Considering the lawsuit ruling against the Exxon Valdez disaster is STILL not final after all these years, perhaps caution beforehand is not such a bad thing. Apparently, profits are fine, but responsibility for their messes is not:

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/213...

Another 'alarmist' letter that liberals are destroying one's impression of "freedom" and the American "way of life". These incessant attacks prompted by the right-wing talk show hacks do nothing to alleviate our country's dependence on foreign oil. Oh by the way, who knew that the US is currently exporting 1.8 million barrels of oil a day? To make sure everybody does, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent a public letter to President Bush, asking him to "keep our oil at home."

uh-huh - - big words from a man who's also up for re-election and knows very well that there's nothing bush could/can do about the 1.8 millions barrels we export daily even if he wanted to. we could all write that letter and wouldn't make any difference...(we now know for sure that popular opinion doesn't matter at all to these folks)

unfortunately the environmentalists and their associated lobbyists and other liberal friends have over the years succeeded in hindering the production of energy with so many restrictions, fees, regulations and taxes that the 10 years is a very real timeframe. but not due to any drilling or delivery or technical issue - new energy sources are so restricted, regulated and taxed that simply the paperwork would take 9 years and six months to get through...

The oil companies could easily process the fuel to meet US standards, they chose not too. This still goes to show that the price of gas is not only a supply and demand problem and the "drill baby drill" plan of the Republicans won't significatly effect the price.

Why is there even a debate about using our rescources for american energy? because of polar bears, which are not endangered regardless of the propaganda film "an inconvientient truth".We need to use all we can get our hands on and not produce fuels that do not properly fuel any cars that exist. The mid-grade fuel is not actaully called for in any car i know of and super premium is only for high performance cars. And the blends for some locales is just bizarre. The cars are better at buring fuel cleaner, and if you want really clean fuel we need to be drilling for natural gas as a prime fuel. This currently is much cheaper than gasoline, but we also have greater supplies to access. Nuclear has been held in check because of shoddy construction at one site in the US. Chernobel was a soviet problem due to communist oversight trying to cut costs. There do need to be inspections along the way, but if done properly, as it has been done in every other circumstance, Nuclear is green electricity that long term is very cheap. And as far as the credit crunch, why did I just recieve another credit card application in the mail?

you guys are making my point for me :)

do you know that it would take 12 years to obtain the proper licenses and permits to build a nuclearn energy facility in this country? and that doesn't count the 10-15 years you'll be tied up in the court systems with the "not in my backyard" crew...

do you know that the clean coal burners biden is so excited about take 7-9 years just to get the appropriate paperwork passed through the epa and other govt agencies? again this doesn't count the court time from the "not in my backyard" crews.....

it's easy (for both sides) to talk about other sources of energy when they know it'll never happen while they're in office anyway....

and all the lawyers just lie in wait for cases about someone wanting to put a nuclear plant outside of town, or windmills on my farmland, or a coal processing plant here....$$$$ flashing in front of their eyes.....

I want to ask you liberals some questions: How could you vote for someone that believes corporations should not make a profit? Do you know how much taxes Exxon paid last year? Would you invest 6-10 million dollars to drill a hole in the ground not knowing if you will get a return on your investment? The oil companies do it several times a day. The idea it will take 10 years to get the offshore oil to market is the biggest bunch of scare tactics there is. How many of you have been to ANWAR?

Can you even hear yourself? You sound like a four year old. "They Choose not to;" myou mind just trying to find some rationalization for that inane statement?

Drill in North Dakota... Larger reserve there than what is in Texas. And - it is not part of the drama... oh, and BTW - how many noticed they allowed the bill that prevented drilling into the areas listed (Except ANWR) to lapse - sounds like a mute point to keep "looking back" :)

I wish that there was less finger pointing and more problem solving going on - from both sides. Gotta get some folks back at DC that are visionaries - forward thinking - not just putting the finger in the dike mentality types. (on both sides)

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/n...

Got a cite to prove that?

July 21, 2008; The five biggest international oil companies plowed about 55 percent of the cash they made from their businesses into stock buybacks and dividends last year, up from 30 percent in 2000 and just 1 percent in 1993, according to Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. The percentage they spend to find new deposits of fossil fuels has remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits.

The White House said it was against requiring U.S. oil products to stay at home. "Forbidding exports of U.S. petroleum reduces the incentive for domestic suppliers to produce, and could potentially lead to higher prices if U.S. production or refining declined," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. The 1.6 million barrels a day in record petroleum exports represented 9 percent of total U.S. refining capacity of 17.6 million barrels a day. However, with refiners operating at 85 percent of capacity during the January-April period, the shipments represented a much a larger share of total U.S. oil products produced. The exports were also equal to half the 3.2 million barrels of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products the United States imported each day over the 4-month period. So we're going to drill more domestic oil, but the White House forbids that the oil be kept solely for domestic consumption. Goes against the GOP talking points, doesn't it?

dunno shorebreak, i've gone through nearly all of mr stanzel's press conferences since 2006 and don't find any quote similar to that statement.

found lots of quotes from the president about drilling and increasing oil supplies and renewable energy sources and other improvements, but nothing that matches anywhere near that quote you made.

can you give me the source? i'm just curious because (as you say) that is nothing like GOP policy or the president's policy.....i'd like to read the context in which those remarks might have been made....

Sure, here's just one of the many sources available that cites the quote from White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

http://www.theledger.com/article/2008...

So, again, just how many total leased acres from the Federal Government do oil companies have access for exploration?

Actually a portion of the exports includes aviation fuel which the air lines sure could use these days.

There was no admission of error on my part whatsoever. I merely added that aviation fuel was among the petroleum products that we exported. You are trying to work something in there that there wasn't there to begin with.

Just an FYI on imports and exports of "oil".

Yes, we do indeed export "oil".
But, the definition of "oil" for exports is defined as everything from natural gas liquids, lubricants, jet fuel, kerosene, naptha, oil waxes, high sulphur oil, asphalt, or almost any refined petroleum product.
Why would we not have "oil" exports since we have refineries and many, many countries (including our neighbors north and south(including many Carribean islands)) do not have the number or type of refineries that we have.

Should we just stockpile these excess refined products that we do not readily need or can timely use? Why not sell them on the open market to those who need them?

OPEC countries(even some we are not really "friends" with) actually produce about 50% of the Oil we import (where would we be without them or what would we do if they decided to keep "Their" oil at home and not allow to export to us?).

Canada, Mexico, Russia, and the UK are next in line from whom we get imports from.

Not surprisingly, our largest exports of "oil" go back to Mexico and then Canada.