Energy plan? 1. Get going on more nuclear plants to relieve burden on gas-fired and coal-fired plants; 2. Authorize drilling in Gulf of Mexico before China
begins doing it as China has announced;
3. Drill in Anwar so U.S. can cut back on imports from unstable Middle East; 4. Proceed in haste with more efficient vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles. 5. Can the politics and get together on a
problem that affects everyone.

Jimmy, I could not agree anymore with your assessment. You hit the nail right on the head. The main thing is that all groups and all backgrounds need to come together. Business and industry may not like everything, enviironmentalists may not like everything; there will have to be give and take on all sides. It's the only way.

As soon as I read how Congress and the Senate will look into the energy issue I figured whatever energy bill is passed will be DOA!

All the politicos care about is where is the camera and what can I say or do to get me re-elected?

They are hopeless

Drilling in ANWAR is a waste of time and money. It would only provide a drop in the bucket, so let's get it off the table right now. Non negotiable.

You cannot drill your way out of this crisis. China is not going to drill in our territorial waters, so that is a non issue.

The answer is going to be better use of our current resources, and yes, more reliance on nuclear is an excellent place to start.

Believe it or not, I do think we share some common goals.

Jimmy, you forgot number 6:

Don't let the energy policy be written in secret by Dick Cheney and his friends in the oil business, like the late "Kenny-Boy" Lay.

If we had left those fuel economy standards intact, Ronald Reagan rolled them back, we would not have had to import one drop of oil after 1986. Think of what that would have done to our history. The World Trade Center would probably still be standing. We would have avoided two Gulf Wars. We would be a prosperous nation. We wouldn’t be bound down in this Mesopotamian quagmire that has destroyed our reputation and destroyed the reputation of democracy across the globe.

This is the cue for charlatans like Obama to suck up to their corporate masters and start pushing dirty, inefficient corn based ethanol.

HMMMM Jimmy C. and Johhny D,
Just the other day Johnny D. you once again said it would be foolish to rebuild a city below sea level and vulnerable to hurricanes. Now you want to build oil rig platforms throughout the Gulf of Mexico in the path of hurricanes and tropical storms in open waters. What kind of mental gymnastics did you have to perform to come up with those two contradictory positions.

I agree with that two - and additionally, I think its a much better approach to work with the auto manufacturers to create new technologies through incentives, etc. than just hike the CAFE standards way up on them. Sure thats much more politically popular since it puts all the burden on the industry, but I do some work with the AAM and a solution that takes more than elections into account sounds likes like a much better policy to me. Additionally, a free market approach that isn't Washington trying to legislate change will probably be a lot more solvent as well.

We'll never be able to drill our way out of this energy sink hole. Discovering new oil is not the answer.

We need a lasting cure, not a band aid.

I don't think Ethanol is the answer either. There is a Canadian company named Iogen that may have the answer we need.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iogen_Corporation

We, as a country, need to be early adapters of alternative energies. Wind, solar, tides...

We shouldn't be the economic captives of oil companies and terrorists.

All the money we spent in Iraq would have been better spent on investing in our energy infrastructure.

Oh Dumb Dumb Janet, there already are countless of oil platforms in the Gulf and have been so for decades now, despite the existence of hurricanes. We have them. Mexico has them. The Chinese apparently will be building some in and around Cuban waters.

And Raving Loon, if Reagan hadn't rolled back efficiency standards we would have stopped importijng oil in 1986? Wow, you are a mental Loon aren't you??
Raving Loon meet Dumb Dumb Janet. Dumb Dumb Janet meet Raving Loon. Just don't have any kids, OK? My taxes are high enough as it is.

Three responses: (1) U.S. territorial waters extend only 12 miles from our shore, making most of the Gulf of Mexico open for oil exploration by other countries; (2) Oil rigs are built to withstand hurricane force winds and do so regularly; and (3) The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that Anwar has more than 17 BILLION barrels of oil and 34 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas. If that's a drop in the bucket, it's a mighty big bucket.

Could this be the solution?

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/should_americans_return_to_a

janet,
I'm not going to address the reconstruction of New Orleans. But the Gulf of Mexico is one of the world's largest sources of oil, and more is being discovered in the Gulf as time goes by.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06oil.html?ex=1315195200&en=aedad2b99f228e40&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc

Therefore, to extract that petroleum (the fuel of choice in the world until a new technology arrives to replace it), more platforms are needed. The platforms can be damaged by storms, yes. But unlike a large city, they are maintained by private companies (not taxpayers) and, unlike a city like New Orleans, no one actually resides on a permanent basis on oil platforms.

Oil is not renewable and will eventually run out in time no matter how many oil platforms and drills we create. Oil is a plague to the Earth. Why not invest more heavily in renewable energies?

JB and Jimmy, putting forth facts, substance, common sense, intelligence goes way beyond the abilities of Dumb Dumb Janet. After 20 years of holding her back in kindergarten, her parents finally had to give up when the school said she was officially too big to play with the other children. Besides, they kept beating her at Tic Tac Toe, Old Maid and Concentration and then she would throw her fits and tantrums.

John You're starting to sound like a six year old again with the stupid comments. Either post something of substance or get to the children's blogs.

[quote]
there already are countless of oil platforms in the Gulf and have been so for decades now, despite the existence of hurricanes. We have them. Mexico has them. The Chinese apparently will be building some in and around Cuban waters.

Posted by: John D | September 13, 2007 11:34 AM
[/quote]

John D proves that he flunked grade school geography. The island of Cuba is not in the Gulf of Mexico - it's in the Caribbean Sea EAST of the Gulf.

Posted by: Jimmy C. | September 13, 2007 11:42 AM

Looking to see if I can confirm your posted number of 17 billion barrels of oil in ANWR.

"No one is certain how much oil is beneath the Alaskan coastal plain. In assuming 876,000-barrel-a-day production, the EIA assumed the “mean” estimate provided by geologists of 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable reserves."

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4542853/

"The total quantity of technically recoverable oil within the entire assessment area is estimated to be between 5.7 and 16.0 billion barrels (95-percent and 5-percent probability range), with a mean value of 10.4 billion barrels. Technically recoverable oil within the ANWR 1002 area (excluding State and Native areas) is estimated to be between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels (95- and 5-percent probability range), with a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels"

source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/fs-0028-01.htm

I've been finding the above numbers used consistently in Internet sources; I have yet to find anything even close to your 17 billion barrel number.

JB and Jimmy, putting forth facts, substance, common sense, intelligence goes way beyond the abilities of Dumb Dumb Janet. After 20 years of holding her back in kindergarten, her parents finally had to give up when the school said she was officially too big to play with the other children. Besides, they kept beating her at Tic Tac Toe, Old Maid and Concentration and then she would throw her fits and tantrums.

Posted by: John D | September 13, 2007 2:20 PM

Um, wait, who's acting like the kindergartener?

My dipoloma from kindergarten is worth more than your Southern Illinois degree, Johnny D. A school more reckognized for its party school reputation, STD rates, and faculty getting caught plagerizing academic papers. Good night, Johnny D.

Oh Dumb Dumb Janet, in reality, SIU has one of the best journalism schools in the nation and it's been that way for decades. SIU's student newspaper is one of the few that is self-sustaining (meaning no school money) and for all practical purposes actually run by the students. Their radio and TV program also is very strong.

And Dukb Dumb BC, you need to look at a map again because a good chunk of Cuba is in the Gulf of Mexico, or are the Florida Keys in the Caribbean too? You see Dumb Dumb BC, technically speaking, Cuba is a dividing line between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Those Chinese oil platforms would be in Cuba's territorial waters in the Gulf. As far as we know the Caribbean has no oil. And I'll help you. The NW portion of Cuba rims the Gulf. The North and NE portion of Cuba rims the Atlantic Ocean. The southern rim of Cuba rims the Caribbean Sea.

For your visual assistance:

http://encarta.msn.com/map_701512837/Mexico_Gulf_of.html

Weiner, the petroleum engineer, says there is nothing in ANWAR, so don't drill. Good call on the nuclear.

However, speaking with people in the oil and gas exploration industry, they say its loaded.

Department of Interior echos that.

http://www.doi.gov/news/030312.htm

[quote]
For your visual assistance:

http://encarta.msn.com/map_701512837/Mexico_Gulf_of.html

Posted by: John D | September 13, 2007 6:05 PM
[/quote]

Dumb Dumb John D, the "Joseph Stalin of Streamwood", the Encarta map that you link to shows NO DIVIDING LINE between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. You're just ASSUMING that the Florida Keys and part of Cuba are in the Gulf.

Try providing better sources, you lazy "journalist".