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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
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Polls show more than 70-percent of Americans favor opening up our coastal waters for renewed oil exploration and production. Some support drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) too.
And voters say they’d vote for such a measure if it were on an upcoming national ballot.
| Recent Comments |
Comment by Deb Della Piana on 6 July 2008:
Drilling for oil or gas will not make America energy independent. It doesn’t matter which politician has the cojones to file the legislation to open up offshore drilling. It doesn’t matter if we drill off every coastline, in every forest and in every national park, the fact of the matter is that the United States possesses about 2% of the world’s oil supply (3% if you throw in natural gas) and we use 25% of the world’s oil. As long as we are dependent upon oil and gas as our sole source of energy, we will be dependent upon other countries to supply it.
The government already leases 44 million acres offshore, but only 10.5 million acres (roughly one quarter) are producing oil or gas. Oil companies still hold over 4,000 underdeveloped leases in the western Gulf of Mexico, but aren’t using them. Why lease more? To what end? Perhaps the oil companies know that there isn’t enough there to make a difference. Perhaps it isn’t worth their investment. According to the Energy Information Association (Bush’s own government agency), it will take about five years for production to begin and there would be no significant effect on oil production or price for at least 20 years.
Almost completely ignored is the fact that the government has leased 44 million acres of undeveloped public land within the continental United States. Only 12 million acres are in production.
Why lease more land to the oil companies when they haven’t exploited the land they’ve already contracted for? It’s absurd. It is just as absurd to believe that we an drill our way to energy independence. And it’s acutely absurd to believe that this drilling won’t adversely affect our environment. What we must do is break our addiction to oil starting now.
And, please, let’s not get on the ‘obstructionist Democrat’ bandwagon. Since the November 2006 elections, the Republicans have indulged themselves in 77 filibusters. This is 20 more than their previous record of 57, and we still have six months to go! They have blocked every piece of meaningful legislation and what they haven’t managed to block, King George has vetoed. This administration and its enablers is a disgrace.
Deb Della Pianas last blog post..Target - Bush Democrats: Steny Hoyer
Comment by richard cochrane on 6 July 2008:
Deb:
In fact the US has more proved oil reserves than the entire Middle East, and using U. S. oil can in fact make the U. S. independent of either Middle Eastern or Venezualan oil but not Mexican and Canadian oil which are our biggest suppliers.
US reserves include 2 trillion barrels, without ANWR and the newest Prudhoe Bay reserves are enormous. Your 3% claim is wrong.
The “44 million acres” under lease are dry; nearly so or inaccessible under current technology. But, that is not the issue regulatory restriction effectively blocks access to most of those leases. Leasing and being able to use a lease are different.
The simple fact is NOT using U. S. oil continues to chain us to those who would destroy us.
The other argument not to use domestic reserves is time or that new oil can not flow for 5-10 or more years. That is an error. China who has started drilling off the coast of Florida in partnership with Cuba, has contracted for tankers in 16 months.
Alternative energy in any meaningful amounts is 10-20 years away although a Manhattan type project could bring a surge of electricity from nuclear plants in 5 years.
Comment by Deb Della Piana on 6 July 2008:
Richard, I’d love a link or references to your information because I’m getting the exact opposite reading. I have spent five hours on this today and four yesterday and every estimate I see, including from our own government, says we own anywhere from 2.5-3% of the world’s oil supply. I also spent time at the Boston Public Library on Thursday looking for information because I’m writing an article for the Newburyport News, and came up with the same numbers.
According to my sources, we have 510,000 wells, more than Canada (68,000 wells), our leading oil supplier. The inference is that our land isn’t producing and that we cannot “simply drill more” to gain this fictional energy independence you’re talking about. The peak of U.S. oil came in 1970 and we simply cannot turn back time. Most of the oil in the U.S. has been found and produced.
Separate and apart from our ‘proven’ oil reserve issue is our refineries issues. We have half of the refineries we had in 1982. Back then, we had 301 refineries producing 17.9 million barrels of oil per day). Today we have 149 and we’re producing 17.4 million barrels per day, an amazing feat at half the capacity I’d have to say. However, we use 20 million barrels a day, so we’re not keeping up with demand.
The reading I’m getting is that nobody wants to invest in refineries because the price tag can run as high at $3.7 billion, and it takes years before profits outweight the cost of construction.
Finally, as far as being tied to those who would destroy us, we are the only ones doing the destroying, Richard. I’m sorry, but you’ll never get me to buy into the propaganda that we were under immediate threat from Saddam Hussein and Iraq. That was a lie. There was no need to invade Iraq.
Deb Della Pianas last blog post..The Double-Talk Express keeps rolling on and on…
Comment by richard cochrane on 6 July 2008:
DEB - look it up on my archived articles, and consult Jason’s post.
Comment by guest on 7 July 2008:
A 2005 RAND study estimates that about 800 billion barrels of oil trapped in shale are technically recoverable from the Green River Formation. This amount is more than three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Comment by guest on 7 July 2008:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/12494
Comment by Richard Cochrane on 7 July 2008:
Guest-
Thanks.
My fumbling figuring has the US total petroleum reserves over 2 trillion barrels including offshore, onshore, oil shale, and tar sands but not counting coal that may exceed that figure in BTUs.
Except for disinformation and outrageously bad judgment the USA can soon be a net exporter of petroleum should it desire to be.