The Lure of Black Gold

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  Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 08/08/2008 10:11:02 PM

  Democratic disdain for energy production by US companies is evident with the current ownership of former US energy companies. Is it any surprise that the jewell Arco Oil Company which owned 80 percent of our Alaska Oil Reserves was bought out by British Petroleum Corporation at the end of the second administration of Bill Clinton due to the hostile Democratic attitude toward energy companies. It is no accident that the largest US builder of nuclear power plants, Westinghouse Nuclear Power Construction Division was bought out by Japan???s Toshiba Corporation. While 80 percent of France electricity is generated by nuclear power, only twenty percent in the US is generated due to the successful efforts of Democratic party to kill the US nuclear power industry. Significantly, nuclear power is not considered a mainstay of Democratic plans to address our energy crisis.There is also a worldwide shortage and backlog of orders for oil drilling platforms and oil drilling ships but US shipyards are not building these ships. Only one percent of the world's commercial ships are built in US shipyards. Hold your breath for the Democratic outcry and push for government help to US ship builders to build oil drilling ships in the US.

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  Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 08/08/2008 9:47:47 PM

  Democrats under the leadership of Barack Obama want to effectively give away in trust our offshore exclusive economic zone by standing in the way of any current offshore development. Under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Seas Convention the US has an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles and mineral seabed rights up to 350 nautical miles extending along the Continental shelf. A nautical mile is 6080 feet so our exclusive economic zone extends about 240 miles and mineral seabed rights extend 420 miles. The US has the world's largest offshore exclusive economic zone totaling 4.4 million square miles. In comparison, the total land area of the United States is only 3.4 million square miles.
  On the East coast alone, if you drive from Key West Florida to Bangor Maine it is 2000 miles. Multiply the 2000 miles by mineral seabed rights extending out 420 miles results in a total of 840,000 square miles of ocean acreage. Because we have the world's largest offshore coastline which is twenty-five percent greater than our land area, it only makes common sense that we exploit our offshore resources to achieve our energy independence.
  

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  Posted By: BCSutton @ 08/06/2008 8:07:54 PM

  In one word, yes. Drilling is becoming more acceptable as the financial hardship of $4/gallon gas hits people further and further down the economic ladder. Many Republicans in states like California have been afraid to come out publicly for drilling because of the vicious backlash effect that the environmental left has perfected. What many people don't realize (or don't want to talk about) is that drilling offshore will bring prices down immediately, not because it will increase our supply overnight, but because it will burst the speculators' bubble on oil futures. Prices have been largely driven by speculators betting on the continued scarcity of oil into the future because of our unwillingness to develop our own natural resources. Since President Bush lifted the Executive moratorium on drilling, however, gas prices have come down almost $.50 a gallon in my state, and it will continue to decrease as long as we are serious about taking control of our own energy needs and production through every available means - including offshore drilling, developing ANWR and developing the abundant oil shale deposits we have in the U.S. We need to drill, we need nuclear power and we need to give energy companies compelling reasons to reinvest their profits into developing other sustainable sources of energy rather than just issue fat dividends to their shareholders.