I'd say that's a good place to start. Ever heard of supply and demand? Bottom line, Americans need to start using much less.
Really, Supply and demand, Did you know that demand is down for 3 consecutive year due to a lagging economy, yet prices are going up because of Supply distribution fears in unstable oil rich areas.
We are a very large country compared to places like Germany; Germany is the size of Texas. We tend to travel more because of our size, We have larger families compared to Europe, look up Kindergeld... Most Europeans rent their homes so they can move close to their jobs to bike or walk to work. change jobs; move.. We are not like that We like to own our homes and Commute to work.. I have a 80 mile a day commute into DC because I have a large family and housing is cheaper and larger in the Virginia suburbs than inside the beltway.
Sure we use more but we are a different country than the rest of the world except for Australia but they also use a lot of gas, but then again they are larger than us and travel farther.
Anyway so you tell a family of 8 like my sisters to trade in your paid off gas guzzler 8 passenger SUV for a Overpriced 5 seater SUV Hybrid and take on 800 a month payments, Really she can't afford to have lunch a work so her kids can eat.. I hate your argument, Tell the poor to buy efficient cars and take on debit.... Yea that’s a good plan!!
I own a 2009 Hybrid Dodge Durango SUV it get 23 mpg city/hwy I NEED 8 seats, it makes it easy for us to travel with 7 people to see family in Florida and Illinois from Washington DC. I could never afford to fly all these people 4 times a year to see family, so I choose to buy a 50,000 POS but for most that’s not an option. Gas guzzlers are Cheep used vehicles for low income families.
Do you seriously think that drilling in the US is going to solve gas prices? Really? :doh
I think it will give us the USA better control over our own gas prices... The Prices are high because of wall street speculators reacting to the unrest in the middle east, if you did not rely on oil from there and we have use our own oil We can increase / decrease output to keep the prices stable. Yes we need to look for alternative energy like Natural Gas. If all Federal, state and local governments converted all their fleet vehicles to Natural gas we could save millions of barrels of oil a year and reduce air pollution by 30%. Most municipalities have their own fueling yards for fleet vehicles so this is very easy to do.
Drilling now will not affect prices today or in the next few years at least, but I f we would have allowed drilling 5 years ago we may not be here today looking at $5 plus a gallon gas during a bad economy.
FACT: OPEC gets very nervous when America threatens to become energy independent, and they magically increase production, which gives us an instant drop in price.
If Russia can discover oil off their coast and have it drilled and to refineries within 14 months so can we!!! But another fact.. Our newest refinery is 22 years old, new processes of the new refineries make better, cleaner patrolium products yet we have a moratorium on building new ones WHY?