Drill, drill, drill – and what do you get?

Architecture 2030, the Santa Fe nonprofit headed by solar architect Edward Mazria, has released a chart that literally makes oil production from future offshore drilling look like a drop in a bucket.

On this chart, based on statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, that little pool of yellow that looks like a bit of oil floating on top of an ocean is what the outer continental shelf would produce at peak production.

The yellow totals 200,000 barrels of oil a day, which Architecture 2030 says – again quoting USEIA stats – “would supply a meager 1.2 percent of total U.S. annual oil consumption (just 0.6 percent of total U.S. energy consumption).”

The nonprofit says the U.S. “will consume a year’s supply of oil from expanded offshore drilling in the outer continental shelf in just four days.”

“The comprehensive energy plans proposed by politicians that are centered on oil drilling and
nuclear power would supply just 1.8 percent of total U.S. energy needs – a drop in the bucket,” Mazria says.

The 2030 Web site says:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, oil production from drilling offshore in the outer continental shelf wouldn’t begin until around the year 2017. Once begun, it wouldn’t reach peak production until about 2030 when it would produce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day (in yellow above). And, the offshore oil would be sold back to the U.S. at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a “drop in the bucket,” it would be expensive, which translates to little or no relief at the pump.

Meanwhile, Mazria continues to spread his message that energy-efficient buildings are the key to phasing out convention coal power plants and reducing oil imports by 86 percent by the year 2030 – the tenets of his 2030 Challenge and 2030 Blueprint.

Mazria spoke last month at the first National Clean Energy Summit hosted by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. On Oct. 8, he travels to the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, where he will once against posit that it’s possible to achieve energy independence, solve climate change and revitalize the U.S. economy with a single solution: changes in the building sector, the nation’s largest energy consumer.

“We tend to rush toward the complex when trying to solve a daunting problem, but in this case, simplicity wins. Better buildings, responsible energy use and renewable energy choices are all we need to tackle both energy independence and climate change,” Mazria says.