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That jack-ass President Bush had his little speech today which was pretty much an attempt to raze the Congress for not opening up more of our lands to the oil companies for more drilling.
President Bush: “First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS.”
But the facts as far as that drilling is concerned?
Energy Information Administration: “The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. … Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.”
So Mr. Bush, how would all of that extra drilling help me at the gas pumps right now?
President Bush: “Meanwhile, scientists have developed innovative techniques to reach ANWR’s oil with virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife. I urge members of Congress to allow this remote region to bring enormous benefits to the American people.”
Energy Information Administration: “The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows … $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case…”
So once again, none of George Bush's energy policy help either you or myself. I should make note though, that his ideas would help the big oil companies, of course.
Now, here's a little fact sheet for you.
Drilling
· The fact is there are 68 million acres onshore and offshore in the U.S. that are leased by oil companies—open to drilling and actually under lease—but not developed.
· The fact is if oil companies tapped the 68 million federal acres of leased land, it could generate an estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil a day – six times what ANWR would produce at its peak.
· The fact is 80 percent of the oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf is in regions that are already open to leasing—but the oil companies haven’t decided it’s worth their time to drill there.
· The fact is that drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t yield any oil for 10 years—and then would only save the consumer 1.8 cents per gallon in 2025.
· The fact is that America uses a quarter of the world’s oil consumption every day—but only 1.6% of the world’s supply—so there’s simply no way to drill a solution.
Refinery Capacity
· We currently have excess oil refining capacity. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), our refineries are currently running at 88% capacity - well below the 95-98% capacity use rates we’ve seen this time of year for the last decade.
· No new oil refineries have been built in the past 30 years because major oil companies have not sought to build them:
1. ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell have publicly stated that they had no plans to build new refineries. Instead, they prefer to expand existing facilities.
2. Shell, ConocoPhillips and BP all testified that they were unaware of any environmental regulations preventing them from building new refineries or expanding existing ones.
3. Internal memos from oil companies make it clear that oil companies decided that they needed to reduce refinery capacity to drive up their profits.
The Bush energy policy ideas suck big-time for both you and I, but not for his friends in the oil industry. We do not need more drilling. We need just a few oil company CEO prosecutions!
