Well the answer is quite simple really. Give companies the option to undertake such drilling, and see if they do. If they think they will make a return on it, they will look to drill there. Hence the argument not to allow drilling because a return might not be possible is moot - if that's the case, you don't need to ban it, and if it isn't the case, then the argument falls flat by definition!

As for investing that money in alternatives, the companies will do that IF they feel the returns would be greater. That is where government policy could come in, introducing a tax on oil and/or subsidies on renewable+environmentally friendly alternatives, which could then make such alternative energy sources provide a better return for companies, but it still isn't a reason not to allow the drilling. The only reason to not allow the drilling that I can see is if the environmental costs of the drilling would be so ridiculously massive that a simple tax wouldn't be able to cover them, and a ban would prove more effective. I can't see offshore drilling resulting in nuclear scale disasters though...

A relevant term: simply a return to a fair marginal rate.  I give credit to Bush for lowering the floor to 10% for the poor; however, Congress should have raised the floor on EIC.   

When in the Clinton years the last time we had a "surplus" which was bogus.

Sensiblly stated. The so-called ban, however, is not really an event when in reality so many millions of square miles licensed have not even been explored. 

 

How do you know this?

It's common knowledge, but I'm not sure that the oil companies have yet applied for license, which incidentally I've said here or elsewhere that government should not be in the business of exorbitant licensing, particularly when domestic oil is critical. 

Not that common, I have not heard of this except from left wing nut jobs that have little or no understanding of the business. So, I will ask it a different way, where did you learn this?

I was speaking of the state, not clinton.  Although he was gleefully rubbing his hands when he saw the surplus at the end of his term.  And no talk about a rebate (from him) even tough that was one of his promises when initially elected.

And the EIC is welfare.  Face it.  That's all it is.

 

According to the MMS there were 7,457 active leases as of June. Of those only 1887 were classified as "producing." There are 68 million acres still to be explored. So where's the ban.?

August 19, 2008 11:47 AM
The US Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) Gulf of Mexico region announced that 423 bids were received from 47 companies on 319 tracts offered for Western Gulf of Mexico federal oil and gas Lease Sale 207 to be held on Aug. 20, 2008.
NEW ORLEANS -- The Western Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 207 attracted $487,297,676 in high bids, according to MMS. Fifty-three companies submitted 423 bids on 319 tracts comprising over 1.8 million acres offshore Texas. The sum of all bids received totaled $607,134,968.

They have a lease on my backyard, but they are not going to find anything.  Perhaps if they could explore areas, and if feasible, drill for it, that would be a statement.  Giving a lease in the middle of Manhattan makes for nice talking points (as you demonstrated), but hardly does anything for the issue at hand.

On this issue, the democrats are like the idiot who is crawling on his hands and knees.  A passerby asks him what he is doing. "I am looking for my car keys" said the idiot. "Where did you lose them?" asked the passerby. "Around the corner, but the light is better here."

 

Sorry sir but this proves nothing. Your logic is flawed. You are suggesting that because there are 7000 leases and only 1800 are producing that the others must be idle. In reality you don’t show how many have been explored and abandoned because they are not going to produce. You don’t show how many have been closed down because they no longer are producers but the lease has not run out yet. How many are being explored but have not reached the point where they can drill yet? How many are drilling but have not produced a drop of oil yet?

 

There are 68 million acres of land but you don’t know what has been explored to date. You don’t know of that acreage how many are used in the production of oil. a lease is not a single acre so you have mislead or tried to mislead us by saying the land is not being explored. It may be true but you have not produced any proof of this.