...in Brazil Yay, we're leading billions to Brazil's state owned oil company to help THEM drill oil off their coast. And yet, we won't do this at home for ourselves. How stupid is this????

Quote :

"Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling Too bad it's not in U.S. waters. You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas... "

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

8/18/2009 12:38:14 PM

hey, if we're borrowing from china at x% and lending to brazil at (x+y)% I'm all for it.

better than just handing it to some fucking bankers.

[Edited on August 18, 2009 at 12:45 PM. Reason : disclaimer, i have no idea what the actual rates are. ]

8/18/2009 12:45:34 PM

I'm not really concerned with loaning money to other gov'ts. More about why we don't even drill our huge reserves.

8/18/2009 12:49:56 PM

I think the plan is to wait for the world to run out of oil and then have them come crawling to us for our untapped reserves.

8/18/2009 12:56:06 PM

^ I was going to make just that post.

As if helping out the Brazilians isn't bad enough, we're doing something similar for the Chinese

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/08/why-is-us-government-subsidizing-chinese-ppip/

8/18/2009 12:57:29 PM

Someone remind me--is Bev Perdue for or against offshore drilling?

McCrory Ad Untruthful: Perdue Favors Oil Drilling Off America’s Coasts

Quote :

"Bev Perdue has consistently said that she supports offshore drilling, urging oil companies to use some of their record profits to immediately begin drilling in the untapped 68-million acres currently under lease, almost half of which are located offshore."

http://www.ncdp.org/content/mccrory-ad-untruthful-perdue-favors-oil-drilling-off-america-s-coasts

Perdue opposes offshore drilling

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/perdue_opposes_offshore_drilling

8/18/2009 1:05:19 PM

Quote :

"And yet, we won't do this at home for ourselves. How stupid is this????"

It's the ultimate in, "Not In My Backyard." You're honestly surprised by this, at this point?

I mean, we have AGW folks who adamantly refuse to consider displacing coal plants with nuclear ones, despite the fact that doing so would dramatically lower CO2 emissions (as well as other pollutants), and you're just now surprised by this latest extreme in NIMBY politics?

8/18/2009 1:08:05 PM

I think we all know Bev Purdue got in on the straight ticket, I'll be surprised if she is re-elected.

8/18/2009 1:20:10 PM

Quote :

"I think the plan is to wait for the world to run out of oil and then have them come crawling to us for our untapped reserves."

lol, yes I've wondered that myself!


DrSteveChaos, I know. But one can hope for something with intelligence behind it EVENTUALLY!

8/18/2009 1:28:00 PM

count me as someone who sees AGW as likely and is a strong supporter of safe nuclear energy.

8/18/2009 1:57:25 PM

Quote :

"hey, if we're borrowing from china at x% and lending to brazil at (x+y)% I'm all for it."

Does anyone actually pay the US back though?

8/18/2009 2:01:42 PM

our banks apparently do.

8/18/2009 2:03:14 PM

Quote :

"I think the plan is to wait for the world to run out of oil and then have them come crawling to us for our untapped reserves. "

Seems like a dangerous game to play to me. Having a monopoly on a resource is great in the short term, but it also tends to make you a much juicier and more "valid" military target. Wars have been fought for much less than thousands of citizens dying due to lack of heating in the winter.

All in all I really can't imagine the long term financial ROI on this is worth it, but politically, it's easier to drill "somewhere else" than it is to drill anywhere inside the US. I mean, when was the last time you saw a protest to convince our politicians to put pressure on any of OPEC to shut down their oil fields.

And in the short term anyway, it's still cheaper to outsource our energy costs than to do it in house. And al those people who bitch about outsourcing american jobs will turn real quick if the price per gallon to get to their rallies starts going up too much.

8/18/2009 7:09:16 PM

^^ If Obama will let them.

8/19/2009 6:50:33 AM

Quote :

"Someone remind me--is Bev Perdue for or against offshore drilling? McCrory Ad Untruthful: Perdue Favors Oil Drilling Off America’s Coasts Quote : "Bev Perdue has consistently said that she supports offshore drilling, urging oil companies to use some of their record profits to immediately begin drilling in the untapped 68-million acres currently under lease, almost half of which are located offshore." http://www.ncdp.org/content/mccrory-ad-untruthful-perdue-favors-oil-drilling-off-america-s-coasts Perdue opposes offshore drilling http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/perdue_opposes_offshore_drilling"

Her stance on offshore drilling is VERY clear. I remember it from one of the debates that was on PBS. She supports off shore drilling in the 68-million acres that are already under lease (and are mostly located in the Gulf of Mexico) She is opposed to drilling off the shore of North Carolina.

8/22/2009 9:46:01 AM

Its pretty simple why we don't want to drill. Theres no need to invest more resources and increase our dependency and infrastructure on the fuel of the 20th century. Also, its horrible for the environment in many ways (ecological, co2, etc).

It would essentially be like drilling for dvds in a world where watching dvds was proven harmful to the envrionment instead of spending that money on blue ray technology.

8/22/2009 11:38:41 AM

The hilarious thing about the analogy you just attempted is that DVDs are in fact still popular and the take up with Blu-Ray isn't happening like planned and it's entirely possible the next generation will leap frog it, just like better nuclears and better solars will leapfrog the current next generation technologies.

8/22/2009 12:53:36 PM

^^can you please leave the soap box? You stupidity rivals not dnl. Go frolic with him in Chit Chat plz

8/24/2009 8:35:05 AM

is it stupid to suggest we shouldn't invest more resources in and increase our dependency on a non-renewable resource? really?

8/24/2009 8:42:22 AM

It isn't non-renewable over a reasonable time frame.

8/24/2009 8:45:39 AM

right, so while our generation is alive, we're all good. good enough for me!

8/24/2009 8:47:38 AM

Awww, what's wrong, out of argument ideas and it's just easier to make up my position for me?

8/24/2009 8:52:11 AM

not sure i'm even arguing anything with you, but ok.

8/24/2009 8:53:19 AM

You weren't arguing, thats the problem. You're just posting childish whines. Would you like an infinitely small violin to support your cries?

8/24/2009 8:57:29 AM

FYI, we don't have huge reserves off our shores. we already drill all over the gulf, addtional drilling in the atlantic will not make any sizeable impact on our nation's oil supply. this debate is a complete waste of time.

oh, and i've worked and consulted for multiple oil majors in their exploration and production divisions, so i probably know a little bit about this.

[Edited on August 24, 2009 at 9:26 AM. Reason : .]

8/24/2009 9:25:00 AM

fuck your facts


Actually, people seem to be having a tough time finding something bad about this.

8/24/2009 9:31:30 AM

i'm not necessarily against offshore drilling, but the idea that it would have a meaningful impact on our oil supply (or our oil prices), is false.

all the pro-offshore drilling folks will likely get their wishes within the next 5 years, though, as our oil prices are going to spike again once global economies recover, and the political pressure to drill will be back.

8/24/2009 9:53:18 AM

I like how you conveniently fail to mention drilling in the Pacific. There are sizeable reserves off the coast of California.

There's plenty of oil out there, so people should drill it and use it. And when it becomes scare it'll go up in cost and energy from other technologies will be used. Energy and technology that was created by using electricity produced by cheap resources. When oil naturally becomes too expensive we'll move on.

Don't be an idiot and ignore a plentiful cheap (relatively speaking) resource go to waste b/c "eventually we'll be using something better"

8/24/2009 12:10:40 PM

i'm not saying "ignore it". what i'm saying is "it's not going to make a meaningful impact". it's no silver bullet, and a marginal help at best. fine, we can drill, let's do it. but it's not going to really cut your gas prices.

8/24/2009 1:11:23 PM

it will make a difference, and it is worth investing in, if merely for the money. California is billions and billions in debt. They have billions of dollars in oil just sitting there, but would rather pretend there's a crisis instead of using the obvious solution.

8/24/2009 1:33:14 PM

Because California needs money now, not whenever all the infrastructure is done in order to do the drilling in X years.

It's not like they can walk out there with a bucket and just scoop some out.

8/24/2009 1:41:20 PM

Yeah, no foresight anywhere in the country. Had they made an effort 10, 20 years ago to secure their energy future, they'd have been raking in the same billions a year that Alaska does. Of course, they would have pissed it away in some fashion.

8/24/2009 1:54:08 PM

California doesn't need more money, they need to cut back spending.

8/24/2009 2:58:32 PM

I've yet to see any study indicate there are more than sparing amounts of oil off our coasts and Alaska couldn't give us more than 5% of what we use.

8/24/2009 2:58:41 PM

Quote :

"Its pretty simple why we don't want to drill. Theres no need to invest more resources and increase our dependency and infrastructure on the fuel of the 20th century. Also, its horrible for the environment in many ways (ecological, co2, etc). It would essentially be like drilling for dvds in a world where watching dvds was proven harmful to the envrionment instead of spending that money on blue ray technology."

My lord you're ignorant.

8/24/2009 3:05:20 PM

^^^^^they can lease out the plots immediately securing billions of dollars from oil companies.

[Edited on August 24, 2009 at 4:17 PM. Reason : ^]

8/24/2009 4:17:45 PM

BREAKING NEWS!!!! OBAMA NOT THE EMBODIMENT OF LIBERALS' HOPES, DREAMS.

MORE AT 11!!!

8/24/2009 8:26:46 PM

Quote :

"California is billions and billions in debt. They have billions of dollars in oil just sitting there, but would rather pretend there's a crisis instead of using the obvious solution."

I would like to think there is a more obvious solution.

8/25/2009 12:50:42 AM

^legalize and tax weed?

8/25/2009 8:10:53 AM

^bingo.

^^feel free to point one out.

8/25/2009 9:49:33 AM

Quote :

"I think the plan is to wait for the world to run out of oil and then have them come crawling to us for our untapped reserves."

I can support this, although I would take the view of saving the last oil reserves for ourselves. There is no sense exhausting our limited capacity when better, comparatively plentiful, relatively cheap oil is still available on the world market.

8/25/2009 10:35:49 AM

Heard on NPR today that BP or something struck more oil in the gulf coast, but it was deeper than most oil refineries and would take like 10+ years to get any to market.

9/2/2009 10:31:03 PM

TKE-Teg must be pretty happy with the Obama Administration these days right?

4/8/2010 5:04:59 AM

why, b/c he said he'd stop refusing to grant leases for oil drilling, oil drilling that was approved almost 2 years ago?

4/8/2010 12:52:18 PM

Quote :

"I think the plan is to wait for the world to run out of oil and then have them come crawling to us for our untapped reserves."

That's actually not a bad idea.

4/8/2010 1:07:40 PM

It is quite risky. We don't know if oil will be of any value that far in the future. It would be like the U.S. locking up a bunch of its coal reserves back in 1900. Would we today really be any happier if they had?

[Edited on April 8, 2010 at 1:43 PM. Reason : .,.]

4/8/2010 1:42:29 PM