In for a penny in for a pound, oh well here goes
Quote:
1) Can the US currently produce sufficient oil to sustain itself?
Yes
2) Does the US currently produce sufficient oil to sustain itself?
yes
3) Are we currently dependent on foreign oil for our survival? I do not mean whether you eat or have a house (though that too could be debated) but our economic survival? Our energy survival? Our production survival?
No
Questions 1. 2. and 3. are basically the same, so I'll answer them the same. We produce more then enough power now. In fact we blow off power all the time. Oil can't be looked at idependently of other energy production. A large amount of electricity is still produce from oil. Other uses could be easily converted to electricity if needed. Think of modern trains. They are the original hyprids so to speak. Because of the complexity of transmitting the force generated from they're deisel engines to they're wheels, they generate electricity that then powers motors on they're axles. So all the frieght trains in America could be easily converted to electric fairly quickly.
As to us not having enough electricity. We use way more then we need. If you look around you now you're likly to be sitting under a three to four bulb fixture that could be reduced by on or two bulbs and switched out to Halogen or floresent for a drasticly reduced power consumption. This is before you realise that the recessed lighting in your kitchen is basically blocking out 3/4 of the light its producing. If you went to the hardware store and got an extension so that the light bulb was protruding 3 to 4 inches below the ceiling hieght you could replace 4 bulbs with one for the same realized candle power.
All these bulbs burning also increase the temprature in your house. You then spend more energy trying to cool your house in the summer. How big a deal is this. know one knows how many houses, or offices have installed recessed fixture but if you start looking around you'll notice them every where. Think of your adverage office builing. All those lights mounted flush with the ceiling grid. It's a lot of power.
We still haven't gotten to upping the gauge of wiring which on a standard production house would pay for the costs within 1 to 2 years from the saving in electricity. Nor has it ever been proposed to switch over to 220 volt like europe which is more efficent and wouldn't be overly hard to do. And these types of simple largly cosmetic changes role through every faucet of our life. Requiring only white roofing materials, Lowering speedlimits in towns, Requiring TVs, DVDs, and other apliances to fully shut off. Limiting Pools, Spas, Kio Ponds, and other luxury items including power boats.
4) Am I wrong to assume there is only so much oil? In essence, is it an exhaustable resource or will there always be oil no matter how much we use?
No your not wrong but yes you are. Long before we get to the end of oil. The price for oil will have become so high that we will have long since abandoned it
5) Can we, by putting a pumper in everyones backyard, even with the most unrealisticly high estimates, produce enough to permanently sustain our country? Permanent, not a few years. If so, is this an economically feasible solution?
No and why would we want to. Other people have oil thats easier to get and they want to sale it to us.
6) Now, given your answers to the above questions, is drilling for more oil only a stop-gap and short term solution?
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Higher oil and gas prices are going to be around for awhile then the tecnology is going to shift. I would get excited till you see news that Coco Cola is in talks with freightliner to build a fleet of electric trucks, or something to that effect. Big business is far more suited to chaging quickly then the indivigual. A company like Coco Cola is always buying new trucks and could test out battery swapping or hydrogen refueling far more easlily then you or me, and they're going to realize for more gain by switching.
If the government want to help then it would raise the gas taxes and index them to inflation. It could also require it departments to buy so many alternative fueled vehicules. Wouldn't large groups that have mechanics on staff, who could be trained to handle different fuels be more able to bring these adaptations to the population at large.
Of coarse if it goes to far it will shut down the economy. Which takes us back to a more conservative aproach. Wait and see what the market does. If we find our selves in a crisis we can ration electricity or require people to paint they're roofs but things don't seem that bad in comparison. During the energy crisis in California a few years back, a couple of things turned up. Of coarse we all know now that there wasn't any real crisis and it was largly fabricated to raise power bills. Second, before the new energy bill had even been signed, the adverage consumer had cut his use so low that the fabricated crisis disappeared.