The Executive Ban? It's Gone! <sniker>

[crockett]

8 Years, and he wasn't even alive for 5 of them. It wasn't just his plans, it was the plans hatched by his advisors that he approved.

It was still his leadership that put us there, had it not been for him we would have never gone to the moon. In case you haven't figure it out yet, being a leader means delegating your authority. A president is there to set mandates and set a path for the nation to follow not do the actual grunt work.

G.B. could have set a mandate to upgrade our national power grid to use renewable energy sources. He could set mandates to make the auto companies produce cars that are more fuel efficient. He could set a mandate to give home and business owners tax breaks for adding solar panels or wind turbines to their houses or buildings to save power.

These are all things a president could do that would "trickle down" through the system and help this nation much more than trying to plop a few oil rigs off the coast and crying because Democrats see through the BS and vote no.

[bj229r]

China might be drilling in Cuba but they aren't drilling in Florida waters.

They are drilling mebbe 50 miles off ....likely SIDE drilling into the area the FLA legislature is preventing US from hitting

Aside: I saw a report that Iraq was pumping 6 million a day before the war, and is only NOW up to 2.5 mil? Anyone have info on this? This seems like the fastest way to put world production up a few million a day, with some more infrastructure help...and by ALL means, lets protect the Anwar mosquito refuge!

[Holden McGroin]

G.B. could have set a mandate to upgrade our national power grid to use renewable energy sources. He could set mandates to make the auto companies produce cars that are more fuel efficient. He could set a mandate to give home and business owners tax breaks for adding solar panels or wind turbines to their houses or buildings to save power.

These are all things a president could do that would "trickle down" through the system and help this nation much more than trying to plop a few oil rigs off the coast and crying because Democrats see through the BS and vote no.

And JFK's brother could have welcomed the wind power farm being planned for just off shore of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/07/kennedy_doesnt_play_by_the_rules/   
But he and RFK jr http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/01/12/capecod/fought the wind farm even though 84% of MA wanted the green power on the grid.

So it seems environmental stewardship only applies if you have to compromise and I don't have to.

It seems both sides of the aisle have forgotton how to lead.

[crockett]

They are drilling mebbe 50 miles off ....likely SIDE drilling into the area the FLA legislature is preventing US from hitting

Aside: I saw a report that Iraq was pumping 6 million a day before the war, and is only NOW up to 2.5 mil? Anyone have info on this? This seems like the fastest way to put world production up a few million a day, with some more infrastructure help...and by ALL means, lets protect the Anwar mosquito refuge!

Well not much we can say about 50 miles off. International waters starts at 20 miles doesn't it?

[Holden McGroin]

Territorial waters is a 12 mile (22km) limit

Exclusive economic zone is 200 miles.

But when it's only 90 miles from Florida to Cuba, 50 miles from us is them when it comes to exclusive economic zone.

[crockett]

And JFK's brother could have welcomed the wind power farm being planned for just off shore of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/07/kennedy_doesnt_play_by_the_rules/   
But he and RFK jr http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2006/01/12/capecod/fought the wind farm even though 84% of MA wanted the green power on the grid.

So it seems environmental stewardship only applies if you have to compromise and I don't have to.

It seems both sides of the aisle have forgotton how to lead.

Yes, that's pretty much the problem with this country, we have no real leaders. To follow any of them is to be nothing more than being a sheep following a blind shepherd.

[crockett]

Territorial waters is a 12 mile (22km) limit

Exclusive economic zone is 200 miles.

But when it's only 90 miles from Florida to Cuba, 50 miles from us is them when it comes to exclusive economic zone.

Yea I figure it was likely they were doing it between us and Cuba if they were that close. Using Cuba's claim to territorial waters and an excuse.

[Newman5]

Am I the only one who feels that if, and when, the time comes that these new drilling rigs are in service, that we will not have as much of a demand for oil as we do now?  Or maybe the question should be that, with all of the technological advancements and new engineering ideas, are we closer to widely used alternative sources of energy, or new, in service, offshore oil riggs??

[Elfie]

It was still his leadership that put us there, had it not been for him we would have never gone to the moon.

I'm gonna haul the up BS flag on that one. When the USSR made it into space all of America was embarrassed that the communists got into space and we really didn't even have a space program . No matter who was the president when that happened, we would have had a space program started and made it not only into space, but to the moon as well. That was inevitable given the Cold War attitudes.

In case you haven't figure it out yet, being a leader means delegating your authority.

That's only one aspect of leadership and a good leader knows when to delegate authority and when not to.

G.B. could have set a mandate to upgrade our national power grid to use renewable energy sources. He could set mandates to make the auto companies produce cars that are more fuel efficient. He could set a mandate to give home and business owners tax breaks for adding solar panels or wind turbines to their houses or buildings to save power.

Why is this only on our current president? Oh wait....thats right....you hate him. Fact is, this is on every president for the past 40 years. Even so, the president can't do all of those things himself. Congress would have to pass laws giving tax breaks and to force the auto makers to produce cars with better mileage.

These are all things a president could do that would "trickle down" through the system and help this nation much more than trying to plop a few oil rigs off the coast and crying because Democrats see through the BS and vote no.

A few oil rigs? I'm guessing if the outer continental shelf was opened up to drilling that it would end up being a lot more than just a few. It's just plain dumb to not use the resources we have. Granted, with America's vast consumption of oil it won't make us independent of other countries for oil imports but it would lessen that dependence. Anything that lessens our dependence on others for our energy needs is a step in the right direction.

[Elfie]

Yes, that's pretty much the problem with this country, we have no real leaders. To follow any of them is to be nothing more than being a sheep following a blind shepherd.

I actually agree with you on something.......

Eww...I feel so....dirty!   

[Rolex]

All this would be interesting if China was actually drilling anywhere off shore of Florida or Cuba. They are not. Don't be angry at China. You should be angry that you were lied to again and the false story never corrected, again, by the media.

[moot]

No kidding?

[Rolex]

No kidding. It's a myth. A Chinese company reportedly has a contract for exploratory drilling on land, but nothing has been drilled. A Norwegian company drilled a test well in 2005 (on shore) and this story was mixed with the Chinese story by a dumb Congressman because Cuba is 90 miles off the shore of Florida. Vice President Cheney repeated the myth on a Sunday news show with a new distance and the myth was reborn.

How about some photos of those Chinese oil rigs? 

It worked though. The end result was opening up drilling to provide a few years worth of oil. This oil price increase is just another warning from the marketplace to do something different. The legislation is just another aspirin to mask the pain from the tumor. Spot price is not much different than future prices. It's moot.

[Nashwan]

If you cut down on oil used in our power gird, it means there is more oil left over for fuel.

The US uses very little oil for electricity generation. The oil that is used is likely to be either petroleum coke or residual fuel oil, both of which are left over products from the refining process, and of no use for cars.

[indy007]

I'm starting to be in favor of mandating micro-generation on new home construction. Drives small-scale solar/wind/hydro development, feeds power back into the grid when there's an excess, doesn't suffer nearly as bad during grid failures if it has a battery backup, and still can get energy from the grid if it's there's no wind and an overcast.

Cost of the system depends on the house size, but going with Texas prices, you can add about 10%. An 80k home would have a more than sufficient system for 8k. With Cali pricing, with that same postage stamp home being 300k, you're looking at 3% of the cost... and it can pay for itself in under 10 years based on energy prices from 4 years ago. I'd imagine it'd be quite a bit quicker now. Add to that the buying power of developers, and costs drop even further.