Drill+Here+Drill+Now+Pay+Less+in+the+USA

//Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less in the United States//
//by Ben Hunt//



(Collage photo compiled via a google image search of “Drill Now”. Photos then merged on Photoshop)

__Introduction:__ In 1982, Congress voted on a moratorium on //offshore// domestic oil drilling – however new inland drilling leases were allowed. In 2008 a new political movement arrived before the American public. This movement began in response to barrels of oil selling for almost $140 in the summer of 2008.(8) Additionally, gasoline at the pump was selling for about $5 a gallon, leaving Americans reeling economically. In response this movement called “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” was pioneered by conservative leader Newt Gingrich through his organization American Solutions ([]).(4) This movement tried to popularize the idea that domestic oil drilling in the U.S. was the best way to lower gas prices and ease economic hardship on Americans. Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) became the two locations that could produce enough oil to save Americans at the pump and fix the economy.

__The Debate:__ The US reached peak oil in 1970. Peak oil is the point on a graph at which point production is highest, and for the US this was in 1970 when 10 million bpd were being produced.3 Currently in 2010 the U.S. is the leading consumer of oil in the world, consuming about 21 million barrels of oil per day (bpd); that’s about 882 million gallons.(6) Yet, the US only produces about 5 million bpd. As you can see in the photo I have selected, in the pie chart created by the EIA that denotes the production sources of US oil consumption, the US only produces around 1/3 of total oil consumption. Never mind the national security issues with sending that much money to nations like Nigeria, Iraq, and Venezuela, but economically this leaves a large trade imbalance. It is like spending $30 a week when your allowance is only $10; at some point your savings will run out. Thus, to increase supply, reduce price controls by foreign oil producing nations, some politicians proposed drilling in the US.

Senator George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, was quoted in the New York Times in 2008 as having said that if drilling had started in the off-limits refuge area “10 years ago, when President Clinton vetoed it, and coupled it with a comprehensive energy plan, we wouldn’t be in this predicament today.” He added: “But now the chickens have come home to roost. We can afford to wait no longer.”(7) However other politicians opposed the idea. In the same Times article, Senator Fienstein of California said, “Even if new offshore drilling were allowed off the coast of California and along the Outer Continental Shelf — which I wholly and resolutely oppose — it won’t produce oil in time to solve the gas price emergency American consumers are facing right now.”(7)

This movement is a “Sustainability Problem” because it falsely attempts to prove that domestic oil drilling will be a good decision for America. False ideas like this become part of the “matrix” that go against real and substantive debate on how to progressively help America become a more sustainable nation.

__Why Domestic U.S. Oil Production Won’t Help Anything:__(1,9)
 * · The Energy Information Agency (EIA) office purports that domestic drilling will only lower gas prices slightly by 2025. It is expected that the price impact of ANWR coastal plain production might reduce world oil prices by as much as 30 to 50 cents per barrel by 2025, resulting in a reduction per gallon at around 1.2 cents.
 * · According to a report by the House Committee on Natural Resources Majority Staff: “Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361 percent, yet gasoline prices have also risen dramatically, contradicting the argument that more drilling means lower gasoline prices. There is simply no correlation between the two.”
 * · The U.S. oil supply-demand balance is insurmountable. We have less than 2 percent of the world’s known reserves, yet use 25 percent of its oil. Even if we drilled off of every beach, and inside every national park, refuge, and forest, we could not produce enough oil to offset our growing demand.
 * · Why open up new areas to drilling when oil companies hold over 4,000 undeveloped leases in the western Gulf of Mexico? What’s more, the government already leases 44 million acres offshore, of which only 10.5 million—or one quarter—are producing oil or gas.
 * · By committing to costly recovery, oil companies are betting that oil prices (and gas prices) will stay high enough to justify their investments. Opening the Outer Continental Shelf could never bring us back to $2-a-gallon gas, but would ensure that companies that develop the newly available oil have an interest in keeping gas prices high enough to justify their investments.
 * · Due to the high price of oil, existing drilling ships are “booked solid for the next five years,” and demand for deepwater rigs has driven up the price of such ships.
 * · The U.S. only has enough oil to produce at the current rates for 10-20 years. The US has about 25 billion barrels of proven oil reserves left. Producing 5 million barrels per day sets a pace of oil production for only about ten years. (5,000,000 x 365 x 10 = 18 billion)
 * · Drilling domestically only helps slightly in the short-run. The long term vision of such a plan has no hold. It is in the best interest of oil companies to keep the price high so that profits keep rolling in. In 2008, ExxonMobil had the most profitable year of any company ever by pulling in more than $404 billion in total sales, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.

__Better Ideas than “Drill Now”:__ The United States has other options for domestic energy sources than oil. I’d like to see a US that generates all of its energy within its borders; becoming completely energy and resource independent. The real solution to the energy crisis—and to the climate crisis—is to innovate, become more efficient, and move forward. That’s why offshore drilling in sensitive areas is a bad idea. For a long-term plan, it is remarkably short-sighted.
 * · Wind Energy: wind energy has been viable in other countries; Spain and Germany in particular. The US has what has been called the “Wind Belt” that stretched vertically through the Midwest from North Dakota down to Texas.
 * · Solar Energy: solar energy also can work in the US. Solar panels and solar thermal
 * Other technologies: who knows whether biofuels, hydrogen, geo-thermal, hydro or other sorts of energy will be the energy of the future that will lower costs and create an energy independent America.
 * · Reduced consumption: in the brutal oil price summer of 2008, Americans drove less and conserved fuel, lowering demand and shifting prices lower. In Anchorage Alaska for example, many families stopped using their gas powered electricity and used candles instead.
 * · Gas Tax: A small gas tax on gasoline can be used to fund oil alternatives. One or 2 cents per gallon could generate billions of dollars quickly. However would not be a popular idea throughout the general population.

__References:__ 1. [] 2. [] 3. [] 4. [] 5. [] 6. [] 7. [] 8. [] 9. []