Bush to Lift Offshore Oil Drilling Ban

It will be so sweet to no longer have this prick Bush in the national dialogue. The fact that twenty some percent still support his arrogance and his ignorance sends a shiver up one's spine. If I never heard or saw him again it would be too soon. He should be shunned for his crimes against humanity. Six more months of this nightmare and then some problems can be finally be addressed let alone possibly solved. Drilling offshore for oil is not one of them.

So, in 10 years we'll get roughly 6 months worth of oil, which won't matter anyway, because we'll sell it to Asia. Meanwhile, I read comments by NM's Republican Senator Pete Domenici,who is retiring. As he exits Congress, he now admits that he regrets not having done more to press automakers for tougher fuel efficiency standards or investing in alternative energy sources. However, he also blames the "environmentalist lobby" for preventing us from drilling for more oil.

I think we should keep drilling. I said it before and I'll say it again. Drill. If you are a fat lard ball who needs to get off our butt, start walking. Meanwhile, don't call for the economy to be slowed to your sluggish state so that you can actually have an excuse to do something.

With China having the worlds worst environmental safety record an environmental disaster of epic proportions is likely to hit the southern coast of the US. [...]
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I'm not worried! The Army Corps of Engineers will protect us!
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Cuba is 90 miles off the Florida coast so theoretically if Cuba gives China a lease China could drill 45 miles off the coast of Florida/Cuba and there would be nothing we could do about it.
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OK now-- THAT'S a casus belli if I ever heard one! It looks like the good old U S of A is finally going to have to destroy Cuba in order to save it.

The references is to the NYT being cited, appear to relate to oil leases that Cuba granted China and not actual drilling. BUT where there are leases drilling usually follows. With China having the worlds worst environmental safety record an environmental disaster of epic proportions is likely to hit the southern coast of the US. The 250 mile Exclusive Economic Zone DOES NOT INCLUDE CUBA, here we have overlapping and adjacent Exclusive Economic Zones, Cuba is 90 miles off the Florida coast so theoretically if Cuba gives China a lease China could drill 45 miles off the coast of Florida/Cuba and there would be nothing we could do about it.

As I understand it, only light sweet crude has peaked. The heavy and sour stuff is just highly available.

Dana Perino? That is the same person who still claims that the best intelligence before the Iraq war gave us 100% certainty that Iraq had enough WMD to constitute a threat to the USA. You might as well quote the town drunk!

fakedemocracy July 14th, 2008 6:10 pm: please read my comments addressing the infeasibilty of the claims in the CD thread you referenced.

Galen is completely correct. This is a last ditch effort. The is the empire screaming and clawing to maintain power. Bush and Cheney, probably better than anyone, know how power is completely dependent on energy. They are making an oil grab. Anywhere and everywhere. Iraq, Iran, Alaska. Wherever. As soon as the masses are waiting in gas lines, it's pretty much all over for this society. And that's not far away.

The American economy is collapsing under our feet. The energy supplies are not adequate to meet the outrageous demand, and still there fingers pointing at all the wrong places.

Once again, this is all such bullshit that it is laughable!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147&hl=en

What is not being mentioned is that this is a total desperation tactic.

Between this frantic push to open deep water drilling (a dangerous, difficult and very technically challenging prospect), the rush to rape ANWR and the mention of the 'Shale Oil' pipe dream, Peak Oil is truly here.

This is the last gasp.

Peak Oil is when all the easy to extract and refine oil is gone, and you are left with the heavy sour crude that is difficult to extract and expensive to refine.

And that is exactly where we are.

Why does Bushwa need legislative support on this? He doesn't pay attention to any laws passed by Congress anyway. Simply proclaim his Executive Fiat that offshore drilling is now allowed, as he has done, and be done with it. Fuck the Congress. Right, Dubya? It's what you've been doing now for 7 1/2 years, and the Congress doesn't seem to mind.

Not a minute too soon. The Arctic ice pack is receding at about 20 miles a day from the continental shelf right off of ANWR. Just sail your drilling rig into a prime Arctic Ocean location and drill for the next 2-3 months in peace and quiet, no polar bears, just gentle rolling waves and the Alaska Pipeline is near at hand. Who needs ANWR? Don't mind all those bubbles around you, or the fart smell.

Bush wants more approved drilling while ignoring the 80 million acres already approved by Congress. That way he can blame the Democrats for opposing oil production. Truth is , Big Oil has been sitting on all that oil while raising prices at the pump. Nice try W, but what more could we expect from a liar, murderer, and thief?

frank1569 July 14th, 2008 4:51 pm: "Liberals and progressives better start figuring out how to counter the twisted brainwashing..." Every Dem in Congress should be required to read Thom Hartman's "Cracking the Code". I don't some things about T.H. but he's right on the money with this book.

http://dccc.org/blog/archives/republicans_new_favorite_urban_legend/

The China-drilling-story mentioned by copenhagen
is an urban legend stated by a Dick "The Dick" Cheney lie.

This is a total break in form. Aren't these drilling plans supposed to be preceeded by the threat of WMD's hidden in ice cream trucks/boats? Where are the WMD's? How deep under the ocean are they? Can't we give the UN weapons inspectors first crack at it? I mean what does it take, a pair of swim goggles and floating wings?

I'm with jjohnjj on this one, "If we're so desperate for oil now, just think how much more our grandchildren will need it. I say leave it in the ground for future generations."

Yep, leave it in the ground. Instead, start building some serious electric cars, like this one: http://aptera.com/
Put that together with the new more powerful solar cells designed by MIT (a different article was saying they are 10x more powerfull!) http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/11/10284/
build a little charge station on your roof... and soon the Big Oil Boys will be begging on the street corner.

Whenever Bush opens his mouth, lies and drool leap out. Everything that affects our life, whether its the gas hikes, or illegal wars, or everything else that has gone wrong, you can bet it was done for a reason: so with this case, the gas hikes accordingly would lead to opening up Alaska, and off shore drilling. Bush always intends to get his way and he has plenty of ammunition up his sleeve.

I am a tree hugger from way back.

I am also realistic.

As the price of gasoline goes up, support for the envirement goes by the wayside.

Mark my words; when gasoline goes past $8.00 per gallon, 90% of Americans will want us to drill in Alaska! Our ideals go out the window when our pocketbook gets squeezed. I will still be in that 10% that says Alaska should still be off limits.

The Congress might show some balls, for now.
But when President Obama tells Congress that we need to drill offshore, it WILL happen.

If we're so desperate for oil now, just think how much more our grandchildren will need it. I say leave it in the ground for future generations.

But can anyone say why BushCo wants the offshore tracts released now? They admit that there's no immediate benefit to the consumer. Any profits for BigOil seem distant as well. What exactly is the benefit to the oil industry today?

My guess is that there's a lot of money to be made in exploratory drilling and all the technical services that support it. This could just be a Republican handout to that particular segment of the industry - which is based mostly in Texas and Louisiana.

It's either that, or just having more offshore "acres" listed as assets will bump up the oil companies' share value on Wall Street.

Coal + Offshore + Nuclear = a C.O.N. game.

Pathological cultist Hannity opened his show today:

"Thank God for George Bush. He lifted the ban on offshore drilling today."

Fellow pathological cultist Limbaugh, last week calling for the lifting of the ban:

"There isn't any change in the climate of the United States."

Liberals and progressives better start figuring out how to counter the twisted brainwashing that goes on day in and day out on "the other side" or we'll never succeed.

copenhagen

"It's about time we started drilling. China is drilling 20 miles off our very own Florida coast. Stealing the oil right from under us."

Wow, it's like our 250 mile Exclusive Economic Zone didn't even exist. Is there any lie too ridiculous for these blowhards to bandy about?

Folks,
You should Google anything copenhagen says. He/she is repeating a Cheney lie. There is no Chinese drilling anywhere near our shores.
From Mother Jones:
"Problem is, that's all false. Like, completely false. China is not currently drilling off the shores of Cuba; in fact, it doesn't even have a off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land. "China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period,'' Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy, told the Miami Herald. In fact, it is not yet drilling on Cuban land, either. The Herald added:

China's Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban government to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Piñon said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no drilling. Western diplomats in Havana told McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge there is no Chinese drilling offshore.
The Congressional Research Service also debunks Republican claims:

"While there has been some concern about China's potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba's oil sector has been focused on onshore oil extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. (Sinopec)"

Drilling more US oil out of the ground will enrich the oil companies and do nothing to change our situation. Even McCain has admitted that increased US drilling will have only a psychological effect and little actual effect on world oil prices. As it stands now the oil companies are not required to sell what they pump in America to Americans. It'll just go to the world market where they will get the best price for themselves. We'll simply have less oil under the US.

It's not a done deal yet, congress's ban still stands. Hopefully they'll leave it on. If I know the dems though they will probably lift theirs too. If there's one thing they love to do it's bending over backwards to give Bush what he wants.

Why Gas Prices Will Never Go Down No matter how much and Where they Drill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs5-w6rA0v0

Only psychopathic, fascist capitalists would even THINK about drilling for MORE oil. Anyone who advocates maintaining the status quo regarding energy consumption is actually intentionally hastening the catastrophic extinction event that we have now entered.
What kind of malevolent, malicious, aberrant monsters could advocate the death of millions upon millions of completely innocent human beings solely to satisfy their lust for wealth and power? Fascist corporatists, libertarians, capitalists, in short, people who worship money, Mammon. These are people who seek global feudalism, people who consider themselves the "Master Race" and the rest of us slaves. These are people who do not hesitate a nanosecond before ordering the commission of atrocities, genocides, murder and heinous crimes of every nature.
Hunt them down, separate them from the human family, isolate them someplace they can never escape and let them kill each other, instead of the innocents of Earth.
The internal combustion engine must be banned. Massive decentralization is needed and localized economies based on solar and wind generated energy must be created. We don't need any more oil. We don't even need the oil we've got!
Leave the oil in the ground!

I believe that China, along with Venezuela is helping Cuba develop it's offshore oil reserves. I know Cuba is 90 miles off of Florida, but doesn't 20 sound more threatening?

At this rate the 'Green Giant' Schwarzenegger will be Obama's running mate

SO..ARE WE GOING TO GET A "GUARENTEE" THAT THE 'PRICES WILL DROP IF THEY DRILL??????'

kinda doubt it!

Also..recall..that they are making "RECORD PROFITS"..uhh..so how does that equate to a "price drop at the pump" or how does that influence the way people will feel about "high prices"??? Are the OIL CO. going to DROP the price of the OIL extracted from the shores of America??? uhhhh..is that in writing?

Motherfuckers..This is SO..by the books..recall 10 day's ago..when the BLM put a TWO YEAR MORATORIUM ON ALL SOLAR DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTHWEST..ON PUBLIC LANDS...TO 'STUDY" THE DELICATE ECOSYSTEMS...

My gawd..the Hypocrisy..is so..SURREAL..it is...Dali-Esque...melting clocks...

Anyway..we here in Nor Cal..marched...(when that still worked) and got the "offshore drilling" scheme shut down that was proposed under..Ronnie and Bush 1..and.I am..well..I gotta say..i think Der Arnold..will be...INSANE...to remove thos restrictions...he KNOWS that virtually EVERY californian...is against this..ESPECIALLY with the San Fran bay Bridge fiasco and..the spill they ARE STILL CLEANING UP..fresh in the minds of Californians...

However..YOU folks..out there..need to do the same...LOCAL government..even at the STATE level..is..SOMEWHAT..still..."responsive" to the "people"...I aint talking about "representatives"..Congress..the Senate..and the..Executive...as well as the ..for the most part.."Courts' are...GONE!...G-O-N-E!...cannot and will not be on the side of the "People"...but again..the LOCAL governments...whom consist of people actually LIVING in the communities effected by these nighmares...CAN be dealt with..SO..if you want to still PAY your "government" to do what it is doing in "your name"...and you cannot bring yourself to STOP paying...then at least..you CAN use that same LEVERAGE to gain momentum in your LOCAL POLITICAL ARENA...bring the pressure to bear...in ALL tourism states..this nis a nightmare...ALSO..like I said above..BRING UP..AT THE LOCAL LEVEL...THE CONCEPT OF "GUARENTEES' FOR PRICE REDUCTION..THIS IS SOMEHTING EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS....EVEN THE "US V. THEM" COLLABORATORS WHO WILL SAY OKAY JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY NO...EVEN THEY WILL HAVE TO 'JUSTIFY" DRILLING WITH "NO GUARENTEE" OF PRICE REDUCTION AKA ANY REASON T DO THIS AT ALL EXCEPT TO ADD TO THE "RECORD PROFITS"

LIVE FREE OR DIE!

Copenhagen must listen to the same AM radio my dad does. He mentioned some BS about China drilling off our shore but had no evidence of it. He heard it on the radio so it must be true, right?

Perino states: "It is going to take some time, and it's not an automatic fix but this is a transition period that we will be in for quite a while and we think it's important to start now,"

Transition to what? The US certainly isn't in any hurry to develop alternatives to oil. Just the same old same old.
I can't imagine what she's referring to.

Maybe as long as Arny and Congress hold out the drillers can be stopped. Unless of course georgie invokes some new kind of executive privelege giving him authority to rule the world (or has that already been done?)

KaneJeeves is right on! All the about-faces Bush has done this year has been to make McCain look good. They leave out the fact on the oil drilling that it'll be at least ten years before we see any oil from that drilling, and it won't be making a damned bit of difference in gas prices.

The big rush to get Congress to lift the ban is so they can tell the ones bitching about the high price of gas that "You see, the Republican party gets things done for you. We care."

Guess all the idiots in this country will just have to learn the hard way.

Why do you guys even debate this crap? Face it, Bush is a genius and the Dems are nitwits. What's the first rule of advertising/marketing? Know your audience. Bush knows Americans by and large are idiots. With gas so high, "Drilling For Oil" is a simple idea that the masses will perceive as a solution. Doesn't matter one bit whether or not it IS a solution. He knows the idiots will perceive it to be a solution. And so he beat the Dems. No matter what the Dems say now, to us simplistic Americans they're just "not helping the regular Joes". McCain looks good, Mr. Finetoothcomb Obama looks bad.

"We think that this should not wait, the sooner they act, the faster we can send a signal to the market that we're serious," Perino told reporters, noting that the US Congress's August recess loomed.

What the hell does this mean? The Market? The speculators? They already know this administration is serious. Serious about lining their pockets and the pockets of all the enablers. That's all that anybody in this administration cares about, The Market. Not about you, or me, or us, but the almight dollar. CAPITALism. Not SOCIALism.

Invest in oil stocks. Everything else is on the skid. Probably because dubya doesn't own anything but energy stocks. The only thing that will do better than energy stocks is the Euro; at least for a while.

Happy Bastille Day! At least the French knew what to with tyrants. Lafayette, where are you in America's last hour of need?

copenhagen:
Really? China is drilling 20 miles off our Florida coast? That sounds like another GOP baldfaced lie to this patriot. These war criminals are Neo-Con-Men forever!

Americans need to understand that there is no difference between american companies drilling and any other foreign company drilling. It's not like American companies give a discount to Americans for buying oil!?! The only thing that matters to any corporation is the bottom line. They will exploit their grandmother if they have to to make a profit. Our president is looking out for the American Corporations best interests, because he is friends with the owners and his family has interest in their business. This same attitude applies to his buddies at the big four oil companies getting no-bid contracts in iraq...But none of this will help our country. If perhaps we nationalized the oil production in this country and had government control over it, we'd see some of the profits and perhaps low prices. But there's not enough oil here to keep us satisfied for a week.

Really? China is drilling 20 miles off our Florida coast? That's news to me. Where did you get your facts copenhagen?

...wow...imagine my surprise!

...why bother with alternatives to oil when it's far more profitable than ever to just keep drilling, deregulating, and price gouging?

...it's for your own good, you know...keep america strong and drill for democracy! :-D

The slow road to being self-sufficient? How about we actually get off our lard asses and ride bikes (maybe we can become like China and China can become like us) or take the bus? Personally, I'm seeing more and more people using alternative transportation, so I say keep the gas prices high, continue to the ban on drilling and make American physically work again.

Suck it all up, then we'll worry about it.

It's about time we started drilling. China is drilling 20 miles off our very own Florida coast. Stealing the oil right from under us.

Hopefully we can begin the slow road back to being self sufficient for the most part. How else can we expect to keep what shredded remnants of our Constitution still exist? It's about time we take our National Sovereignty back.

Oh yeah. The Junta is showing it's true colors yet again. It's another corporate big-oil power grab. This is all about lining their pockets and has nothing to do with helping the average American. The Junta can bare it all now and try for anything with six months left in office. If they leave office as scheduled that is!