ouch! anyone else's wallet in pain?

[TexasWSP]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Jon--dude may be right, but, the damage to the environment is so destructive that it would NOT be worth to drill this oil up. Yes, $4 a gallon. Should we be leaving a Carbon footprint that large when something other fuel source is on the cusp of discovery? I would rather make it "Mother Necessity of Invention"--and guess what, to be competitive, I think the US brain power is intelligent enough to make it a necessity to change how we all, globally use fuel...

Not saying dude is wrong, but I disagree with his tactic. I don't want any more platforms off California's coast... And you definitely won't get them off Washington state's coast--too many Greenpeace/ELF lunatics...

But see......a lot of it isn't. Natural gas, for example, is a clean burning energy and you don't have to completely destroy the environment to get it. The amount of regulatory measures and environmental checks required to even begin drilling a well are incredibly high. Where you used to have to drill a new well every time you wanted to explore in a new location, I can drill one well and explore deposits in tons of areas thanks to horizontal drilling.

Right now, it is worth it in my opinion. The development of alternative fuels is in its infancy, despite the fact that you hear daily about growing numbers of available biofuels, hybrids, etc. To me, we should drill the oil, have us all benefit from it, and then scale it back when alternatives reach a level of usability similar to gasoline. They just aren't there yet. Gas has a very high energy density and is easy to handle at room temperature and pressure, so it presents a very formidable challenge to alternatives at this point, especially in the transportation sector. Take corn for example. If every single acre of corn in our country was used exclusively for ethanol production you would replace less than a quarter of the gasoline used today. The "cleanliness" of it is only slightly less than gasoline anyways.

Something has to be done here, I'll give you that. I was recently talking to a very high up oil executive...everyone here would know the name....and the conversation was scary. He claimed that unless we do something about the energy problem in our country - develop new ones and allow the old ones to thrive for the time being - our economy will be around that of a third world country in the next two to three decades. I'm not saying that it's true, but it is definitely eye opening.