Re: Shocking New Video: Why McCain Wants to Drill Up Our Tourist Beaches

"Don Homuth" <dhomuthoneatcomcast.net@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:oohe94dv743ku09548v1dhdoh5p3rj8dsq@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 12:54:47 -0500, "the Moderator"
> <sparky@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Don Homuth" <dhomuthoneatcomcast.net@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>news:03ge945pq8utrnmj10jn9fp5deluchob9r@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>> Just at the moment, the awlbidniss has drilling access to something
>>> like 80% of all the offshore areas that are considered good prospects.
>>> It hasn't yet chosen to drill in all the places that it Could drill.
>>> When/if it implements drilling in those locations, we can discuss what
>>> other locations might someday be appropriate to open.
>>
>>Cite please.
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/21/

Link seems to be broken.

> ...Not all of America's coastal waters are closed to drilling.
>
> Most of the country's estimated offshore reserves - about 75 percent -
> lie in areas that have been drilled for years or are being opened for
> exploration. Roughly 48 percent of the nation's estimated reserves, or
> 41 billion barrels, lie beneath the western and central Gulf of
> Mexico, where oil companies armed with new drilling technology are
> pu****ng into ever deeper water. Another 27 percent of the estimated
> reserves, or 23.6 billion barrels, are believed to lie off the north
> coast of Alaska, where the federal government sold oil exploration
> leases this spring, despite fears that the work would hurt the polar
> bear population....

Can I assume you were including the deep water reserves in your
estimation? 
I am not an expert on deep water drilling, but it is not in wide spread 
usage do to the additional challenges and shortage of equipment?  New
leases 
sold this year in Alaska are a good start.

> And for some added information:
>
> ...Congress imposed a moratorium on new offshore wells along much of
> the country's coastline in 1982, and President George H. W. Bush added
> a presidential moratorium in 1990. But President George W. Bush lifted
> that moratorium early last week as part of a concerted Republican push
> on drilling. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called
> for lifting the congressional moratorium as well.
>
> Even if that happens, it probably wouldn't create a stampede to
> California's coast.
>
> Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains opposed to expanded offshore
> drilling, saying the country should focus instead on weaning itself
> off oil....

I think that was my point.  The President lifted the ban and Congress took
a 
six week vacation rather than vote on the issue.