US Begins to Break Oil Addiction

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The country's foreign oil dependency is expected to fall from 60 per cent to 50 per cent in 2015, before rising again slightly to 54 per cent in 2030, according to the head of the Department of Energy's statistical arm.

Posted by goatman at 12:58 AM | 5 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry

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Admin's note: Participants in the discussion of this weblog entry should note the site's moderation policy.

This is all Bush's fault...wait what?

Posted by shirtsbyeric at 2008-05-20 10:07 AM | Reply | Flag:

reagan's fault for overturning carter's energy policy.
everything else is bush's fault, however.

all the best.

Posted by sense at 2008-05-20 02:44 PM | Reply | Flag:

reagan's fault for overturning carter's energy policy.

Carter's fault for being such a bad president he couldn't get himself re-elected and carry through with it.

Posted by goatman at 2008-05-20 04:23 PM | Reply | Flag:

from the article:

...Although the reduction in oil demand growth is partly because of slower economic growth and a projected 1m-barrel-a-day rise in output from the US's Gulf of Mexico oil fields by 2012, experts also believe that legislation will accelerate the trend. The EIA expects the energy act to help boost biofuel production from 8bn gallons this year to at least 32bn by 2030, while prompting a 40 per cent efficiency improvement in new cars from 2020.....

The article sounds upbeat and maybe I'm just a "glass is half empty" rather than a "glass is half full" sort of person but I don't see the need for less oil happening even in the next 50 years let alone by 2015. I think this article is just to shut everyone up from complaining about the high cost of gasoline.

The article has too many "ifs" in it.

IF we can replace oil with biofuel production -- which I guess means ethanol (corn and sugar?) being used as alternative means of fuel supply. But whenever corn or sugar for ethanol is brought up there are complaints that we're endangering the global food supply.

IF the deepwater offshore oil rigs in the GOM are able to find and bring in those huge oil reserves 30,000 feet under the GOM.

But just the cost (and uncertainty) of the new technology now needed to be able to drill at previously unheard of depths is going to be in the tens of billions for big oil and, of course, like any business those costs will be passed on to the consumer.

IF the DOE's legislation's mandate that all new cars be built to be more fuel efficient works well enough to make a big enough dent in oil consumption

LOTS OF "IFs"

I don't see it happening. Why? Because the absolute greed for profits made by globalists (like Bush, both the Republican and Democrat politicians, and all the multi-national corporations) had now succeeded in creating oil consuming Frankensteins out of the countries of China and India. Every year millions and millions more Chinese and Indians can afford to buy new cars for the first time. It takes oil to run those cars.

Any dent we make in the new few years by building cars that consume a little less gas will a joke in comparison to the amount of gas that will be needed by millions of Chinese and Indians buying cars for the first time. Not only cars, but those countries are also now -- thanks to "free trade globalism" -- building at a non-stop pace factories and industries also consume millions more barrels of oil. Development and building uses oil and fuel.

When the corporations -- due to their lust for cheap labor and profit -- have now enabled countries like India and China with populations in the billions to own and drive cars and build oil consuming factories where previously there was only rural farmland -- it's too late now to turn back. The need for more and more oil will never decrease and demand will only get higher.

Posted by CalifChris at 2008-05-20 10:35 PM | Reply | Flag:

some typos above but I don't care.

Posted by CalifChris at 2008-05-20 10:44 PM | Reply | Flag: