I get so sick of John McCain and the Republican party spitting out these lies that all of our gas price woes would be solved if we would just let Exxon, Chevron, and the other big oil companies drill for more oil off of our coasts. At first glance, I guess it does sound pretty good. "Let's get our own oil and let the Arabs keep theirs!" So, what's the drawbacks? Glad you asked.
1) It will take many years, up to 15, for any of this oil to actually reach the market. They would have to test to see where oil may be. They would then have to build the wells. Then, after several years,.....yeee-haw! Oil!!!
2) After that celebration is over with, we find out that oil is traded on a global market. Awww damn. So, in 2023 (that is, if they started today) when oil is trading for around $250 a barrel, our newfound oil drops the cost to $249 a barrel. Gas prices drop from $10.09 a gallon to $10.07. Party on! Road trip, here we come.
3) We are being led to believe that these oil wells are going to lead to more oil being refined into gasoline and diesel fuel. This is IMPOSSIBLE. Way back in 2004, the refineries in the USA were operating at 98% capacity. They were pumping this stuff out as fast as they could 4 years ago. Considering the fact a new refinery hasn't been built since 1976, how are they suddenly going to produce more gas and diesel? They simply can't. They may get more shipments of oil but it can only pile up.
4) Now, this one is a doozy. I bet a lot of you will be surprised by this fact. While John McCain and all the Republicans are moaning about getting more oil and gas for us, the United States of America actually EXPORTS huge amounts of the stuff to other countries. Yep. Read that sentence again slowly so that it will sink in. While they are telling us that this new oil will be refined into gasoline (it can't) and sent to your local gas station for only $1.00 a gallon (yeah, right), they are actually sending fuel to other places in the world. In April of 2008, the United States EXPORTED 387,000 barrels of diesel fuel every single day. We also EXPORTED 202,000 barrels of gasoline every day.
5) I'll type what you're thinking right now: WTF??? So, even if we were to get oil tomorrow from the off-shore drills, get it refined to gasoline the next day, how will it help you? It's going to be sent to Canada, Mexico, Europe, etc. Who really benefits from all this nonsense?
6) Big Oil! Exxon posted earnings in the 2Q of this year of nearly 12 billion dollars. Actually, I'm gonna type that number out. Earnings of nearly $12,000,000,000 in a 3 month period. Not total income, EARNINGS, PROFIT, ICING ON THE CAKE, etc. That equals out to these numbers approx: $128,351,648 per day, $5,347,985 per hour, $89,133 per minute, or $1,485 per second. Nice change if you can get it. Since McCain started all this nonsense a month ago, Big Oil lobbyists have donated more that $1 million dollars to his campaign. I wonder why.
Want more info? http://zzpat.tripod.com/cvb/july_2008/us_exports_record_gas_and_diesel.html