Re: SC67

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15374.html

The president’s one-track, refuge-targeting mind

Bush held a press conference this morning on the South Lawn, most of which was dedicated to discussing the economy, gas prices, and the intersection of the two.

The president seemed anxious to demonstrate that he’s aware of the problems, and almost desperate to address them, but didn’t have much to offer in the way of solutions. Bush did, however, rely on an old standby.

“[Democrats in Congress have] repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR. The Department of Energy estimates that ANWR could allow America to produce about a million additional barrels of oil every day, which translates to about 27 millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel every day. That would be about a 20-percent increase of oil — crude oil production over U.S. levels, and it would likely mean lower gas prices. And yet such efforts to explore in ANWR have been consistently blocked.”

Asked about a possible summer moratorium on the federal gas tax, Bush said, “I will tell you this, that if Congress is truly interested in solving the problem, they can send the right signal by saying we’re going to explore for oil and gas in the U.S. territories, starting with ANWR.” (By the way, Alaska is a state, not a territory.)

Asked about peak oil and renewable energy research, Bush said, “[Y]ou say that people think we can’t — there’s not any more reserves to be found. Well, there are reserves to be found in ANWR; that’s a given. I just told you that there’s about 27 million gallons of diesel and gasoline that could be — from domestically produced crude oil that’s not being utilized. And not only that, we can explore in environmentally friendly ways.”

Asked about possible steps the administration can take “in the short term,” Bush said, “[O]pening up ANWR is not long term, it’s intermediate term. But it sends a clear signal, is what it does.”

In all, in a 50-minute press conference, Bush touted drilling the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge six times, including a few times in response to unrelated questions.

I know we’ve been down this road before, but since it’s been a while, and in light of Bush’s emphasis on ANWR this morning, it’s probably worth keeping a few details in mind that the president neglected to mention.

Drilling in ANWR would likely produce only 3.2 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, not even enough to satisfy six months’ demand; oil would not begin to reach the market for another 10 years; and it would take 50 years to extract the full amount. For this pittance, the House leadership and the administration are willing to disturb hundreds of acres of pristine wildlife habitat.

I’d just add that the NYT reported a while back that oil companies are now “largely uninterested in drilling” in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because “any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America’s needs.”

My hunch is, the White House wanted to a) look like they were offering a proposal to address the gas-price problem; and b) try to pin high prices on congressional Democrats. I’d be surprised if anyone really fell for this nonsense, but given the president’s enthusiasm, it’s worth setting the record straight..............

Remember Shrubs " We are addicted to oil " speech from over a year ago when he told americans that Ethanol and Canadian Tar Sands would save the energy glutunous US from its dire fate in light of imminent energy declines. Those two options were a joke from the start, having the capacity to only provide only tiny fractions of what is the vast consumption of the US. Now the " Idiot And Chief " proposes that we will be saved by opening up un-hindered drilling in the " US Territories ". This is more complete BS. Even considering the most optimistic appraisals of " projected possible " reserves anywhere in the US, including offshore reserves and Alaska, etc, are again such tiny volumes compared to what is needed to " just maintain " the current economy of the US that its a complete farce to suggest that these extra reserves will resolve in any significant way whatsoever the dire consequences we are just beginning to experience because of declining energy supplies.
Also Bush's speech was a clear attempt by him to blame all of our energy woes on the congress. The congress have in truth shown themselves to be worthless as far as accomplishing anything of importance for our countries citizens and the huge problems they face, and they truly hold a big part of the blame for nothing of merit being done about our energy problems. But the biggest blame lies with the War Crimminals Bush and Chenney, who knew before Bush took office that an energy crisis was at hand. Mathew Simmons who was Bush's top energy advisor at that time told them this. Bush and his Warmonger pals chose illegal " pre-emptive " wars to try and solve the US energy predicament and its all turning out much differant than they had planned. The many other countries and peoples affected in incredibly dire ways by the US Military Industrial Complex's beligerant bullying around the world to take resources, are not saddened to see the US strength beginning to wane under the vastly growing pressures of energy expense and scarcity. Our crimminal leaders, the congress, Big Oil, the greedy corporations can't change this trend. The US doesn't have, or does not control anymore the vast energy reserves of the world. The countries that do have and control the energy are recognizing quickly the power they now hold because of this reality. Just like Saudi Arabia recently stating that they will not increase production despite soaring oil prices, and will even keep a certain amount of thier reserves " capped " for their future generations needs and usage. The giant US Energy Slurping Pig can squeal all it wants, as far as the other countries pummeled and abused by the US's military policies, the US is getting what it deseves. The world's generations won't forget what the US did during its time of pre-immenence on the world scene. How this empire showed by its actions that it considered itself to be deserving of " special privalege " when it came to usage of the world's resources, showed by its actions that it cared little about devasting the lives of so many un-fortunates in other countries.