@Major_Debacle: "All this clamoring to open ANWR and off-limits offshore areas to 
drilling is nothing more than a grab for more free oil before Bush 
leaves office.
Lawmakers lay into big oil for leaving million of acres untouched while 
at the same time asking to drill in Alaska and off the coasts.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)  Oil companies and many lawmakers are pressing 
to open up more U.S. areas for drilling. But the industry is drilling on 
just a fraction of areas it already has access to.
Of the 90 million offshore acres the industry has leases to, mostly in 
the Gulf of Mexico, it is estimated that upwards of 70 million are not 
producing oil, according to both Democrats and oil-industry sources.
One Democrat staffer said if all these existing areas were being 
drilled, U.S. oil production could be boosted by nearly 5 million 
barrels a day, although the oil industry said that number is far too 
high and one government agency said it was impossible to estimate 
production.
"Big Oil is more interested in pumping up prices and pumping up their 
own profits rather than pumping more oil," said Rep. Edward Markey 
(D-Mass), who has co-sponsored a bill to charge oil companies a fee for 
land they hold that's not producing oil. "We should not even begin 
discussing handing over more public land to the oil companies until they 
first use [the land] they already hold."
more...
<url>
Math is your friend"
    @tomspamless: ""Paul E. Lehmann" <email_address> wrote in message 
news:<email_address>
<quote>
Interesting information.  Thanks! "
    @someone: "<quote>
news:<email_address>
<url>
One of the major problems we face is that there
are a LOT of ATTORNEYS in Congress but I wonder
how many have science degrees - especially in
Geology or Engineering.  
Also, journalism majors probably have a weak or
non existent knowledge of the sciences.  
The oil companies have done a piss poor job of
educating the public - perhaps they see it as a
useless exercise.  This is not to say they are
pure and innocent in all aspects but they should
not be used as straw devils because of ignorance."
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