MoveBeyondOil.org | News Analysis: Why Drilling is (Unfortunately) Not the Solution

8/7/08 Why Drilling is (Unfortunately) Not the Solution

By Peter Forman
Published: August 7, 2008
New York—As oil prices have risen, so has the clamor for more domestic drilling. Both Democrats and Republicans — from John McCain and Congressional Republicans to President Bush and now Barack Obama — are offering drilling as a solution to oil prices and to our energy dependence issues. Big Media, too, has increasingly passed this message along.

While we understand the political appeal of the issue, here are the facts. Judge for yourself.

The United States consumes 7.5 billion barrels of oil per annum.

It produces only 3 billion barrels per annum.

Therefore, it must import 4.5 billion barrels a year, which equals 12 million barrels a day.

According to a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report prepared this year (under the Bush administration), if a lease were signed today to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ("ANWR"), no oil would flow for 10 years. This is due to a combination of drilling equipment shortages, manpower shortages, drilling location selection times, infrastructural requirements, etc....

And once drilling began, it would likely yield only 710,000 barrels a day.

That is only 3.5% of our 20 million barrel per day consumption and about 6% of our 12 million barrel per day import requirement.

The agency further concludes that planned decreases by other oil exporters would offset some of this increased production.

By the time any oil came on the market, declines in production from existing wells around the world, combined with increased demand from China and India, would leave us in worse shape than we are already in today.

It is a global market for oil. Even if we produce more, unless demand is diminished abroad, the supply and demand curves will dictate long-term triple digit prices.

With only about 3% of the world's petroleum reserves and 25% of the world's consumption, the U.S. cannot drill enough to replace its imports.

And additional drilling would yield little savings at the pump. As an example, drilling in ANWR would lower prices by just 3.5 cents/gallon by 2027.

We are supportive of drilling as a backup to a real energy plan that takes us off of petroleum for transportation. At the moment, though, drilling only serves to falsely assure us and to distract us from real solutions.

We cannot drill our way out of the energy vice grip we are in. Our only solution is to move beyond oil.

MoveBeyondOil.org
The bi-partisan, not-for-profit source for energy independence information and solutions.

MoveBeyondOil.org
The Not-for-Profit Source For Energy Freedom: Myths, Facts, & Solutions

Home | About Us | Facts | Support & Contact

Email this Page

Back to News Archive

Printer-Friendly Version