90 billion bbls of oil...

[dsprik]

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

Alternative fuel does not mean no oil..but alternative fuel can be use to ease the oil demand. Home heating, etc. Nuke power , solar power and wind power to generate electricity. Need for oil and dependency on oil are two different things

I think another alternative energy source that many don't think about is natural gas. I believe the US has tremendous reserves of this substance. Seems we should be hearing more about this?

[mail2us]

Dennis, I can agree that "true" alternatives to oil must be considered and hope that our leaders view it that way in their enactment of any meaningful energy legislation. We do hear new area drilling would take X years to yield in those many locations where proven reserves exist. The amount of years it would take are given in political terms not science or recovery terms depending on the political point of view. When do you honestly think or perhaps know when the next "alternative" nuclear power plant will be licensed,completed and online? What company will step forward right now to invest in wind energy and where? We can read right in this thread the opinion of at least one person from the Colorado area opposed to the efforts underway to extract oil from shale. That opinion resides almost everywhere an "alternative" to oil is put forward or drilling for oil can potentially occur. It's part of the NIMBY (not in my back yard) position which has merit. It can be debated that oil companies care only about profit. I can agree that they care about profit, and as a shareholder in this capitalistic society, they better. I still maintain that profit is not a dirty word. Drilling willy nilly is not anyone's goal. I accept as most of us do that we need alternatives to oil, however, we don't stop drilling nor exploring and wait on those alternatives to free us from foreign strangulation. We have the resource-oil and we have the science and engineering capability to develop those alternatives and the know-how to drill in the 21st century without the environmental myth that we will spoil everything we touch. This is where oil companies move from being only concerned about profit.I reside in Florida and have written our governor on oil drilling off the Gulf coast. I actually received a response indicating we can and should drill in the Gulf with stipulations that any oil company can accept. Our legislators must step across their respective aisles and before we have any meaningful energy plan, those steps must be taken. Will they? Great thread here and HamRad and others provide excellent input. Dennis

[c5racer]

The United States imports about 16% of the natural gas we consume. Don't think natural gas is a solution, need more solutions.

[bsmeaton]

I think the greatest misconception is that US Companies are waiting to drill and refine US oil and sell it to US consumers and it's the government holding them at bay. There are no US Companies anymore - Standard Oil went under years ago. The new Petrochem companies have no allegiance to any homeland, they have home offices in multiple countries and are willing to drill and produce any body's oil and sell it to anybody willing to pay. I just bought diesel from British Petroleum (BP) this morning, who drills for oil wherever they can find it, and sell stock to the US, Japan, South Africa, even Kazakhstan citizens.

I believe if we had a system to ensure our resources were committed to consumption within our borders, there would be a much more agreeable attitude about surrendering the resources. The folks on the western slope have an inherent mistrust for society, primarily because they have been sold a bill of goods for over a century - Land grabbers stealing land from the farmers for pennies on the dollar right before Teddy's National Forest set aside legislation would have paid them market value in the 1800s, the Colorado River project that committed most of the western slope water to California and leaves the western slope communities in drought as they watch the water flow by, and of course the 1950s and 60s cold war underground nuclear testing that put most of western Colorado on the Superfund list with farmers waiting to have the topsoil replaced so they could grow food again. Today they have an open sludge pond near the town of DeBeque CO that violates its intake by millions of gallons a week, but the oil company feels it's cheaper to pay the environmental fines than it is to slow production. The town has to tolerate semi-trucks carrying water to the refinery at a rate of 1 truck every 7-minutes - 24/7.

I'm not saying we shouldn't grab the oil from the shale, but I would sure enjoy pulling up to a US based gas station with fuel from the Commerce City refineries that was drilled in Colorado. Unfortunately, I think it will fuel every rickshaw in China and all I will ever see is the $5.00 price take I'm paying now because China has a stronger economy.

[c5racer]

Think you will find the Commerce City refinery is a Canadian company refining oil from the oil sands in Canada. Sinclair Oil is an American company and Sinclair is recognized by the Terror-Free Oil Initiative as one of the few filling stations that does not buy oil from terrorism-sponsoring states such as those in the Middle East.
Since most of the oil to be discovered in the USA is on government lands, congress could pass a law saying any oil produced from government land must be consumed in the US.

[dsprik]

quote:Originally posted by bsmeaton

Unfortunately, I think it will fuel every rickshaw in China and all I will ever see is the $5.00 price take I'm paying now because China has a stronger economy.

Brad, I think you are right on the money. Hope the $5.00 does come down somehow though.

quote:Originally posted by c5racer

Since most of the oil to be discovered in the USA is on government lands, congress could pass a law saying any oil produced from government land must be consumed in the US.

Lester, that would be a great start.

[mfoss]

We're having a nice oil boom in northwestern ND now. There is a lot of horizontal drilling as well as vertical being done and as technology improves there are new ways of fracturing the shale being used. For some reason this has almost totally escaped the national media! Currently there are 14,000 jobs available in ND.