Judge holds Obama Admn in contempt over offshore oil drilling moritorium.

[pedro01]

We use over 20 million barrels of oil a day.  Our Reserves would be drained in less than a month.  We need to move to more alternative energy to reduce our dependence.  Did you know that 2 acres of sunflowers can produce over 1000 gallons of biodiesel.  

What - a day??

So you just need 20,000 acres x 365 days a year = 7.3 million acres of sunflowers & we'll be set, right?

[pedro01]

The price is tied to how much is available and how much speculators believe will be used by countries in the future.  If more oil is available on the market and the US shows we would be using more of our own resources, oil speculation drops. 

That's over simplifying the process so you won't have any trouble grasping the issue.

The price of oil has NOTHING to do with supply & demand for oil and EVERYTHING to do with speculation and market manipulation.

The price of oil reflects nothing more for supply & demand of futures contracts on NYMEX.

[Shockwave]

Expanded domestic drilling will significantly lower gas prices: … it’s not like it would make much difference. Every time gas prices start climbing, the “drill, baby, drill” chorus kicks in. We heard it back in 2008, and we’re hearing it again. Sounds good. More oil should equal lower prices. Except that’s not quite the case. As this helpful little analysis from EIA shows, even expanded offshore production will do very little to reduce gas prices. But you don’t need fancy math—the reality is that while the U.S. consumes about a quarter of the world’s oil, we have less than 2% of total remaining reserves. Oil is a fungible commodity, meaning there’s really no way to ensure that the oil we produce here, stays here. Instead, any additional production would be absorbed and digested by the global oil markets, with little difference in prices at the pump.

That doesn’t mean there’s no benefit to additional domestic production. As Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations has written, more domestic production means more domestic jobs and economic growth, and reduces the current account deficit that we’re all supposed to be worried about. Does that mean we should drill every orifice in the country? No, for fairly obvious environmental and safety reasons. (And we shouldn’t forget, the U.S. still has one of the biggest domestic oil production industries in the world, even with large parts of the nation’s coastal waters still off-limits to drilling.) But while environmentalists are right that expanded drilling will do little to reduce prices, and that the best way to attack oil dependence is through efficiency and investment in alternative fuels, domestic production should still have a place in energy policy. But we’re not drilling our way out of this one.

time science

Supply and demand my friend. Increased supply = lower prices. Increased demand = higher prices.
Another thing to think about, Obama keeps telling us that we have to reduce demand and that will help, but says increasing supply wont do shit. So which is it?
BTW the whole 20% use 2% reserve is innaccurate as well, yes we use 20% but the 2% is only a fraction of what is here in the US, its just the number they like to use to push their agenda. There was an article posted here earlier debunking the 2% reserve idea, ill have to find it.

[Shockwave]

The price of oil has NOTHING to do with supply & demand for oil and EVERYTHING to do with speculation and market manipulation.

The price of oil reflects nothing more for supply & demand of futures contracts on NYMEX.

Is this the same speculators that the current admin loves to blame for high gas prices?

[blacken700]

Oil is a fungible commodity, meaning there’s really no way to ensure that the oil we produce here, stays here. Instead, any additional production would be absorbed and digested by the global oil markets, with little difference in prices at the pump.


from the article

[Emmortal]

The price of oil has NOTHING to do with supply & demand for oil and EVERYTHING to do with speculation and market manipulation.

The price of oil reflects nothing more for supply & demand of futures contracts on NYMEX.

Speculators drive the speed of movement, not the direction of price.  If what you are saying is true, then a release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves would have no immediate effect on gas prices, which in fact it would.  Obviously that's not a long term solution to the problem.

The more interesting topic in this discussion is that conventional petroleum production has remained stagnant for the last 6 years, even though emerging markets have driven higher demand.  This i a far more important issue that's not even being discussed.

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

What - a day??

So you just need 20,000 acres x 365 days a year = 7.3 million acres of sunflowers & we'll be set, right?

No, I'm giving an example for biodiesel fuel only.  But lets say every home in America hooked up with a solar and wind power and was able to use it to heat and cool their homes, run water, and used an electric car. scooter, or even a  bike.  Those barrels of oil would disappear and even if it didn't generator enough power, we could use biofuel to power a diesel generator to make up the difference in the months we didn't have much sun or wind available.  One gallon of diesel fuel can run a 2000 watt generator for 6 hour.

That's what I'm currently working on at this time....building my own home, generating my own power, growing my own food, and minding my own damn business.  I can only do for myself.  However if the country moves into the direction of using alternative energy, we can be independent of all these Arab countries and people could truly retire because they wouldn't have to spend so much money

[Soul Crusher]

Interior Dept. IG to be Investigated in Alleged White House Drilling Moratorium Cover-Up
 The PJ Tatler ^ | July 6, 2012 | Bridget Johnson




A trio of senators have won their request for an investigation into Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s inspector general regarding a potential cover-up of documents that led to the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil spill.

Sens. David Vitter (R-La.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency in a May 24 letter to investigate the Interior Department’s Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall, whom they say “failed to ensure an independent, impartial and complete investigation into the Administration’s offshore drilling moratorium and related activities.”

In a response to the senators, shared with PJM, the Integrity Committee agreed to meet July 12 to review the allegations that Kendall failed to manage — and perhaps impeded — a full investigation of the White House and Salazar’s twisting of the findings of the National Academy of Engineers report into supposedly endorsing the moratorium.

Kendall, the senators noted in their request, was reportedly involved in the so-called 30-Day Report, “which erroneously indicated that independent peer review experts endorsed the Administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.” Then, Kendall conducted an oversight investigation of the report.

“The moratorium crushed thousands of jobs – many of which Louisiana is still suffering from – and now we’re seeing extremely alarming evidence that the investigation I requested on the job-killing moratorium may not have been independent and could have involved the acting IG tampering with the facts,” Vitter said at the time. “It’s pretty outrageous and offensive to know that politics seems to be likely influencing the office of the IG in addition to the science.”

If the results of the Integrity Committee’s investigation match what the senators believe to be true, it could deliver a serious blow to the administration.

[Soul Crusher]

BUMP

Judge Holds Interior Dept. in Contempt Over Ban
Judge in La. holds Interior Department in contempt over offshore oil drilling moratorium
The Associated Press
Post a Comment By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS February 2, 2011 (AP)

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12827405

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The federal judge who struck down the Obama administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling after the Gulf oil spill held the Interior Department in contempt Wednesday, and ordered the federal agency to pay attorneys' fees for several offshore oil companies.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman chided the department for its "dismissive conduct" after he overturned the agency's decision to halt any new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.

After Feldman overturned the government's moratorium in June, the agency issued a second nearly identical suspension.

"Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the reimposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government's contempt of this court's preliminary injunction order," he wrote.

A magistrate will consider how much the companies' attorneys should get.

An Interior Department spokeswoman wouldn't comment. A lawyer for the companies hailed the ruling.

"We're obviously delighted with the court's recognition of the government's manipulation of the judicial review process," said Carl Rosenblum, an attorney for Hornbeck Offshore Services and other companies that sued over the first moratorium.

Rosenblum said the companies haven't asked for a specific amount and aren't trying to profit.

"The end game has always been to put people back to work," he said.

Feldman also is presiding over a separate case challenging the Interior Department's second drilling moratorium. That suspension was lifted in October, but the agency was sued by other offshore oil companies that want the permitting process to be quickened.

Last month, however, Feldman refused to order the government to move faster. The judge said it's unclear whether the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management must approve or reject drilling permit applications within a specific time.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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Good.   This Admn is becoming like Mugabe/Chavez/Castro combined.   

[Soul Crusher]

bump