Posted by
Jack Cruger on Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:08:36 AM
House Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are holding the country hostage by not lifting the Congressional ban on drilling the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS).
Oil Companies have stated they can have oil flowing from the OCS within two years of lifting the ban because the Government required “path to drill” has been started.
Much to the chagrin of the Speaker of the House and her Whip, in February, 2006, Bobby Jindal, then US Rep. (R-LA), Now Governor, introduced bill HR 4761. The bill repeals all Presidential and Congressional moratoria on drilling for oil & gas in federal waters. The bill gives sole power to states to decide on drilling within 100 miles off their coasts; the federal government has control after 100 miles. States already control the first 3 miles off their coasts. HR 4761 was needed because of the Aug. 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina destruction of the Gulf Coast.
HR 4761 passed the House of Representatives 232-187 (192 Republicans and 40 Democrats voting yes, 31 Republicans, 155 Democrats and 1 Independent voting no). Since the Presidential Ban was a Presidential Directive, President Bush did not want to repeal the Presidential Ban at that time, which in my opinion was a big, big mistake because if he had then the congressional ban would have had to be lifted.
HR 4761 was not heard of until recently when the President did lift the ban. This is what Jindal said when he heard the news which reflects the Republican strategy:
Jul 14, 2008
BATON ROUGE — Today, Governor Bobby Jindal released the following statement on President Bush's announcement that he has lifted the executive order moratorium on offshore drilling off the coast of the United States.
Governor Jindal said, "The President's announcement today is a positive signal for Louisiana and our nation. The reality is that we are in an energy crisis that has been in the works for years. We need a comprehensive, balanced energy policy from the federal government that pursues everything simultaneously, from more offshore drilling to exploring nuclear, solar and wind alternative energy sources, and increasing conservation efforts.
"This news today is especially encouraging to Louisiana as we continue to work toward being the energy technology capital of the world. We will pursue incentives and tax policies to position our state as a national leader in reducing our country's dependence on foreign sources of oil."
Bobby Jindal wants the drilling to start right now, off the coast of Louisiana, so he can start paying down the debt of rebuilding and pay their share of the levee repairs. Hold on Bobby, here comes Washington to help.
Now Pelosi and Clyburn decided drilling offshore was not the way to go and will not allow a new vote to be taken for drilling the OCS, they then proceeded to fabricate the talking points which you will hear most Democrats parrot in their statements:
- Oil companies do not need new areas to drill. They need to focus on areas that are already opened to them. Of the 42 million acres of Federal land currently leased by oil and gas companies, only about 12 million acres are actually being drilled to produce oil and natural gas. If the Republican claims about more drilling are correct, why aren’t they demanding Big Oil explore drilling on the 30 million acres of Federal land that are already open to them but that they refuse to explore?”
Clyburn’s Web Site reflects the Pelosi’s talking points statement and reflects his views that his South Carolina Congressional District, and the country will have to live with, at least until the November elections is:
“Democrats want to take immediate steps to increase American oil production. That’s why we are pushing oil companies to start drilling on the more than 80 million acres of American land that is available to them right now, 68 million in the lower 48 states and another 15 to 23 million acres in Alaska. The oil companies have the potential to produce from those acres an additional 7.8 million barrels of oil and over 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. I can think of only one reason the oil companies aren't drilling on that land -- they want demand and prices to remain high.” (This is called stupid and Pelosi’s statement is 42 million and now all of a sudden Clyburn says we have 80 million).
”While “a box of crayons and a picture of an oil derrick” may be some people’s vision of our nation’s future energy policies, I am more inclined to take a more enlighten and long range approach. Congressional Democrats are supporting an innovations agenda that seeks to make America energy independent by 2020. We can achieve that goal, but only if we are willing to look forward and not backwards”. (Do both stupid).
This “Kiss My Butt” statement after the visit was also parroted on June 24, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama used this argument in a speech in Nevada: The oil companies already own drilling rights to 68 million acres of federal lands, onshore and offshore, that they haven't touched. 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production. (Dumb statement and not true, now for some reason the 68 million acres includes off-shore leases which they don’t allow drilling).
The charge has been repeated by Nancy Pelosi and others in their party. However; One SC Democrat is for more drilling and clarified the talking points based on reality.
John Spratt (D-SC) press release of July 23, 2008 states: "I am for anything responsible that will bring down prices, whether it’s more drilling or less speculation. But everyone should know that we are drilling more now. The number of drilling permits grew by 360% between 1999 and 2007. Over the last four years, the government issued 28,776 permits to drill, roughly 10,000 of which remain unused. On-shore, 47.5 million acres of federal land are under lease, but only 13 million acres are producing oil or gas. Off-shore, 44 million acres are under lease, but only 10.5 million acres are in production.
"If the 68 million acres leased but not used were put in production, it would help close the gap. I voted to open 8.3 million acres to drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and more recently voted to tell the companies sitting on their leases, ‘use it or lose it.’ (We drill for oil not acres. There could be only enough oil for one rig under the 10,000 acres).
Here is the real story of on-shore leases
”According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service (MMS), there are nearly 68 million acres of federal lands (onshore and off) that are part of non-producing leases as of fiscal year 2007. This is in contrast to 25.7 million acres of leased lands that are producing oil. So, there are 68 million acres of leased land on which companies aren't extracting oil, but Obama went too far when he said oil companies "haven't touched" them. As Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Petroleum Engineer Bill Gewecke, who manages the onshore sites, told us, he "wouldn't say untouched, [I] would say undeveloped."
”That's because these leased lands that don't contain productive drilling operations likely are not lying idle as Obama implies. There are a lot of steps and procedures involved in setting up a productive oil well on leased land, both onshore and off. The Bureau of Land Management's Web site lists the regulatory hurdles that need to be cleared as part of the larger five-step life cycle of a well. The path to setting up an offshore drilling operation is even longer, as shown in a large flow chart developed by the MMS”.
And there is a lot of activity occurring on leased lands that does not qualify as "production." For 2006, the BLM reported that there were 77,257 productive holes onshore in the U.S. Beyond that, there were 6,738 applications for drilling permits, 4,708 holes in which companies had begun drilling and 3,693 where drilling had ended among onshore lands. That's a total of more than 15,000 holes that were being proposed, started or finished that do not count as "productive" holes. And that doesn't even include holes that might have been continually drilled throughout the year for exploratory reasons.
It's not known how much of that drilling is taking place on leases currently classified as "non-producing" and how much is taking place on leases that are already producing oil. BLM's Gewecke told us that the agency does not track acreage that is being developed or explored. And Andy Radford, an analyst with the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade association, told us that the oil companies are "very secretive about announcing where they are testing, exploring and thinking of drilling because the industry is very competitive."
The Democrats are making this a political issue for the November elections and they are distorting facts, making it appear that the President is causing all this to happen. If you go to Pelosi’s Web Site you will see a graphic depicting the price of oil difference since President Bush took office. The real fact is the price made that jump only after Pelosi became Speaker of the house and Obama started running for President, talking about taxing the oil company’s profits, taking away exploration and development subsidies, which would delay drilling and increase our dependency on the foreign oil market, and raising the capital-gains taxes.
Of course Speculators took it to mean that the prices would rise dramatically and started buying which drove the per barrel price up. Big users such as, airlines, cruise and merchant marine lines, and other countries started buying to lock in the low price before the price went up as well. All this put undue pressure on the oil suppliers which is why we are in this mess of almost $5 per gallon gas.
When the President lifted the Presidential ban, barrel prices dropped $9 the first day and are still going lower. This one action equated to about $.20 lower in our gas prices in SC.
If the Bush tax cuts were announced to be extended you would see the price of oil barrels drop dramatically as well.
In contrast to Clyburn, My Congressman Henry E. Brown, Jr. (SC), long-time supporter of offshore exploration and the Representative of more than 75% of the coast of South Carolina, joined fellow House Republicans at a press conference to unveil their American Energy Act. After the event, Brown issued the following statement:
“Over the past months, I have heard an outcry from my coastal constituents as recreational and commercial fishermen, shrimpers and tour boat operators are being hurt with every increase in the price of diesel fuel. A large number of visitors that come to our beaches and historic sites travel by automobile. The daily commute of our residents is growing more expensive. Gas prices have become unaffordable and we must move to increase environmentally responsible domestic energy production”.
“We can no longer hope that the problem will go away. Our country is blessed with abundant resources. We must view our energy resources as an asset not as a liability. We must take action immediately and vote on this legislation to allow more domestic energy to be produced by Americans, for Americans.”
Isn’t it funny that all the South Carolina Republicans and one Democrat Congressmen, our two Senators, hear their constituents and the country say DRILL NOW, any where, and only James Clyburn (D-SC) is hearing his constituents and the country saying DON’T drill the OCS AT ALL just tax the oil companies.
Clyburn’s 6th District has a population of 668,670, 60% of them are minority, with a medium income of $28,967. I don’t no for sure but I bet at least 50% his constituents are receiving government checks for their “daily bread”. These people must be screaming about not only the gas prices, but also the price of food. So the poorest part of South Carolina is taking the brunt of Clyburn’s decision not to drill for oil and being held Hostage and they are letting him get away with it.
Here’s is a man who is pulling in a salary of $165,700, telling people making $29,000, I know what’s best for you and by the way, why don’t you go to the one of the non-profit offices that I support with government money, and collect your part of the “pie”. Sounds like “BOSS HOSS”. But really he is only Pelosi’s whipping boy doing and saying what she tells him to do.
You tell me who is doing what to whom? Follow the money is the answer to that question: Democrats are split on a plan by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV., aimed at protecting them, the Democrats, not us, in the face of controversial oil drilling proposals.
A number of Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats, have sided with environmental groups, (one of the biggest contributors to the Democrats,) against Reid's plan to allow additional offshore areas to be opened to oil exploration and drilling. Reid had hoped the proposal would insulate Senate Democratic Party candidates from public anger over rising gas prices, The Hill, a Washington newspaper, reported Tuesday. (At least they know we are mad but to bad it’s all about them, not us.)
On Clyburn’s Web Site he uses a Dr. Patrick Moore, the former director of Greenpeace, as his source, for him not wanting to drill. Clyburn wants to use food and plants to produce Bio-fuel so we can become oil independent by 2020. The problem Bio-fuel cost more to produce and you need twice as much because of the BTU ratio and food crops are seasonal and there is not enough land to grow the crop source we need. Bio-fuel has a major impact on the price of food not only because of the demand for it but in getting it to market.
As I said on a previous BLOG post “Another Hoax, Energy Independence” oil, petroleum, is use in just about everything see and touch and even ware, the same way corn is used in just about everything we eat and drink. Even the nuclear power raw material, uranium, is imported from at least seven other countries. We will always have a foreign dependence on oil, ethanol, and uranium because the world’s growth rate will be between 7% and 27% by the year 2050. We better start using the word “interdependency” when we talk about energy. Independence only allows the Democrats a CYA, by pushing dates way out so you will forget about any real near term solutions.
Clyburn is just playing politics and keeping us more dependent on the 70% foreign oil we get currently and making us HOSTAGES for ever. It all boils down to the Democrats would rather let the Nation and its’ citizens go to HELL than to lose the elections. We should explore, drill, and refine oil, mine our coal any where and any way we can, and continue to import, while finding or developing alternative energy sources. We should utilize nuclear energy to its’ fullest and yes import the uranium. We should not explore or depend on fuel sources, such as seasonal crops, which put out country’s food source at risk. It will be a big waste of time and money.
Now these two so called Lawmakers had the gall to walk out of the Capital and turn out the lights and CSPAN, go on vacation for 5 weeks, while the Republicans were still debating the oil issue on the floor. It is our money that pays for that building and we don’t want a Socialistic Dictator telling us what to do. In a Democracy we tell them what we want and 76% of us want to Drill Now, Pay Less and keep drilling, mining and nuking, until there are better solutions available.
It is time to vote the Socialistic big Government BUMS OUT of office. A blockade on the Capital building is needed, to not let them back in after their August recess. Like we would notice any difference.