Friday, June 13, 2008

We can't drill our way out of the oil shortage? Like hell we can't!

You may have seen these data floating around on a couple of blogs (Ace of Spades for one)

ANWR Exploration
House Republicans: 91% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed

Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed

Refinery Increased Capacity
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed

SUMMARY

91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas.

86% of House Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.


It makes the point that the Democrats are opposed to increasing domestic supply, but it does nothing to refute the idea that we can't "drill our way out of the current shortage", so to put things in perspective I added some numbers (I always went with the low estimate):

ANWR Exploration
House Republicans: 91% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Barrels - 4.3 billion

Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed

Barrels - 4,768 billion

Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Barrels - 3,300 billion

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed

Barrels - 8.5 billion

Bakken Field

Barrels - 4 billion

Current US reserves (not including Bakken Field)

Barrels - 21 billion

Total Potential US Reserves

Barrels - 8105.8 billion

Current US consumption

Barrels - 21 million / day

Reserves in years (US Consumption only)

1057

Saudi Reserves (claimed)

Barrels - 260 billion

Reserves in years (US Consumption only)

39.2

Combined Reserves World Reserves not including the US (Claimed)

Barrels - 1115.7 billion

Reserves in years (US Consumption only)

168.6


Kind of puts things in a little different perspective huh?

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