Why can't we explore for more oil, find it, and refine it for America's use?

Question

...It is affecting us in many ways. It used to be that small, "unsafe at any speed" cars were not the norm; now they are. We are expected and pushed to drive cars that are smaller and smaller, and I'll bet $5.00 to a doughnut they are not nearly as safe, no matter how many airbags they contain. Our lawmakers want to increase the mpg, forcing our car makers to decrease the price of a vehicle, and up the price.

...No new oil refinery has been built in 30 years, but American has grown in population and businesses; both are dependent on oil.

...Oil was to be extracted in Alaska, in a minute area. Fears that the Alaskan pipeline and damage to the caribou proved unfounded - the caribou are thriving. So why can't we go after it?

...Are the environmentalists winning?

...Your courteous answer, please?

Answer 1

Hello? it's 2008 and we've been looking for about 100 years. The USA or any gov't doesn't control or limit the Oil Industry -- which is multi-national, and has done what it wants/needs to get the oil forever... if its was worth the investment, it would already be done. (Environmentalist? what about realists?)

The USA has been through Nuclear Power as an alternative for about 50 of these years. We've delayed Solar Power for about 30-40 easily.. and cars were proven capable of running on many other options... although patents have been bought & disappeared faster than you can say "where'd they put that thing at the end of the 'Indiana Jones' movie?" Your answer is -- you are dealing with smoke & mirrors... because if there WAS vast oil reserves there, you'd be sure we'd have ALREADY a pipleline (like the one that exists!)... like we have huge pumps across the Gulf of Mexico and off the west coast...

Come on. The time for this has passed.. you believe something that's more "look at the pretty balloon" than a sound policy alternative... don't be fooled. It's 2008. You should be more alert, to these things. Most homes in the USA should have solar-powered heating.. and we should be driving cars that run as easily as your calculator, as soon as you take it out of the drawer. Gas is a Cash Cow.. for many, many people... its nearing $110 a barrel, because they realized there wasn't "too much noise" over it, when it went over $100 with constancy (for the 1st time in history).

Big Oil doesn't need this exploration.

It's just smoke & mirrors, for you and us.

Answer 2

Yes, the environmentalists are winning based only on their hysterical doomsday prophecies.There are VAST amounts of oil in Alaska. Where do you people get your facts? We need to drill there and we need to refine it ourselves and we need to do it now. How high does gas have to go before you say enough is enough? The technology isn't there yet for us to stop using oil. When it is, I'll be first in line to buy an electric or hydrogen powered car,(that's affordable and runs longer than a couple of hours).Until then, we need to produce our own gas. Let's stop s******g around!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

And where is this vast underground supply of oil? The only place left where no one goes is Antarctica I can't see oil being found out there.

Answer 4

Oil isn't the way to go, its dirty, its choking the environment and there is only so much left discovered or not.

We already have the technology to go electrical.

We also have the option to run our cars on methane and diesel substitutes.

Or we could just ban cars from cities and use man-powered vehicles instead.  There would be less pollution, less accidents, healthier citizens...etc.

Answer 5

Costs less to have Arabs do it.  It strictly has to do with where do the corporations make the most money.  No loyalties are involved when it comes to money.   If they drill for more oil here and Communist China wants to pay more than others for it then they will sell the American oil to the Communists.  Most of Alaska's oil already goes to Asia.

Answer 6

The problem is that the easy oil has all been found, the amount of oil in Alaska for example is relatively modest and even if tapped wouldn't do much. And demand for oil from the developing countries like China is skyrocketing, so what is on the international market isn't going to help us.

Now if you follow the news, the USA has been making major efforts the last five years to open up the huge oil fields in Iraq to USA oil companies, but so far it's not been as successful as was hoped in some quarters. Even our Iraqi quisling government refuses to sign the papers giving us their oil at cut rates.

At one point we thought we had a lot of oil in central Asia locked up, but that is looking iffy as well because of the de facto Chinese-Russian-Iranian alliance.

We are going to see more oil exploration in the arctic and antarctic, but baring some amazing and unexpected discovery somewhere, there isn't enough easy oil left to exploit. Has little to do with ecologists, and even then, you want to be realistic about it....by preserving some of the oil in Alaska...that means that oil is still there when we REALLY need it.

IE I'd prefer we save some oil in case we need it to keep the air force and navy going just in case we actually need them some future decade?

Conservation is the easiest way to fix this problem, there is no CHEAP way to increase supply.

Answer 7

"...forcing our car makers to decrease the price of a vehicle, and up the price."

Huh?!?

First of all, back in the early 90's, when I was shopping for my first car, most of the cars I looked at got between 28 and 32 mpg.  There were even cars that got near 40 mpg!  Now, I'm shopping for a new car and I can't find a car that gets over 20 mpg.  And the cars are more than twice as expensive.  

And some of us prefer a smaller car.  There's absolutely nothing unsafe about small cars, other than driving around the idiots in big SUV's and minivans with the phone glued to their ears and no attention span.  

But what America, and the rest of the world really needs to do is devote more money and effort into finding alternative energy sources.  We don't need "more oil".  We need something other than oil - preferably something renewable.

Answer 8

smaller cars are only rated as not as safe when they are on the road with the over-large SUV's and trucks that have become far too popular.  80% of the SUV's/trucks out there are empty, not used for hauling people or goods, if people only drove what they needed, then the cars would be plenty safe.  Where do you suggest we explore for oil?  there aren't a whole lot of unexplored areas that havene't already been tapped.  And why concentrate on finding more of that resource when we KNOW that is isn't renewable?  It will eventually run out, so why not find a solution to what we are going to do when that happens rather than wait for it to happen and send the country into a panic because we don't have a substitute in place?

Answer 9

SMALL CARS ARE VERY SAFE IF THEY ARE ALL SMALL..THE PROBLEM  IS PEOPLE ARE TO FAT TO FIT ANYMORE..SO EXCEPT HIGH PRICES