Regulators reject Va. pleas to delay drilling plans

Lease- a contract renting land, buildings, etc., to another; a contract or instrument conveying property to another for a specified period or for a period determinable at the will of either lessor or lessee in consideration of rent or other compensation. (Virginia receives the rent so obviously it is a benefit to us.)

Revenue sharing- the system of disbursing part of federal tax revenues to state and local governments for their use. (This is self explanatory but just so you know the FEDERAL tax revenues would not be shared with VA.)

These can be found at http://dictionary.reference.com/.

electricpaul: “Fact #5- The leases will generate income for Virginia. Fact #6- This revenue would lessen the tax burden of the working families of Virginia. Fact #7- Lower personal tax = more disposable income for working families in Virginia. Fact #8- More domestic goods and services being sold will help employers keep people employed. Fact #9- More people employed = fewer people on unemployment/welfare.”
(Note - Facts #6 thru 9 all appear predicated on “Fact #5” being true. Therefore, if #5 isn’t true, then #6-9 are either untrue or irrelevant.)

www.mms.gov: “Q12: Will the leases resulting from the proposed Lease Sale 220 include any revenue-sharing provisions?
A12: Not at this time, any revenue-sharing provision has to be enacted into law through Congressional legislation.”

www.mms.gov/offshore/220/VirginiaFrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf

"With only modest energy needs and no ability of its own to drill, Cuba has negotiated lease agreements with China and other energy-hungry countries to extract resources for themselves and for Cuba." New York Times May 9, 2006. This is what the Times said. Blame them for the wrong info. I don't care which companies they are or which country they live in Cuba has leased the rights to explore. "Another exploration deal was announced between Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras, and Cuba. The deal would allow Petrobras to explore in Cuba's offshore territories in the Gulf of Mexico, with a potential drilling start-date in two years." FactCheck.org June 26, 2008. Like you really have a leg to stand on telling me to fully read something. 9 million barrels in the gulf! LOL! Nice try...

electricpaul: “Fact #10- Cuba is allowing oil exploration by China 60 miles off the coast of Florida”

FactCheck.org: “Cuba has allowed for exploration by at least six other non-Chinese firms in the region and onshore testing and exploration by China's Sinopec…A 2006 New York Times article said China was one of the countries that had negotiated an offshore lease. But experts quoted recently by The Associated Press say none of the companies involved are Chinese and all are only allowed to explore for now, not drill in the region.” (6/26/2008)

Perhaps the next time electricpaul cites a source like he did the one above, he will read it a little more closely first.

has never been known to be a benevolent dictatorship and they have far more "influence" with their companies than our government imposes on ours. Regardless of who is exploring/drilling for oil between Florida and Cuba we shouldn't be self imposing restrictions on our American companies and their ability to find/pump/refine oil. The oil wells in the north sea are subjected to far worse weather than we get here. I've been there when I was in the Navy and suffered from the rough seas (35') on the old second fleet flag ship LCC-20. We have to shed the OPEC of it's ability to crush our economy with high crude prices.

Thanks for the welcome, and I did misread your post, but I am fairly certain that China is not exploring, but merely has rights to do so...but the exploration is not conducted by the government but with Chinese companies. And I thought that the present lease with Cuba (which is decades old, right) does not permit anything but exploration...

there is a difference between moratorium and an executive order. A moratorium is an agreed upon waiting period. An executive order is as strong and binding as a law passed by congress and the only way congress can overturn one is with a super majority (2/3) vote. AM! You're back for more enlightenment! First of all glad to see you posting. Second you clearly didn't fully read my post I said "oil exploration". Third nowhere in this thread do I see where you mentioned the Navy anywhere. And I will admit to an error on my part. The USCG report comment was for Dharma. I failed to notice it was a post from you and not her. I think Dharma is a her anyway so no offense is intended if you aren't female Dharma. Dharma and I have been arguing the issue of (amount of) pollution related to Katrina and Rita. Here it is. http://www.uscg.mil/ccs/npfc/docs/PDFs/Reports/osltf_report_hurricanes.pdf

I have no idea what you are talking about with a USCG incident report, when I stated that it was the NAVY who does not want offshore rigs. And by the way, your factcheck link disproves your claim about China drilling off of the coast of Cuba. You should actually read it. Go ahead, prove me wrong again...

As pointed out in the comment below, it was indeed Congress's moratorium that lapsed last October. However, Bush had lifted a presidential moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf just 3 months prior. Now if only electricpaul could be as truthful and accurate with his own "facts" as he is in correcting the mistakes of others.

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/are_the_chinese_drilling_off_the_coast.html

Michael Moore!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/washington/09drill.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/are_the_chinese_drilling_off_the_coast.html

Maybe you can tell me which AM radio station these play on? LOL! I'm sure you won't read these like you didn't read the USCG report you cited last time we chatted. You were caught being wrong (again) so get over it.

your facts make me laugh. Especially the Cuba lie. Stop getting your news off of AM radio.

FYI dharma...The congressional moratorium expired under democrat control not the Presidents so you can blame Pelosi and Reid for your dissatisfaction. Don't worry though because Pelosi and Reid are already backtracking on themselves and will block it again.

The Democrat controlled congress reacted the only way they knew how...they did what would benefit the party before an election. Is it a coincidence that the price of oil began dropping at the same time? Of course not! Until we already a viable "alternative" energy source in place to fuel America we cannot allow the Saudi's or Hugo Chavez to dictate the price of oil any longer. We can do it safer and better than any other country in the world. So in your world we would have continued to pay over $4/gallon for gas and further hurt our economy. Is it a coincidence that the economy went bad after the Liberals took control? NO! Kaine had a $500,000,000 surplus and now he has a shortfall of $1,000,000,000! That isn't a man I want dictating Virginia policy on offshore drilling!

Moratorium, protecting America's coasts, beaches, and marine ecosystems from the risks inherent to oil and gas development. Until recently, the federal government has recognized the value of our coasts and have continued to ban new drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Last October, the Bush administration allowed the moratorium to expire. It will be up to President Obama and Congress to determine if and where offshore drilling will be authorized. Big Oil and its shills tout the economic benefits of offshore drilling. The fact is that drilling and its polluting infrastructure would actually jeopardize Virginia’s coastal economy. Virginia coasts and marine waters provide the economic lifeblood for numerous tourism and fishing communities and military operations, generating billions of dollars and supporting millions of jobs. The risk to Virginia’s coastal economy from offshore drilling far outweighs any supposed benefits. 

Fact #1- The Virginia coast is historically not prone to the powerful hurricanes that plague the gulf. Fact #2- There isn’t a more secure location in the world than being that close to the world’s largest naval base. Fact #3- These rigs will EMPLOY PEOPLE! Fact #4- These employees will be paying a tax to Virginia. Fact #5- The leases will generate income for Virginia. Fact #6- This revenue would lessen the tax burden of the working families of Virginia. Fact #7- Lower personal tax = more disposable income for working families in Virginia. Fact #8- More domestic goods and services being sold will help employers keep people employed. Fact #9- More people employed = fewer people on unemployment/welfare. Fact #10- Cuba is allowing oil exploration by China 60 miles off the coast of Florida and you’re not complaining about that.

You are right in stating that drilling technology has improved to the point where it can actually benefit the environment: drillers in the Gulf of Mexico have problems with fishermen getting too close to the rigs because of the richness of the fishing grounds around the platforms. But there's another problem. Where would the refineries go? No matter how innocuous the drilling, refineries are dirty and dangerous.

... use it correctly. Bush and Big Oil have been pillow-talking chums from the get go. The Bush admin's midnite regulations have opened 2 million acres in CO, UT, and WY for oil shale mining. Shrub just slashed by over 50% the royalties that Big Oil pays for oil-shale mining. They issued last-minute regs that allow mountaintop mining companies to dump mining waste into rivers. He just exempted large livestock feeding operations from getting federal permits that would control how much animal waste can flow into waterways. Lots of last minute financially-beneficial back scratching going on.

Repeated studies of offshore drilling say its a negligible amount of oil in the scheme of things, and the timeframe of getting it to market is almost a decade out. Big oil is not in the business to drive oil prices down. This is just another example of helping his industry buds, who will probably give him a job if his post-office speaking tour is a klunker.

Reports delivered to Congress last September by the Interior Department’s own inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found corruption and criminal activity by both current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual encounters with oil company representatives. Described in the reports as “a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere”, the cover memo speaks of MMS as having “a culture of ethical failure”. Yes, Virginia, this is the same agency that turned down our elected officials' plea to take it slow on offshore drilling.

That Electing these Democrats and that they were just Playing the tell the public what they wnat to hear just to get elected. I told you that they were never serious and planned to halt any chances of being Energy Independent. It wasn't the Republicans who stopped the exploration and drilling off our shores it was the DEMOCRATS AND ENVIROMENTALISTS doing it. I warned you that the thief in Richmond named Gov. Kaine who stole money from the transportation budget had no interest to try and help us earn more money to put into the state budget. The only way Democrats want to have more money in the coffers is to raise Taxes on the working stiffs instead of getting this through offshore drilling. Democrats need to stop opposing offshore drilling and exploration which will benefit us all and stop trying to raise the federal taxes on gas and diesel which is also being proposed in congress this week. See I warned you this is the HOPE AND CHANGE THE DEMOCRATS MEANT just Lied and hid from the Public during the elections. Welcome to the New Pelosi,Ried and Obama Nation, The obamanation is arriving just as predicted.

Off shore drilling has a successful track record of being "clean". And hurting the environment? They have been shown to help the environment by creating artificial reefs and habitats for sea life.

Over 30 years since the oil problems of the 70s, and we are no better off now then we were then.

And while we are at it, lets start building huge wind farms on the North Shore to harness all the wind coming across the bay! Isn't that a green solution??? Oh wait, can't do that either...... ah hell, lets just go back to the stone age.