We are not addicted to oil.

Jim Colyer

We are not addicted to oil. We are addicted to taking our kids to school, driving our parents to their doctors and transporting food from farms to cities. When crude exceeds $75 a barrel, it becomes increasingly expensive to perform these tasks. We need to exhaust all options. We need to conserve, make optimum use of our resources. We need to continue to import foreign oil while expanding off-shore drilling at home. We need to drill in Alaska. We need an ongoing effort to develop alternative fuels for the future.

fife

Jim Colyer wrote:

We are not addicted to oil. We are addicted to taking our kids to school, driving our parents to their doctors and transporting food from farms to cities. When crude exceeds $75 a barrel, it becomes increasingly expensive to perform these tasks. We need to exhaust all options. We need to conserve, make optimum use of our resources. We need to continue to import foreign oil while expanding off-shore drilling at home. We need to drill in Alaska. We need an ongoing effort to develop alternative fuels for the future.

that might be true but my question is do you need an suv that carries 15 when you only have 2 people in your family?

JasonVaritek

We need to reduce our dependency for oil because we are addicted. Not as consumers individually but as a nation in general.

mammasan

Jim Colyer wrote:

We are not addicted to oil. We are addicted to taking our kids to school, driving our parents to their doctors and transporting food from farms to cities. When crude exceeds $75 a barrel, it becomes increasingly expensive to perform these tasks. We need to exhaust all options. We need to conserve, make optimum use of our resources. We need to continue to import foreign oil while expanding off-shore drilling at home. We need to drill in Alaska. We need an ongoing effort to develop alternative fuels for the future.

I agree with most but wouldn't the money that would be used for expanding off-shore drilling and ANWAR be put to better use by funding research into alternate energy sources. The crude in ANWAR and any expansion of off-shore drilling wouldn't be available for years so why not use those funds to help ween us off oil.

JasonVaritek

http://zfacts.com/p/196.html

JasonVaritek

mammasan wrote:

I agree with most but wouldn't the money that would be used for expanding off-shore drilling and ANWAR be put to better use by funding research into alternate energy sources. The crude in ANWAR and any expansion of off-shore drilling wouldn't be available for years so why not use those funds to help ween us off oil.

Exactly! ANWAR is temporary and will do little to lessen our dependency on oil. It is a stop gap at best. Some in this country need to start thinking forward instead of backward.

mammasan

JasonVaritek wrote:

Exactly! ANWAR is temporary and will do little to lessen our dependency on oil. It is a stop gap at best. Some in this country need to start thinking forward instead of backward.

I may be wrong but I believe that the best estimate for the amount of crude that can be produced by drilling in ANWAR wouldn't be enough to feed our consumption for 1 year. So yes it is definetly not a solution. The money should be used to fund any reasearch or implementation of alternate fuel.

SoonForgotten2

Jim Colyer wrote:

We are not addicted to oil. We are addicted to taking our kids to school, driving our parents to their doctors and transporting food from farms to cities. When crude exceeds $75 a barrel, it becomes increasingly expensive to perform these tasks. We need to exhaust all options. We need to conserve, make optimum use of our resources. We need to continue to import foreign oil while expanding off-shore drilling at home. We need to drill in Alaska. We need an ongoing effort to develop alternative fuels for the future.

You need to get off your fat ass and walk somewhere. Or ride a bike. Or campaign for some form of public transport if your town lacks such.

know1

I'll agree with the sentiment of the first part of your post.

Does ANYBODY let their kids walk to school or ride the bus anymore? I know some do, but there sure seems to be an increasingly large percentage who drive them.

Why is that?

When I was young (1st-6th grade), I walked to school about a mile and a portion of that was through an undeveloped park with a small woods. This was in the upper MidWest with pretty harsh winters.

Man - am I already sounding like my grandparents?

mammasan

know1 wrote:

I'll agree with the sentiment of the first part of your post.

Does ANYBODY let their kids walk to school or ride the bus anymore? I know some do, but there sure seems to be an increasingly large percentage who drive them.

Why is that?

When I was young (1st-6th grade), I walked to school about a mile and a portion of that was through an undeveloped park with a small woods. This was in the upper MidWest with pretty harsh winters.

Man - am I already sounding like my grandparents?

I don't know about other people but there is no school buses where I live and my son's school is about 10 miles from my house, so walking is out of the question.

Cosmo

Jim Colyer wrote:

We are not addicted to oil. We are addicted to taking our kids to school, driving our parents to their doctors and transporting food from farms to cities. When crude exceeds $75 a barrel, it becomes increasingly expensive to perform these tasks. We need to exhaust all options. We need to conserve, make optimum use of our resources. We need to continue to import foreign oil while expanding off-shore drilling at home. We need to drill in Alaska. We need an ongoing effort to develop alternative fuels for the future.

...
Do you ever wonder WHY they call our Strategic Oil Reserve the 'Strategic Oil Reserve'?
Because it is Stategic... in that jets and tanks and ships and support vehicles run on oil. In case there is a War where our foriegn oil resources are restricted or cut off, we will still have the fuel ready to defend ourselves. The Strategic Oil Reserves are there so in case of another global war, we won't end up like Germany did in the 1940s... machines without fuel. It isn't there so we can continue to be lazy fat asses who continually worry about fucking money matters.
I agree that the best way to deal with it is CONSERVATION and research and development on alternative fuel sources. We need to look at ourselves and quit blaming everyone else for being wasteful lazy bastards driven by this insatiable desire to buy disposable shit. Drilling offshore or in the true resource of this country, the natural beauty of the landsacpe God has created, is a last resort to keep us from destruction... not so we can continue to waste.
We're SUPPOSED to leave the place better than the way we found it... like the way your parents did for you. We are looking to be the first generation to scuttle the place for our kids to clean up.

know1

mammasan wrote:

I don't know about other people but there is no school buses where I live and my son's school is about 10 miles from my house, so walking is out of the question.

Wow - the school whose district you live in does not provide bus service to you?

_Crazy_Mary_

know1 wrote:

I'll agree with the sentiment of the first part of your post.

Does ANYBODY let their kids walk to school or ride the bus anymore? I know some do, but there sure seems to be an increasingly large percentage who drive them.

Why is that?

When I was young (1st-6th grade), I walked to school about a mile and a portion of that was through an undeveloped park with a small woods. This was in the upper MidWest with pretty harsh winters.

Man - am I already sounding like my grandparents?

My daughter rides the bus to and from school, but I drive the mile and a half to the bus stop. Also I live 10 miles out of town, so walking isn't an option for us. I try to do all my shopping after work so I'm not wasting trips to town.

Meatwagon

_Crazy_Mary_ wrote:

My daughter rides the bus to and from school, but I drive the mile and a half to the bus stop. Also I live 10 miles out of town, so walking isn't an option for us. I try to do all my shopping after work so I'm not wasting trips to town.

Same deal here. 4 kids and 3 different schools, and the bus system isn't always supportive of how and when they get there. Add in work and soccer and band and other after school activities and the fuel bill goes nuts. And no I don't own an SUV but a lonely own VW bus or 2. You do what you can to make sure everybody needs to get where they are going, and not go broke while doing it.

inmytree

SoonForgotten2 wrote:

You need to get off your fat ass and walk somewhere. Or ride a bike. Or campaign for some form of public transport if your town lacks such.

whoa, partner...I walk to my car...;)

seriously, it's not that easy... in many rural areas walking is not an option, unless you have a few days...and in many cities, walking is dangerous, at best...I agree with public transport, however, it's not an option for those who don't have access...

Meatwagon

Public transportation is just poor in most places. No funds and the hours of operation don't support the majority. It seems that the buget cuts always seem to cut these options out. That and most of these snobs wouldn't dare ride a bus with the likes of me;) That is if the bus actually came within 15 miles of my house or school or, well you get the picture. Not too many options.

mammasan

know1 wrote:

Wow - the school whose district you live in does not provide bus service to you?

The public school does but my son goes to private school and they do not provide bus service.

Pearl Jam and toast

we're addicted to oil because there are tons of reasonable ways to minimize our use of it but we almost seem to purposely avoid them.

smaller cars.. better fuel sources.. no cars at all if it fits your situation...

etc.

it's definetly an "addiction" of some kind.

it's more like us saying "WE DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM" at an intervention. Everyone knows we do but we refuse to admit it and get help.

Pearl Jam and toast

Meatwagon wrote:

Public transportation is just poor in most places. No funds and the hours of operation don't support the majority. It seems that the buget cuts always seem to cut these options out. That and most of these snobs wouldn't dare ride a bus with the likes of me;) That is if the bus actually came within 15 miles of my house or school or, well you get the picture. Not too many options.

which is why we have to mobilize eachother in fixing these kinds of problems, yes?

It can be done if we work for it.

El_Kabong

Meatwagon wrote:

Public transportation is just poor in most places. No funds and the hours of operation don't support the majority. It seems that the buget cuts always seem to cut these options out. That and most of these snobs wouldn't dare ride a bus with the likes of me;) That is if the bus actually came within 15 miles of my house or school or, well you get the picture. Not too many options.

how many options do ya expect when your president, vice president, sec of state...are oil execs?? or when their solution to the increasing gas prices is to relax environmental regulations on the oil and gas companies?? or when they give tens of millions of $ to political campaigns

Meatwagon

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/30/film.electric.reut/index.html It's a lack of options more than anything. Big oil is addicted to money, so our options are few. What gets me is that the technology has been around for us to use, but auto makers drag their ass to put it on the market. C'mon conspiracy people, bring us some goods on the matter!!