Yeah, it’s a week old, but I was ‘indisposed’ at the time. Anyway, I was just happy to read about it.
House Votes to End Offshore Drilling Ban
The House voted Thursday to end a quarter-century offshore drilling ban and allow energy companies to tap natural gas and oil beneath waters from New England to Alaska.
Opponents of the federal ban argued that the nation needed to move closer to energy independence and insisted the gas and oil could be taken without threatening the environment and coastal beaches. They said a state choosing to keep the moratorium could do so.
The measure was approved 232-187.
The ‘opponents’ (aka: Democrats and their Green Weenie Bretheren) haven’t a clue as to the meaning of the word “Independence”, otherwise they would know that if supply our own oil, buying none from any other country, we become only “Dependent” upon ourselves.
Their idea of “Independent” talks some gobbly-gook about non-fossil fuels and how cars should run on sunshine and fairy dust.
I might go along with that if they’d include cute little baby mice, but I’m sure that we’d then get into arguing about how to refine them; I say boiling, but I’m sure they’d rather just squeeze it out (that is far too slow for my tastes).
Anyway, call your Senators and ask them if they know what the House did last week and why it is taking so long for them to get around to copying them!
Unfortunately, AK, the GOP is going to lead us down the garden path on this one. The offshore drillng deal won’t get by the Senate, since RINOs will vote against it to improve their greenie creds.
The GOP is trying to get greenie creds by going whole hog (as in PORK) for Ethanol and Biodiesel, both fuels that require huge amounts of energy to process the biotic ingredients of into a usable motor fuel.
I haven’t seen the engineering on Biodiesel, but I have seen it for Ethanol. Ethanol is energy negative, in that it requires MORE energy to make than you get from it by burning it in the most efficient engine ever designed.
While we dick around with something stupid like Ethanol, which is basically just a new form of Federal subsidy for farmers, the Chinese, real rivals for superpower status, are going to be energy-sated in just 3 to 5 years, thanks to their deal with Russia for THE ENTIRE OUTPUT of the Sahkalin Island natural gas field.
This gasfield, when Royal Dutch Shell brings it online in 3 years or so, will be capable of supplying ALL THE NATURAL GAS NEEDS KNOWN IN THE WORLD TODAY FOR 40 YEARS. That is the PROVEN reserve of the field, and the South Koreans have built the Russians a monster 27-well drill rig to tap that gas, just installed it last week, and are finishing the gas separation and handling plant ashore, and the sea terminal for the LNG tankers is about done as well.
The Chinese bought it all. I don’t know if we even bid on any of the gas, but we aren’t getting any of it. This hurts when I consider that MY natural gas bill has tripled in 5 years, while I’m using far less of the fuel.
With LNG, of course, the Red Chinese can clean-power their industry, generate billions of megawatts of power and run all their transport diesel engines, not to mention cooking and heating with it. They are now set up for everything but automobile fuel, and they will get that from the oil under the Black Sea, also under the hegemony of the Russians.
See the picture here?
All that is necessary for eventual Commie domination of the world is for Russia and China to get back together politically in some form of New Communism acceptable to both. If they’ve already accomplished it economically, China by energy-boosting itself into a super-power and Russia by having the huge petrodollars to spend, what’s left? Just some minor ideology to iron out to create the next Red Menace. Vladimir Putin, of course, wants to stick around and be the first Commissar in Russia.
Europe could buy off on New Communism in a heartbeat, since it will be such a small step from the Socialism that they have bought into already, then the US and any allies left just get starved into submission.
War would be un-necessary.
It would be just business.
We sure do love this global economy, don’t we?
As a side note, this huge petro-deal is why I’m not too worried about the Norks. All this gasfield equipment is being built in South Korea and installed by Japanese engineers, and the Chinese won’t jeopardize the delivery schedules by allowing the Deranged Leader to attack either nation. Were he to get too uppitty, I’m sure he would go away in a flash, and it would be a small flash from a pistol at close range, since I expect that the PLA has fully infiltrated the Nork Army by now.