President’s Statement On ANWR Drilling
Increasing our domestic energy supply will help lower gasoline prices and utility bills. We can and should produce more crude oil here at home in environmentally responsible ways. The most promising site for oil in America is a 2,000 acre site in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and thanks to technology, we can reach this energy with little impact on the land or wildlife. I applaud the Senate for passing legislation to improve our energy situation with this commonsense approach.
I applaud the Senators who voted in favor of this as well. If we are to become less dependent on foreign oil why wouldn’t we develop domestic resources?
The only quibble I have with the Senators is what they did right after they voted to allow drilling in ANWR:
An amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would have removed drilling authority for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), was defeated 51-48. She called the drilling proposal a gimmick that will have little impact on oil or gasoline prices, or U.S. energy security.
Later the Senate in an 86-13 vote, required that none of the oil from ANWR can be exported. Otherwise “there is no assurance that even one drop of Alaskan oil will get to hurting Americans,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a drilling opponent who nevertheless sponsored the no- export provision.
Can these Senators really be this dense? Do they honestly think that preventing ANWR oil from going to the global market will make a bit of difference? Keeping the oil in America will simply decrease this nation’s demand for global oil. Which means that we will purchase less from the international market, which in turn will lower demand and bring down global oil prices.
Were the ANWR oil to be released to the international community it would increase supply while global demand remained essentially the same. Yet prices would still come down because that’s what happens when supply goes up.
If anything, all the Senate has done is made ANWR oil a little harder to market from a logistical standpoint. All they’ve done is remove the ability for oil companies to ship ANWR oil directly from Alaska to international markets. Since ANWR can’t go to international markets, oil companies must feed those markets from other domestic sources.
In short, this second vote was an exercise in futility. Who knew Senators were so dumb?
Here’s something else to entertain you: Who’s next?
Well, damn the man.
S’okay, dude. The babes were really just the icing on the cake, anyway.
I still have my Friday Babes.
A bit boring to talk about BTUs instead of Babes, so my apologies.
The ‘No Export’ rule was applied to Prudhoe as well. This requires US built and crewed tankers (see Jones Act) and effectively lowers the market price of Alaska crude. But it also raises the crude costs for West Coast refineries.
Alaska crude tends toward a high asphalt content and high sulphur. You still get gasoline, but not as much as some other crudes. But you can pave a lot of roads out of that same barrel of crude.
The market for Alaska Crude is Puget Sound (Washington State) and San Francisco Bay refineries. Growing population, growing demand, high prices and no new construction, but ‘upgrades’ are allowed.
The market will adjust, and Northwest consumers will continue to pay a premium of around $0.20 per gallon for the feel-good policies of Maria Cantwell.
Hey, rob. I tried to get several female service memebers to send you some Friday Babe pics. Gave them the pertinent data, hopefully they will come through.
What ever happened to the Friday Babes?
(tangently related to a post about ‘drilling’
8^)
Rob has a responsibility to this country to stop trying to skirt this issue. For too long, he has been focusing on “real” news, instead of dealing honestly and openly with the American public about this disastrous Friday Babe shortage. Why the avoidance, Rob? What are you hiding???
I suspect the restriction on export is meant to simply make it more expensive to exploit the oil resources up there.
If they’re going to have to keep it domestic, that means shipping it all to the lower 48 (well, or Hawaii), since Alaska is already more than self-sufficient for oil, I imagine. And that adds more cost than just selling crude at the Alaskan terminals to whoever wants to come get a tankerfull (or however such sales work; at any rate it restricts the market a lot).
If that adds enough marginal cost it might even effect a significant reduction in development.
Fine, you’ve pinned me down.
Basically, it’s an issue of copyright. One one of the last Friday Babe posts a reader asked about the copyright status on the photos. Basically, I didn’t have the rights to post any of those photos. And since Say Anything is trending more and more into the internet spotlight I thought it probably best to quit posting the pics before I got myself into trouble.
I’ve thought about having reader-submitted Friday babes, but haven’t really gotten around to it.
Sorry guys. Hope you’ll keep reading Say Anything anyway.
Awesome 2H9, I’d gladly post some pics of hot babes-in-arms if they send ‘em.