More Drilling in America Issue is Silly

[NJ5]

TheRealMafoo said:
Thanks NJ5. That is useful information. What it means is we have an estimated 20 years of oil under us. For other reasons we can't get it fast enough, and that should be what politicians say.

I am very much for alternative fuels (I like biodiesel for cars), but not extracting as much oil as we can seems strange. What's the downside to going after those 155 billion barrels?

That's a fair way to put it, the key thing is that this oil can't be extracted in 20 years (not even close).

Potential downsides of going after these reserves:

- Lack of resources (for example, shortage of drilling rigs).
- A big investment would be needed (perhaps not easy to come by during this economic crisis)
- Environmental issues

I didn't read these articles but they probably have some useful information about that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_offshore_drilling_debate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Refuge_drilling_controversy