The Financial Times is reporting that domestic oil production in 2010 was at a ten year high.
According to the US government’s Energy Information Administration, domestic Oil and gas production rose 3% in 2010 to an average of 7.51million barrels a day – its highest level since 2002.
There are analysts out there that actually believe the United States was the largest contributor to the increase in oil supplies across the globe in 2010. They also believe we are on track to increase domestic production by 25% by the second half of this decade.
This obviously isn’t enough oil to rip the United States away from importing oil, but this does allow us to question oil prices and the GOP’s recent push for more off-shore drilling.
The problem here is the main stream media (MSM) is not reporting this. The republican party is hammering away and blaming President Obama for the rise in the cost of fuel due to the off-shore moratorium the administration imposed after the BP disaster. Remember, Drill, Baby ,Drill?
What is happening to oil and gas prices is pure and utter greed on Wall Street. The republicans are in bed with these oil barons, as we witnessed with Texas Republican Congressman Barton defending billions in subsidies that could be going to local municipalities instead.
The republicans are so worried about borrowing money, yet borrowing money from future generations to give to billionaires today, well that’s par for the course.
seascraper says
I thought you guys hated people who used oil. Shouldn’t high oil prices be good for us somehow?
christopher says
The vast majority of us do use some. Some people here advocate higher gasoline taxes; I’ve said no as long as that is a staple of transportation. We DO need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and on to renewables, but we can’t afford to just snap our fingers and let these prices go through the roof before alternatives are more accessible.
stomv says
Oil is a global commodity. You can’t really stop the prices from fluctuating.
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p>Sure, you could drill, baby, drill. That would increase supply in the near term a few percent, at the expense of a much faster escalation of price later.
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p>Want to reduce the impact the price of oil has on Americans? Enact policies to help Americans use less oil. It’s true, no policy will help each person the same amount in terms of dollars or percent. However, it’s pretty clear that if America as a nation used less oil, we’d be at far less international risk of energy blockages.
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p>Let’s spend money reducing the amount Americans are spending on heating their homes by expanding energy efficiency programs. Cutting home heating oil to be sure, but also cutting natural gas demand for home heating, which would help keep prices down and reduce pipeline bottlenecks. Mo’better mass transit, better sidewalks, and safer bike facilities help. So does higher MPG standards.
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p>There are lots of other things. Why do we charge so little for public parking? Why do we require so much parking be built in urban areas when new commercial and residential structures are built? Doing these things subsidizes driving in the very places where it’s most efficient to not drive… and makes it yet more difficult to cut our oil dependence. Why do we subsidize large homes with the mortgage exemption in schedule A? Larger homes require more energy to heat, and more land — which requires more energy to transport those suburban folks around. Heck, our zoning in most parts of tUSA goes out of it’s way to increase sprawl, thereby driving more demand for autos.
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p>If you want Americans to spend less of their paychecks on gasoline, the best way to do it is to slowly but steadily change our infrastructure so that it’s simply not necessary to spend that money on gasoline. The fact is that we’re moving too slowly and (thanks to GOP policies post-Carter) too unsteadily.
christopher says
I’m all for better MPG and more transit, but you don’t have me on parking. As it is commercial garages in big cities charge an arm and leg to use a few square feet of pavement for a couple of hours. Frankly there’s a convenience issue, and unless mass transit gets to the point where I can snap my fingers and have a public bus at my driveway anytime I want, I’m going to want to drive. Your posts often carry an implication that driving one’s own vehicle is inherently a bad thing, but I like the indepedence that having a car and drivers license bring. I think I recall in the past you’ve objected to parking lots at T stops which seems awfully counterproductive. If you want me to use mass transit when possible you have to at least make it easy for me to get to and park at the station.