GULF OIL DISASTER/OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING
Safer Offshore Drilling? Trust Us (Skytruth)
The perpetual politics of petroleum
"There's nothing the Department of [the] Interior can do at this point in time that will lessen or have a significant impact on the price of oil," Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, told POLITICO. "We could take actions to lease additional lands right now, but it would be years before those lands could ever be developed."
ALTERNATIVES TO OIL
Cleaner, Cheaper and Faster: Why Efficiency Beats Drilling
"The only real solution to protect consumers from high and volatile gas prices is to reduce our oil dependency through more efficient cars and trucks, clean fuels, and transportation choices such as commuter rail. Over the next two decades, we could cut our oil dependency by one-third, or about 7 million of barrels of oil each day. Conversely, drilling for new oil offshore the lower 48 states and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are projected to produce only about 1 million barrels per day in 2030. Moreover, even if we open up more areas tomorrow to drilling, it would be another 7 to 10 years before any oil flows from these new wells. In contrast, efficiency and other oil savings measures can start producing savings immediately. Cumulatively by 2030, we could save 8 times more oil than we could produce from drilling."
