“Drill Baby Drill!”
With a few exceptions, the media fails to put our debates over drilling in the context of our oil usage.
According to official DOE statistics, the US consumes 7 billion barrels per year (that’s 20 million barrels a day). (Total global oil consumption is 30 billion barrels per year.)
John McCain recently noted:
We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production,” said McCain. “And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.”
You really can’t understand the significance of 21 billion without considering the 7 billion gallons we use each year. Why don’t news sources mention that very basic basic context?
In checking around, McCain’s figures of 21 billion are certainly an underestimate of actual domestic oil reserves. But even if you assume 10 times the amount (for which few would be willing to argue), we’re talking about energy independence for at best the next few decades.
It’s not a solution for our own lifetime much less our children’s lifetime (even ignoring climate change and other impacts of oil.) 30 years is not a long time for a major shift in energy sources.
A sincere “all of the above” approach is a reasonable approach to weaning ourselves off a dwindling resource. But “drill baby drill” does not give me confidence that the reality of the situation is being acknowledged or taken seriously; we’ll end up with a “one of the above” stopgap measure that helps for an election cycle or two but leaves us even worse off.
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It might not be a long term solution, but I don’t think that’s the point. I can’t see us suddenly switching from oil to other forms of fuel any time soon. I’m sure we have the infrastructure and the economic forces in place to fund and make good on any oil we can drill. I’m democrat and am in favor of the drilling as if for the next 2 decades it means we don’t need to be concerned with going over seas to maintain our way of life, then perhaps in the next 2 decades rather then focusing on making sure we can continue to get oil from over sea’s we can focus on making sure we don’t need oil at all.
By Todd on 09.11.08 7:55 am
Todd raises a good point.
It’s not drilling that I object to, it’s the failure to try to pursue an “all of the above” energy policy.
“Drill baby drill” has caught on as a slogan in a way that “all of the above” hasn’t, which suggests to me that the voters are eager for quick, easy solutions and that politicians are more than willing to pander to them.
Despite lots of drilling in the past 30 years, we’ve made breathtakingly little progress in energy solutions for our grandchildren.
The markets themselves and our companies’ decision making seem broken… consider how far US automakers are behind Tokyo in hybrid engine technology for exmaple.
The next 30 users will be the same if we pander to voters with “drill baby drill” vs. “all of the above”.
By Phillip Bogle on 09.11.08 8:18 pm
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