News & Politics - To Drill or Not to Drill: The Big Oil Debate - Page 2

ceilirose · 06-24-2008, 10:42 AM

Even if they do start drilling offshore won't it take years for us to see any difference? Also aren't refineries (or the lack of them) also an issue?

I've had to cut back on driving but with my job I can't really can't do without a car. I work out of the office part of the time and sometimes my day starts at 6:00am and other days it ends at midnight. Public transportation can't really help me out on those sort of days.

Hybrid cars are still out of my price change. If the price went down I'd get one in a minute. Can we as a nation put pressure on the auto industry to make more hybrid cars available to push down the price?

sm_love_dc · 06-24-2008, 11:00 PM

They do need to make Hybrids more affordable. I do have a car but I still take public transportation to work. The train in my city is run on wind power. It takes 1 and hald hours each way for me to walk to the station and take the train. But I feel better for the exercise and the fresh air. I find that in the moring it allows me to focus on work and after work I can decompress before I hit the door.

If we did not have to sit in traffic we would save a ton of fuel.

**vc318** · 06-24-2008, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceilirose (View Post)

Hybrid cars are still out of my price change. If the price went down I'd get one in a minute. Can we as a nation put pressure on the auto industry to make more hybrid cars available to push down the price?

You know how it goes - usually anything that's good for is pricey at first but in the long term you end up better in the end.

**sunnykerr** · 06-26-2008, 07:04 PM

I wonder how much the oil lobbies have to do with hybrids being so pricey.

And I'm trying real hard not to be Miss Conspiracy Theory when I say that.

But, when you hear about how they pretty much killed the electric car prototypes in California... I don't know. I'm just saying that, if you have deep enough pockets, and you know the right people, it seems you can get an awful lot done to suit your own interests, you know?

**vc318** · 06-27-2008, 10:06 PM

Didn't they kill the electric car concept to build Hummers instead?

A perfect gas guzzler but sold very well - at least until now with the high gas prices. Greed is definitely the game being played these days.

I can't believe the gas prices nationwide right now:

Lowest Price: $3.52 LAURENS, SC

Highest Price: $5.40 BIG SUR, CA

My goodness. How much more can we take of this?! Well, one good thing is that people are walking more than ever to get to their destinations.

**sunnykerr** · 06-30-2008, 06:40 PM

Wherever possible, I do think that public transportation, bicycles, carpooling and walking are the thing to do. There's just no downside to them. It saves money, saves energy and saves the environment (sorta).

**vc318** · 06-30-2008, 08:20 PM

But it still comes down to where you live. I know up North, public transportation is very reliable. Most of the services will drop you right in front of your job if you're lucky. Again, I wish the public transportation where I live was better but it's like you have to have your car or you're kind of in a pickle about getting to your destination. Even if gas prices ever go down, I hope that the attitudes of taking public transportation or carpooling continues to go strong.

**vc318** · 06-30-2008, 08:44 PM

I'm watching ABC News and they just gave a story on a gentlemen who lives in San Diego and installed an extra gas tank and drives to Mexico to fill his gas tank for under $2 a gallon. He saves $40 on 78 gallons of gas as opposed to the 38 gallons he used to fill up near his home. Not a bad idea but of course that's if you live near Mexico.

**sunnykerr** · 07-01-2008, 01:01 PM

I remember when I was growing up, going to fill up the gas tank in the States was a common practice, although I don't know if that was a financial thing or just a proximity thing.

I also grew up in a place where you pretty much needed to own a car if you wanted to get anywhere. A lot of people carpooled, but it's was still pretty much a car country. Which is pretty much why I moved to Montreal. Not that I'm advocating everyone moving to the nearest big city. I would never do that, besides I think we better focus on finding ways for everyone to get to be where they want to be and still find ways to get around. All I'm saying is, that's how I got around the whole "car required" thing.

sm_love_dc · 07-01-2008, 01:35 PM

I also try to do my shopping when I know the roads are not busy. And I write every place that I have to go to to say time driving around. I try to fill my car every two months, I am only at a month and half. I know that with more planning I can do it. I take public transportation where I can.

**vc318** · 07-01-2008, 06:17 PM

I've read that some people have converted their cars to running on both water and gas. Not sure how safe that is but it sounds like a good idea.

**sunnykerr** · 07-03-2008, 06:34 PM

I'm not sure how expensive that might be either. I don't own a car myself, but my brother/roommate does and, from what I gather, a regular car is expensive enough on its own... I wonder how much the pricetag goes up once you start to "customize" it.

**vc318** · 07-05-2008, 07:24 AM

It looks like most people are keen on the issue of drilling for oil than changing their behavior on how much gas is consumed daily and wasted. This country is really behind on its times. These people are living on a pipe dream if they think that drilling will bring down the price of gas in a snap. When I think about how other countries walk or ride their bike to school on a daily basis and yet for us (America) it's such a big deal.

**sunnykerr** · 07-05-2008, 10:59 AM

I think most people who would rather drill than change their habits don't realize that drilling will force them, sooner rather than later, to change their habits. Because of the ways in which we'll run out of oil faster. And because of the damage it'll do to the environment.

It sounds much easier to get more of what we're used to using. Over the short-term, it probably is easier. But, the more you drill, the shorter that short-term option is going to last. It's just not a sustainable alternative. And, when it's all done, the devastation it'll leave behind will only add to the burden we leave for future generations. Heck, the more we do it, the more that burden might be one we have to face ourselves.

It's easy enough to do whatever we want when we think we won't have to pay the piper for it. And it's clear that some of the people making these decisions are old enough that they may have good reason to think they won't be around to face the consequences of these decisions. But the rest of us, adults for the most part, are still gonna live long lives. And these decisions may have consequences that we ourselves will have to face before long.

Wild Pikachu · 07-13-2008, 09:52 PM

I would recommend this book: Amazon.com: Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy: Jay Inslee, Bracken Hendricks: Books It's a really good take on what we need to be doing.