Proposed Trans-US oil pipieline - a disaster waiting to happen!
- Thread starter scooterbug44
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I'm for (non-food) bio-fuels, solar, wind, and using less energy overall.
We've got all the technology to do it, we just keep making dumb decisions and clinging to oil like it's a life raft instead of an anchor.
We've got all the technology to do it, we just keep making dumb decisions and clinging to oil like it's a life raft instead of an anchor.
I'm for a heavy dose a reality in the discussion.
Not me. I still like farming whale oil...
What is unrealistic?
This pipeline is pork, is unnecessary/redundant according to some, already has major issues, and is a MASSIVE potential environmental, health, and economic disaster.
The oil is poor quality, hard to refine, and is destroying the areas around it.
This pipeline is pork, is unnecessary/redundant according to some, already has major issues, and is a MASSIVE potential environmental, health, and economic disaster.
The oil is poor quality, hard to refine, and is destroying the areas around it.
It still burns and is economical at current prices. There are risks in in any venture. We send billions to the middle east for their oil, some of which ends up in the hands of people like Osama Bin Laden. Risks risks risks in everything.
Oil is not the only way for us to get energy.
We haven't been able to produce enough oil domestically to meet our demand in 3 decades. Maybe before we hit 4 decades we can finally admit oil is NOT the solution.
Natural gas, coal, wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, good urban planning, conservation ..........
We haven't been able to produce enough oil domestically to meet our demand in 3 decades. Maybe before we hit 4 decades we can finally admit oil is NOT the solution.
Natural gas, coal, wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, good urban planning, conservation ..........
I appreciate your idealism scooter, but there's no magic bullet. I wish I could snap my fingers and instantly invent a green energy replacement for oil and other fossil fuels, but I can't, and neither can you, nor can it be done by the U.S. Government. We have to keep working toward alternatives (I'd love to see a breakdown of all the money being spent on this, it has to be in the trillions when you combine it all together) but the reality is we will continue to use oil for "doing stuff" throughout both of our lifetimes. That's the realistic point of view. Therefore while we work on alternatives, we should also seek to increase supplies by purchasing additional resources from friendly nations.
We don't need a "magic bullet" or a total replacement - there are literally thousands of ways we can all be using less oil.
Yes, taken individually each of these things don't do much, but the total effect can be huge and can be done at every income level and in every field.
Each of us could easily reduce our oil usage by 5-10% with very little effort, but the big effects come from business/industry and mass action. Consumer demand and opinion is a powerful tool.
We're importing more than 50% of our oil and wasting a lot of that. Sadly, it isn't until the numbers get high at the pump that most people give a damn - and that goes away when prices fall.
I am not saying we get rid of oil completely. I am saying that we actually USE all of the resources and options we have so that our oil consumption gets close to what we can realistically and safely produce.
Close to 20 million barrels of oil a day is not sustainable.
Yes, taken individually each of these things don't do much, but the total effect can be huge and can be done at every income level and in every field.
Each of us could easily reduce our oil usage by 5-10% with very little effort, but the big effects come from business/industry and mass action. Consumer demand and opinion is a powerful tool.
We're importing more than 50% of our oil and wasting a lot of that. Sadly, it isn't until the numbers get high at the pump that most people give a damn - and that goes away when prices fall.
I am not saying we get rid of oil completely. I am saying that we actually USE all of the resources and options we have so that our oil consumption gets close to what we can realistically and safely produce.
Close to 20 million barrels of oil a day is not sustainable.
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I agree. This is a problem we've known about fully since 1973 and yet no politician from then until now has really tried to tackle the problem. They don't tackle because the American people don't want to be inconvenienced and (much more importantly) the people who fund the politicians (of both parties) don't want it solved.
We are the country that put a man on the moon in a little over a decade. We also could have spent a few billion of the TARP dollars that we pumped into GM, BOA, Wall St, etc... on a energy efficiency retrofit programs that would have made homes and small businesses much more energy efficient (and created jobs at the same time and made us more secure from foreign energy problems.) We never heard a peep about using TARP funds that way.
Until the people behind the politicians want it solved, it won't be.