NY Times: Risk Is Clear in Drilling; Payoff Isn’t

[depakid]

Interesting discussion of the ostensible ramifications on the tie in with the climate bill.

In proposing a major expansion of offshore oil and gas development, President Obama set out to fashion a carefully balanced plan that would attract bipartisan support for climate and energy legislation while increasing production of domestic oil.

It is not clear that the plan announced Wednesday will do either.

While the oil industry, business groups and some Republicans offered muted support for the proposal, most environmental groups denounced it. And the senators whose support Mr. Obama is courting for highly contentious climate and energy legislation to be introduced in the coming weeks gave decidedly mixed reactions: For every senator who praised it as at least a partial answer to the nation’s energy needs, another raised alarms about befouled beaches and continued dependence on fossil fuels.

Even Mr. Obama sounded somewhat torn in announcing a drilling plan that would open large tracts of the Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Arctic waters off Alaska to oil exploration and eventual drilling.

“This is not a decision I’ve made lightly,” he said as he stood at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland on Wednesday near an Air Force fighter converted to burn renewable biofuels.

“There will be those who strongly disagree with this decision, including those who say we should not open any new areas to drilling,” Mr. Obama said. “But what I want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy.”

Mr. Obama’s plan, delicately pieced together by the Interior Department with White House input, carved out a large coastal buffer zone in the eastern gulf to mollify Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, an opponent of drilling there. It also included continued access to the oil fields off the North Slope of Alaska to win the support of Alaska Senators Mark Begich, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican.

Most New England officials, including Maine’s two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are considered swing votes on energy legislation. They strongly oppose offshore drilling, and the North Atlantic was exempted. And because there is almost no support for drilling and there is little recoverable oil off the Pacific Coast, the whole area was declared off limits, said Ken Salazar, the interior secretary.

ut by opening the mid-Atlantic region, from Delaware south to Central Florida, for oil exploration, Mr. Obama angered New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, who have been generally supportive of Mr. Obama’s push for climate legislation.

Mr. Menendez issued a strong statement Wednesday, saying, "I have let the administration know that if they do not protect New Jersey from the effects of coastal drilling in the climate change bill, then my vote is in question.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/energy-environment/01drill.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. Surely obama never suggested drilling Susan and Olympia's family farms in Maine!

No wonder the NYT is hated, hated, not because they suck, but they lie to set an agenda/standard for the rest of printing media....and to spread half truths and outright lies.


Selling lies in print media must be a lost-profit!

[high density]

3. I'd love to know where all this "analysis" was during the Bush years

All the sudden it's like a switch has flipped and it's time to examine what the President is doing. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it would be nice to see it applied evenly to both parties.

[depakid]

6. Do the research

And keep a log.

Not that hard.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. The BIG LIE at work once again

Obama says,
"But what I want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy.”

The big lie here is that any oil extracted would be sold here in America. The fact is that oil companies routinely use this argument to get new leases and then turn around and sell the oil to foreign markets.

[Bluebear]

4. You just wanted Palin to win.

:silly:

[dmr]

5. depakid:

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs and must include a link to the original source.

Thank you,
DU Moderator

[Robb]

7. But the best part of the article is MUCH later:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/energy-environment/01drill.html?src=mv">Risk Is Clear in Drilling; Payoff Isn’t

(snip)

Oil company executives and geologists expressed guarded enthusiasm for the president’s initiative. But experts said it was impossible to know how much oil and gas the new tracts contain, in part because some existing data is based on 30-year-old studies.

(snip)

But T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman, who has been a practicing geologist for 50 years, said, “I’ve seen some optimistic reserve estimates for offshore United States and I am not sure they will hold up.”

In the last 15 years, the industry has made swift strides in new methods to acquire and analyze seismic data in waters that were impossible to reach when geologists last studied the areas. Current seismic and drilling information cover only a tiny fraction of the area that would be opened for drilling, especially along the Atlantic coast. “We don’t have a good understanding of what the true potential is,” said Bobby Ryan, Chevron’s vice president for global exploration.

He added, “Until you really get in there with modern technology and evaluate it, you don’t really know.”

...Get it yet? :D