Not sure I agree with anything you said without a lot of research to check your facts. One thing is certain - I disagree with your last paragraph. While I dont put a whole lot of faith in politicians I put less in the big oil companies. The profits these guys are reporting while single handedly wrecking the economy are disgraceful. Lets not jail them - lets prosecute them for raping our economy.
Thats just my opinion. Now can we go back to discussing something less depressing?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:52 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Oil thoughts
Since we are sitting on a 600 year supply of oil in the US, I wonder why we are still looking at biofuels as a source for anything? We know how to pump oil out of the ground, we are now equipped to do just that.
Canada is 99.9% unexplored. The US is 98% unexplored. There may be a 60 year supply just in ANWR.
Less than 1% of the US population can find ANWR on a map. Fewer know that ANWR is an acronym.
A smaller number will ever see it. None of the West coast waters has been explored, None of the East coast waters have been explored. The gulf is only partially explored and the last test well indicates up to 15 billion barrels may be available at just that one dome. The Chinese are drilling in the gulf. They are not stupid, and they don't need any permission from us to drill. What sane person would suggest that we take off in a new direction looking for an oil substitute?
All of the alliterative energy sources in our future, are just pie in the sky when it comes to replacing oil.
If all of the future hopes from 10 years ago had been put on line, they still wouldn't add up to 1% of the picture. Its going to be oil for the next 30 years at least, so we need to quit wishing in one hand and listening to the tree huggers, and start passing out exploration permits, and open all government owned lands for exploration. The permit for building a new refinery should cost $100.00, and take a week to process. There should be no permit required for exploration, with the land owners permission. Then start cutting down the amount of oil that can be imported each year until it is down to zero from the Moslem controlled sources. Just one super tanker sunk in the strait of Hormuz and the whole of the earth will be in deep dodo in less than 2 weeks. And with a real shortage, and the armed forces getting first call you won't have to worry about high prices, there won't be any oil for recreational use at all.
And then suggest that we make fuel out of feed grains, or any kind of food? The number of independent truckers on the road is dropping daily. Prices for everything will continue to climb. If there is no additional payment for fuel the private truck owners cannot make a dime with fuel over $4.00 a gallon. So their rigs are parked now.
Let the free market determine how much alcohol is used in motor fuels. No price supports for corn for ethanol, ever, period. All food stuffs, meat and poultry, many plastics, and motor fuels go up because of the use of ethanol in fuels. The energy available in each gallon goes down when ethanol is added. It takes more energy to make a gallon than is in each gallon. Fuel milage goes down with ethanol. With pure ethanol look for 30% less power, lower milage and more cost.
We should be importing oil only from sources we can trust. Mexico and Canada are two of those.
Sending cash to the Mideast to be used against us is insane.
Two of the choices for president want to tax the oil companies for windfall profits. This is shear genius, in the Wile E. Coyote sense of the term. Where do we suppose that oil companies, or any company get their profits? And what will these companies do to make up for profits lost to the imbeciles in our Government?
Why $6.00 a gallon fuel will cover that my friends. That will be $10.00 a gallon for low lead aviation fuel just for starters.
But that just my opinion, and I could be wrong.
Lynn E. Hanover