 op-ed titled "Putting America's Energy Resources to Work," published on www.exxonmobil.com:
“Meeting our nation’s energy challenges - and responding to high prices Americans are paying at the pump - requires that we pursue an integrated set of solutions. We must moderate demand by using energy more efficiently. And we must also increase supplies by responsibly developing energy resources from a variety of different sources and locations - including right here in the United States.
It is estimated that there is enough oil and natural gas offshore and in non-wilderness and non-park lands in the United States - but currently ruled off-limits for production by the federal government - to fuel 50 million cars and heat nearly 100 million homes for the next 25 years…
If Congress were to expand the areas available for active exploration, we could make more domestic energy available to Americans in the future, while sending a strong positive supply signal to markets today, potentially putting downward pressure on prices. It would also strengthen U.S. energy security by further diversifying Americans’ energy portfolio, and therefore mitigating the impact of a disruption in any one producing region of the world."
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives (D-CA), published the following on the “Energy Independence” page of her website (accessed Oct. 2, 2008):
"Republicans in Washington only offer more drilling - even though 68 million acres of federal oil reserves are already open and leased for development, but oil companies have decided it’s not worth the money to drill there. New drilling won’t lower prices for years to come. Drilling in the pristine Alaskan Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t yield any oil for 10 years - and in 22 years would only save consumers about 2 cents a gallon. Even John McCain won’t drill there. The bottom line: America has only 1.6% of the world’s oil supply, but we use 24% - so drilling isn’t much of a solution at all.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council wrote the following in its article “Build the Clean Energy Economy,” published on www.nrdc.org (accessed Oct. 1, 2008):
“Oil companies and their allies in the Bush administration are using high gas prices as an excuse to push for more drilling, but that's not the solution for America's energy crisis.
Despoiling nature to get at the tiny trickle of oil we have left won't make any significant difference in what we pay at the pump - not now and not ever. And it won't make our country any less dependent on foreign fuel. Our thirst for oil is bad for national security, bad for our economy and bad for the environment…
The Bush administration's own Energy Department says that lifting the ban on offshore drilling would have a marginal impact on oil supplies and an 'insignificant' impact on prices. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be similarly futile, shaving - at the very most - 4 cents off a gallon of gas by 2026...
America needs to say no to pumping up Big Oil's profits and yes to forging a new clean energy economy."
T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, wrote in an essay titled “It’s Time to Stop America’s Addiction to Foreign Oil, published on the homepage of his website, www.pickensplan.com (accessed Sep. 24, 2008):
“America is in a hole and it's getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil."
The US House Committee on Natural Resources (Majority) staff released a June 2008 report titled "The Truth About America’s Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits,” that stated the following:
“The fact is that the Nation simply cannot drill its way to lower prices at the pump. Other options, from greater energy efficiencies to the development of alternative fuels, are essential to reducing dependency on petroleum fuels and lowering fuel costs…
Since the 1990s, the federal government has consistently encouraged the development of its oil and gas resources and the amount of drilling on federal lands has steadily increased during this time. The number of drilling permits has exploded in recent years, going from 3,802 five years ago to 7,561 in 2007.
Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%, yet gasoline prices have also risen dramatically contradicting the argument that more drilling means lower gasoline prices. There is simply no correlation between the two.”
Richard Heinberg, MA, Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, wrote in his Sep. 2008 article "Want Cheap Oil? Reduce Demand!," published in The Ecologist:
"[T]here’s still oil being produced today that could profitably be sold for $30 a barrel. But - crucially - there’s not nearly enough to meet the demand that would exist if all oil were selling at that price. That $30 oil comes from super-giant oilfields discovered back in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. The industry doesn’t find oilfields like that anymore, and the old ones are seeing declining rates of production. Now what’s available for prospecting are plays in ultra-deep water, where it costs a half million dollars a day to rent a drilling rig. We’re talking NASA moon-shot level of technology here. That’s not $30 oil; it’s $75, $100, or $150 oil. No one would be interested in it, except for the fact that $30 oil is getting so scarce...
We could reduce the price of oil just by reducing demand. If the world could be satisfied with the amount of oil that can be produced cheaply, then the price would fall. But we’d have to keep reducing demand to maintain that price since the cheaper oil continues to deplete."
