Would you pay $6 to $8 per gallon to stop offshore drilling?

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by Shapecity, Jun 4, 2010.

  1. Shapecity

    Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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    Prices Could "Skyrocket"

    "While we dream about a new energy system that is decades in the future, the prices that consumers will have to pay for things like gasoline, electricity, and diesel would just skyrocket" if America halts offshore driller, Hofmeister tells Aaron and Henry in the accompanying segment. "Prices could get to the point where fixed-income and low-income people are simply taken out of the personal mobility marketplace, which would be a shock and unnecessary because of our unwillingness to produce domestic resources."

    But as Aaron asks: "People also don't want oil washing up on their beaches, whether it's in the Gulf of Mexico or Florida or maybe up the East Coast. Do you that think the American public is going to say, 'We don't want you drilling at all offshore?' "

    Only if the American public is willing "to accept $6 to $8 [per gallon] gasoline as the alternative, when they can get it," Hofmeister replies.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticke...lling-says-former-shell-exec-yftt_499176.html
     
  2. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

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    Go buy a Prius!
     
  3. BrianFromWA

    BrianFromWA Editor in Chief Staff Member Editor in Chief

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    I asked this very thing in the oil thread....though I also think that natural gas, heating and electricity prices will rise. As it is, I'm already paying about 190/mo in heat/electricity. If that doubles, that's not good. Triples, starts to hurt a bit. And I'm not one of the many living paycheck-to-paycheck...many of my neighbors would be hosed if their heating/electricity went up 400 a month.
     
  4. Wheels

    Wheels Is That A Challenge?!?!1! Staff Member Global Moderator

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    F that man
     
  5. Tortimer

    Tortimer Well-Known Member

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    NO fucking way! We need to keep drilling starting with Alaska.
     
  6. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Drilling is fine. But these companies need to realize that this is our oil. This is a natural resource of every American. These oil companies need to treat it as such. BP (a foreign company) took needless risks the resulted in the wasting of a valuable natural resource. BP does not operate as safe and careful as American based oil companies do in this country. That is a fact.
     
  7. NJNetz

    NJNetz BBW Banned

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    Nope.

    I can't accept paying $3.
     
  8. mook

    mook The 2018-19 season was the best I've seen

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    It obviously needs better regulation, and better enforcement of existing regulation. But I'm not opposed entirely to offshore drilling for the near-term.

    I'd prefer to see taxes raised on gas to artificially raise the price to spur growth in other areas. Send rebates to those in poverty. Cut income taxes. Basically design it so the net effect isn't an increased or decreased tax burden for the average joe, but so that taxes are paid to discourage people from doing things we don't want them to do (use gasoline) and encouraged for things we want them to do (work). (Right now we do the exact opposite.) Maybe raise the gas tax rate in metropolitan areas and decrease it in rural areas. I figure rural people have far fewer alternatives, and they necessarily drive more and so would be taxed more without some kind of adjustment.

    A side benefit would be that more taxes would be deducted at the pump (which is extremely simple to manage) and less on April 15th (extremely annoying to manage).

    My idea appeals to liberals because it weans us off gas. My idea appeals to conservatives because it involves tax cuts in the long-run. (Once you completely wean yourself of paying for gasoline, you effectively get a pretty sweet tax break.)

    It's a common sense, middle-road idea that either side should get behind. What's not to like?
     
  9. Tortimer

    Tortimer Well-Known Member

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    I agree with your post. If you compare BP's safety record with other major oil companies it isn't even close. BP has a terrible record and has at least 100 times more safety violations then the next oil company.
     
  10. Shapecity

    Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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    Great idea Mook. We need to break this philosophy of rewarding people to stop doing the wrong thing instead of being proactive and rewarding people who do the right thing. Income tax is ridiculous especially in regards to OT & Bonus. You work hard to earn more money, sacrifice, and they take away 50% of that right off the top?
     
  11. Rodolfo

    Rodolfo Double Stamp>Triple Stamp

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    BP takes care of their oil platforms, like the British take care of their teeth. Very poorly.
     
  12. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    More to the point, I will vote against any politician who okays offshore drilling or any other additional drilling on public land.

    All the doubling of oil prices would do is bury a dying industry and speed development of it's less costly, less polluting alternatives.
     
  13. BrianFromWA

    BrianFromWA Editor in Chief Staff Member Editor in Chief

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    the problem with not knowing anything about science other than what politicians tell you is that they don't know themselves (and I'm not lumping you in, Maris, I'm lumping in most of the populace of the US who barely got a HS education and have problems balancing checkbooks and understanding compounding interest--yet we expect them to understand energy efficiency, etc.).

    "Less costly, less polluting" alternatives? Who's doing that trade study? People knowledgeable about trafficking energy to 120M homes across the US (Big Oil and Utility) or those who have grandiose, yet flawed scientifically view of the environment and pollution (say, Greenpeace)? I don't necessarily trust either of those two choices.

    And with more people being born, more restrictions on energy supply -- sorry to say, but the oil industry is nowhere close to "dying". Much as I wish it was. But then again, that'd be bad for the millions in the US whose 401(K) is primarily tied up in mutual funds heavy into oil stocks.
     
  14. BrianFromWA

    BrianFromWA Editor in Chief Staff Member Editor in Chief

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    So your ideal politician is someone who stands behind his distaste for the military, and will guarantee to vote against drilling on public land?

    More to the point, would you be in favor of BP or the like being able to purchase chunks of our littoral areas for oil drilling?
     
  15. BlazerWookee

    BlazerWookee UNTILT THE DAMN PINWHEEL!

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    Hell, no.
     
  16. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    I'd be in favour of more nuclear energy to phase out oil as fuel.
     
  17. blazerboy30

    blazerboy30 Well-Known Member

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    Sign me up for this.

    BTW, I believe you meant "nukular".
     
  18. BrianFromWA

    BrianFromWA Editor in Chief Staff Member Editor in Chief

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    It's tough to do nuclear power in a vehicle, unless it's part of the electric plug-in-your-car generation system where plants are providing the electricity. Fuel would be too heavy and hazardous to have in every car.
     
  19. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    That's what I was thinking. Electric cars, and the electricity comes from nuclear power. Even prior to that though, it would be nice to use it for non-vehicle fuel.

    I always misspell it.
     
  20. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    We just have to start making DeLoreans again.
     

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