and I have crushed you on this subject more time than I can count.

Yeah...we should listen to Rethugs, we see how all the  deregulation you guys pushed turned out. By the way Bush and your fellow thieves controlled Congress for six years....you could have done this at any time...but by driving prices up the Rethug oilmen got richer....

Face it, OIL is dead...a dying industry in the US. No amount of drilling, right wing bluster and lies is going to save it. Its not 1950 anymore. No more "wildcatter" myths and romantic crap about the good old days. It's done..finished.

If there was more easily recoverable oil to be had in the US they would be drilling it...and you know it. Your too dishonest to admit it.

The environmental sensitive lands are a small small amount of the total land area of the US that contains possible oil deposits.

But as your references have repeatedly said " all the easily recoverable oil in the US  has been exploited" and the drilling costs are cheaper over seas, before and after environmental regulation in the US...thats why since the 60's big oil is all over foreign fields...they don't have to pay the workers US wages for those jobs you keep spinning up.

You can blame it on environmentalists, you can blame it on Democrats, you can blame it on Jesus if you like. The reality is your own industry fucked itself and long term, you, by jumping on cheap imported oil and ignoring domestic production. Once that trend was started....the profits rolled.

So in a way..your industry has been outsourced...free traded...to low cost countries. Welcome to the rest of Americas plight pal....

Drilling ANWAR and off of Florida will do very little to lower the price of oil or gasoline. Like your reference said...oil is a global commodity, imported foreign oil or domestically produced oil...you pay global prices.

The oil companies know that...and so do you but your lying about it.

At these prices they ( big oil) are hot to exploit the ANWAR resources. Even with higher US labor costs they can pocket more profit.Until the price drops a little, then the layoffs roll, the exploration slows until the next spike.

The oil produced in ANWAR will be dumped into the same commodity market as the rest of the world production with the 7 sisters pocketing the profit

For us gasoline will still be 4.00+ a gallon. Talk about a scam. .

So your so called agument isn't exactly compelling nor is you response...more braggadocio...no facts. Old tired bluster..no new ideas, nothing.

Rather than importing a half a trillion dollars worth of crude and finished products every year, we should be putting that money into the American economy

Funny, thats exactly what that "fraud" T Boone Pickens said. If there was money to be made by drilling domestically, oil companies would be drilling like motherfuckers regardless of the low hanging fruit being in restricted lands. The fact is it's not easy money.

That being said year-over-year oil exploration in the US is only up 30.3 percent since last year with prices over the same period up over 98%. Sounds like they are finding some places to drill. Seems that 140$ a barrel oil would be plenty of incentive to be drilling a lot more. But as the WSJ said

Touted US Offshore Oil Drilling Expansion Hinges on High Prices

"Energy producers are likely to need years more of high oil prices in order to develop any new reserves opened up by the lifting of offshore drilling restrictions...the industry is also certain to need high prices to pay for finding and extracting oil and gas hidden in the newly accessible seabed. Few rigs and even fewer people are sitting idle, waiting for an oil rush in virgin territory. Producers will either need to pull equipment and personnel from other projects or pay through the nose. Either solution is likely to delay production of some of those 18 billion barrels; other newly opened areas could remain untouched for lack of rigs or money."

By the same token they don't want to build  refineries...even without environmental rules margins are too low for their tastes.

"Meanwhile, U.S. oil companies continue to hold back on building refineries despite the increases seen in 2005 in prices for gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel. While regulatory issues are one barrier, oil companies generally see better returns on investment in oil exploration rather than refinery capacity "

So please spare us the " benefit of all Americans" crap.  All you care about is the benefit of Ken.

You have said that repeatedly. To do that you need to maintain Republican control of the government. That way you can pump your oil you claim you have, make fun of those less fortunate that yourself and rationalize a lifestyle that destroys the very foundation of our society and our environment for your personal benefit.

We Recycle!

by MRFred on 07/15/2008 07:14:01 AM EST