I am not at all opposed to offshore drilling. I _am_ opposed to continue to give the rights for that drilling to companies that already have millions of unexplored miles of licenced area.
Drink the milk you have before you ask for more. Don't hoard. Once you have used up what you have, give it back, and we will give you more. I feel even less inclined to allow drilling in the ANWAR. Not for environmental reasons (although I _do_ expect the smallest footprint science can provide), but because that oil is our "break glass in case of emergency" oil reserve. If the worldwide oil situation every gets _really_ bad, I want to have that supply in out back pocket, to give us a last chance to move to something else. I don't want that spent to lower our gas prices by 8 cents a gallon. On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > So, paying for smoking cessation now so we see a payoff in the future is > > good. But drilling offshore now so we see a payoff in the future is bad. > I > > don't get it. > > > > It's an issue of opportunity cost. Money put into energy conservation > has a greater return than money put into oil exploration. Money put > into renewable energy sources has a greater return than money put into > non-renewable energy sources. If something goes wrong with off shore > drilling, the consequences really blow goats. If something goes wrong > with switching from incandescent bulbs to compact florescent, well, > I'm not entirely sure how that goes wrong honestly. But I think it > would not be as bad as an oil spill. > > I'm not against oil exploration, honestly. As the worldwide supplies > diminish and the larger economies modernize (India, China, etc) oil > stands to be an increasingly valuable commodity. The problem I had > with offshore drilling as proposed is that it was pimped as a solution > to our energy needs and that's just stupid. To the extent that we can > do safe exploration in areas that aren't overly threatened, I think > oil exploration is a worthwhile private endeavor. And it likely holds > some future payoff for the country. It just isn't a solution to the > energy problems our country faces either in the short term or the long > term. We need to become an exporter rather than importer though before > it becomes a useful tool. > > As for smoking cessation, the money will be spent now or later. Now, > hopefully it goes to getting people to quit. If they don't quit, then > the money comes out later in terms of health care costs and lost > productivity. Since health care continues to get more expensive and > the productivity of the American worker has been steadily improving it > would seem to make sense to try and spend the money now and defer > future costs and increase future productivity gains. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:287414 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
