Agreed. A shift to more sustainable alternatives is needed now.
Check out http://www.pickensplan.com
which is the plan of Texas oil baron T. Boone Pickens.
"America is in a hole and it's getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year."
"Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far."
Horsepower, wars, and the environment
By: drivers.com staff
Date: Tuesday, 22. July 2008
Appropriately titled "EXTREMISTS," the lead story of Augusts Car and Driver magazine details tests of four newly minted 'muscle cars'� the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (500+ hp), Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR (600 hp) , Nissan GT-R (500 hp), Porsche 911 GT2 (500+ hp).
These cars "may be the last act," says article author Aaron Robinson. "The apogee right before re-entry, when post-peak oil prices and carbon emissions limits and general economic malaise threaten to make memories out of 500 hp cars." Tongue in cheek he adds "is it all over? Who knows." Maybe someday we�ll be telling our grandchildren "from the back seat of their parents 700 hp minivan!"
Meanwhile, back at the editorial page, Editor-in-Chief Csaba Csere bemoans the fact that the U.S. government won�t expedite drilling for oil off the California and Florida coasts and in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.
Skyrocketing gasoline prices are particularly galling at a time when the economy is slowing and home prices falling, says Csere. He puts a chunk of the blame on the falling dollar. Since 2000, he writes, crude has quadrupled in dollars but barely doubled in Euros.
"If there�s been one benefit of high gasoline prices - at least for environmentalists � it is to motivate Americans to choose more fuel-efficient vehicles and drive less."
Csere is scornful of the popular reactions to soaring gasoline prices. Demonization of the big oil companies is for simpletons, he reckons, because these companies have to buy crude on the open market. Taxes, he grumbles, make up a major part of the current cost to the consumer, but even that is not his main bone of contention. That accolade goes to fiscal irresponsibility and the crumbling dollar, and lack of effort drilling for new oil.
"I�ve driven along the Alaska pipeline from Fairbanks to the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay and the operation is clean. Oil is black. Snow is white. Leaks are obvious. There aren�t any."
However, there's a huge problem with this reasoning. Human error is a virtual certainty. Loss of pristine natural areas is permanent. Oil drilling is a temporary solution.
If finding new oil on United States territory is considered to be an emergency solution (and even Csere admits it's a temporary one), then maybe the emergency focus should be shifted to more sustainable alternatives: more fuel efficient vehicles; lifestyles less dependent on automobiles, alternative sources of energy.
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Julia,
robb,
I embrace the editor's view.
We all MUST change our oil habits. Temporarily allowing for prices to go down is of no value.
