New drilling in previously off limit sites is like hunting for the the last whale for their oil

[merbex]

My friend made that analogy just this past weekend and I've used it on 2 Republican neighbors in the past 2 days who were bemoaning the price of oil....

They got the message.

In fact, it brought them up short if their facial expressions were anything to go by.

Investing in alternative energy (like cellulosic ethanol and solar and wind and raising CAFE standards) is the answer.

My husband and I just purchased a pellet wood stove( proudly made in NY!) 10 days ago and the pellets that we bought for $239 a ton were produced in Canada ....I'm saying goodbye to my oil man and visualize this mental picture .... big middle finger to oil in the Mid East to heat our home.

Here's hoping that the fire and the ensuing destruction that hit the Corinth wood pellet factory in Corinth ME will be small in scope and then I can purchase the pellets from ME and support the workers from the USA

[Xenotime]

1. * is just looking to destroy the environment and our society.

Gov't regulation of the oil companies can't happen soon enough.

[Johnny Battleground]

3. Get your facts straight...

Oil companies have been regulated for 100-years.

And it's not like hunting the last whale.
Such BS makes an idiotic argument and makes us look like morons.

We cannot conserve our way forward.
There is no viable alternative out there for the near future, but there will be several.
So until then... let's not hang ourselves politically and drill where we can.

[merbex]

5. We need to get off the oil tit

we need to because of the environment, because of the economy, because the need for oil has caused us to make HUGE blunders in foreign policy

And the analogy does work....destroying formerly pristine environments to go after a finite resource when we should be investing in clean alternatives( and the use of a wood pellet stove is completely carbon neutral and renewable)MAKES NO SENSE

Pandering instead of educating and discussing alternatives is being attached to "yesterday" and is not CHANGE

[Shoelace]

10. oil companies aren't even tapping the domestic petroleum reserves they already have

which makes me wonder why this sudden push to drill offshore. Do they want this before we throw their sorry asses out of DC? They aren't even utilizing nearly 80% of existing wells so they can keep prices up:

This week in Congress, executives from big oil companies have been telling lawmakers the fastest way to reduce prices for oil and gas is to allow more oil drilling in the U.S. But as Marketplace's Bob Moon reports, oil companies aren't even tapping the domestic petroleum reserves they already have.

But at the Center for American Progress, energy expert Daniel Weiss says those same execs have been making excuses for years that they can't keep up with the government drilling permits they already have. By some estimates, 75 to 80 percent of existing leases are untapped.

Daniel Weiss: Why would they want us to open up new areas if they don't even have the infrastructure capacity to explore and develop existing leases? I think it's about something more fundamental: greed.

Some lawmakers are pointing back at the oil companies, complaining they can sit on a lease for 30 years or more without producing a drop. All the while, the idle holdings can still be used to inflate their theoretical reserves -- and boost their stock prices.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/23/untapped_us_oil/

Meanwhile, the rest of us are finding ways to live without fossil fuels as much as it is possible to do so.

Google "Transition Towns" to see the worldwide movement toward "oil free" living.

[merbex]

13. Went to "Transition Towns" and I have bookmarked it - thanks n/t

[Shoelace]

14. lots of good videos on YouTube about transition towns too

just search the term on YouTube, lots of really informative info therein.

Also, Transitiontowns.org is a good starting point.
http://www.transitiontowns.org/

[baldguy]

2. Burning wood pellets isn't the answer.

Neither is solar or wind or biofuels or geothermal or nuclear.

Not by themselves.

There won't be ONE type of energy used to replace the current oil-based economy - there'll be a dozen. And we'll be much better off because of it.

[FatherTime1408]

4. So you're proud of burning our forests to heat your home? Wow

[merbex]

6. Pellets are made from waste products obtained from sawmills...

sawdust esentially:

Another venture that's also calling itself the world's largest pellet plant, Dixie Pellets LLC, is under way near Selma, Ala. European-bound pellets will be barged down the Alabama River and shipped out of Mobile.
Near Baxley, Ga., Fram Renewable Fuels is building a 145,000-ton- a-year pellet plant, called Appling County Pellets LLC. It's all headed to Europe, shipping through Savannah and Brunswick, Ga.
"There aren't too many of us exporting wood pellets successfully, but a lot of us are trying," said John Colquitt, Fram's president.
Colquitt made European contacts while operating a pellet mill outside Halifax, N.S. The overseas market is poised to grow because of a directive in the European Union linked to the Kyoto Protocol, which requires participating countries to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. One strategy is to mix in wood pellets at coal-burning power plants.
But the market can be fickle. A warm winter in Europe cut demand for all heating fuels, which hurt sales.
"There has been a real shaking out this spring," he said. "Some companies couldn't weather the storm."
Europeans are paying roughly $150 a ton wholesale for pellets landed there, Colquitt said. That's attractive, but exporters need to factor in the cost of wood supply, ocean freight, exchange rates and storage.
Those issues are being studied carefully by Armand Demers, the forest products director at Sprague Energy. He's been working with Ken Eldredge at Corinth Wood Pellets.
Corinth isn't near a rail line, so pellets would have to be trucked to Portland or Searsport. Pellets must stay bone dry, so they need special storage. And they degrade with heavy handling, so a conveyor system must be installed. Moving and storing wood pellets will require a multimillion-dollar investment, Demers said.
"The challenge is going to be how to get them from the mill to Europe and not make it uncompetitive," he said.
Charles Niebling hasn't been able to make the numbers add up.
Niebling is the procurement and sales manager at New England Wood Pellets LLC in Jaffrey, N.H., which currently calls itself the nation's largest pellet maker. The nine-year old mill turns out 75,000 tons a year. The company also bags 80,000 tons a year of pellets shipped by rail from British Columbia, and is building a 100,000-ton plant in Schuyler, N.Y.
Niebling has been selling bagged pellets for home heating in Europe, but saw sales drop this winter. And he hasn't been able to figure out an economic way to send bulk shipments to Europe, noting that American pellet makers also are competing with established companies in Scandinavia, Germany and Russia.
Niebling laments that Americans don't burn more wood pellets. The only sizable commercial burner he's aware of in New England is a new manufacturing and office building in Hinesburg, Vt., owned by wind energy equipment maker NRG Systems. That pellet boiler burns roughly 30 tons a year, he said.
Increased demand for pellets in American homes and businesses might boost supply and cut prices, said Matt Boucher, store manager at Yerxa's Lawn & Garden in South Portland.
The company has a subsidiary that sells the Harman Stove Co. pellet stoves. One popular model, which is thermostatically controlled and can keep an average house warm for 24 hours with 40 pounds of pellets, sells from $2,695.
Boucher was charging $250 a ton for pellets this year, up from $190 the previous winter. More domestic supply could drive prices back into the $200-a-ton range, he said, and that would make pellets more competitive with oil heat.
By Niebling's estimate, if only 5 percent of the oil-fired boilers in New England were replaced by pellet burners, a 300,000-ton-a-year plant could sell all its output at home. But in the absence of aggressive policies to displace oil in the United States, it's not surprising that wood pellet developers see opportunity in Europe.
"We're becoming a Third World nation, exporting our renewable resources," Niebling said.

[FatherTime1408]

8. Oh, I see. My apologies.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. We could always burn all the strawmen you invent.

That could heat Canada for awhile.

[Zenmaster]

7. It just isn't going to help our gas prices

I'm not overly concerned about it from an environmental standpoint. However, it just isn't any help. Its not a long term solution and it isn't even a short term solution for our gas prices.

Gas prices are not high because of a supply issue. You can go to any pump and get gas. We don't have huge lines for gas, and shortages, like there were in the 70's. The oil supply isn't the problem right now.

And drilling isn't going to change that anytime soon. Or even anytime that its worth worrying about. If we authorized drilling today, it would be 5 years before we'd even begin getting any oil from it. And the net result would be nothing more than pennies of savings.

On top of that, regardless of drilling or not, we HAVE TO switch to alternative energy sources as a technological species, or that way of life will perish. Whether its tommorow, 20 years or 100 years, if we continue our use of oil it will be gone.

Drilling off American coasts and on American soil is nothing more than a gimmick, like the Gas Tax Holiday. Its something to make uneducated people that won't do the research themselves to feel like the government is doing something, while in reality it won't effect the price of oil, or help us move away from oil in the future.

Bottom line. Its a bunch of bullshit.

[merbex]

9. I am struck at the lack of understanding of alternative energy forms

coming from those with low post counts

And how they are advocating drilling

For anyone who has studied the use of wood pellets and wood pellets stoves, the reason why Europe wants them is because most European nations signed the Kyoto Treaty and the use of pellets fits the requirements to cut carbon emissions and it is a renewable resource.

[FatherTime1408]

11. I've never heard of these pellets. My bad. Are you even allowed to burn for heat in cities?

[merbex]

12. Some info and links

WOOD PELLETS
typically are made by screening, compacting and drying sawdust and other wood waste. More than 60 mills across North America produce more than 680,000 tons a year, according to the Pellet Fuels Institute.
MUCH OF IT is burned in stoves and fireplace inserts from two dozen manufacturers. Roughly 800,000 U.S. homes burn pellets, the trade group estimates.

PELLETS ARE manufactured to a uniform size, roughly 1/4-inch in diameter, so they can be automatically fed into stoves and boilers. They are dried to a very low moisture content and leave behind little ash when burned. Combustion with quality hardwood pellets is in the 98 percent range, so the stoves can be directly vented without a chimney.

A 40-POUND BAG of pellets can heat an average home for 24 hours. Some retailers sell wood pellets by the ton and deliver them on a 50-bag pallet. Stoves and pellets are available at many stove shops, hardware and home improvement stores.

TO LEARN MORE about wood pellets, including a list of stove makers and pellet mills, visit www.pelletheat.org.