George Cebulka wrote:
> George wrote:
>> Paul M. Cook wrote:
>>> "Omelet" > wrote in message
>>> news >>>> In article >,
>>>> "Paul M. Cook" > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A better question is just how are we going to pay for 9 trillion
>>>>> dollars in
>>>>> republican debt?
>>>> Drill for oil in Alaska.
>>>> --
>>>
>>> They already do. Lots of it. Millions of barrels per year. They
>>> sell it all to Japan. If we want to use it, we have to buy it back
>>> from Japan or the commodities market. They being those oil companies
>>> who have extraction rights that include no strings attached as to who
>>> gets it. Alaska gasoline is very expensive easily double what we pay
>>> now. Why do you suppose that is? More drilling makes Exxon richer
>>> but does nothing to lower our national debt. You seem to think we
>>> have nationalized oil companies when in fact they are multi-national
>>> corporations. They are not even American companies, they just
>>> incorporate here.
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>> It is a lot more complicated than that. Consider how far Alaska's oil
>> fields are away from the lower 48 states and how you would transport
>> the oil here. Consider where Japan is relative to Alaska. Then
>> consider that the Alaskan oil is high sulfur and no refineries here
>> can process it with Japan being one of the few places that can.
>> Consider that NIMBYs won't even allow windfarms to be built within 100
>> miles of their McMansions never mind a new oil refinery.
>
> Ah actually, I think it is the US is one of the few countries that
> process high sulfer crude. This the main reason that Venezuela, for all
> of its rhetoric still sells mainly to the US. Other countries can;t
> process their oil.
Exactly, US refineries have been processing high sulfur oils for at
least fifty years. The ones that didn't want to put in a high sulfur
unit are now closed. I can name at least two companies like that that I
worked for at one time. Not all US crude is Texas sweet crude, a lot of
it is high sulfur content and we've been pumping it for years and years.

Realize that a new oil refinery has not been built in 33 odd years and
our refineries are getting older all the time. Eventually they get to
the point where it is cheaper to tear them down and scrap them out than
to keep rebuilding them.