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Originally Posted by asaris
1. I'm guessing that most of the 'available oil' cited is in fact prohibitively expensive to reach. So the claim is technically true, but misleading. But that's just a guess.
2. I doubt the money paid will be enough to make a large impact on the federal budget, and even less on the state budget.
3 (and the real point I wanted to make) it's not so much that the 20 years part means it's a bad idea; it's that drilling off-shore is being touted as a solution to the high gas prices we're suffering now. So the fact that more drilling won't make a difference for at least 10 years means that it's probably being used as a cheap political ploy.
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If you look at the numbers and crunch them a bit, it might further convince you that this offshore drilling issue won't have much of an impact on oil prices, especially when you look at the global market:
With the estimated reserves of offshore oil, it would provide enough to fulfill 2.5 years of consumption in the U.S. economy.
With the estimated gas reserves, it would provide enough to fulfill 3.3 years of consumption in the U.S. economy.
Is this a long-term strategy or is it meant to bring prices down? You can't have both, and you might have neither. My guess is that it might provide some security in terms of supply in certain situations, but I sincerely doubt any amount of U.S. drilling offshore will have a significant impact on prices.