Sandra M writes:
We should import sugar-based ethanol from Brazil AND open Anwar and drill 65 miles offshore. (None of the oil rigs in the Gulf spilled a single drop of oil during Hurricane Katrina).
And not one thing about our ridiculous appetite for the stuff? This position assumes that we actually have enough left to drill for.
We don’t. Here’s proof, from the government itself (all links go to the Department of Energy unless otherwise noted):
- US oil production peaked in 1970 at 11.3 million barrels/day. US production has been declining thereafter, despite a drilling boom.
- Not even the Alaska pipeline got us back to the previous peak.
- Consumption continued to climb after 1970, rising from 14.7 million bbl/day to 20.8 million bbl/day in 2005. Meanwhile, US oil production fell to 6.9 million bbl/day.
- Lack of effort wasn’t the problem. The number of US producing wells rose from 497,000 in 1973 (the first OPEC price shock) to 620,000 in 1987, but total production continued to fall.
The problem is that we’ve used up all the good prospects. No amount of offshore and onshore drilling is going to create new, big oilfields; we are left with the dregs. ANWR would produce only about 780,000 barrels/day maximum. The Bakken shale can produce maybe 200,000 bbl/day [theoildrum.com]. That’s about 1 million out of our 20+ million barrel habit, each and every day. They wouldn’t even make a 10% cut in our imports.
The US burns about 9 million barrels of gasoline every day, 9 times what ANWR and the Bakken can give us. Ever notice that nobody talks about getting rid of all the Hummers and Escalades and Durangos and Expeditions and making our cars all efficient? About reviving Al Gore’s Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (80 MPG full-size sedans), which would have been delivering about now… except Bush killed it in 2001? About making roads safe for people to bicycle to work, so they don’t have to drive just to get there in one piece?
We could do a lot, but the only things I see people talking about are the ones that involve buying oil. It’s almost like the oil companies own this country, down to most of the people posting comments on blogs.
