Timothy Birdnow

I get into it with an idiot, er, commenter on Facebook.

I reposted my old Enter Stage Right article and it seems to have set off a liberal named Paul Chevalier. Below is the whole debate (for now):

Chevlaier says:

Aside from the palaverous hate-filled ramblings assembled from the talking points of worst of the worst extremist media outlets, can you explain whether your core claim of "refusing our right to drill for oil" is a patent falsehood known to you and you're just spouting it for some pathetically otiose agenda, or if you actually give credence to it out of factual ignorance. Please ponder a couple of thoughts: 1: what percentage of U.S. petroleum drilling is done on private vs public lands, and 2: How many drilling leases for public lands are currently approved for energy companies, where those companies are choosing not to exercise them? Simple facts like those (and many others) trivially neuter your simple-minded and rage-blinded meretricious blatherings.

I reply:
I would be wasting my breath with you in debating any of this as you obviously have never actually read the quotes of the people on your side about restricting oil and gas. Joe Bieden himself has called for it on numberous occasions. And he pressured banks to not make loans to oil and gas companies to defund them. I guess you don't care about that.

I'm not quite sure what your point about private v. public land drilling is intended to make. Drilling on public land amounts to 7%, largely because of environmentalists and our heroes in government who will not allow more. We need more, especially in rich oil fields like ANWAR. Right now we have to frack because the last easy oil fields have been kept off the market. Is that what you intended to ask?

Oh, I know what you were trying to say; that it doesn't matter. But, as I've said, there are other ways to strangle oil and gas production. One is defunding. Joe Biden pressured banks to stop loans. Another way is to hurt oil and gas production is stop the construction of pipelines and of refineries. This lawless junta has done both. So we can get the fuel if we can move it - and refine it. Right now trains have to move it because you clowns won't let us use a pipeline. And we are trying to refine it with ONE refinery.

As to your second question, it doesn't matter. Approving leases is immaterial if you do not approve everything else. The fact is it requires multiple leases to actually get the oil out, especially with horizontal drilling. All the Biden junta did was approve some leases and not approve the others needed to get oil or gas to market. It was done for plausible deniablility.

And it takes more than just approved leases to find oil and get it on the market.

Also, the Biden Administration started talking down oil and gas from the get go and these are driven by futures. He scared off investors with his insistence onf electric vehicles. And his funding of electric vehicles - a technology not ready for prime time - has sucked investment out of the oil and gas market, thus making the developments of any oil fields more expensive and less well-funded.

Then there are the "designer blend" gasolines demanded by the EPA, which drives prices up.

Also, the Biden Administration enraged the Saudis, which helped drive prices up.

Also, they picked a fight with the Russians, which drove prices up.

The current high price of oil and gas are entirely an artificial thing and if you have half the brain you obviously believe you possess you would know that.

Here is one explanation of the problems faced by the oil and gas companies. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-07/biden-administration-misusing-facts-on-oil-permits-api-says

BtW it is Biden's insistence on reducing our oil usage that gave Putin the money he needed to invade Ukraine and continue the war. If Biden had taken steps earlier to get the prices down Putin wouldn't have had the cash to do this. He's flush with oil money and will remain so precisely because left the market. Yes, our oil exports have returned, but only because of the very high price of oil and gas now. Biden and the Democrats (your buddies) will keep them high with draconian regulations and defunding and the endless attempt tosqueeze them dry to combat a mythical ecological problem.

Simple facts like those (and many others) trivially neuter your simple-minded and rage-blinded meretricious blatherings.

Now you are a guest at my page, and you could have approached this politely. I've always been polite to Craig, who just showed his true colors as most liberals are nothing but rabid dogs. And you came in as a rabid dog, and a particularly arrogant one also. We could have had a reasonable debate. But you chose to come here insulting me and at the same time you make childish, junior high debate club points. Typical leftist; you don't know the difference between the Grand Canyon and that vertical crack you see in the mirror when walking away. But you think you do and you think you are the smartest guy in the room. I hate to tell you but you aren't. A wise man would not sneer so, especially when challenging people you do not know.

This could have been a pleasant and polite debate. But I've long since learned that leftists don't debate - they sneer. As Paley said of Gibbons "how do you refute a sneer?"

Mr. Chevalier retorts:

Timothy, I'll have to ask, coincident with the ramping up of alternative energy sources, why shouldn't a U.S. president seek to pressure OPEC-aligned petroleum sources to limit their production capacity?

Now, in the previous dialogue, the first ask was whether you knew how much petroleum drilling is done on private vs public land. You avoid the private number, but claim 7% public, which is of course a gross fallacy pulled from somewhere you shouldn't trust. In actuality, private land drilling accounts for more than 75% of production. Here's a quote from, wait for it..., the American Petroleum Institute: "Oil production from federal lands and waters provides approximately 24% of total U.S. oil production". It shouldn't take take too much brain power to then realize that any claim that we are critically dependent on public land drilling is actually a manufactured crisis, that exists solely to "own" the minds of those who can be easily manipulated.

The second ask was whether you knew how many drilling leases for public lands are currently approved for energy companies, where those companies are choosing not to exercise them. You avoid answering that, but if you care, it's currently 6653. On the remote chance that you'll ever find yourself in need of actual facts on this, here's the authoritative source: https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/operations-and-production/permitting/applications-permits-drill

You appear to admit that yes, there are lots of approved permits, but then you deflect and devolve into a vacuous tirade of conspiracies falsely claiming there are so many other impediments being put in place to limit the execution of those permits.

You then list a link to a Bloomberg article that you think bolsters your pseudo-"position", yet you've missed the irony that the article literally starts with "The head of the biggest U.S. oil lobby groups said...". It's big business propaganda seeking to rile you up with a manufactured crisis, and you eagerly swallow it hook line and sinker. to quote Oscar Wilde, "Irony is Lost on the Stupid"

The boringly sober reality is simply that economic decisions are made by energy producers to not proceed with some of the drilling permits, because they've determined it will not be profitable enough in the time-to-market schedule, and other investments will have better returns. It's always been this way. to quote von Goethe, "Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much"

No-one is "refusing our right to drill for oil". You've fallen for manufactured crisis marketing.
Just chill out, have a Bud Light, and seriously consider how you've been manipulated into being a fear-mongering puppet by some seriously bad actors that never will have your best interests as a goal, in fact they have just the opposite, and by allowing yourself to be brainwashed by the extremist media echo chamber you exile yourself to, your mind has been totally subsumed and owned by them. It'll be a long climb out of that, but do realize that there are people that can help you calm down and think it through.

And I respond:

Paul Chevalier why should a President try to keep oil and gas prices low? You do realize that these "renewables" are both not ready to run an industrial society and are very, very dirty in their production. They also depend on Chinese-made chips and batteries, and the Chinese own almost all of the raw materials and process them. It is a horrendous national security risk if nothing else.

And we can't provide adequate electricity now for the citizenry and yet we are suppposed to be able to power all these electric vehicles and the like?

Mining and processing rare earth elements are filthy processes, I might add, and cause huge amounts of environmental damage.

Right now we have all the oil we need, the natural gas, etc. And they are cheap, as compared to electric vehicles which are very expensive, high maintainence costs, and limited in range in addition to being too light to really be safe.

So you say oil production is 75% then you come up with the American Petroleum Institute which says 24%. Which is it? You don't bother to supply a link.

I purposely chose the low number because that actually buttressed YOUR position, not mine. You actually make the case that we get quite a bit more oil and gas from public lands than I even claimed. Thank you.

The Institute for Energy Research puts that number (for land based drilling) at 10%, btw. https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/oil-and-natural-gas-production-on-federal-and-non-federal-lands/ A bit more than the seven percent I purposely chose (the lowest number) to actually illustrate the bankrutpcy of your position.

To say this is a "manufactured crisis" is silly; as I pointed out and you simply ignore, the reality is we get as much oil as we can get, and if public lands are tied up then that reduces the total output. it's basic economics. (I would add that in places like ANWAR we don't even need to frack.) Your argument is only one that would appeal to the thoughtless and ignorant. The reality is more drilling means more oil which in turn means lower prices. It's supply and demand.

By tying up the resources all you are doing is dropping overall production, and in so doing raising the prce. It IS a manufactured crisis, but one manufactured by our government.That government wants high prices to promote "green" tech, which is not ready for prime time. And to help their investor friends get rich off of it.

I didn't avoid anything. The number of leases is meaningless. With horizontal drilling being necessary to obtain the oil you have to have leases on more than one parsel, something Mr. Biden and his ilk have carefully avoided handing out. They have also regulated the industry half to death. What is the value of having a lease if you can't get the oil, or you can't get it out of the ground? You probably don't know but most leases are taken out before the companies know if there is any oil or gas there or not. So most leases will never be drilled on.

And that is precisely what the Biden Administration has done; kept the oil producers away from the known reserves.

My "pseudo-positom? You are a pillar of condescension and arrogance sir. My position is rock solid and even you with your apparent cognitive disabilities should be able to se that.

Ah, the old "propaganda" bit. You don't address the actual content of what the man says, just sneer. I've come to expect that from such as you.

How about actually addressing what he says rather than just mock him. YOU used the Petroleum Insitute, which can also be said to be a propganada group.

I suppose I should just get all my information from The Daily Beast as do you then.

"The boringly sober reality is simply that economic decisions are made by energy producers to not proceed with some of the drilling permits, because they've determined it will not be profitable enough in the time-to-market schedule"

Duh. You seem to think they are in business purely as a public service. But why is it not profitable? Because the government, most especially under Joe Biden, has made it so. That was a conscious strategy and has been from the Environmentalist Left and the Democrats for decades now.

I wrote that article in 2008, btw, a point I don't think you even understand given your criticisms. But it doesn't matter; this was and is and has been a long-term strategy by your buddies to dry up oil and gas. Make it too expensive to buy. Yes, they very much are suppressing our right to drill. That oil - and that land - does not belong to the government. It belongs to the American People. You liberals think everything is government property.

You are the one being manipulated and need to chill out. You should look at those who have opposed drilling and why. You should look at the environmental lobby, at the huge corporations promoting "green energy". You don't because you get your marching orders from MSNBC and the the like.

If this is a conspiracy theory then why don't you and the Democrats put forward a real plan to increase oil production? Why keep pushing EV's when they clearly are not popular with the People and are not doing so well under many circumstances? Hmmm?

I've explained exactly what the junta is doing, how they are trying to strangle oil and gas. I notice you don't try to rebut any of it - just sneer. The fact is this Administration is indeed trying to defund oil, and is at the root of high oil and gas prices.

Joe Biden promised to end fossil fuels. https://apnews.com/united-states-presidential-election-9dfb1e4c381043bab6fd0fa6dece3974 I am doing Mr. Biden the honor of taking him at his word. And looking at his actions. Here is a timeline of Mr. Biden's hostile actions towards energy production. https://www.foxbusiness.com/energy/timeline-biden-actions-oil-gas-priorities

H'es not the only Democrat either; you DO remember the Green New Deal, don't you? You do remember them passing a huge climate deal? https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/19/democrats-climate-bill-oil-00061885 You do remember that? No? Part of what it did was purposely defund oil and gas (and coal). https://thehill.com/policy/finance/572444-democratic-bill-would-force-fed-to-defund-fossil-fuels/

The Left has waged war on oil and gas for decades; if you are even remotely honest you would admit that.

It was a nice try but in the end you didn't really accomplish much with this.

In fact much of this is illegal and Biden's administration was forced by court order to honor many of the leases that were on file; they tried to just kill them off through neglect. Biden put all of them on hold when he was elected and was ordered by a Federal court to honor them. https://apnews.com/article/biden-louisiana-new-orleans-gulf-of-mexico-b209a922546aefb35595dfe920b63b60 and https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-climate-change-environment-and-nature-business-9751c4909a8b1baba28f3bcff9d5fa6e and https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-judge-reinstates-biden-administrations-federal-oil-gas-leasing-pause-2022-08-17/

So clearly Biden and his allies wanted to strangle oil and gas but were prevented by the courts.

Your argument about the amount of oil produced on government land is just wrong. Biden certainly didn't want to do this; he had no choice. There were legal contracts at play. But he would have killed it if he could have.

Biden was slow-walking these leases too after the court ruling. https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-oil-leases-slow-to-a-trickle-under-biden-11662230816 Most of the supposed leasing were agreements already in the works.

Here is an analysis which shows how the claims by the Adminstration on oil and gas leases is bogus. https://www.worldoil.com/news/2023/2/27/interior-debunks-biden-administration-s-9-000-drilling-permit-claim/

FTA:

"While it was already established that this claim is misleading, new reporting reveals that the underlying number isn’t even accurate. According to E&E News, "…President Joe Biden over the past year has stressed that companies hold 9,000 permits to drill on public lands sitting unused. Turns out, that’s wrong. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees oil and gas development on federal lands, updated its tally in an end-of-the-year report that shows that figure instead should have been much less, standing at about 6,600 untapped permits as of this month.”

For perspective, Doug Ackerman, President of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said it takes upwards of 12 months to get the 30-50 permits required to drill a single well during a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing earlier this month.

Meanwhile, it’s been 242 days since the Department of the Interior allowed the five-year offshore leasing program to expire, and the administration held just one quarterly lease sale in 2022 after not holding any in 2021, as required by law."



End excerpt.

So your 6,600 number is very misleading; it requires between thirty and fifty permits each. I made this point to you before but you scoffed at it.

If we assume fifty leases per well, that means we have just 132 wells.

And this is for land that may or may not have oil; they have to find that out.

Meanwhile Biden has been squeezing the funding, and it is funding that gets these wells open.

Again, it was a nice try.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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