The U.S. House passed an energy bill late Tuesday that would allow offshore drilling and provide for intensified development of alternative energy sources. We hope it becomes part of the basis for a House-Senate conference committee that can hammer out a final compromise. The bipartisan compromise crafted by the so-called Gang of 20 (10 Republicans and 10 Democrats) offers a vehicle for progress. In particular, it would give states incentive to allow drilling by sharing revenue from the leases. The New Energy Reform Act of 2008 also calls for $84 billion to move cars and trucks to fuels other than gasoline and diesel. It would exclude tax credits for oil companies to pay for the plan. Embrace productive compromise. Enact a new, comprehensive energy policy, as the Senate group proposes.
— Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal editorial
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts have heard the public’s chants to “drill now,” but remain deaf to Americans’ seriousness about that call. Expect them to couch resistance to their proposals as a Republican effort to shield Big Oil from increased taxes and to block advancement of alternative energy initiatives. The Pelosi and Senate bills should be exposed for what they are: mere political artifices meticulously designed to chink partisan opposition while denying what Americans repeatedly have said they want — to tap deeper the country’s own supply of oil.
— The News Virginian, Waynesboro, Va., editorial
10 Comments
Putting out incentives to utilize compressed natural gas (CNG) should be a huge priority. The U.S. has trillions of cubic feet of the stuff and conversion would be much less financially painless for the average consumer than a more radical change over of energy design.
The repub. obstructionist will kill the bill. They won’t let anything hurt their oil buddies.
Did you ever see a compromise or a contract that wasn’t “hammered out”?
Did you ever wish writers would come up with a fresher verb?
Dennis
Regular, my hubby agrees with you on the natural gas issue. I don’t know very much about that. Guess I need to do some reading. Do you have recommendations for where someone might start? Something easy to get me going before I dive into more details? Not that I imagine me knowing something will have any affect on what happens, just seems like something I should know more about. Are we currently exploring using natural gas where we use petroleum? Is this not being discussed widely because I’m not the only ill informed person?
The bill is a joke. It does nothing to allow more drilling now. Pelosi knows that all these green groups will keep filing lawsuits to not let it happen. If Pelosi was serious about it she would have added something to the bill that would bypass the hundreds of lawsuits.
Linda, I’ll add a bit from my perspective on the CNG bit.
First, Regular’s point is well made from the perspective of domestic supplies of natural gas; the U.S. does have trillions of cubic feet in “proven reserves”. Thus, shorthanding, keeping dollars home.
Second, Regular points out the probable costs of conversion to CNG is likely to be less expensive than that for other forms of energy. I believe that is primarily referring to conversion of vehicles to use CNG as a fuel, and the infrastructure necessary to supply the same. Currently, there is nothing of which I am aware that shows contra to that. Other types of conversions would be to natural gas vice coal for powering the turbines in electrical power generating plants.
The use of CNG vs. gasoline or diesel fuel has been explored in limited ways over the past few decades, becoming more popular in times of high petroleum prices and/or scarcity.
I would state my further thought that any conversion to CNG from the use of other carbon based fuels should be understood to be an intermediate step, with further R&D done to get away from oil, gasoline, CNG, et al, as primary sources of fuel for energy generation and vehicle propulsion.
All you people who are screaming “Drill baby Drill” are very misinformed on how much oil we have, how much we use, how much we can produce, how long it will take to actually help the supply, and ultimately, where the oil will be sold! It would be logical for Americans to think the oil produced in this country is used only in this country, but logic does not prevail in the case of oil. We use far more oil than we produce, so even if we drilled everywhere possible, we can only supply a fraction of our needs. So do us all a favor, and start thinking long term, because oil as a source of energy for our transportation industry is a losing proposition. We have to wean the transportation industry off oil, ASAP! Most of us depend on mobility to enhance our lives, and reducing the miles we drive (conservation) is not something that should even be discussed. What should be discussed is finding a cheap, clean, abundant source of energy for our transportation needs. We should all expect that our government, scientists, and private industry should be able to find that, be unfortunately, our government is so gridlocked and in bed with big oil, I do not believe we will see this switch from oil for decades. In the meantime, we will all experience a reduced quality of life because of the total lack of leadership by our representatives to act on this issue. It is unbelievable to me that many in Congress have actually stated publicly that the only reason there is a will in Congress to act on the energy issue now is because the price of gas has risen so high that the public has started screaming for something to be done. In other words, many actually believe that if the price of oil was still only $2 a gallon, the public wouldn’t support finding cheap, abundant, clean energy options for our transportation needs! What about our national security? What about the environment? Oil is bad on both counts. Is there anybody out there in the public that wouldn’t choose a cleaner, abundant option if we knew it would get us off foreign oil? Who needs to worry about the supplies in the Middle East if we don’t need their oil? If countries didn’t need their oil, there would not be much money to be siphoned to the radicals who commit terrorist acts for political purposes. There wouldn’t be as many terrorists because the U.S. and other countries would not be meddling in the internal affairs of Middle Eastern countries. The only reason we have done that for the past 50-60 years is because of oil, PERIOD!
DRILL IN DETROIT! NOW!
DRILL IN DETROIT! NOW!
DRILL IN DETROIT! NOW!
‘Drilling in Detroit ‘
Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/solutions/cleaner_cars_pickups_and_suvs/drilling-in-detroit.html
dtimmons, someone has never heard of paragraphs. I agree with some of what you are saying, we DO have to think long term. At the same time, we haven’t reached the point where we can give up our addiction to oil so we should be chasing oil as much as we should be chasing independence from oil.
I hope to help you in the public. The important news to watch is anything to do with the public. Energy is linked together in the public.