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To dig or not to dig? The crude question
President Bush is urging Congress to end a decades-old ban on offshore oil drilling in response to consumer anxiety over record-high gas prices.
“Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect. And families across our country are looking to Washington for a response,” Bush said.
The push by Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain to lift the ban could find plenty of support. About 60 percent of Americans surveyed in a Reuters/Zogby poll said they would favor government efforts to boost domestic drilling and refinery construction.
Roughly the same amount said they would back efforts to reduce domestic demand through tougher fuel-efficiency standards.
Do you favor more U.S. oil drilling?
For more on the rising cost of oil, click here.
Who wants a 4-day work week?
A surge in gasoline prices is forcing many to rethink their daily commute to work.
Some private employers as well as local governments are offering a four-day week as a perk that eliminates two commutes a week. In the automaking heartland, the shorter workweek offers employers a way of rewarding employees when the budget does not allow a salary increase.
According to staffing service company Robert Half, some 44 percent of respondents have changed the way they commute — from sharing a ride to driving a more fuel-efficient car. Others are working from home or looking for a closer job in order to reduce costs.
What measures are you taking to reduce your commuting times?
For full coverage of rising oil prices, click here .
This is insanity. Telecommuting one day a week; great. Telecommuting even more frequently, better. The Chinese and our global competitors would just love to see us go to a shorter work week and demonstrate even less productivity than we already have. We’re losing our edge people.
Stepping on the brakes and getting on the bus
More Americans are leaving their cars at home and jumping on buses, trains and trolleys as retail gasoline prices approach $4 per gallon, the American Public Transportation Association said in a report.
“There’s no doubt that the high gas prices are motivating people to change their travel behavior,” APTA president William W. Millar said. (For the full story, click here.)
Record high gas prices are forcing many drivers to spend less time behind the wheel. Data from the Department of Transportation on May 23 shows Americans drove 11 billion miles less in March than a year earlier — the sharpest year-on-year drop in the history of the agency’s reporting.
The government agency also reported that highway miles driven in March fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier — the first March decline since the last major oil shock in 1979.
Have you started taking mass transit more often in light of high gas prices?
Related blog: Who wants a 4-day work week?
For full coverage on the rising cost of oil, click here.
I used to be able to bite my nails, yell and cuss, and wear out my clutch leg for an hour or more each way every day. But now, I have to ride in the train, snuggle with a different strange woman every trip in the tight seats, and sleep or drink beer and tell jokes on the way home. Man, high gas prices suck …
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Resident Ask... Expert
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For your consideration here are some real:
Oil Facts
Sources U.S Geo Survey – U.S Energy Info Admin – Bureau of Land Mang – Dept of inter Oil & Gas Journal
Saudi Arabia holds the world’s largest oil reserve. The U.S holds the world’s 12th largest oil reserve but we are the world’s 3rd largest producer of oil. We produce about 8 million barrels a day. The U.S is the world’s largest consumer of oil, China is the second largest. We consume about 20 million barrels a day. The U.S appetite for oil is so huge that it dwarfs China’s consumption. Even with China’s massive 1.3 billion person population they consume a modest 7.2 millions barrels a day.
What are we doing with all this oil? 69% is used for transportation, 24% is used by Industry, 5% is used by residential and commercial and 2% is used for electrical power.
Where do we get the oil we use? Canada is our largest provider of oil, next is Saudi Arabia then Mexico.
There are only two places in the U.S where we are not allowed to drill; the first is about half of the Eastern Great Basin (the area of concern is half of Nevada & most of Utah). We are not allowed to drill on about half of it because some of the Native American tribes who call it home object to it. The second is Alaska’s North coast – we actually do drill there but most of it is protected as a National Wildlife Refuge.
As of 2006 we had over 500,000 oil wells pumping 24/7 for us and that number has increased since then.
So why is the price of oil so high? That depends on who you talk to. A very simple answer is supply and demand; Fox news loves this meaningless response. Personally, I would look at the commodity traders. Remember what they did with electricity in California in 2000 – 2001. Remember Enron. Don’t be sad
Buck Up!
Feeling sad about the price of oil? Don’t worry we’ve weathered these gas storms before, every decade or so we get pummeled by a new one, but sooner or later fuel prices will begin to fall and then they will stabilize —- and when they do I’m buying the biggest, fattest Hummer you ever did saw!
Yea Haw!!
I’m only kiddin about that last part – I know that people who rely on transportation for their living are really hurting and that is a shame. I just don’t think that drilling for more oil is really going to help. Remember, we are currently the world’s 3rd largest producer of oil and it’s barely enough to supply 1/3 of our demand. I believe that the only real solution is to decrease our dependency on oil.
Let’s not fall back into the old oil trap.
Take Heart.
We are the biggest, toughest and most forward thinking country in the whole world, the solutions can not be as impossible as we are making them out to be. One man who has some great ideas is Billionaire Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens. Do an internet search and see what he says. Heck, even the Exxon Mobil heirs, The Rockefellers, believe that we should turn away from fossil fuels and create a cleaner, more dependable source of energy.
Impossible you say—Nothing is impossible for the greatest nation on earth!!!
Good Luck and God Bless