Offshore Oil

It's in the political speeches, you hear about it all over the news, you may even hear it in general discussion around town. With the rise in gasoline prices, everyone wants to point a finger. Right now, the finger is being pointed at the moratorium against offshore oil drilling. But consider that we sit on top of maybe 3 percent of the world's oil supply while we use upwards of 25 percent. So, even if we ramped up all capabilities and started drilling everywhere we possibly could, it MIGHT drop gas prices down about 10 cents.

I found a really good article that gives a lot more facts to consider. One is that oil companies are stockpiling more than 10,000 oil drilling permits on land that they already own but are not drilling on. Two is that even if we could drill in more places, all of our refineries are at capacity. We would have to add refineries in comparison to oil drilling. Third is that even if we do drill, it would take up to ten years to really feel any affect on prices.

So while, yes, we could lift the moratorium to drill, would it really do anything significant to help? No. This is all politics and finger pointing to get the public's attention. They're using the hardship we're all having with the sudden rise in gas prices to gain our sympathies. What they really need to focus on is an overall picture. Something none of them can seem to come up with.