If these numbers are even 1/2 correct...

[srkruzich]

Like has already been said.  We do have a lot of oil, and natural gas available.  Actually getting it out of the ground is a different story.  Its extremely expensive to extract oil from shale.  The best way to go forward is to find alternative forms of energy. 

God shed his grace on thee,  yes he did, we've got the sun, the wind, water, geothermal, maybe even nuclear.  Oil has always been a losing proposition for us. 

And it has been proven over the last 30 years solar, wind are not effective enough and never will be to rely on it for power production.  Water is reliable, but in limited areas and most areas today are already developed with hyrdo.  Theonly other tech that hasn't been used is wave power from oceans and thats in limbo cause it might screw with some dumb crustacean out there.
Nuclear is the best option for power production.  Its cheap, plenty of fuel, and reliable and if we could get past all the regulation and suppression, it could be integrated into powerpacks for automobiles to run on.  But that aint going to happen in our lifetime.
So what we have is Oil.  drill it pump it and use it.  Until they come up with a tech that will do what oil does, were stuck with it.  So lets use it until that happens.  This cutting off the oil like obamas done this past year is doing nothing but hurting this country.
Between oil and coal, we have enough resource to use until the tech comes to change that.

[Patriot]

Like has already been said.  We do have a lot of oil, and natural gas available.  Actually getting it out of the ground is a different story.  Its extremely expensive to extract oil from shale.  The best way to go forward is to find alternative forms of energy. 

God shed his grace on thee,  yes he did, we've got the sun, the wind, water, geothermal, maybe even nuclear.  Oil has always been a losing proposition for us. 

I'm an 'all of the above' kinda person, but in the short run, water n wind won't lubricate the bearings on anything.  The ultimate costs to implement many of the 'alternative power sources' are extremely high and require subsidy to even be useable at scale (look at ethanol for an example with a history).  In the interim, we're a petro based society.  Continuing to satisfy our petro needs largely from foreign sources is consummate foolishness may well bankrupt us as will a forced short term attempt to switch to alternatives.  Also most alternatives seem geared at productuin of electrical power.  That's not the only kind of power we need.  Is it?

[Anmar]

Steve,  you're wrong about solar.  There are many countries that are using Solar energy plants quite effectively and reliably.  The new nanofilm technology makes production of solar cells quite affordable in terms of capital and can generate electricity at a rate just slightly more expensive than coal. 

[Varmit]

Ain't nothing gonna change until folks are forced to find the tech. for an alternative.  We may have an abundance of oil but what will we do to the enviroment getting that oil?  We need to cut back on our enegry consumption and find an alternative.  Our water supply is a hellva lot more important than oil.

[redcliffsw]

Yeah, we need to water lawns and get more fertilizer on the grass too.

[srkruzich]

We need to cut back on our enegry consumption and find an alternative.  Our water supply is a hellva lot more important than oil.

Instead of attacking industry on that, you might look to government.  THeir the absolute worst and highest offenders on that.  One example is City of Atlanta. INstead of fixing its wastewater treatment plants, they continue to dump raw sewage into the chattahoochie and other tributaries and just pay the fine.  IF it were a business, they would be shut down immediately!

Oils got nothing to do with our current water supply problem.  Frank correct me if i am wrong, but we don't use fresh water to extract oil. we use saltwater which is not useful for us anyway.  They pump that saltwater down to force the oil upwards.

[srkruzich]

Yeah, we need to water lawns and get more fertilizer on the grass too.

Don't know about fertilizer or water on the grass, but i can identify two main problems here in rancher country.  FIrst of all, the soil is crap soil.  Instead of just plowing and fertilizing, why not build tilth. Take all that cow manure, compost it and spread it. Not only cow manure, but all the trees that these ranchers push down and burn, could be turned into compost or tilth very easily! 
Speaking of trees, these ranchers around here are absolute idiots by knocking down any tree they see just to get that extra 5 foot of hay.  Those trees are what keeps this place from turning into a dust bowl again.  Its a complete lack of understanding and care of how the land responds to the removal of the trees.   

[Anmar]

Don't know about fertilizer or water on the grass, but i can identify two main problems here in rancher country.  FIrst of all, the soil is crap soil.  Instead of just plowing and fertilizing, why not build tilth. Take all that cow manure, compost it and spread it. Not only cow manure, but all the trees that these ranchers push down and burn, could be turned into compost or tilth very easily! 
Speaking of trees, these ranchers around here are absolute idiots by knocking down any tree they see just to get that extra 5 foot of hay.  Those trees are what keeps this place from turning into a dust bowl again.  Its a complete lack of understanding and care of how the land responds to the removal of the trees.   

sounds like good responsible farming to me.  In africa, farmers are using trees to raise the water table, improve soil, and in the southern sahara, they have even been turning parts of the desert to pasture by trapping the rain with rocks.

[srkruzich]

sounds like good responsible farming to me.  In africa, farmers are using trees to raise the water table, improve soil, and in the southern sahara, they have even been turning parts of the desert to pasture by trapping the rain with rocks.

The problem is that isn't happening.  I got lucky this past fall and a rancher brought me 2 dump truck loads of hay and manure from where he fed his cattle and dumped it on my garden spot. Right now i have bout a foot thick of soil where i am going to plant my garden.   I just wish right now i had a dump truck and front end loader. I would go get manure from the cattle yards at the auctions and dump on my 5 acres.  Pile it up let it compost out for a year and start spreading it 1' thick across my pasture.  Then sow grass.  I'll tell ya if i could do that, i would have the finest pasture out there!

[frawin]

Most people feel like we should be drilling for more oil, why don't we look at a combination of solutions. Drill for oil, reduce consumption, use more alternative fuels, CNG is the most readily available alternative, wind and solar can and will contribute more in the future. We are importing 8 Million bopd, let's get started drilling and reduce that to 4 million a day. We are consuming 19.6 million barrels per day of total petroleum derived products, lets make a goal to reduce that by 25%, 5 million BPD ASAP. We can start by reducing the wasted horsepower in vehicles, the number one selling vehicles in America are pickups, of the top selling vehicles in America, Number 1  on the list is the Ford F series pickup and Number 2 is the Chevrolet Silverado, I realize that some people need more horsepower for their work, but I would venture that 90% of the big pickups out there could do all they need to do with 1/2 the HP. Americans need to realize that times and the world are changing, China is building vehicles faster than we are and the competition for Petroleum based energy is growing fast. If we started drilling now and reducing engines sizes it would be 5 to 10 years before we could be energy self sustaining. The clock is ticking and the future is going to be pretty bleak if we don't make the sacrifices NOW. Think about your children and grandchildren's future.