Interior head says public lands can make U.S. a 'dominant' oil power

[G_j]

Last edited Mon Jun 19, 2017, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

By Valerie Volcovici | BOSTON

Boosting drilling and mining on America's protected federal lands can help the United States become not just independent, but "dominant" as a global energy force, according to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose agency manages about one-fifth of U.S. territory.

In an interview with Reuters, Zinke outlined his approach to development and conservation in America's wildest spaces, and discussed how that philosophy was guiding his review of which national monuments created by past presidents should be rescinded or resized to make way for more business.

"There is a social cost of not having jobs," the former Montana Congressman and Navy Seal said in the interview on Friday. "Energy dominance gives us the ability to supply our allies with energy, as well as to leverage our aggressors, or in some cases our enemies, like Iran," he said.

Former President Barack Obama, who oversaw a huge increase in domestic energy production during his tenure while strengthening environmental protections, had advocated reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN19A1KG

[liberal N proud]

1. Fuck, these people are criminals.

[MBS]

7. + 1000 n/t.

[atreides1]

10. Zinke is a thief

And if the US Navy had done their fucking job and court martialed that thief! He'd be in the Middle East with Eric prince working as a mercenary!!!!

[theophilus]

2. Hoooray! U.S.A. We're number ONE and the flags will

be fluttering in the breeze over our desiccated skeletons and our burned out houses as the remains of the human species bake in the sun. At least the corpses will rest well in eternity knowing that, before they starved to death, they had a good job in the fossil fuel industry.

Stupid humans. Thanks for the greed, morons.l

[procon]

3. If oil is owned by corporate investors and sold to the highest bidder,

how does the US government "dominate" sales on the free market or control the brokers who turn around and resell oil on global markets?

[vkkv]

4. Privatize the profits, socialize the costs..

THAT, is the Republican way.

[mdbl]

5. Of course, we won't do the common sense thing and move away from oil

We'll just keep polluting the shit out of the planet until it vomits us up. Morons.

[adigal]

6. Oh, yes, let's rape the land for yesterday's technology

What % of their energy does Germany get from oil? England? sweden? I bet it is less than 1/3.
The United States - walking backward while the rest of the world zooms past us. This is what the disrespect of education and educated people got us.

[Doitnow]

8. Probably a dead zone, too. Hooray!

[jmowreader]

9. How many capped wells are there already?

I realize "drilling ANWR" is better than snuff porn to your average Republican, but aren't there a shitload of oil wells they drilled and capped for opening at a later date? Until THOSE wells have been opened and used up, I really don't want to hear about punching holes in protected land.

[mr_lebowski]

11. Bullshit. US 'boosted' production like MOFO's starting around 2007 with the tight shale plays ...

At Bakken (SD) and Eagle Ford (TX) mainly ... the fracking biz went NUTS ... and you know how much we reduced our net % of imported petroleum? Around 10%. It went from like 60% imported (in net) to 50%, and that was at the HEIGHT of our little 'mini-boom'.

And now the imported % is inching back up because a lot of the plays are no longer economically viable with oil around $50/bbl. It needs to be up around $80 for most of them to 'make sense' economically. So the frackers have largely ... left ...

Ergo, there's TONS of leases already out there, and nobody working them. We don't need to open more public wildlands to more fcking FRACKING. Let 'em work the leases they already have.

There's no friggin Ghawar or Cantarell just sitting under a US Nat'l Park somewhere, waiting for someone to stick a straw in and start pumping out 10M barrels/day, if it wasn't for the 'regulations' and 'environmentalists', you fking morons.

Yes we have quite a bit of oil underground we COULD get at ... but at great cost, both in extraction and environmental degradation.

And most likely, that WILL happen ... when oil gets expensive again.

But the first places it SHOULD happen ... are on the leases that've already been handed OUT.

PEOPLE, DON'T HAND AWAY OUR FRIGGIN BIRTHRIGHT TO SOME BS SCAM ... moves like these are NOT about ramping up petroleum production for US security, they're about SELLING OUR NATION'S PRISTINE LANDS TO GREEDY FOSSIL FUEL CORPORATIONS FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR.

Some of them will be GLOBAL, not even US companies ... as if that term even means anything anymore!!!

Also, FCK YOU Zinke!!!

[bluestarone]

12. all i can say is

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

13. Why does Reuters think his having been a Navy Seal at one time is important to remember?

Shouldn't they inform the world he also played football in school?





Fishing! Whooo!



Holding books!







This heroic republican is protecting our interior. Doesn't it bring a tear to your eyes?

[G_j]

14. I see zero

qualifications that is

[Astraea]

15. "Social cost"?

Suddenly these characters give a shit about society? What about environmental cost? The cost of possible extinction? How about those costs? They're never factored into the Repug scheme.

[jeffreyi]

16. This asshole is a malicious vandal.

Thd rapers and pillagers are always going to be drooling to rip us off.

[Hortensis]

17. The locust mentality controls the Republican Party.