Comments by 77shovel
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Posted on July 16 at 4:23 p.m.
Myth 1: Drill now pay less. I have no facts to prove it but, I believe, if Congress allowed drilling today, the price for a barrel of oil would immediately drop. Why? Part of the increase is due to speculation. As for what the EIA claims, that is totally bogus information. There is no way to tell how many reserves we have in many of those areas because they haven't been explored. Geological work has to be done to find out what is there. Even in the areas that were explored before the ban, there is no way to tell what reserves are there due to the advance in technology. The deepwater drilling we are doing now would not have been attempted 20 years ago due to technological restraints. We simply don't know what we have.
Myth 2: Yes, absolutely correct. China is not drilling off of our coast. They are attempting to work with Cuba to plan production off Cuba's coast. I have no idea if they could carry this off but if they can, by utilizing directional drilling, they could conceiveably reach reserves that we could otherwise produce. Not enough information is known at this time to prove any of that.
Myth 3: Of course there were spills caused by Katrina. I don't make it a habit of believing what any politician says. That being said, we do have to produce oil and gas to supply our needs. We hog energy in this country, it's obvious by the amount we use. Every technology is used and every attempt is made by reputable companies to reduce the chances of pollution. To be honest, I was really surprised by how well the platforms offshore fared in Katrina. Judging by some of the damage I personally saw, it's amazing they made it through the storm. We are only just now completing repairs related to Katrina. We are at a crises and we must use technological advances to meet future energy needs, but the simple fact is that those technologies are not advanced enough at this time to get us through. Just take a look at the ethanol fiasco. All it did was cost more at the pump due to subsidies and cause higher prices at the grocery store. That will be the case until we advance our technology. To me, nuclear power and others should all be part of the solution. But meanwhile we are allowing other countries to increase our dependency on them and we don't seem to give much thought to what happens to their people and environment while we hog most of the supply and keep our part of the resources off limits. Keep in mind that we only now have to deal with these prices while most of the rest of the world has been dealing with this for years.
Posted on July 16 at 3:54 p.m.
Don't care about liberal or conservative in this issue. We have these oil prices because of the policies we let Congress and our other leaders make over the past years along with our disregard for our resources. We are energy hogs in this country and we are used to cheap energy prices. Sadly, those days are over. We need to increase drilling and production in the short term, as in the next 25 years or so, get way more conservative in our consumption, and use technology to come up with new solutions and sources for our energy needs. It wont' be easy but I, like probably most of you have already started conserving by making less trips, etc. That slowdowin in demand is one way to immediately make some impact if we all practice it.
Posted on July 16 at 3:47 p.m.
You won't find in the comments I made that the federal government has no right to collect fees. Those leases belong to the taxpayers and they have every right to share in the production. My point is that the federal government does get a share of the proceeds and higher prices mean more money for them. That removes a lot of their motivation to reduce the price. I would like to know where you get your information about how cheap it is to lease lands offshore. Most lease sales generate anywhere from 1 million to in excess of 35 million dollars per block for a 10 year lease which, by the way, has no guarantees of ever producing one drop of oil or one btu of natural gas. All of the risk belongs to the companies and their shareholders. All I ask is that the federal government, meaning Congress, stop being so hypocritical about how the oil companies are making historical profits when the federal government is doing the same with none of the expense and none of the risk. We brought these prices on ourselves with their policies and short-sightedness.
Posted on July 16 at 12:50 p.m.
Yeauhhuh, prove the claims you are making.
Posted on July 16 at 12:39 p.m.
For redusmfan, what are you personally doing to make it better? What ideas do you have to make Natchez the kind of place that would make you proud? Probably easier to move away but stay obsessed with the town.
Posted on July 16 at 12:25 p.m.
While I agree with a small part of the comments written above, some of them are ludicrous. From someone that does work for "Big Oil" in the Gulf and has for over 25 years, it is amazing how little people know about the real world out there and just who it is that benefits the most. Why are oil prices so high? It is very simple. The entity that gains the most from high oil prices without investing anything into the process is the federal government. You never hear that mentioned. The federal government accumulates royalties on every bit of oil and gas produced in OCS waters (Outer Continental Shelf), as well as all federal lands. Higher oil prices means more revenue. The federal government bids leases in the Gulf for mostly 10 year periods. If not producing,they go back to the government. Those leases are carried out by blind auctions. Why? To maximize profits for the government. Again, no investment, plenty of cash. An example of invesment for you is a project that the company I work for is placing in deepwater now and that will produce next year. By the time they begin production, the cost of the project will have reached approximately 4.7 billion dollars. How much has the government invested for their share of royalties? I'll give you one guess. Zero. Who will tax all parts of the producing, refining, tranportation, and selling of these products. You guessed it, as well as taxing the thousands of employees and businesses that conduct operations in the Gulf. As for all these leases that companies are sitting on, I can't speak for land but in the offshore world, there has to be enough production on a lease to justify spending billions of dollars, or you can't afford to do it. Big Oil companies are businesses with shareholders and operate accordingly. As for refining capacity, it is at close to full capacity now. It will remain that way as long as it remains so expensive and there are so many barriers put up to build new ones. Yes, it will take 7-10 years to begin production if the government opens new areas, at least in most cases, but what happens to prices if we don't take steps. Who knows? I know of at least one case of a very large natural gas find in the Destin Dome area that is already discovered and would take a short time to produce if allowed. I don't suggest that drilling is all of the answer. Just needs to be a part while we develop new technologies and get much more efficeint with what we have. Also, I feel that we are spoiled babies crying over what we have allowed our government to do to us with resources that belong to US, not them.
Posted on November 14 at 3:25 p.m.
My main concern is the tendency of our elected officials to proceed with their agendas with no regard to the law. Examples are closed meetings, destroying a building suddenly due to it's hazardous condition for the last decade at least, restoring someone to a job when they are not eligible, etc. Please continue to keep the heat on, I believe the Democrat is the best it has been in my lifetime on bringing things to light.
Posted on November 10 at 3:51 a.m.
How about something novel and check for insurance? I happen to know from experience (twice in the past two years) that mandatory insurance doesn't mean squat around here. And the police department can't be bothered with it.
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Posted on July 18 at 8:49 a.m.
I can only speak for myself, not all southerners. I do have a large truck, a diesel. I have it due to it's towing capacity. I definitely don't feel the need to be bigger than anyone else or have a "feeling of power". I do leave the diesel at home more these days and take my motorcycle when possible. Sounds like you are the one still fighting the war yankee.
On Big cars not leaving lots