Offshore Drilling Hearing

well it sure would be nice to be more self dependent in the oil department..................

 

Drilling isn't going to solve any problems. We need to get off the oil, not drill for more. As surfers we should be looking out for the good of our habitat, and the carbon released from fosil fuels as well as the plastic made from petroleum puts the oceans in great peril. I totally support you Ecsponger. If I could get out of work Monday I would be there. I just joined the SRF as well, if there is anything I can do to help on the homefront down here in Delmarva let me know.


As a side note...I'm teaching a class at Wor-Wic on the Environmental History of the Delmarva Peninsula and also have a lecture coming up on the history of Assateague Island in May. If anyone is interested in taking the class or coming to the lecture they should private message me for more info or contact Wor-Wic's workforce development department.

 

totally agree with ATMracer.

Next time I'm paying 4 bucks a gallon for gas (this summer most likely) I'll send you the bill surfnut.

 

Your totally right about the oil, we need to be totally free from it. However, that isn't going to happen soon. In the mean time, we need a temporary solution. In reality, we are half a century away from being totally independent from oil. If we drill offshore, our money stops going to middle eastern countries, who really have a monopoly. If we coulld drill offshore now, it would give us a temporary bridge to get us from supporting terroists and things non of us have a clue about (and if you don't think that we are money trail trickles down to people who don't have out best intrest in mind, than your head is in the dirt).

I am very interested in your lecture, and your whole class really. I will be emailing you about it.

 

I understand the need to supplement our energy needs now while more sustainable forms of energy are being developed. The thing is, oil companies currently hold leases on 68 million acres of land within the US which contain oil and have not been touched. The big effort of oil companies is to first aquire as much oil producing land as possible, and then drill. What we should do is encourage oil companies to tap the land they already hold first, and if by the time these areas are tapped and a sustainable energy source isn't found, then look to the ocean. There is no need to further pollute our oceans when oil companies are sitting upon reserves now, waiting for oil prices to rise in the market. They are seriously manipulating the American people.

 

unlike 'big environment' that would never use scare tactics on the populace right?

 

The issue is not about tactics, it is about facts and they clearly show the climate is changing and our oceans and environment are suffering. That is undisputible and if you deny it then you are "putting your head in the dirt" It was a tradition within the culture of the Iriquois indians that decisions be made with seven future generations in mind, I think it's time Americans began to think this way and get beyond our rather self centered perspectives. Our decisions have a clear and defined impact upon the future inhabitants of this earth and it is only fair and just that we begin to consider the consequenses of those actions and the implications they hold.

 

sure the climate is changing but the CAUSE is up for debate. I remember when I was a kid how scientists where CONVINCED that we were heading for another ice age due to our polluting ways but that didn't quite pan out did it? Pie in the sky platitudes like 'we need to get off oil', mean nothing if there is nothing to go TO. What replaces oil? Ethanol (too much CO2) electricity? will you support all the nuke plants that would be need to provide that much power to run all those cars cause that's the ONLY source currently available that can do it. plan sure but don't plan on THEORIES. There are plenty of real like reasons to transition from oil to ?????? but it takes time and needs to employ common sense.

Than funny thing is that as surfers, we are huge polluters. Every see what goes into a surfboard or wetsuit? how bout all those surf trips via jets?

 

We are all huge pollutors, unfortunately it is the way of life we inherited and grew up in. It will take time, hard work, and a lot of will power to create a more sustainable culture, but I think we can all agree it is something we need to work towards. This is our WWII and our chance to leave a lasting positive impact as a society and culture.

By the way, 97% of all scientists agree that carbon emisions are the cause of climate change and it is also publicly acknowledged that nearly all of the research sugesting other causes of climate change is funded by oil companies. That seems rather sketchy to me, but I'll allow you to draw your own conclusions.

 

there is also quite a bit of evidence pointing to the fact that some of the research on global warming (i like how they changed the name to climate change after the recent cooling trend) was purposefully skewed to support the researcher's theory. But that's neither here nor there.

 

This isn't the only thread to address this issue on this site, so here we go again. We've all heard the liberial and green talking points a million times about the current state of "the sky is falling". Fact: the earth's climate is changing. Fact: the earth's climate has constantly changed for the last 4.5 billion years. Fact: some would have us all spend a lot of money we don't have on ideas that aren't proven or cost effective in order to solve a problem that may or may not exist.

Pumpmaster is correct, Surfnut you are......... well ........another nut!! However; if it makes you feel better ride a bike, kill your electric, and practice all the other things that you wish. I on the other hand will continue to conserve the resources that I can, but have no plans to go back to the stone age. I'll upgrade my homes electric to a wind generator just as soon as it doesn't take a 100 years to recapure the cost. I'll gladly trade in my gas hog truck when I can afford something new. In the mean time, drill and stop supporting the f****ers that hate us.

 

I'm certaintly glad we can resort to name calling, playground rules often work best in discussing an import issues.

Moving on...no one is arguing that we should return to the stone age and if you took a moment to examine the reports and study the change in atmospheric carbon levels, I'm sure you would also be alarmed, especially if you compared that to warming and cooling trends over time. That being said, you hit upon an important point in talking about the cost of greener technology. Cars once used to be an expensive technology, so did computers, phones, and pretty much every other technology available today. If the market supports it, green technologies will thrive and evolve into a more practical alternative. There needs to be a comitment by the public though. If we all work to reduce our energy needs, the cumulative result would greatly reduce carbon emissions. I don't feel having these goals in mind makes someone a "nut" and I will refrain from stating what I feel someone who doesn't heed the warnings of hard science and logic is.

On the political front, I agree that US dependence on foriegn oil is a severe threat to our national security. I am not opposed to domestic drilling. As I stated earlier, oil companies hold a large amount of land already in the US which they curently are not tapping into. Why should we allow them access to our oceans, when they have not used all the resources they already own. Isn't it common sense to use what you have first before creating another mess? What we should be doing is putting presure on oil companies to use the land already set aside by the federal governement for drilling.

Also, global warming has always been a misnomer and most scientist argued that the term was purely political and misleading. The term climate change is a more accurate description of what is going on. Carbon levels will warm some areas, but the major problem will result in changinging weather paterns due to ocean and wind current shifts in responce to the warming. These shifts are unpredicatable and the effects will vary from location to location.

 

The lease issue is a political tactic to keep from drilling offshore. I did a bit of research on this and the vast majority of the current leases fall into 3 categories:

1. Lands that have tested but produced no oil or natural gas.
2. Lands that have been tested and produced oil/gas but was deemed in not sufficient quantity or easily obtainable.
3. Lands that have been untested due to the lease holder having insufficient funds, went out of business (there ARE small oil companies out there), or has not tested the site yet.

 

drill now!

 

Sorry if I hurt your feelings!!!! Your ability to recite the "talking points" is very good. Statistics and facts are like A....holes..........everybodys got them. Perhaps if you dug a little deeper you might find a connection between your scientists and their sources of funding. DRILL NOW!!! CharlieInOC OUT!!!!

 

Yes we have gone over this topic before,....and I thought that the core samples speak for themselves.<<<<the earth as we know it goes through cycles. I am not saying humans have not screwed the earth up and continue to do so, and we should be doing things to change our impact,...but I am so sick of all the people who think that everyone should just suck it up and never use oil based products again. And this cap and trade bs is just that bs and nothing more then another way to lie and steal money from everyone. They are using the issue to tax everyone on everything. It is a lie and it is stealing just as if I walk over to your house and said that your dog pooped on my yard so now you have to give me 100 dollars, or better yet, the law says that you have to give me a 100 dollars.

Government is evil, and they are all controlled by demons

I fear it is far to late for this country to recover from the last 8/38 years or be able to with stand what the next, hopefully only, four years will do to the real economy in this country.

unless you make at least 50k, and are single,.... one things is for sure,.........cap and trade will break you. And unless you make 100k or more, and remain single, the chances are very slim for you to ever build any sort of real wealth in this country again, as the current short and long term budgets will debase your dollars and steal in taxes any chance of a future you thought you may have had.

At this point in time,in my opinion..... sometime between now and the year 2100, I truly believe that this country will be forced to RE-Industrialize, in order to regain its currency base just so that we can issue debt that can be sold. That means we will have to DRILL For OIL, everywhere we can find it, dig for coal as much as possible and pump all the gas we can out of the ground. We are also going to have to start back up heavy industries that pump CO2 into the air and pollute the entire landmass. Hopefully we will also have new tech that will help the impact not be like that of the turn of the last century, but none the least an impact it will have.

If things had been run correctly over the last 40 years, we would have been off oil as we know it, already. But that did not happen due to greed and lies and wicked humans doing what they do best, being wicked.

Drill Now, Drill Everywhere, and pray that those printing money in DC just drop dead out of the blue.

 

how did you get the awesome sword fighting smilies?

 

X-gen is actually right...its all the environmentalist who want to stop the drilling yet drive around in SUV's. Earth is in a cycle if you look there has been periods that earth has cooled and warmed up...Right now earth is actually between phases scientists believe but it is hard to tell which way we are moving to warmer or colder. I agree we don't help the situation but earth seems to find ways to balance things out, look into a climatology and environmental you get both sides of the story