Online skirmishes in campaign
The national Democratic and Republican parties are each out with new online attacks on the other's presidential standard-bearer.
With a web video, the Democratic National Committee hits John McCain for campaign cash, citing a Washington Post report that since McCain changed his position and came out in favor of more offshore oil drilling, a "gusher" of Big Oil money came his way. The Post said he raised $1.1 million last month from oil companies, as much as he did in the prior 18 months total.
"Like Bush, McCain will reward his Big Oil donors with policies that will boost corporate profits while doing nothing to lower Americans' gas prices," said DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney. "John McCain's tax plan would give $4 billion in tax breaks to the top five oil companies -- and almost nothing to middle-class Americans while the Bush-McCain plan to end to the ban on offshore drilling won't produce a drop of oil for seven years and won't help consumers at the pump for years beyond that. The only immediate result we've seen from John McCain's reversal on offshore oil drilling is to his campaign's bottom line."
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, pokes fun at Barack Obama with a website, a parody of a Facebook site, that highlights Obama's links with not-so-pristine characters such as Tony Rezko, a past fund-raiser who was convicted last month by a federal jury on corruption charges, and William Ayers, a 1960s radical.
"Leveraging the popularity of social networking sites, BarackBook allows voters to explore Obama’s connections with these individuals as well as their connections to one another using video and news articles," the RNC says. "BarackBook will be updated routinely between now and Election Day with additional, new Obama 'friends.' "
Lobbyists pay for his campaign, so McCain pays them back with a plan to make them more revenue, but not actually help America.
Thanks John McCain, for selling out America for a few million dollars. You are such a Pimp.
How much oil do we control?
The January 2007 “Oil & Gas Journal” reported our current reserves at 21 billion barrels. That’s twelfth in global reserves. Saudi Arabia is first with 260 B-bbl. The US Energy Information Authority reported our production level at 4.9 million barrels per day. Those figures indicated a reserve life of 12 years.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service and the Department of Energy estimate that there are an additional 18 billion barrels of oil in the offshore areas currently under the offshore ban on drilling (the 84 billion barrels reported by the Bush administration and Senator McCain is calculated from the 5% probability for each of the four fields giving the actual probability of that amount existing being 0.05 x 0.05 x 0.05 x 0.05 = 0.0006%)—this includes areas off the west coast, Alaska, east coast and Gulf of Mexico. It is also estimated that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge holds an additional 7.7 billion barrels. That makes a total of 25.7 billion barrels.
How long would it take to extract?
Mathew Simmons of Simmons and Company, a leading energy investment bank, stated that there is an offshore oil rig backlog that extends beyond 2013. Assuming a best-case-scenario, that we will be able to continue producing 4.9 million barrels per day as our current reserves are depleted and the new reserves are located and extracted, it would extent our reserve lifetime by 14.7 years. That means our total reserves would be depleted by 2034 after which we would rely totally on foreign oil.
What would it cost to extract?
This is harder to get sold numbers on. Last year offshore drilling platforms were leasing for ~$450,000 per day. This year many are going for ~$600,000 per day and $700K will most probably be reached before the backlog is dealt with—2013. Add to this the cost of manpower and logistics plus the $18 billion per year in tax subsidies that ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP America and Conoco Phillips receives and the numbers go beyond my humble ability to lock down a figure.
What impact would this have on global markets?
The Department of Energy estimates that if the current ban on drilling were lifted today, if there was an impact on the market it wouldn’t be felt until 2030—just 4 years before our reserves would be totally depleted. Given the time frames involved and that we’re talking about only a few percent of the global reserves (our current reserves are about 2% of the global reserves and the increased drilling would only add about another 2%) this would have virtually no impact on global markets. No impact on the price at the pump.
What to do?
Conserve, solar, wind, thermal…., get away from oil.
Who do you think is flipping the bill for Obama? All private donations? Dream On
Tim,
You seemed surprised... Politics is about lies and money. Do some research on McCain over the last 10 years. Then compare him with the McCain of today. He has sold his soul to the same people bush did, the rich, and Big Oil is R I C H.
Joe,
I guess some people just don't get it! Obama is trying to change the way government works in this country? Do you think big business lobbyists and PACs would even want to support Obama? Of course not! His poliices would benefit 95% of Americans, not the greed hogs that live for quarterly earnings and don't give a damn about who gets hurt.
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