headline on Comcast.net said "Bush Blames Congress on Gas Prices"

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-gener...30/Bush.Energy/

anyway.... putting politics aside....

Is oil that important that we should be killing every other living thing that is in the way, or should we respect certain areas (like we are attempting to do now)?

I don't know much about it..... seems like drilling for oil (if done properly) would only disturb a small amount of space in a vast ocean....?....of course one big **** up and you kill a zillion things in the ocean....

I would not be for driving over top baby animals to set up drills every 20 yards in the national parks and forests.....

 

My personal opinion about it is drill away! Some of the newer drilling technologies allow for very minimal surface disturbance, with the ability to pressurize underground wells and force the oil up and out of a pipe that is no bigger than your forearm (okay, maybe not YOUR forearm, but a real man's forearm).

The open pit mining and oil extraction processes can do a lot worse damage in terms of clearing forests, killing animals, and destroying nearly everything in site.

Just keep going with the 4 trees planted for every 1 cut down.

 

Market demand will eventually dictate what happens...not politicians or tree huggers.

 

Our stupid energy policies over the 30 or so years have put us in this spot. The problem has been with both republicants and democraps so both parties are to blame in many ways. There's plenty of oil to be had safely and we should go after it.

 

Drill anywhere. Especially in Canada's artic circle. Damn canucks.....

 

Screw you, I'm keeping our oil, jerkbag. You punks are lucky we export the oil to you for refining, only so you can sell it back to us with ridiculous mark-ups.

There's no reason we can't do our own refining so once we start to, you'll have to let me know how well your Chevy Volt is performing.

 

I think we should do whatever it takes to maintain the drilling for oil to last until I'm ready to retire. The problem is that if we drill NOW NOW NOW, then we may run out...likewise, if we don't drill for anything, then I'm out of a job.

 

With properly maintained well/drill sites and traffic restricted to agreed on areas, you can easily work around wildlife and not really disturb the natural habitat on land.

Dad had to carry a bangstick (shotgun shell on a stick) last year because they had grizzlies in the valley where he was drilling. The animals really couldn't care less so you're just left with not ruining the flora of the area and landscape. That's more difficult (I've seen what they've done in Argentina and it's not pretty) in areas where the flora is very weak or requires years and years to grow and thrive (ie, far north and/or barren/taiga areas).

Offshore, no problem. They can contain spills very well these days and really, they've had so much practice that it should be a joke to keep the area fairly clean. The fines for having a spill are massive so the companies go to great lengths to keep it from happening (even on land, where 5 gallons on the ground requires a report to the EPA).

 

You are kidding right. The "little" accident we had in the SF Bay recently just goes to show you any major oil spill will cause devastating damage.

 

That's a container ship spill, not an oil rig spill. Two different problems with different ways of causing and preventing spills.

My point was that they're very good at preventing spills from even happening. If a spill happens, it will always be messy. The key is to keep the spill from happening, period.