API Blogger Call On Oil And Energy Production: Updated

As I promised here is the transcript, it is in PDF unfortunately so I can't copy and paste any of it. We discussed refineries, what the lifting of the bans mean, known and unknown reserves, employment and a few other things. The audio is below, it is an hour or so long. (Update: The audio app does not seem to work in firefox so use explorer, weird.)

A couple points I wanted to make towards the end but was unable to in regards to how far offshore these platforms should be and environmental matters. API rightly pointed out that not a drop of oil was spilled by the rigs in the Gulf during the worst Mother Nature could throw at them during Katrina which was a cat 5 storm when it passed over them with 100 ft. seas. The last spill from an offshore drilling platform was forty years ago and technology has come a long ways since then.

Currently off the coast of California there are over 2000 known natural oil seepages that leak hundreds of barrels a day into our coastal waters some of these in environmentally sensitive areas. So it would make sense to tap them for energy instead of just letting them pollute the environment. Secondly these drilling platforms become artificial reefs attracting a vast variety of marine life and contribute far more to a healthy fishery than they take away.

Thirdly some worry about so called sight pollution, not wanting them to spoil the view but they are not that big and at 10-15 miles off shore you would hardly notice them anymore than a passing ship. Its not like there would be some sort of massive skyskraper looming on the horizon. Plus with modern drilling technology a single platform can reach a much vaster area than in the past when we would have needed several platforms to reach the same area.

Another point was brought up about a liberal talking point that we have only a tiny percentage of the worlds oil and population but we use 25% of the world's production of oil. That may be true but we are also the world's biggest producer of goods and services with that oil not to mention the hundreds of other products that come from oil byproducts like plastic, paint, tires, nylon, and cosmetics. It is not all used to fuel our cars, it also fuels our industries from manufacturing to agriculture, without energy there is no production. We can't power our nation today with good intentions and pie in the sky green energy ideals that do not exist yet and won't be viable for decades. Though we should continue the research into those fields with private money and free market forces not tax dollars subsidies and government mandates.

Moderator:Jane Van Ryan, Senior Communications Manager, API
Speakers:Red Cavaney, President and CEO, API
Prentiss Searles, Marketing Issues Manager, API
Sara Banaszak, Senior Economist, API
Tim Sampson, Senior Advisor, API
Richard Ranger, Manager, Upstream, API

The other bloggers on the call were
Bob McCarty, Bob McCarty Writes
Cindy Kilkenny, Fairly Conservative
Devil's Advocate, Copious Dissent
Doug Lambert, Granite Grok
Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum
Geoff Styles, Energy Outlook
Jim Hoeft, Bearing Drift
Joules Burn, The Oil Drum
Joy McCann, Little Miss Attila
Michael Swartz, Monoblogue
Peter Carlock, OPNTalk
Pejman Yousefzadeh, RedState

Update: Bob McCarty has a post up about the call.