After taking a closer look in last weeks post at Barack Obama’s proposed oil and alternative energy policies, we now want to examine John McCain’s proposed initiatives on oil and natural gas, and therefore their impact on gas prices.  So without further adieu…

John McCain- While Barack Obama’s policies focus on decreasing American’s dependency on all oil, it appears that John McCain’s policies focus on reducing dependency on foreign oil.

• McCain wants to drill for oil on the Outer Continental Shelf (the area where the continent meets the deep ocean).  In addition to drilling in the OCS, McCain wants to begin using our own oil reserves.
• McCain also wants to start drilling for natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf.  Where there is an estimated 419.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
• McCain supports the use of Flex-Fuel Vehicles. (Flex Fuel vehicles have the capability to use both Ethanol and Gasoline).
• While McCain has a lot of things he agrees or supports, he gives a very limited roadmap as to how he is going to accomplish his objectives and initiatives.

Will this work?  Since the majority of McCain’s policies (oil and natural gas) deal with the drilling in the OCS, that’s where we will spend the majority of our time. The question now becomes how much oil and natural gas are we talking about?  According to the Mineral Management Services (MMS), they estimate the total oil to be around 86 billion barrels and an estimated 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  That’s a lot of oil, or is it?  Considering the United States consumes an average of 20.7 million barrels of oil a day, that’s enough oil to last about 11 years.

It is important to note that even though 86 billion barrels of oil is a lot only a fraction would actually be claimed.  This is mainly due to lack of oil rigs/ships, time of exploration, and many oil refineries would go online (actively pulling oil from the site).  In addition, McCain has recognized this as a short-term solution, so what happens after that?  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see gas go back down to a more manageable $2.00 a gallon, but what happens after we exhaust all of our OSC reserves?

What do you think about McCain’s oil and natural gas plan?  Up next we will examine both policies and give you a nice opinion piece… yeah!

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