Proof Democrats are Stupid - again. Options

[Hartmann]

everything I've read and seen says it's way cheaper to improve existing refineries than build new ones (i.e. all the red tape you have to go through to build a new one).

Much cheaper.

Plus, you are getting rid of old, inefficient (by today's standards) units and replacing them with better units that are safer and produce at a more cost effective ratio. It takes a long time to build a new refinery and it takes a decent amount of time to add a new unit, but you can keep the plant up and running while the new unit goes in.

[Dogmeat]

Go Dogmeat, go !

Two things:

I have heard people talking about oil in North Dakota, and the reserve there being larger than what they have in Saudi Arabia(?) Im not so sure about that, but there seems to be a shit load there, way bigger than in the ANWR. Surveyors claim to have somewhere in the range of 3 and 4.3 Billion barrels of recoverable oil making it the largest reservoir discovery in the United States. Can we drill there? Hell fucking no. Not yet because the Dems are blocking drilling.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

Also.

I love it when "environmentally conscious" democrats complain about soaring gas prices. It's like wanting to have your cake and eat it. Gas prices skyrocketing like they are does more for lowering consumption of gas (and thus, environmental "damage") than everyone in the U.S. driving a hybrid car. People are driving a lot less and consuming a lot less gas, but don't let that get in the way of environmental democrats and bitching about the government !

It's funny cause when you corner them, they have to pick between one or the other and they contradict each other. Do you want less "global warming?" or do you want a lower gas bill? You cant have both you fucking socialist genius. Bet you and your Al Gore loving hippie drum circle cohorts never talked about this over a pipe of hash and a raspy rendition of "Give Peace a Chance."

They've known there was oil in the Bakken for awhile, there are other places they know and have known there are oil for awhile.

A lot of the doom and gloom about peak oil and whatnot doesn't factor in political and economic factors. It tries to factor in technological limitations if I remember right, but the main thing about the Bakken that's made it lucrative latley is that with oil as highly priced as it is, you can actually afford to develop those fields. Horizontal drilling techniques are based on effectivley being able to log the well as you drill it in order to pinpoint where you're at ... The Bakken formation is essentially a layer of dolomite about 10 feet thick if I remember right that's bounded by two layers of inelastic shale. You have to basically position your drill string so that you bend close to horizontal on the top layer of shale, go no less than 10 feet or whatever your net pay thickness is, then stay horizontal between those two layers for probably another mile if not longer

It's been technically doable for awhile just not economical ... It's really interesting the way oil is being produced out of that formation right now with horizontal drilling ... I mean that was pretty well the reason horizontal drilling was developed in the last 15 years was that formation.

[Billy]

The democrats aren't going to allow drilling of Alaska so gas stays high to collect taxes for the republican's wars.

[Testm0nkey]

i'm really glad that big companies are starting to move towards more renewable energy sources finally, although its a slow process. i think anyone with a brain would eventually have to concede that relying on oil as the backbone of this country is a bad idea. you can drill and drill and drill in wherever you want to drill in America but you will come to the same problem in the end - needing an alternative energy source. and to discover that "end" is 6 years or 120 years from now is still bad news.

[Dogmeat]

i'm really glad that big companies are starting to move towards more renewable energy sources finally, although its a slow process. i think anyone with a brain would eventually have to concede that relying on oil as the backbone of this country is a bad idea. you can drill and drill and drill in wherever you want to drill in America but you will come to the same problem in the end - needing an alternative energy source. and to discover that "end" is 6 years or 120 years from now is still bad news.

No one is saying that alternative energy is bad or not needed. What I'm saying is ... it's completley mindless to shoot ourselves in the foot right now because it's not widley practical yet.