Buffalo Boy's Blog

I have been listening and listening to the opinions on oil, Ed Schultz this afternoon on AM 1520 made the most sense with the numbers of it all. Glenn Beck on Headline News seems to think we should ignore the warning signs and go ahead and drill anyway. I personally, listen to the numbers.

One of the solutions that has been on the table for a while despite it not being very popular is drilling for oil in ANWAR. Even if they opened up, it would take two years to start getting oil into the system. That would amount to only 40,000 barrels of oil a day.

We currently use over 20 million (think about that number) barrels per DAY in the US alone. 20 MILLION. How much of a difference do you think 40,000 additional barrels will make? The ANWAR oil wouldn't be up and running full steam ahead for 10-15 years and that would be at about 780,000 barrels per day.

Again, assuming all things remain equal, 780,000 compared to 20,000,000+ ain't gonna make a huge bit of difference.

Thats assuming we remain at that consumption level, which knowing our history and our society, we probably will ignore the warning signs of global warming, the current energy crisis and barrel forward full steam ahead. All the signs of peak oil are there. The new stuff is hard to get to and more costly which even if found will drive up prices because of the cost it takes to get it. 

One blog I read today featured a line from a peak oil expert and I agree with this 100 percent, "We better leave oil, before oil leaves us". Words we should be living by. History will repeat itself if we stay on the oil consumption path that we are on. Its time for some alternatives.

There are no short term fixes (that includes tax supposed tax breaks) and the only long term fixes are alternatives to the black sludge we are addicted to. Until we as a society learn this, we deserve the high prices we pay.