The fourth branch of government's spoiling for a fight. Or to drill for oil in your backyard. Maybe both.
Big Time Dick:
...oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. But we’re not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government.
It's interesting how the shock of the run up on oil prices, driven by speculation as much as demand, is allowing the Sith Lord to reasonably (according to the main$tream) suggest making the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico provinces of Exon-Mobil. Of course, Halliburton would be right there doing the drilling for them, and Blackwater would doubtless provide the security.
Unfortunately, some people can do the math. Daniel J. Weiss at the Center for American Progress:
...in the wake of these near record prices, oil industry allies are likely to haul out the lobbying equivalent of a Christmas fruit cake. They will once again push for more oil drilling off U.S. coastal areas and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These tired proposals have been rejected time and again because they would do little to reduce the price of oil in the short run or offset higher demand in the long run.
First off, additional offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, would not produce any oil for five to seven years. It would take at least 10 years to produce any oil from the Arctic. Such plans will not reduce the spot market price for oil. In fact, we already tried this and it failed to reduce prices. In December 2006 Congress and President Bush opened new areas to drilling off the Florida Coast when the price of oil was $62 per barrel. The price is one-third higher today.
Second, oil companies hold over 4,000 undeveloped leases in the western Gulf of Mexico. If oil companies want to increase oil supplies, it would be much faster to develop these leases rather than plod through the laborious process to get Congress to approve offshore drilling in currently protected places. Interestingly, the Big Five oil companies—BP plc, Chevron Corp., Conoco Phillips Inc., ExxonMobil Corp., and Royal Dutch Shell plc—have been spending a huge amount of their half trillion dollars in recent profits buying back their own stock. Perhaps they should invest some of their record profits in developing these leases before they greedily ask for access to more protected places.
Most importantly, the U.S. oil supply-demand balance is insurmountable. We have less than 2 percent of the world’s known reserves, yet use 25 percent of its oil. Even if we drilled off of every beach, and inside every national park, refuge, and forest, the United States does not possess enough oil to significantly offset our growing demand...
And damned sure not enough to mollify the speculators, who have seized upon the fact that we're in the final 50 years of fossil fuel with a vengance. And who are doing everything in their power to lobby to make sure alternative energy isn't developed.
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