Thought For The Day
I will reprint one of my former comments on this subject:
What is wrong with a few oil wells? In Texas we celebrate oil wells. There is a little town south of Austin called Luling. This is what they do with their oil wells.
There are almost two hundred oil well pump jacks within the city limits of Luling. The Chamber of Commerce commissioned a local artist/sign painter to create moveable art to decorate many of the wells along the highways.
http://www.lulingcc.org/new_things_to_do.htm
Oil wells don’t really bother livestock or wild animals all that much, unless they blow out or catch on fire. They don’t do that very often. It doesn’t bother me a bit to gaze upon the beauty of mother nature, with a few oil wells, or several thousand cattle in the middle of the picture. This is Texas, I prefer it that way.
Oil wells may give off a funny odor, but as my daddy told me whenever I complained about cleaning out the pig pens:
Son, that smells like money. Be grateful!
Forget the environmentalists on this one. The politicians, who merely for hatred of Bush, are fighting this need a reality check. Saudi Arabia is our enemy - always has been, always will be. If we can unfetter ourselves from dependency on them for oil, this world would change overnight into a better place. Regaining some independence from others for fuel would give us some much needed ‘space’ to breath amidst all the other crap that is going on around the world that demands our attention.
This is so simplistic as to boggle the mind.
Posted by Phoenix
05/15/2005 at 01:59 PM
OCM I will use an example that happen to a friend of mine. His home was powered by solar panels and use to create excess energy, so the then power company allowed him to forego his service charge for the excess to be reticulated into their grid. Worked well but then the moved the goal posts and said no you have to pay for the our service being available to you wheter you use it or not. WHY, the homes around him had also converted to solar. Consider this, an average 4 bedroom home monthly electricity account is approx $130 - $150
*they moved..damn got to learn to proof read sorry errors as usual
CAT,
I can’t answer your question with any erudition of oil companies themselves. What I can say is oil companies cannot stop scientists from inventing, creating and selling alternative fuel sources. From a geopolitical viewpoint, it makes sense, even for the oil companies, not just the consumer, to have our own sources of oil. Dependency breeds compromise. It’d be nice if we didn’t have to compromise with any country the likes of Saudi Arabia, or to have to worry about OPEC’s whims. In terms of ‘power’, I’d say we’d double our bang for the buck if we lost the dependency.
******
Speaking of fuel and power and dependency: I’ll be thinking about you tomorrow. I hope you get more fuel, more power, and lose the dependency of that wheelchair for good!!Posted by Phoenix
05/15/2005 at 06:41 PM
OCM,
The oil companies want to drill there, it’s their equipment and their investment. These are not stupid people, if there wasn’t any profit in it they’d never go near it. The government is NOT paying for the drilling, they are only giving permission (or not) for private industry to drill there.I know that it was a consortium of oil companies that built the Alaska pipeline. I remember the ads that SOHIO ran at the time about “getting oil from our country for our country”.
Texans,
Aren’t there oil wells operating on the U of Texas campus? I believe UT makes a bundle on ‘em.Oh, yes. Good luck tomorrow, OCM. I hope it all turns out well for you and you’re back chasin’ the critters around the yard again.
OCM and Stanley have it right. Today, we don’t just “cut and run” after projects are finished.
As you drive through the western provinces in Canuckistan, you’ll very often see oil well pumps. They actually seem to blend in with the surrounding countryside. There’s no “scarring” of the landscape worth getting upset about. Besides, with today’s technology, one oil rig can probably send down about 8 ‘lines’ and they can now drill almost at right angles to reach sweet spots.There is also a joint USAF/RCAF NORAD radar base being “deconstructed” up here close to where I live. It was monitored and tested by environmental companies, given a clean bill of health and even now, is looking almost like it was never there - considering the number of buildings (about 25) that used to be there. All of them are down, reduced to splinters, and gone for landfill. Even the 75 - 80,000 tons of concrete are being ground up and used to fill the area.
Yet another company will come in and return the area to pristine wilderness, as it once was. (The main problem was asbestos, lead and PCB’s abatement from the 1950’s construction. That’s been dealt with.)
Ultimately, the site will be turned over to an Indian Band - in about a month or so.If one were to see the Alaskan pipeline, ditto for that. You’d likely not even notice it. And kids up here are getting well-payed summer employment “tree planting” for the big timber companies.
As for alternative fuels - There’s nothing really earth shattering on the horizon - yet.
Hydro electricity is still the cheapest form of energy. Fossil fuels will be around for a while yet. So, to the enviro-weenies, I’d say simply - get over it. Besides they’ll just jump on whatever else comes along as an alternative. Just like they’re bitching about the wind turbines in CA. It’s a vicious, never-ending cycle. Screw ‘em.-Dan D,
Canuckistan
05/15/2005 at 05:01 PM
05/16/2005 at 07:23 AM
