DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Drill for more oil off the coastal USA ?????????????

Boortz can be a bit rough around the edges but his math certainly seems correct.
I realize that a new source of energy other than coal or oil must be found/developed but until we do why not more domestic oil???

http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

"DRILLING OFF SHORE

It's looking like we're going to get a new push from the Bush Administration to increase our domestic production of oil. How? By expanding oil exploration within our own borders and in our offshore waters. Proposals are being floated (let's drive these into the parking lot and see if they dent any fenders) to allow drilling for gas and oil off the Alaskan, Virginian and Florida coasts. There are projections that successful exploitation of these oil-rich areas could allow us to not purchase one drop of oil from the Middle East for 10 years.

Oops! Wait just a minute here! Did I say FLORIDA? Why yes, I believe I did. I also said Virginia. But the politicians in Virginia are showing common sense on this issue. Can we expect the same from Florida? Probably not.

If you listen to Florida's Washington delegation you will soon see that Florida is simply not ready to step up and become a part of the solution. No doubt Florida's U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez will rant at high volume against the proposals.

Florida politicians will squawk about tourists seeing drilling rigs off the coast. Let's do some calculations to see if that is possible. There are any number of sites on the Internet where you can calculate the distance to the horizon. This information is valuable for boaters who might want to calculate the distance to some object at sea and to talk show hosts who have a point to make.

OK .. here's the science. The distance to the horizon in statute miles is the square root of "X." OK, that doesn't help much ... unless you know what "X" is. Well, "X" is the the height of your eyes above the sea, as measured in inches, divided by 0.5736. Got it? Well .. if that's a challenge, you can just click here for your distance to the horizon calculator. My eyes are about six feet from the soles of my feet. Enter that 6 feet and if I'm standing at the water's edge the horizon would be 3.3 miles away. That means that even with binoculars I couldn't see someone floating in the water 3.4 miles off shore.

OK .. so an oil rig is somewhat taller than someone floating in the water. Plus, if I'm a tourist in Florida I might be on the 20th floor balcony of my fancy hotel room in Sarasota. Now I couldn't find a horizon calculator that would allow me to input numbers for the height of an oil rig as well as my 20th floor balcony. No problem. Simple geometry dictates that you only have to combine the two and input that number for the person on the beach. So, let's go with 250 feet for my hotel balcony and another 250 feet for the height of the drilling rig. For those of you who attended government schools, that would be 500 feet. Just how far would that drilling rig have to be off shore for me not to see it. Answer ... 30 miles. Are there any proposals to put any drilling rigs within 30 miles of the Florida coastline? Nope. None. No serious ones anyway. The closest I have seen for any proposal is about 45 miles. So ... let's build a big hotel and see just what floor I would have to be on to catch a glimpse of that rig 45 miles out in the Gulf. Let's allow 12 feet per story. Fair enough? Let's round up some illegal aliens and a foreman who hables espanol and start pouring concrete. When do we send the illegals home? When we've poured about 92 floors. Does anyone know of a hotel that tall on the Florida Gulf Coast?

Golly! It looks like this concern about Florida tourists seeing all of those ugly drilling rigs and heading back to Connecticut are a little bit overstated, wouldn't you say?

And what about oil spills? Well, fact is that most of the rigs off the Florida Gulf Coast would be recovering natural gas, not oil A natural gas spill is not going to wash up on the beach. As for oil spills, modern drilling and recovery techniques make such spills highly unlikely. There is a greater danger of oil from the wreck of an oil tanker on the way to New Orleans or Houston than there is from a rig dozens of miles off the coast.

So what's the problem here? Ignorance, that's what. Many Floridians have come to accept as the truth the arguments about tourists seeing rigs while they're relaxing on the beach or the danger of spills, and it's easier for people like Florida's two Senators, Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, to cater to the ignorance of the voters than it is to actually show some leadership in this matter. "

About time, we aren't going to run out of oil in the next few thousand years, use it.

There are articals from the 1930's telling us the world is running out

Not just the 30's many people used the first computers in the 60's and 70's to use modeling techniques that predicted the overall shortages of many resources by the mid to late 80's. These are some of the same modeling techniques used to predict rising ocean levels, and climate change here on earth. Sorry didn't mean to turn this to global warming, but modeling never solved anything.

As for the oil rigs, people never listen to math and science. You can have some read this and theyll tell themselves that itll be able to be seen and they dont even want to think something that "dangerous" can be there. To some people, ignorance is key to their lifestyle.

well they can always drill off the coast of california.. *gasp* i've seen plenty of oil riggs off the coast of california and never once thought.. "man, that oil rig ruins the sunset."

I like the idea where we drill for oil off the coast of Mexico ... and then when the Mexican government complains about us drilling within their border we tell them, "Uh, what border?"

Doesn't matter how much oil we drill for, the Libs won't allow us to build anymore refinerys.

There you go again. What libs are you referring to? Can you make a rational statement without throwing that out there? Are you referring to an actual politician or just making noise?

I just wonder..... With all of this oil coming out of the earth, are we just leaving a big gaping hole in the center. I hope it does not cave in one day.

Then say Greenpeace. Of if you have an ACTUAL "lib" trot them out too. I think you are free to say what you want, but when you post garbage I can post as well. See I actually think you keep up with the news well. You post (sometimes) interesting stories. You seem to care about national issues. I think that is very, very cool. I'm also guessing that you have either serverd or are serving our country.

The main reason I repond to you is you simply don't seem able to discuss anything without saying something bad about either; liberal or democrats. You are free to be like that. When you just say something and don't back it up is when I'll call you on it every time. You don't seem to like me or anyone else questioning you so why not provide names when you throw people under the bus? Or at least give an attempt to support your ideas instead of calling parties, or broad groups of people names? I have a good feeling that you are a pretty smart person, so post like it.

I took it for granted when I said libs you would know who I was talking about. Greenpeace, Peta, the groups fighting pipelines for Caribou, the Dems in congress who promised to lower gas prices within the 1st 100 hours. They all me off but believe it or not I'm really a happy person... I'll try to do better. .

Hey if it helps I don't like Rosie either!

It's all about what people don't want in their backyard even if its for their benefit. If it was in someone's backyard they could care less. Here's a little piece I wrote ages ago about an airport... pretty much similar with different projexcts..

"Not in my neighborhood! This nuis`nce is not going to be in my neighborhood." If it can not be in your neighborhood, then who's neighborhood will it go to? It always has to go somewhere. In Orange County, California, they have plans to build an airport out of a retiring defense base. People in the southern county, where the airport will be, are shouting "Not In My Neighborhood" while the northern part is shouting "Build it." But if they can not build the airport in the southern part? Where will they build it? In the northern county? Then They'd be crying, "Not In My Neighborhood!" Not that Orange County needs another airport considering having John Wayne Airport and having two others in the driving range namingly Los Angeles International and the Ontario Airport. Both which are only about a hour drive. One hour drive is not exactly a long drive out here considering one may sit in traffic for an hour to go twenty miles. Do we really have to fight? Let just build it in the middle of nowhere.. Oh wait.. opps... That will still be in someone's neighborhood. Perhaps before the build anything ,not just talking about airports, they should see if the neighborhood wants it there. If not, there's always other neighborhoods which will welcome it. "Not in my neighborhood!" shall I have big beard dustballs driving down the street in a big car with big clown tires. "Not in my neighborhood!" shall I have a pole in the center of the street saying "hello". Always keep this in mind, It has to be in someone's neighborhood, but it should also be welcomed and most of all needed. Lets stop wasting our hard tax paying money.

oh I hear ya. NIMBYs is a term I've heard for those people. (not in my back yard).

Still here in Alaska (which is very pro oil so maybe not the best ex) there is a lot of support for near shore drilling. Even in some very remote pristine spots. The oil platform industry has shown that they are more or less safe. Given that they float, and have tons of crud that could possilbly leak out. Does anyone know of a major leak/disaster at a US oil platform?

I see it more as a problem of supply.

Build a couple more refineries......watch prices drop.


Oil isn't the problem. Big Oil has taken a tactic from the diamond industry. Diamonds aren't scarce. The number that are released into the retail market is managed to keep prices high.

Once you find the price people are willing to pay without decreasing demand, you do your darnedest to keep it there.

Do it,...

I'm gone in 30-35 anyway, so how does what I think on the issue matter anyway,...??

The exxon was a ship not a platform, but your cali link is legit! Thanks for the link. I can only hope that they have learned since 69 how to build a better platform. Do you know of any recent spill from platforms? I hope not as they are coming.