Why is Alaska not being drilled?

[WDRacing]

Where'd ya dig those numbers up fruitbowl?

[mtcookson]

That said, no matter what anyone tells you, the United States DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH OIL to sustain itself for any meaningful time. The North Shore of Alaska is *not* the 2nd largest oil-field in the world, this is a lie. If it was, it would have been exploited before or would be getting exploited now. People aren't stupid, they're not going to leave a massive natural resource untappted. It wasn't tapped because it isn't really material, it's just become a hot-button political issue so now it's getting addressed.

I don't know... this guy has some pretty heavy evidence to go against that:zer...risis

[ScrapMetal]

I don't know... this guy has some pretty heavy evidence to go against that:zer...risis

That's where I got the idea for this thread. I saw the first video, that old guy was talking so much crap about there being so much oil in Alaska(more than in Arabia), I just couldn't help but think, if there was so much oil in Alaska, wouldn't this country be sucking it dry by now? Then I read on some site that animal activists didn't want drilling there because of Caribou. I was like WTF? Where did this old guy get this information, that there is so much oil in Alaska?

[audtatious]

Well, the benefit of wind and solar is that, once set up, the ongoing costs to generate power are very low, as there is no resource to extract, mine, or ship other than simple electricity. High upfront capital investment is not something that is easy to swallow politically though, even if the long-term situation is pretty rosy.

.

That is not necessarily correct. The problem with wind and solar is that you need to have working plants standing by to take up the slack. You can't store solar for commercial consumption so it's only good during the day and then you can't assume the wind will always be blowing fast enough or long enough either (wind tends to die down at night at well). Current power plants won't be replaced because they are still needed to ensure full power to the grid.

[Encryptshun]

Where'd ya dig those numbers up fruitbowl?

Fruitbowl? I honestly expected better of you -- a man of your obvious intelligence and education. After all, it was you who discovered penguins were living in ANWR...

Here's one of the many sources, and this is the one I pulled my numbers from:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/wind-power7.htm

I can get you others as well.

[HashiriyaS14]

I don't know... this guy has some pretty heavy evidence to go against that:zer...risis

I happen to think he's a moonbat, personally.

Matt: The storage of energy is indeed a concern for solar. Undeniably true.

[srellim234]

Storage is not an excuse for not doing it; solar is only one piece of the puzzle. The use of solar during the day to offset our higher energy use during the day makes a lot of sense.

The problem is, the two major political parties have the U.S. so polarized that unless a source is absolutely perfect we're not going to actually do anything. Let's start by recognizing that there is no on "magic bullet"; combine technologies to accomplish the task at hand.

[96Qowner]

Wind power costs from 4 - 10 cents/kwhNuclear is 3 - 4 cents/kwhCoal is 4 -5 cents/kwh

Those are just production costs -- they do not include setup, infrastructure maintenance, or waste disposal.

Well, that simply can't be true for wind power - wind is free and produces no waste. So that figure is amortization and maintenance cost of the tower and turbine - no other costs. It currently costs about $1.30 per watt to erect a wind tower. 1.5KW costs about $2 million. Maintenance might run $50,000/yr. Costs are still erratic. As technology and field experience improves, maintenance costs will go down.

Folks, they're putting them up ALL OVER around here. 200, 300, 400 KW farms. You just have to spread 'em around the country, so there's always some wind somewhere, and our electric supply problems are solved. Unfortunately, that's not our problem. Our problem is diesel for semis, for shipping our products around the country. City cars can be electric but shipping will always be fuel based.

[WDRacing]

Fruitbowl is just a little light hearted humor brosef

[Encryptshun]

Fruitbowl is just a little light hearted humor brosef

No problem, pothead.

[HashiriyaS14]

Well, that simply can't be true for wind power - wind is free and produces no waste. So that figure is amortization and maintenance cost of the tower and turbine - no other costs. It currently costs about $1.30 per watt to erect a wind tower. 1.5KW costs about $2 million. Maintenance might run $50,000/yr. Costs are still erratic. As technology and field experience improves, maintenance costs will go down.

Folks, they're putting them up ALL OVER around here. 200, 300, 400 KW farms. You just have to spread 'em around the country, so there's always some wind somewhere, and our electric supply problems are solved. Unfortunately, that's not our problem. Our problem is diesel for semis, for shipping our products around the country. City cars can be electric but shipping will always be fuel based.

ABSOLUTELY!

Only something like 3% of our domestic electricity consumption is fueled by foreign oil, the problem is all related to transportation. If it wasn't for vehicles, we could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil very easily.

This is why the speedy adoption of electric cars is so fabulously important. If we could get vehicles off of petroleum and onto electricity, we would have any number of options in regards to how to power them.

We need to start GENERATING the power to drive the vehicles offboard of the vehicles themselves and then just USING it onboard. It is inherently less efficient to do the generation onboard due to economies of scale.

[audtatious]

Storage is not an excuse for not doing it; solar is only one piece of the puzzle. The use of solar during the day to offset our higher energy use during the day makes a lot of sense.

I don't think that is the point. The energy compainies have to stay at full power production in order to supply power immediately to the grid in case the wind stops or sun does not provide enough energy (from what I have read). If that is the case then we are saving nothing.

[srellim234]

Again, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Methane reclamation, wind, solar, nuclear, etc. must all be used in combination to rid ourselves of foreign oil dependence. Drilling here is something that we need to do in the short term but it will not produce a long term solution without other technologies coming into play.

Solar is currently being used and face it; if the sun isn't shining in one place in this country, it is shining somewhere else. 2500 miles of solar panels on roofs from CA to FL are not all going to be out of action at the same time. The more we build, the less the variation, percentage wise, in output.