Re: A Short History of Energy (in the US)

For your consideration here are your current:

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 worlds 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 one, but sooner or later fuel prices will begin to fall and then 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 its 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 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