California's NIMBY senators Chevron and two other oil companies Monday announced the discovery of a new oil field 270 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico. The field, Chevron says, contains an estimated 6 billion barrels of oil.
The news was at least partially credited with lowering the price of oil to $68.38 a barrel, the lowest in five months. Chevron also noted that the test well which tapped the field had been drilled to a total depth of 28,175 feet, which is about 20,000 feet below the bottom of the Gulf. "More than half a dozen world records for test equipment pressure, depth and duration in deep water were set during the test," a Chevron spokesperson said.
Why do we bring this up? Well, late last week in Santa Monica Sen. Dianne Feinstein joined Santa Monica Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, Environmental Defense Center, Natural Resources Defense Council and Environment Now to call for "protection of California's coast from oil drilling." We find it instructive that the announcement was made in Santa Monica, where rent control, the abuse of eminent domain, a love for centralized government and a distaste for capitalism are rampant.
Sen. Feinstein said in her announcement that, "Sen. (Barbara) Boxer and I have introduced the California Ocean and Coastal Protection Act, to permanently protect California from oil and gas drilling."
So the recovery of any oil off California's coast, which could make at least as significant a contribution to falling oil and gasoline prices as the new Gulf discovery has, won't take place if the leading California exponents of "not in my back yard" get their way. One suspects, though, that they will continue to drive SUVs and keep consuming more than their share of aviation fuel as they accumulate frequent flier miles between D.C. and California.
The Gulf discovery, by the way, could be the biggest domestic oil field since the northern Alaska field opened a generation ago. But it isn't nearly as large as the estimated 10 billion barrels that lie beneath the tundra in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Both Boxer and Feinstein, you'll remember, have also vociferously opposed recovering that 10 billion barrels, too.
Sen. Feinstein said she was making her anti-United Statesenergy-independence announcement because the House of Representatives last June passed a bill that would lift restrictions on drilling for oil and gas on the outer continental shelf off both coasts. She was referring to the Pombo bill, a bill sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Stockton), which would eliminate a federal moratorium on drilling for oil between 50 and 100 miles off California's coast. Naturally, she and Sen. Boxer have vowed to vote against Senate approval of the Pombo bill.
So California, the single largest gasoline consuming state in the nation (and, if it were a country, the fifth largest consumer in the world) will continue to be dependent on other states and other countries for the vast bulk of its energy needs.
On some issues, we're happy to admit, Sen. Feinstein is admirably level-headed. In this instance, however, she's not only wrong-headed in the extreme, she's proving to be an expensive drag on California's economy and a costly luxury for California motorists. If you want to blame someone in California for high gasoline costs, you needn't look very far.
CA has increased it's power generation ability since the days of black outs and there are several cement plants in CA... so you are really off in left field there.
You are right, Ca. does produce Portland Cement. I wonder what the cost difference is? Actually I don't think I am in left field. I think the reality is that there are very, very few corps. that will be moving any manufacturing to a state that will make them less competitive in the market place. Really what I was referring to with my exaggeration comment was that I think you are over exaggerating the pollution problem in Texas versus Ca. There are polluters everywhere and I think any state one-upmanship is fruitless when talking about pollution.
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