The American Consumer...

...is an idiot. No offense intended, all consumers worldwide are idiots. We are all idiots. OK, maybe not idiots, but irrational decision makers. We make short term decisions based on current needs, wants, and especially, on personal hardships, often without (or with much less than prudent) concern for future repercussions. This is bad for long term stability, both economic and ecologic.

Kate Wing over at Blogfish puts it quite plainly, and quite well, why US oil exploration expansions won't help us fuel our SUVs.

Not to get political, but it's getting quite irritating hearing people repeatedly clamor for loosening the strings to allow more drilling in the US, as if it will solve all our problems and help us pay for our children's' college. It isn't regulation that's hurting your purse, "it's the economy, stupid."

And while we're at it, stop pushing for tax breaks and pricing subsidies on gasoline...that only exacerbates the situation. To artificially lower the price only serves to expedite the exhaustion of the resource. I don't have the answer, but we should be looking to curb our petroleum demand, not increase it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Instead of showering oil companies with tax breaks and corporate welfare, we could be lowering the cost of solar, populating rooftops with small solar installations (supplying about half a house's energ), modifying our hydro to make it truly renewable, and doing projects like wind farms the right way.

Sadly, those are long-term solutions, and therefore off the radar of policymakers.
FoulHooked said…
And that, sir, is why you are "at the top rung of fly fishing’s blogs."

When you might lose your job every 2, 4 or 6 years by making superficially unpopular decisions, sustainability is low on the priority list...and forget about it if you're an appointee of one of those 2/4/6'ers concerned with popularity, you could be gone in an instant if you dissent.

thanks for chekin in Tom
Anonymous said…
What about stopping the speculation?

Half the problem we have now is speculation pushing up the price. OPEC _IS_ saying that emerging markets are going to start bearing down on supply, but emerging markets are EMERGING.

It's like all of a sudden a few months ago someone turned on the switch, and instead of "emerging" those foreign markets were just "on". I would not call this a gradual increase in price.

I'm not saying that sticking with oil is the answer, and I'm REALLY not saying that expanding drilling/exploration inside the US is a good idea. But there are other factors that we could probably look at short-term that might help.

Long term you guys are definitely on the money.
Anonymous said…
I'd be curious to know how much gas would be if the dollar kept pace with other currency, the pound for example.
FoulHooked said…
My solution to the lawnmower issue...NEVER MOW AGAIN! No irrigation req's either (once established at least).

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07230.html

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