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Posted by catalpa on August 23, 2008, 5:25 am
>
>> --Amidst the clamor for access to offshore drilling and increased
>> --development of the Arctic, the United States exports some 1.8 million
>> --barrels of oil per day, a record pace for the nation's history or 9
>> --times what is projected to be available in the restricted offshore
>> --sites by they time they reach peak capacity - in 2030.
>>
>> --.-=d00b
>> .
>>
>> --"U.S. Exporting 9 Times More than Potential Offshore Resources"
>> --================================================
>> --Bush and fellow Republicans have repeatedly blamed Democrats for
>> --blocking legislation that would open offshore lands and the Arctic
>> --National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling.
>> --
>> --"Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal and
>> --now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction,"
>> --Bush said.
>> --
>> --"I'll call for lifting the federal moratorium for states that choose
>> --to permit exploration," said McCain.
>> --
>> --Even as calls to open up large swaths of America's offshore areas to
>> --oil drilling continue, America is setting new records for exports of
>> --domestically produced oil and petroleum products. Today Rep. Edward J.
>> --Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy
>> --Independence and Global Warming, sent a letter to the president asking
>> --him to explore stopping the exports of U.S. oil to foreign nations.
>> --
>> --"Mr. President, keep our oil at home. While American families have
>> --been shelling out big bucks at the pump, we've been shipping American
>> --oil and petroleum products abroad to places like China, Singapore and
>> --Venezuela," said Markey. "If we want to help America become energy
>> --independent, we should first look to American oil being shipped to
>> --foreign countries."
>> --
>> --According to the letter, the United States' record export levels this
>> --year amounts to nearly 10 percent of all the oil the United States
>> --consumes every day. U.S. oil exports increased to 1.806 million
>> --barrels a day in May 2008 -- the most recent month for which data is
>> --available -- from last year's average export level of 1.433 million
>> --barrels a day of oil and petroleum products. In addition, the United
>> --States reached the highest level of oil exports in our nation's
>> --history in February of this year.
>> --
>> --These oil exports far exceed projections for oil from offshore
>> --drilling. The letter notes that projections from the Department of
>> --Energy for offshore drilling say that "at the height of production, in
>> --2030, increased offshore drilling would produce only 200,000 barrels
>> --per day - one ninth the amount of oil we currently send to foreign
>> --countries every day." The letter also notes that, at the current
>> --export rate, by the time the first barrel of oil could be produced
>> --from increased offshore drilling, America would have already exported
>> --the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of the oil that is projected to
>> --lie beneath protected areas offshore.
>> --
>> --"This is yet more proof that there are countless efforts America could
>> --make to increase our energy independence that dwarf any results from
>> --offshore drilling," continued Markey. "We should be stopping oil
>> --exports and increasing the production of renewable energy and plug-in
>> --hybrid vehicles, not depend on Big Oil's offshore drilling pipeline
>> --dream."
>> --
>> --citation:
>> --http://tinyurl.com/Stop-USA-Oil-Exports
>> --or
>>
--http://globalwarming.house.gov/mediacenter/pressreleases_2008?id=0033#main_content
>> --
>>
>> This is half truths. What oil compnay is going to pay to ship oil from
>> around the world to the US only to pay a second time to ship the same oil
>> back around the world? Oil companies ship oil directly to where is
>> refined and/or used.
>>
>> It is refined products, not oil that is being exported. Most of the
>> refined products can not be used domestically because they do not meet US
>> environmental standards. One example is diesel fuel with high sulfur
>> levels. Exporting certain refined products gives refineries an outlet for
>> their low quality products that cannot be sold domestically.
>>
>> In 2008 US oil refineries have operated between 83.2% and 88.8% of
>> capacity. Importing oil and exporting refined products helps to keep up
>> the refinery capacity utilization and minimize the cost of refining each
>> gallon of product.
>>
>> It is also worth noting that in so far 2008 the US imported (on average)
>> more than 1 million barrels a week of gasoline. Oil refineries can only
>> get so much gasoline out of a barrel of oil, so we would be screwed big
>> time if other countries stopped exporting gasoline to us.
>
> Drilling domestic oil will not lower the price of gasoline domestically.
> Not now, not later, and not one bit. As Bush admitted: "The price of oil
> is set on the world market". That means we dont get a discount just
> because the oil came from our own public lands. Once it is drilled it is
> no longer "our oil". It belongs to the oil company and they will sell it
> on the world market to the highest bidder. So it doesnt help us, it helps
> them. What we need to do is 1. Ban all export of US oil drilled on US
> public lands. And 2. regulate the price that oil companies may sell OUR
> OIL back to us. It is OUR OIL, drilled from OUR LAND. We should be able
> to say what happens to it. Keap American oil for America.
Total nonsense. In 2007 the US consumed 20.68 millions of barrels of oil a
day and 12.185 million barrels a day was imported. Who exactly is buying US
produced crude oil and in what amounts when we are importing over 12 million
barrels a day? If the US wasn't paying the going price we wouldn't be able
to import the 12 million barrels a day we need.
Why would anyone expect a discount because the oil is produced domestically?
Do you get a discount on corn, wheat, soybeans, copper, silver, gold and
other commodities that are domestically produced? The price for any
commodity is the price set by the world market.
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