Exposing the 2% Oil Reserves Myth

[travelinman67]

In addition, between 1945 and 2010, the US has extracted over 165 billion barrels of oil.

And according to the article at http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/oilshale/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, a "moderate" estimate of what the United States has in terms of recoverable oil from oil shale is 800 billion barrels.

We have a lot of oil when shale is considered. And shale becomes a viable source as other sources become more expensive.

The idea that we dno't have the resources to make a significant impact is nonsense. We just need to get the friggin' environmentalists out of the way. No other country in the world would be doing what the United States is doing in terms of failing to exploit what it has.

/thread




What? Cappie got no cutesy nonsensical stereotype fallacy comeback?

[AZGrizFan]

Staying out of the market and having a policy are unrelated, for the most part.

How so...in conk parlance please?

(I wasn't targeting you and my guess is this is one of those moments where you apply some reason and separate from the true believers)

Free markets are fine (and preferred), but we (as a country) have energy reserves and as such, should have a policy and a plan to deal with, retrieve, and utilize those resources. Saying that your plan encompasses 'everything' as Obama has said isn't a plan at all. It's the shotgun approach. Additionally, we should have a PLAN that goes beyond worrying about stock portfolios and what Exxon's profit margin is and actually plan for the future, instead if lining the pockets of our biggest campaign contributors with taxpayer money while they're going down the tubes, and then agreeing to restructure that debt to subordinated it to other investor debt so the taxpayer gets fucked AGAIN when the company goes bankrupt.

[DSUrocks07]

Beyond the true extent of our oil reserves question (and I understand that if we exploit our shale oil we've got more reserves than Saudi Arabia), the "2 percent of reserves and 20 percent of consumption" thing was always something that created a certain impression but was virtually meaningless in terms of useful information.

Saying we have 2 percent of reserves and 20 percent of consumption is not necessarily saying we don't have enough reserves to support our consumption for the foreseeable future.

Illustration: Let's say I'm going to be on an Island with 9 other people for a year. Our sole source of entertainment is battery powered video games. I use my video game a lot more than anyone else. In fact, I use 20 batteries per month and all the other people combined use 80.

Meanwhile, I've only got 2 percent of the batteries on the Island. Does that mean I'm going to run out of batteries before the year is up?

Not if I've got 240 of them and everybody else combined has 11760. In that case I have two percent of the batteries, I use 20 percent of the batteries, and I have enough batteries to make it though.

It is a vacant, virtually meaningless slogan and it amazes me that people get away with repeating it over and over again.

[kalm]

How so...in conk parlance please?

(I wasn't targeting you and my guess is this is one of those moments where you apply some reason and separate from the true believers)

Free markets are fine (and preferred), but we (as a country) have energy reserves and as such, should have a policy and a plan to deal with, retrieve, and utilize those resources. Saying that your plan encompasses 'everything' as Obama has said isn't a plan at all. It's the shotgun approach. Additionally, we should have a PLAN that goes beyond worrying about stock portfolios and what Exxon's profit margin is and actually plan for the future, instead if lining the pockets of our biggest campaign contributors with taxpayer money while they're going down the tubes, and then agreeing to restructure that debt to subordinated it to other investor debt so the taxpayer gets fucked AGAIN when the company goes bankrupt.

So "everything" is the all their is to the official policy? Can I download that somewhere?

And please explain further how an energy market that is "free" from the interventions of governments works.