Simple Man Politics

Aloha to all my internet ohana today. I am glad to see that you all have been eagerly awaiting my Tuesday blog post. Today’s blog is about the energy bill that will be voted on in the House of Representatives tomorrow and later in the Senate. I think you will find this very interesting so lets get started.

On Wednesday September 17th 2008 the House of Representatives is going to vote on an energy bill that includes solar, nuclear, geothermal, wind, bio fuels, and oil. I think it is a good idea to have an energy bill that will include all of these options. The problem I have with the bill is that while it opens up areas for exploration and drilling on the outer continental shelf it will impose a ban on drilling where the bulk of the oil is located.

The new bill introduced to the House of Representatives will open up new areas for oil production which is true. The problem is it will also impose a permanent ban on drilling where the oil is most abundant. The ban will be against drilling anywhere within 50 miles of the coastline of the US out to 100 miles. All new drilling will be allowed beyond the 100 miles. The problem is that the bulk of the oil resides within the 50 mile area proposed to be banned roughly 88% of the oil deposits we know about. There is enough oil in this area to match the oil purchased from Saudi Arabia for at least 20 years.

They say the reason for the ban is one of environmental and ecological concern. One of the most notable events cited for the concern is the 1969 oil spill of the coast of Santa Barbara California which was in truth an ecological disaster causing wide spread damage to the coastal area and marine environment. The Exxon Valdez incident is also another event that has been frequently referenced.

Current numbers indicate that it is almost impossible for these kinds of spills to occur with off shore drilling because of the advancements in technology and the safeguards we now have in place. The experts say that the mostly likely event that would cause this sort of crisis would come from oil tankers that have sustained some sort of hull damage that allowed a leakage to happen.

Another fact that no one seems to be expressing here is that more oil enters the ocean from seepage through the ocean floor than from spills involving oil drilling platforms. The numbers indicate that less than 1% of all oil that gets into the marine environment comes from these platforms and that the rest come from seepage that occurs when there is to much pressure below the surface of the ocean floor. Experts suggest that by drilling the pressure would be greatly relieved and that there would be even less seepage.

Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat Illinois) says that he doubts when the bill coming before the house reaches the senate that it would even pass especially with the bans being proposed in the bill. He also stated that there are two other bills as well and that neither one of them is likely to pass either. Political commentators and experts believe that the Democrats in the senate will let the bans expire and hope that if Obama gets elected to the Presidency they will have the opportunity to remedy that problem. The reason being that most of the bans are put in place through spending bills which the senate does not have coming before it before the general election.

Now I will tell you that I personally don’t understand why you would open the OCS to new exploration and drilling and then ban drilling where the oil the most abundant. You might as well just keep buying oil overseas at exorbitant prices because the cost to produce it here would not be worth effort for so little. With regard to ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) I haven’t even heard a thing about that in this new bill and we should be drilling there to. As usual I just report the facts but you have to decide for yourself. I will see all of you tomorrow have a wonderful day, CIAO4NOW!!!!!