« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

‘Drill, Fidel, Drill!’ Open Thread

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  January 19th, 2012 at 06:05 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The drilling rig Scarabeo 9, visible in the distance. Image taken from the northern coast of Cuba near Havana. Drilling operations are expected to commence within a week.

Fact #1: In U.S. waters, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico is off-limits for drilling. The only way to legally drill for oil within 125 miles of the Florida coast is to drill in Cuban waters, which reach within 45 miles of Key West.

The Florida Straits, showing the locations of Havana, Cuba and Key West, FL. Photo credit Wikipedia.

Fact #2: In 2011, the average price of gasoline was the highest of any year in history, including 2008 when the price spiked above $4.00 per gallon.

Open thread, sucker.

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • izoneguy

    If that well spoiled the beaches in Key West

    • jakeofalltrades

      Green on the outside, red on the inside.

      • acat

        (null)

    • johnt

      I assure you, allowing for a bit of license, that with some latitude and a barrage of media bombast & with some pithy comments from the Chief Mouse in the WH [ blather about the birds & bees, etc] that in short order the oil rigs would be in the lobby of the Fountinbleau, a foot short of the Ladies room, & quite near the reception desk.
      But they have to be Cuban. We will have to drill in the North Pole, if at all. How Are you for wax candles?

  • Tbone

    wouldn’t hate us.

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      “Was” should be “were”. Subjunctive mood.

      • jakeofalltrades

        heh heh heh

      • Tbone

        But you got it right.

        • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

          @

          • jakeofalltrades

            Boiled down: you called Obama a communist, but you made it funny.

          • edintexas

            NT

  • runner12

    People are angry in my state about this. It would have brought tons of jobs to my energy producing state.

    But do the environmentalists care about people getting jobs and feeding their families? Heck no! They care more about caribou herds and small, inconsequential little fish.

    Jet-setting around the globe burning up more fuel and increasing your carbon footprint? Perfectly acceptable to Hollyweird. Building a pipeline or rather upgrading the one that already exists? Complete and utter tragedy.

    What hypocrites.

    • kattail

      think much of the human race.

      It’s akin to boycotting KFC because they buy chickens from farmers that aren’t free range or are treated cruelly. I pointed out to the teenager who provided it to me that people work at those farms/fast-food establishments rely on wages to put a roof over their head, feed their families and possibly purchase health insurance. I explained that in no means is the welfare of a chicken more important than the welfare of a human.

      This pipeline in its original route had already undergone the rigorous Environmental Impact review and took years of research and work. All it took was one governor pushing for a new route. It’s akin to the Alaska pipeline that many spouted would hurt Alaska, to which it appears has permanently assured land is set aside to which the environment has benefited.

      This is about votes. Obama knows he needs the greenies to get re-elected. So what if this means upsetting the unions. He can always buy them off. Funny how just over a week ago he made those bogus appointments to the NLRB.

      • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

        So we should never have too many of them.

      • runner12

        Obummer is in deep trouble and he needs his Lefty base behind him, even if it means throwing the unions under the bus. He probably figures that the unions will still vote for him as they are owned by the Dems.

        Sad.

        • edintexas

          Those unions which aren’t directly involved in construction are toeing the party line about Keystone. And that is most of the unions, and the bigger contributors too. So the Laborer’s Union is ticked off, but SEIU, CWA, etc. all back the decision.

    • bobvious

      You are right to be concerned about jobs. But the above post was about drilling and the price of gas.

      About the above Fact #1. It doesn’t matter where oil is extracted, it goes into a big pool called the Market. Any new oil extraction goes into the Market, around the world. It doesn’t matter where you drill. Jobs are something else. In American waters, the drilling would create jobs. So, although the addition from a well near Florida would not affect the market much, there would be jobs created for Americans. We like this!

      About Fact #2 above. Gas is just like oil, it goes into a big pool called the Market. It has a market price. Drilling around Florida will not really bump the market price. The world craves gasoline, just like we do. So the price goes up and down (lately up!). Because of world demand, our country is now a gasoline exporter. This means our refineries have more capacity than the domestic market. We must make the creation of new refineries easier, because we already extract/buy more oil than we need. So, although the oil extracted from our lands may belong to the Market, the jobs belong to us. Surely Jindal can get behind this

      • jakeofalltrades

        if for no other reason than it being more fuel efficient to pump it than ship it across the oceans.

        • acat

          Gas prices show a relatively strong correlation to oil prices, as just about every other cost in turning dino-juice into go-juice is pretty fixed, so .. anything that lowers the price of light sweet crude helps.

          Supply and demand apply.

          It’s deeply sub-optimal for the U.S., but there’s no reason to believe gas prices will go up that I can see.

          Mew

  • neukm

    Manzullo or Kinzinger? I’m leaning to Manzullo, as I see Heritage Action gives him an 83 % to Kinzinger”s 60 percent?

  • johnnyd

    not give up on the pipeline. They responded with a link to send Obama a petition. Please take the time to fill it out.

    http://www.buildkxlnow.org

    • Juggernaut

      will read our emails for challenging Obama to butch up and say no to enviro-facist kooks.