Tue
Jul 1 2008
03:54 pm
Mission Accomplished
By: R. Neal

Katie at Knoxville Talks notes a new poll showing "more people now say expanding oil drilling and building new power plants is a bigger priority than energy conservation."

Topics:
Brian A.'s picture

No surprise

Submitted by Brian A. on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 5:37pm.

Countries must drill in more locations just to maintain current production levels.

Anyone trying to restrict that is fighting a rising tide.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

WhitesCreek's picture

We can't continue to use as

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 6:17pm.

We can't continue to use as much oil as we are at present.

With current technologies we could reduce gas consumption by over 40% with no reduction in miles driven. Why isn't that an option?

Big Oil doesn't want conservation and is willing to pay PR people and politicians to spout nonsense. There's no global warming, sea levels in the everglades haven't risen to the point that there is salt water covering formerly dry peat glades, and what's good for big oil is good for America.

Simple!

Brian A.'s picture

With current technologies we

Submitted by Brian A. on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 6:53pm.

With current technologies we could reduce gas consumption by over 40% with no reduction in miles driven. Why isn't that an option?

Any technological solutions will take years to bring into the marketplace. Meanwhile, consumption is growing in China, India, and oil exporting nations. That will keep supplies tight and should keep prices high. High prices bring overwhelming political pressure for more drilling.

I wish that we could continue to protect environmentally sensitive areas, but I think it's just a matter of time before oil wells rear their ugly heads offshore and in ANWAR.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Brian A.'s picture

Do the math

Submitted by Brian A. on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 9:59pm.

"Watchdog cuts oil supply forecast":

Global oil supplies will grow more slowly than expected over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted.

Spare capacity in the world system would fall to "minimal levels" in 2013 amid rising demand from developing countries and supply problems, it said.
. . .
While consumption would rise by an average of 1.6% a year - or 1.5 million bpd on average - until 2013, supply growth would drop to 1 million bpd from 2010.

It kind of felt to me like we are operating under "minimal" spare capacity now. If this report is correct (and the IEA's recent predictions have tended to be overly optimistic) how does the future look?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Konergy's picture

:)

Submitted by Konergy (not verified) on Tue, 2008/07/01 - 8:02pm.

Proves only that both AP polls and Knoxville Talks are frequented by morons who care nothing for their children's future.

bizgrrl's picture

Great issue for a

Submitted by bizgrrl on Wed, 2008/07/02 - 6:56am.

Great issue for a presidential election year. Which candidate is going to ask the American people to cut way back on their energy consumption? The American people were never asked to sacrifice anything for the Iraq War. Why should they now? Geez, this might be better than the abortion or gay rights issues.

Bird_dog's picture

this seems so simple...

Submitted by Bird_dog on Wed, 2008/07/02 - 8:21am.

let the price go up... Individuals will conserve immediately and alternative energy will become competitive.

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