#1 If Clinton hadn't stop them from drilling 11 years ago we would be seeing that oil now.

#2 The price of oil is not based on what's coming out of the ground today, it's speculative price based on what's going to be available in the "future" that's why it's called a "futures" market. 

Hey!! Ya can't drill just yet, UAE hasn't finished their new islands!! This is where some of your gas dollars are going. Enjoy!!

http://uaeinteract.com/news/default.asp?ID=230

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXclgws7n8

http://www.youtube.com/user/uaememories

Racing, anyone?  http://www.dubaiworldcup.com/

Watch this last one, if you don't watch anything else...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3smclK8u6k

The only reason the futures market, yes those nasty speculators, is trending upward is that they feel uncomfortable about future supply.

Same effect the futures market is having with corn at this very minute.

It will be very interesting to see, if in fact Congress does reverse the ban on drilling in ANWR, how much the cost of gas drops. I'm willing to bet, that the futures market not withstanding, it will do little to effect the long term cost at the pump after the announcement. There may be a temporary spike, but our cost of gas will never be again, even close to its previous price.

We cannot drill ourselves out of more expensive energy costs, or expect them to magically go away, by trying to change the minds of speculators. We are in for some irrevocable, long term changes in our lifestyles, and all the protests to the contrary will have little affect.

Gard

Just the threat of drilling will affect prices. And for those that say it will not hit the market for 10 years....what alternative can make the needed impact much sooner? The major oil companies are meeting in Iraq for the possibility of being able to go into Iraq again...prices come down. OPEC meets...reports say demand is down...they are going to increase production...prices come down. It is all just a political game that we are having to be a spectator in. In the mean time the Democrats and Republicans argue and accomplish....NOTHING!

As far as alternatives...we are years away on those also. There is not an alternative that will have an impact now. Every available option needs to be pursued relentlessly and that includes drilling.

We are the greatest country in the world, and the most that we can get done is argue about it. So far...we are still arguing and doing nothing. And we will continue to argue and any solution is still 10 years away.

Open up the leases and drill now, build nuclear energy plants, use clean burning coal technology, build wind farms on the coasts and in the plains, more hydro, more natural gas, more everything, but DO IT NOW!

I want the car manufacturers to make cars that get better gas mileage.  I had an early Civic hatchback and then later, a MX6 sports car that both got over 40 MPG on the highway and now I can't find anything except a hybrid that gets that.  There's something wrong with this.  I've been saying for several years that I would wait until there was a car I wanted and then buy it.  I'm still waiting.  Volvo and others are bringing over the car styles that they sell in Europe (I really like the C30 but the mileage is still low) so maybe there will be a change on that front in the next few years. 

Also, China finally raised the price of fuel over there which should lessen their demand some. 

Homework work done, read it and weep...........

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

You really need to quit reading that George Zoros left wing babble.

KSF ... The only thing that keeps Ford, GM et al, from selling great small cars in America is US.  WE would rather buy the SUV.  The big three have competed in Europe's small car market for generations.  But WE BUY massive gas guzzlers.  The Japanese have an advantage as their markets are totally small cars.  They had to adapt their designs to our want.  Meaning that Toyota builds a larger car for the US market.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368221,00.html

Try this one HW - and you should stop believing everything that Rush and Shawn blast out over the airwaves.

Of course we can drill ourselves out of this just as well go ourselves into this by NOT drilling!! We are America for gosh sakes- we invented higher standards of living by doing what other nations didn't,couldn't or wouldn't. We bulit the dams,highways,cities,airports,schools,hospitals..you name it-we are who we are because we took a long term approach to raising the standard of living for everyone. Now we have a serious problem brought on by people who don't want the problem solved- namely gutless, cowardly liberals ( and far too many republicans) who love a crisis since it gives them power- to tax and regulate but not to solve a problem.

Enivornmentalist have gotten it wrong everytime they proclaim yet another impending disaster, their track record is terrible yet there are some who still buy into their crap.

Lets review-1969, environmentalist Nigel Calder warned, "The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind."

C.C. Wallen of the World Meteorological Organization said, "The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed."

In 1968, Professor Paul Ehrlich, Vice President Gore's hero and mentor, predicted there would be a major food shortage in the U.S. and "in the 1970s ... hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." Ehrlich forecasted that 65 million Americans would die of starvation between 1980 and 1989, and by 1999 the U.S. population would have declined to 22.6 million. Ehrlich's predictions about England were gloomier: "If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."

In 1972, a report was written for the Club of Rome warning the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury and silver by 1985, tin by 1987 and petroleum, copper, lead and natural gas by 1992. Gordon Taylor, in his 1970 book "The Doomsday Book," said Americans were using 50 percent of the world's resources and "by 2000 they [Americans] will, if permitted, be using all of them." In 1975, the Environmental Fund took out full-page ads warning, "The World as we know it will likely be ruined by the year 2000."

Ok- do you get it yet? We are not running out of oil...we need to go get it. We can solve this problem, we just have get started....

Interesting reading about oil companies profits....8.5 to 9.3 cents per dollar profit...Microsoft was 27 cents per dollar profit.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/markets/thebuzz/

One thing people have forgotten about is this. There is a cost of regulation.

Think about our beloved diesel fuel. EPA has mandated that diesel have no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur.

Why was the standard lowered? Because of fine particulate pollution.....soot. As somebody referenced on this site previously, it doesn't cost too awful much to get diesel below 500ppm, not much to get to 100ppm....but it costs $$$ to get below 15ppm.

They are mining coal tar in Canada...the break-even price is over $44/bbl...i.e. is oil sells for less than that it is not economical to do it...

Nuclear power has never recovered from Three Mile Island...Everyone now says go nuclear...right up until they discover they want to build the plan in their area...

Air emissions from IGCC gasification plants are far below U.S. Clean Air Standards. Sulfur removal and emissions of sulfur dioxide, NOX and carbon monoxide are far below normal coal fired power plants, incinerators, combustors and most other gasifiers. However, they still contribute significantly to the "greenhouse effect" because all the gases they emit are new greenhouse gases.

I have heard elsewhere that people want a "Manhatten Project" effort on this problem...The very people who ask for this have NO CLUE as to what the TOTAL COST of the ORIGINAL MAHATTEN PROJECT WAS!!!...$5.00/gallon gas is cheap in comparison......The SUPERFUND SITES in WA and CO are still being paid for by the US Government and will be for QUITE A LONG TIME

Unfortunately, The only legitimate short term solution is CONSERVATION...

 For the average case, drilling in ANWR would reduce crude oil by 75 cents, out of a current $130, in 2025. This amounts to about a 0.5% change. The total production from ANWAR would be, in 2024, approximately 1% of the United States needs.

absolutely correct!!!