If our government wants to help the economy- why don't they just drill for more oil?

Question

like there is oil somewhere in america-

why don't they just drill for oil-

that would help bring the prices of gas down-

help our economy-

i don't get it-

Answer 1

We already HAVE enough - we're just exporting it all (to Japan in particular)

Answer 2

The PROBLEM Is; the World is now using SO Much of the stuff- that they can't pull it out of the Ground FAST ENOUGH- to meet the Demand! By the TIME new wells are drilled, THAT "new supply" is no longer Enough! And let's face it; not Everybody want's an Oil Well in their Front Yard- so I can have cheap Gas in MY car !!!  So, as the Demand rises, so WILL the price... We just have to find a NEW way- to make our Cars go... Either THAT, or learn how to do MORE- with LESS Gas...

Answer 3

Drilling for oil in some new place in American wont instantly help the oil prices. It would take atleast a decade before it would affect oil prices at all, assuming it would affect oil prices at all, since it takes a decade of preparation to drill oil in a new place.

Answer 4

Even if we do it won't make much difference right now. May be in few years, but who knows how things will be in few years. Its not like we drill and here comes ready made gasoline. Once they allow drilling they have to explore and find oil first and figure out best way to drill...etc. It will take years. Most likely people in gov are worried about getting more votes than doing what makes sense.

Answer 5

Deal with the price, why don't hookers lower their prices?

Answer 6

That's exactly what Bush is trying to do.  There is plenty of oil in USA....they know exactly where it is...it's called Reserve Resources.

The Iraq Attack was just over oil.  Look at the trouble, turmoil and lives lost of their citizens and ours...it's not over yet as Iran moves into the picture.  All that incident has done is escalate the world oil prices beyond the normal persons means.

This type of back-tracking was done in the 70's to mid 80's declaring a shortage of oil in North America.  Since then most of the oil in USA has been coming from Canada via pipeline and barges from the middle East.

It is time we got back on track, keeping prices down while we improve and develop alternate forms of energy.  We have become too dependant on oil, ruining the planet and making the rich richer while the middle class is suffering.

It's going to take 200 years to repair the damage done in the last 40.  I don't like those odds because scientists are now saying that for every year of pollution it's like 10 years of pollution 20 years ago.  The world now is entering a very dangerous time.

It's not that we are using up the oil too quickly.  It's the WAY we are using it that is changing the earth.

Answer 7

I agree with you, it's not a complete solution to our over all oil problems but I believe it would by us some time to find the technology to be more oil independent.

Answer 8

The democrats in congress want everybody to be angry and miserable so they can blame Bush. Look at what has happened in the last few days of this week.

President Bush has made his case for drilling oil now, and later in ANWR. Oil companies can start right away drilling on the oil that has leases on land they own. We have now started to test ANWR ice samples for drilling

The price of oil has fallen, because finally the speculators have some good news. It will continue to drop as we allow the major oil companies to drill at home. Its much cheaper for them to do this here and we will have results in less than a years time.

I say to the President, thanks for listening to us and using the bully pulpit to bypass the democrat led congress.

EDIT:

The reason why we export some oil is that we have not built a refinery in over 30 years and the refineries are running at maximum capacity.

Which leads to another problem with Washington in general. We need to get the environmentalists off our back and start to build new refineries, or expand the existing ones capacity.