The Dems need to make sure the public knows that the oil companies already

[EV_Ares]

hold leases to federal land that they AREN'T DRILLING ON that could DOUBLE US oil output according to the House Committee on Natural Resources. They have introduced a bill to make them use those fields or lose them. They are sitting idle and are leased but they aren't using the land.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) today introduced legislation that gives Big Oil one option - either "use it or lose it."

The 68 million acres of leased but inactive federal land have the potential to produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. This would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75 percent. It would also cut U.S. oil imports by more than one-third, reducing America's dependency on foreign oil.

The Rahall bill would force oil and gas companies to either produce or give up federal onshore and offshore leases they are stockpiling by barring the companies from obtaining any more leases unless they can demonstrate that they are producing oil and gas, or are diligently developing the leases they already hold, during the initial term of the leases.

Lou Dobbs for one is pushing for the drilling and talking about the Dems as obstructionists and totally ignoring the newsman who mentioned the fact that the oil companies have land they aren't using. Hell they would have to search and may not find oil so it would have no effect on the price and they wouldn't have to do this with the land they have leased but not doing anything with.

[babylonsister]

1. "Use it or lose it" - I love it! FACTS here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

The President’s proposal sounds like another page from the Administration’s Energy Policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased.


FACTS:

The fact is there are 68 million acres onshore and offshore in the U.S. that are leased by oil companies—open to drilling and actually under lease—but not developed.

If oil companies tapped the 68 million federal acres of leased land it would generate an estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil a day – six times what ANWR would produce at its peak.

The fact is 80 percent of the oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf is in regions that are already open to leasing—but the oil companies haven’t decided it’s worth their time to drill there.

The fact is that drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t yield any oil for 10 years—and then would only save the consumer 1.8 cents per gallon in 2030.

[LiberalFighter]

2. How about use it or the lease payments increase each year it is not used?

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. None of these oil royalties are worth shit. Many of them are private--buy them if you want.

DRAYNAGE! So sorry, EV_Ares.

These are 60-year old leases on land that ran out of oil decades ago.

The 1/2 of the oil that is economically irrecoverable gets left in the ground.

[sam sarrha]

4. they have been drilling and capping for decades.. lots of oil

and 60% of the price of oil is speculation..
we have oil riggers on both sides of the family.. drilling and capping oil and gas today, got uncles who've drilled and capped had and fast for over 30 years, all over, WA to the east coast

[Arctic Dave]

5. Sounds like the Dems are taking a cue from

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska (of all things, she is a Repuplican. No, really) She did to Exxon, it was amazing how fast they changed their development plan.