Maroon Eagle wrote:

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And the reason why we don't drill in the US is simple. It costs less to get oil from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries than it does to produce American oil. When it becomes cost-effective, there will be more exploration. Right now, it's not. But it's getting closer to that point.

And the reason it would cost so much to drill/produce american oil is that the evironmental regulations make about damn near impossible to get permits to do such things....it would take 5-10 years to get a site permitted......the environmental regs near about make anything here in the states hard to justify

Example:
A southeastern utility along with a municipality in florida as well as the DOE had planned to build an IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) that was much more state of the art and environmentally friendly than the one that is currently operating in Tampa, FL.....it was going to be the next generation coal-fired power plant (the US has plenty of Coal Reserves....hmmm another natural resource here in the US).............all three entities spent hundreds of millions of tax-payer/rate-payer dollars on preparing to build this thing.....permits in place....got the go ahead....new Gov of FL Crist....pulls the plug.....saying he wants FL to be the California of the East

Mutt the Hoople wrote:

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Coach34 wrote:

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exxon mobil has made 20 BILLION dollars in profits.

As for the "environmental crisis"? It's all bogus bullshit. Carbon Dioxide is NOT a poison, electric cars pollute the environment more than gas cars because coal power plants put out more pollution, and biofuels pollute, are wasteful, and have caused food shortages in the third world. When your pork loins for tailgates cost more at the grocer, thank a Nature Nazi.

P.S. REAAL smart move on MState's part to eliminate the Petroleum Engineering department in 1994.

Hell that wont be the case in a few years due to all the environmental controls being installed at the power plants....lets look at what is going on or has been installed in the past
Low NOx Burners
Electrostatic Precipitators (removes particulate matter from flue gas) same with Bag Houses
SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction system); basically the same thing that is in a car.....removes NOx from the emission stream
SNCR (Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction system) achieves the same as above
FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) ie a scrubber because it scrubs the sulfur out of the flue gas
From all the above there is the potential for Blue Plume (type of acid aerosol)....so lime is injected into the flue gas to react and prevent this from happening

Up Next will be Mercury control: use of Activated Carbon plus Bag Houses (if Bag House installed down stream of Precip) other technologies possible too

All that leaves is CO2 really leaving the stack

Coal-Fired Power Plants are the cheapest to build when compared to IGCC and Nuclear
Coal: another US natural resource that environmentalists want to see go away from use

How many US jobs would that eliminate (not all because China is a major importer of Coal and has stopped all exports of Coal....they are building these power plants right and left.....)