More Myths on Oil Supplies and Drilling

A comment from yesterday's post pointed out a column by one Phil Valentine in The Tennessean and Phil says there is only one reason oil prices and oil drilling are a problem today: Democrats.

Science, as I mentioned yesterday, points to some far more useful facts and not to these worn-out talking points of The Blame Game.

Phil writes (with or without irony, I'm not sure which):

"The only way to bring the gas prices down immediately is to drill. I realize that it would take several years before that oil would be in the pipeline, but the short-term effect would cause speculators to drive prices down."

The government's EIA office, as I mentioned yesterday, says:

" A recent EIA study took a look at the impact that drilling in ANWR would have, and they concluded that it would probably reduce oil prices by 75 cents a barrel in 2025. A change that small two decades in the future almost certainly wouldn't have any effect on commodity traders today."

And there's this too also from my post yesterday:

"Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as assests to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money."

Just like 1st District TN Congressman David Davis - facts are not nearly as important as cheeky campaign rhetoric:

"There is more oil in Colorado than in the entire nation of Saudi Arabia"

But "oil" in Colorado is in the form of shale and not crude, so all comparisons are pointless. High gas fears (and their current realities) are merely ways to whip up fake outrage among voters. Seems Rep. Davis and columnist Valentine agree there is only one cause for wild speculation on the markets and the high prices at the gas pumps: Democrats.