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

Bill Shatzer wrote:

> But iffen it's gonna be a dry hole, why ever would they want to keep the

> lease?
> 
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/05/half-steps-on-drilling/

Obama continues to say - as recently as Monday in Lansing, Mich., for 
example - that more offshore drilling is a bad idea. But he also says he 
may be willing to accept expansion as part of a compromise package that 
includes other energy policies he favors.

Some such compromise may indeed be the only way to expand offshore 
drilling. But it depends on the other elements of the deal, since Obama 
is also pu****ng policies that could hurt energy production.

For example, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said "we 
can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. 
But" - and this is a big but - "we should start by telling the oil 
companies to drill on the 68 million acres [of federal land] they 
currently have access to but haven't touched."

The implication is that every acre of public land leased for oil or 
natural gas is a gusher in waiting - as productive as the Clampett 
family homestead in Bugtussle, Tenn. And that energy companies are 
somehow hoarding precious public resources by not covering every 
available acre with drilling platforms or surface wells.

Until those acres are drilled, the argument goes, no new lands should be 
open for leasing.

Yet as Marc Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum 
Association of Mountain States, explains it, acquiring a lease "is the 
first step in a long, expensive process that may lead to exploration 
activity."

How long? "If all goes well," he told us, "it might take four to six 
years to begin production." Since the vast majority of federal leases 
last 10 years, a company might enjoy four or five years of production 
before the lease expires.

Smith should know, as independents drill 90 percent of U.S. wells.

Delays can arise from a host of causes, including litigation, difficulty 
in obtaining permits, seasonal drilling bans to protect wildlife, and 
lack of existing pipelines or other transmission infrastructure.

Offshore producers face different obstacles. U.S. News & World Re****t 
says an offshore drilling rig costs $700 million to build. U.S. 
companies are competing with producers in Brazil, West Africa and South 
Asia for a limited supply of specialized equipment.

So it's simply not possible to drill every leased acre at once. The 
argument that existing leases should be exhausted before new ones are 
offered also implies that all leases are created equal, when of course 
they aren't. Companies will deploy their resources where they believe 
they can get the greatest returns. Official estimates say some 18 
billion barrels of oil not now available is beneath federal waters; 
potentially a 50-year supply of natural gas under federal lands remains 
off-limits, too.

Until the transition to renewable sources of energy is complete, those 
essential resources remain the lifeblood of our civilization. They can 
and should be developed responsibly.