This is a slap in the face, DUers

[true_notes]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/09/05/oil.discovery.ap/index.html

Ok, first it's a slap in my face because it shows just how greedy and ignorant the oil industry is. For example:

-snip-
A group led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool 270 miles south of <b>New Orleans</b> -- and almost 4 miles beneath the ocean floor -- in a region that could hold as much as <b>15 billion barrels of oil</b>, or more than Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.
-snip-

Ok, but true_notes, why is this so stupid and ignorant? More oil=cheaper prices, right? Well NO I say because it all will go directly to the reserves. Not only that, check this fact out:


<B>The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude-oil in a year</b>

3 years, people. This oil will technically last a little under 3 years, and with a larger population by 2010, I think it will last even shorter than that! So why is the government and this company pouring so much money in this oil?

Is it desperate measures to show the people they are trying. Are they looking for a huge oil pool? Whatever it is I don't know, but the money they are blowing on this project can go 270 miles to a greater good. But the government has a cold heart when it comes to it's own people. But when it comes to oil, the Bush's and the Cheneys get hard-ons and can't control themselves in the greed orgy that is Washington D.C.

Canada is beginning to feel like the only option these days. The more I live in America, the more I put my nose in the air because of the injustice and mismanagement of money and priorities.

Damn! Is anyone with me here?!!!

[rodeodance]

1. what's to stop any oil company at this point? Seriously.

[true_notes]

2. Nothing Intellectually, Just Blunt Force-n/m

[magellan]

3. Yup

You know, if BushCo were seriously investing in researching alternative fuels (and/or subsidizing the rollout cost to consumers) I wouldn't blink at such news. As I had my new solar water heater installed, reading this would be a peripheral. But just the fact that they aren't doing SQUAT makes this little investment nothing but a bad joke on all of us. Frankly, I'm tired of BushCo and Oil Execs leaching off the rump of the US!!

[TomClash]

4. Take these announcements with a grain of salt

Here's a list of new dsicoveries in the last 10 years or so:
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/discover/h_left.htm

How many have panned out?

It's a long way from discovery to refinery.

[BuyingThyme]

5. If true, that's a hugh find.

But this is likely nothing more than an excuse for more welfare to the Oil industry. They can't be expected to pay for their own drilling. And with records profits and all, they need a new angle.

[jus_the_facts]

6. Naww..it's actually more like the Rodney King beating....

..than just a slap in the face. :evilfrown:

[MadHound]

7. It is a politically timed announcement designed to make people feel good

And yes, you're right, it's going to be pumped out and gone within three years. And it is going to take years to get online, if ever. Yet it gives your average SUV driver some hope before pump prices start to soar again. More propaganda, that's all.

But no, Canada isn't your only option, staying and fighting is another. I've got long roots in this country, my family and parents are at the point where they need me to stick around, and besides, I'm one stubborn SOB, and I refuse to be run out of my country by a bunch of goddamn fascists. I've got twenty acres that I can do a lot on, and if they want me gone, they'll have to come and get me. I'm not going to give up and leave, I refuse that.

[MercutioATC]

8. Greedy? Yes. Ignorant? Not because of this.

This IS a major find.

Yes, it's only 3 years' worth of oil if we use it as our sole source. However, it also represents roughly 100 years' worth of oil that we imported from Iraq. It would represent roughly 1/3 of U.S. oil reserves.

That's a pretty big deal.

[Selteri]

9. I've been trying to promote alternative fuel technologies that are

readily available with our technology and been steadily ignored for three years.

I suspect it will continue until we are out of oil completely.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. So you solution is to leave for Canada where they want to mine oil sands

which requires far more energy to extract a bit of oil. Good solution.

Development of Alberta's oil sands resources represents a triumph of technological innovation. Over the years, government and industry have worked together to find innovative and economic ways to extract and process the oil sands and energy research is more important today than ever before. Working through the Alberta Energy Research Institute, the Alberta government is committed to a collaborative approach to spur new technology and innovation programs that will reduce the impact of greenhouse gases and other emissions, and reduce the consumption of water and gas.

http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/89.asp

Canada Pays Environmentally for U.S. Oil Thirst
Huge Mines Rapidly Draining Rivers, Cutting Into Forests, Boosting Emissions

Huge mines here turning tarry sand into cash for Canada and oil for the United States are taking an unexpectedly high environmental toll, sucking water from rivers and natural gas from wells and producing large amounts of gases linked to global warming.

The digging -- into an area the size of Maryland and Virginia combined -- has proliferated at gold-rush speed, spurred by high oil prices, new technology and an unquenched U.S. thirst for the fuel. The expansion has presented ecological problems that experts thought they would have decades to resolve.

"The river used to be blue. Now it's brown. Nobody can fish or drink from it. The air is bad. This has all happened so fast," said Elsie Fabian, 63, an elder in a native Indian community along the Athabasca River, a wide, meandering waterway once plied by fur traders. "It's terrible. We're surrounded by the mines."

From her home on the bluff of the river, she can see billowing steam rising from a vast strip mine 10 miles away. There, almost 200 feet below what was once a forest, giant machines cleave the earth into a cratered moonscape. Immense shovels plunge into the ground, wresting out massive chunks. Trucks the size of houses prowl the pit. They deliver the black soil to clanking conveyers and vats that steam the tar from the sand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/30/AR2006053001429.html

[Raster]

11. NATIONALIZE! NATIONALIZE! NATIONALIZE!

Oil, reserves and the petro infrastructure are far too valuable to leave in the hands of the Texas Petroleum Mafia. That oil belongs to the country, not some ol' fat, jowly, rich, wanna-be redneck from Dallas.

[krkaufman]

18. We *ARE* nationalizing oil.

Well, we're nationalizing the funding of oil exploration. It's the revenues that are being left private.

[Raster]

22. Excellent point, and one that needs urgent addressing.

[sofa king]

12. What hacks me off is this.

The oil companies aren't just making money off of the oil. They've also managed to raise the profit margin on their oil. So this year, an election year, they do a little favor for the Oil President and start cutting the profit margin a little bit, which lowers prices at the pump. But by Christmas, gas will be back over $3 a gallon.

Supply no longer has anything to do with it. They can fuck with the prices no matter what the situation is, and we can't do anything about it because the White House is backing them up 100%.

[President Jesus]

13. Chevron's CEO campaign contributions

listed in full: http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/David_O'Reilly.php

needless to say, not one dime donated to a Democrat.

[exlrrp]

14. Sayonara!!

I'd rather stay and fight!!
Its my country too

[true_notes]

16. Yeah, I was Mad This Morning

Fighting is more fun than running.

[GeorgeGist]

15. Mother Nature will give...

the last bitch slap unless the energy sector discovers healthy alternatives. I don't think it's just coincidence that Global Warming and Peak Oil are converging now to make life more challenging for mankind. Sorry to appear negative, but you can't abuse MN and expect to get away with it; ever.

[krkaufman]

20. Sadly, Big Oil is going to have so much cash available ...

... that they'll just sit back sucking in more and more cash as the oil runs low and out, and then buy-up all the alternative energy technologies that are developed despite their efforts to delay and derail their development. Big Oil will become Big Solar/Wind/Water/Thermal.

[krkaufman]

17. My cynical view is that this is a puffed-up announcement ....

... intended to relax commodoties traders in an effort to drop oil and gas prices before the November elections. (Big Oil wants to keep Republicans in power, and the high gas price is jeopardizing that objective.)

[porphyrian]

19. There are more of us than there are oil barons.

How long are we going to let them rape us before we do something?

[NeedleCast]

21. Won't Change Unless...

...people activly do something about it, like buying alternative fuel cars. The goal of corporations is to make a profit and increase shareholder value. I don't have a problem with this. Big oil is doing what corporations are supposed to do, in a purely technical sense. It's unfortunate that we've given corporation the same, or in many cases more, rights than people. I think at this point the ONLY thing that is going to lower the price of oil is to lessen the demand.