Which is why no new refineries have been built since the 70s. Who pays the start up costs? Certainly not the oil companies.
Flip-flop? We must use domestic oil while we can and preserve it at the same time. Is this another example of that obscure proper balance you are always posting about?
But this oil we drill will simply go out on the world market; the US will not be storing the majority of it (as I understand it). The benefit we get from this seems small.
Here's more of the post. Doesn't appear that he's referring to the strategic reserves. I'm sure he will correct me if I'm wrong. Post # 24 in thread titled US to open 3.9m acres in Alaska for drilling
In a global sense, we humans must use the oil right now, it's what our economy is based on, while we purposefully transition to future energy technologies. In a strategic sense, we Americans have limited reserves compared to other countries, some of which we should save against the future day when depletion is upon us. That is to say, we shouldn't rush to exploit all that we have. We should conserve it wisely, and deplete the other guy's oil while it is still relatively cheap. When oil is $1000 a barrel, buying it from Saudi Arabia could bankrupt us. It's not rocket science.
We're going to need all of the oil at some point. It takes a decade to develop, so it makes sense to start developing part of it.
Is the Middle East expected to run dry soon? If not, I am at a loss as to why we need to deplete our resources now. Unless renewable energy is closer and cheaper than many argue, which would drive down the value of oil. If we're going to store the oil we drill, I can see why we'd want to go ahead and drill and make it ready for use, but it seems the majority of this oil would simply come out the ground and be sold to the highest bidder, not necessarily exclusively the US for maintenance or expansion of our oil reserves.
That's easy enough for Congress to do. Developing this resource will take a long time. Waiting until the crisis is upon is makes little sense. We can develop an oil field and still decide not to produce much out of it until we need it. But we can get it fast when we need it.
