Why just drilling won't work

You are right Annie, statements have been made by Republican representatives that all they are interested in is bringing down Obama.

I agree with you Annie. If republicans didn't have something to oppose they wouldn't have anything to talk about.

Hofferp, What many don't understand is that we can pump out as much oil as we want as a country, but we don't have a national refinery to process that into usage product. Just because we can get oil doesn't mean that we can use it. The oil that comes out of the ground has to be refined for usage in all sorts of things from gas to asphalt, to plastics, and polyester. We have a lack of refineries in the United States because of a concerted effort by the oil industry to control supply I am in the oil business, I talk to people that are a part of large decisions that effect YOUR gas price. I have talked to the vice president of one of the major oil companies personally, and asked him about this issue. He said that it isn't in the best interest of ANYONE to build a new refinery. I asked him if the EPA was such an issue why they wouldn't just build refineries in China, or India where they don't care about the environment. He told me that their company has a 5 Billion dollar refinery that was suppose to be completed next year, but they have held back due to demand issue. See demand is low, and supply is high so price SHOULD go down, but people don't understand that if you control the refining, and limit that then you can decrease supply, and increase price. This is the real cause of our current gas prices being so high, and will continue in the future.

Hofferp, it doesn't matter if we have US oil, or foreign oil, it the refineries won't run we will have high gas prices. It isn't a matter of having the refining capacity, it is a matter of actually using the capacity we currently have, or being forced to. Right now, you have corporations that have no desire to open up new refineries because it won't make them anymore money. If they just continue down the same road they can control prices much better. We could tap ever drop of oil in the US, and it wouldn't change the price of gas one bit. When all is said in and done the only thing we would be doing is making the oil companies more money by cutting down shipping cost. The gained revenue from all of the oil field workers, all of the taxes will be off set by record gas prices. You are fighting a lose/lose battle.

Thegreatdebater, I do understand that refineries, or lack of, are a part of the problem. I do understand that current demand and supply do NOT factor in to the current high prices of gasoline and petoleum products. I do know that the oil and gas industries are holding back supply to drive up prices. I also believe that speculators are driving up the costs at the pump. What I would have asked the oil guy is why are we allowing in/depending on foreign oil, if we have the oil and could have the refining capacity within a few years. Why not meet America's demands for oil with American oil/refining capacity?

Gew, the difference is that Obama is stating that alternative energy is the future. Yes we need to use our resources that we have here in the way of oil, but that is not our future. Republicans, and Sarah Palin feel that drilling will solve everything, and we all know that isn't a fact. If we don't create new ways of creating energy, and conserve energy then we could will be right back in this same place when all of this oil is out of the ground. We also need to consider the government running some refineries so that the energy companies can't do to us what they did in 2008. We have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, now we need a Strategic Refining Process to ensure we don't have huge price changes that are manufactured by the big oil companies.

Gew, you got me all wrong on my Strategic Refining Process. Just like the SPR was built to counter a lose of oil supply we need a refinery to do the same. This would not be run all of the time, but only when we would need it to be run (like right now). Or it could be a situation where the private refiners are forced to produce a curtain amount of gas and we could stock pile it like we do the SPR. Either way we need to find a way around this refining issue, or it will be a HUGE problem. You are correct about the direct correlation between alternative fuels and the price of gas. But, one of the other problems with high gas prices is that direct effect on the economy, look at 2008!!

Taskr, do you understand that we have record supply of oil right now? So why do you think the price of gas is so high, and continues to be? You can't just take oil out of the ground and put it in your car, it just doesn't work like that. We have an issue with refineries in this country, and no one wants to address it. Ten years ago you had many more refineries than today, so you can control supply better today, and that is what is going. You have major oil companies hold back on opening refineries because it doesn't make business sense to open them. You have a major oil company that is limiting the amount of oil they can refine everyday to increase price. I am not opposed to drilling Taskr, I have told you that before, but you have to understand the whole process before you can see the light. If we continue to allow corporations to manipulate the energy markets, than it doesn't matter how much oil we can get out of our ground, it will be sitting in a refinery waiting for the a CEO to decide if he wants to make more product. The oil business isn't like normal business, the more you make product wise, doesn't always mean you make more. Sometimes less is more in this business.