Drilling

It seems to me (therefore, of course, it must be true) the issue of drilling ought to be a non-starter. But of course it's not. We're all suffering under the oppression of gas prices approaching where they were in Europe a decade or two ago, and therefore we have to panic.
Now, I have to say that I don't like high gas prices (that's petrol, I mean): of course I don't: I have to fill the car on a regular basis.
But at the same time, I recognise that while gas prices have increased at a huge, nay, disastrously high rate, nonetheless, the cost of filling an SUV once a week is still under $5000 a year. So when I read of SUV owners panicking and selling their guzzlers for $30,000 below what their worth was a few months prior, I think that the guzzler-owners are making a bad decision. That lost worth is six years worth of gas!

Likewise, it seems to me, that the idea that we should open up more off-shore drilling is deeply flawed. First, of course, I think that it would be bad for an already beaten, bloodied and bewildered environment. Second, there are huge swaths of leases that can be drilled on now, which the oil companies are holding back --- I guess until the price of oil is high enough to make it really worth it. Why should we expect that if we give Exxon, Shell, etc a bunch more land that they will actually drill on it, when they have thousands (many thousands) of acres of leases to exploit already? If we give them another few hundreds of thousands of acres, all we do is give them the right to speculate more about the worth of the leases!

Unfortunately, this, true as it may be (and I think that there is more than a mere morsel of truth there), it's unpalatable to the public. They want gas prices to go down damnit and therefore we have to open up the beaches to oil spills.

Perhaps there could be some way of only giving new leases to companies that don't hold under-utilized leases already --- or to get a new acre of lease, if they're not currently using their leases, they could be required to swap out ten acres of unused leases for a new acre of lease. After all, if they're not using the old leases, it must be because they are worth much less than the new leases they're begging for, right?

There are lots of problems facing the US and the world relating to the price of gas, of oil and other energy sources: and even more problems arising from our current usage of fossil fuels and their impact on the environment. More drilling, even if it were a part of the answer, is not the best part. Any NASCAR driver could tell the US consumer that they'd save more on their gas costs by pumping up their tires than by passing the offshore drilling legislation. And if we had imposed higher fuel standards back a generation ago, when they were first proposed, we might be getting twice as many miles to the gallon now. Just imagine if all cars had electic-assisted brakes which helped charge a battery. Just the energy saved by reclaiming some of the energy wasted in braking..... But no, we pandered to the US auto industry.

Somewhat rambling, I know. I just don't have the energy to tidy up the thoughts.

Yours, fuming,
N.