(w00t! Hummers are happy to be back out on the road! Flickr/Sam Felder)
In a brave last minute move to temporarily save us oil addicts from “the shakes” before he has to roll, G-Dub has lifted his Dad’s 1990 ban on offshore drilling. All he needs now is the US Congress to “get off their lazy asses and lift the Congressional ban on drilling” (paraphrased of course). “The Prez” went on to declare that “now Americans are paying at the pump”.
The only bad thing, according to White House officials, is that the drilling would “have no immediate impact on prices at the pump”. It would take years for production to start and who KNOWS what kind of effect it would have of the cute and fuzzy critters of Alaska.
Ahhhhh, it’s just so EASY to just stay with the program. Just drill and serve! But, I suppose if you’re into finding newer, better, cleaner energy sources (a lot of work if you ask me), then you could go through the trouble of clicking on the “Write Your Representative” site and sweat over your keyboard, writing a letter to your Congressperson. Ugh… who wants to do all THAT?
(Cute, fuzzy, baby seals are sad… Are there baby seals near the Outer Continental Shelf? I dunno. Maybe they’re sad because they can’t get 3G iPhone service out that way. Image Source)
15. July 2008 at 5:06 pm
Drill Drill Drill
Lets make it so gas is not ten dollars a gallon in ten year. Plus I hate paying more for food so the ethanol can gum up my carb and eat my metal tank on the p200.
15. July 2008 at 5:16 pm
Wow! Does ethanol eat metal gas tanks? I haven’t looked at ethanol myself. I don’t think corn-power is a long term solution.
If gas WERE $10 a gallon, you’d probably ONLY see scooters on the road.
I think we should save drilling OUR gas until we really need it… like 4 years before everyone else runs out. Then we use that gas to power our Locomotives and Big Rigs until we can figure out a better way to transport goods. Personal opinion of course. I haven’t performed any long term studies on our fossil fuel future and its long-term effect on our economy to make a REAL educated response here… but neither has our government.
15. July 2008 at 8:31 pm
120 years ago we did fine without oil. Letter sent.
15. July 2008 at 11:51 pm
A hundred and sixty years ago nobody knew what petroleum was, and they did just fine. One word: whales. Those critters are practically made of oil!
FYI: That seal pup is also good for a few gallons of biodiesel.
16. July 2008 at 4:54 am
Yeah, I’m with enviromoto! Let’s go back to the good old days without electricity and running water and modern medicine! Who needs that?
16. July 2008 at 3:30 pm
It dosent take oil to make elecricity, water, or medicine.
17. July 2008 at 3:04 am
Enviromoto — you do realize that petroleum is a major component in plastics. What do you think most medicine is stored in? Don’t forget about blood bags, syringes, artificial knees, etc.
Don’t forget that many steam powered electrical plants are burning diesel fuel to create the steam and turn the turbines:
http://www.electricityforum.com/electricity-generation.html
And water purification plants, yep, you guessed it, powered by electricity.
Oil is used for everything… We need more local fuel.
17. July 2008 at 11:47 am
I hear you, and agree.
However off shore drilling isn’t going to solve any of our problems in the short term. Here in Indiana most of our electricity comes from coal, your water purification may come from oil but not ours. Modern medicine will adapt when the price of plastics cost more than the pills they are stored in.
I just hate to see people make the leap from the modern man to cave man just because we are starting to feel the pinch from peak oil.
Don’t panic people, things will get rough but lets not throw the world away just to save a couple bucks at the pump.
17. July 2008 at 11:57 am
A big paradigm shift in the way we operate our transportation infrastructure won’t help us in the short term either.
Drilling for oil will help in both the long term and short term.
It will help in the long term by having more local oil production.
It will help in the short term because the same oil speculators that are driving the price up now will drive the price down with the forecast of greater oil production.
17. July 2008 at 1:02 pm
There are many ways to generate electricity and here is a big development to follow,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7501476.stm
The only good coming out of the high oil prices is stimulating creative solutions to meet energy needs.
I also get frustrated when everyone thinks the end of oil is the end of civilization. Running out of oil is inevitable, how we transition out of it is our choice.
18. July 2008 at 2:57 pm
Enviromoto: “Modern medicine will adapt when the price of plastics cost more than the pills they are stored in.”
I’m curious as to what you suggest for replacements. Recycled paper envelopes for pill storage? Using hips from cadavers vs. artificial hips? Stainless steel carafes for the storage of blood products?
18. July 2008 at 6:58 pm
Did I say im in medicine? How the heck should I know. Maybe they will start using pig hearts, and monkey brains. WTF cares? The point is we are going to have to change with the times.
When the price of plastics get to expensive the heads that be will figure somthing else out. That you can bank on.
18. July 2008 at 7:59 pm
You know, one thing that looks promising are the corn based plastics like NatureWorks LLC is working on. I look forward to having all my “disposable technologies” be made from compostable materials so when my computer and cellphone are finally outdated I can just toss them into the bin and spread them on my garden after a few months.
26. July 2008 at 2:05 pm
To the Bio-Fuel Nuts who want to make plastics out of food, thanks a lot. Because of that fantastic Idea, the price of corn here in Mexico has gone through the roof! Corn is our staple food and has been always. Now some intelligent people think it is better to feed our cars with it rather than humans. Drill in the US.
PS.
Can you really get a few gallons of Bio-Diesel out of a Baby Seal?