House Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban

[Phlegm]

The House of Representatives voted yesterday 232-187 to end the Outer Continental Shelf drilling moratorium that had been renewed since 1981. The moratorium covers 85 percent of the country's coastal waters, everywhere except the central and western Gulf of Mexico and some areas off Alaska.

Another step closer to have a bunch of drilling rigs on the coasts.

[Gidan]

I think they shoudl build a refinery in downtown DC, needs to located so that the oval office has a nice view of it. If we threw the amount of money they put into expanding oil into alternative energey, we would have left oil behind years ago.

[Spazz]

But the oil companies are and own the government why would they want to switch fuels when they can rake it in hand over fist with oil ?

[Eziekial]

The drilling rigs are good for the economy and increase our supply of oil. What's so bad about that?

[Harrison]

The drilling rigs are good for the economy and increase our supply of oil. What's so bad about that?

Don't argue with Spazz, it fucks with the time/space continuum.

I'm not sure he even knows what drilling for oil is or how it's done.

[Narrock]

The drilling rigs are good for the economy and increase our supply of oil. What's so bad about that?

Don't argue with Spazz, it fucks with the time/space continuum.

I'm not sure he even knows what drilling for oil is or how it's done.

QFT

[Arlos]

Because the rigs royally fuck up the environment, for one. Go look at the shoreline down near Santa Barbara, where there are some off the California coast, the entire shoreline near them tends to have a thin layer of oil scum from all of the minor unreported leaks and so forth that are inevitable in such a production. Hell, go look at the North Sea off cthe coast of Britain, etc. where there's tons of wells, it's one of the most polluted areas of water on the planet.

Then, when the oil at that spot runs out, they just up and abandon the rig and let it rust into pieces, leaking who knows what leftover crap into the ocean. They don't even bother to get rid of the superstructure, cause the legs aftward at least can be used as a new reef for fish, after 10+ years when the water cleans up a bit. But no, they leave the top there to rust and continually drop shit into the water.

We should not be spending billions more on squeezing the last few drops out of a already vastly depleted reserve. Those billions should be spent on developing alternative fuels and weaning us OFF our oil dependency. New rigs along the coast are a short-term bandaid, at best. Same with ANWR. What we really need is a long-term solution, one that removes any need to put in those rigs in the first place. THAT's where the money should go.

-Arlos

[Narrock]

Because the rigs royally fuck up the environment, for one. Go look at the shoreline down near Santa Barbara, where there are some off the California coast, the entire shoreline near them tends to have a thin layer of oil scum from all of the minor unreported leaks and so forth that are inevitable in such a production. Hell, go look at the North Sea off cthe coast of Britain, etc. where there's tons of wells, it's one of the most polluted areas of water on the planet.

Then, when the oil at that spot runs out, they just up and abandon the rig and let it rust into pieces, leaking who knows what leftover crap into the ocean. They don't even bother to get rid of the superstructure, cause the legs aftward at least can be used as a new reef for fish, after 10+ years when the water cleans up a bit. But no, they leave the top there to rust and continually drop shit into the water.

We should not be spending billions more on squeezing the last few drops out of a already vastly depleted reserve. Those billions should be spent on developing alternative fuels and weaning us OFF our oil dependency. New rigs along the coast are a short-term bandaid, at best. Same with ANWR. What we really need is a long-term solution, one that removes any need to put in those rigs in the first place. THAT's where the money should go.

-Arlos

I've been down there, right by Santa Barbara. I never saw any layer of scum or oil or anything out of the ordinary on the beaches. That's just a bunch of hype. One thing I will say though, is that the off shore oil rigs are an eye sore.

[Arlos]

I've seen it. Friend went to college at UCSB, and I visisted him several tiems and went to the beach more than once, and definitely saw it. Talking from personal experience here, not from something I heard 2nd or 3rd hand. My friend would bitch about it to me at other parts of the year as well.

I don't think you could find much of any dispute anywhere about the North Sea being one of, if not THE most polluted region of ocean in the world, too, and it's home to tons and tons of drilling rigs. Pollution is inevitable around oil drilling rigs, period.

I simply feel that our oceans are polluted enough as it is, and that we already have the technology to remove significant levels of our oil dependence as it is, so those billions shoudl be spent on implementing that technology as well as researching newer forms of energy to wean us away from petroleum.

For example, we have the agricultural capacity in this country to produce enough Biodiesel to remove any need for any diesel-based power plant to burn petro-diesel. How much would that cut this country's oil needs if NO diesel engine required petroleum-based diesel to operate? You don't think it would help our economy, especially farmers, to get them producing crops to produce that biodiesel? Me, I think it'd help significantly more than a bunch of oil platforms would, and it would put the money into the hands of farmers and field workers, not Big Oil.

Hell, they showed it on Mythbusters: You can literally take used french fry oil from McDonalds, and once you filter it, you can burn it with no other processing or modification necessary in any diesel engine. (they used a Mercedes). Imagine if some of those dollars that would be used to build those oil rigs went into oil recyling plants that would buy, cheap, used cooking oil from restaurants and turned around and converted it into fuel-grade Biodiesel. Less waste as we're recyling a product, and no new waste either.

-Arlos