People just drive too much. They waste gas/diesel driving big damn cars and SUVs around going on joy rides.
Think about how much money you are sending out of the country when you are driving around needlessly. Those dollars end up overseas and most never come back.
Oil is an import. Now is a time that we need to keep our American dollars in the USA.
Its not our lifestyle that needs changing. As much as it is the Energy Source
Its not our lifestyle that needs changing. As much as it is the Energy Source
Maybe, but changing energy sources is not as easy to do as reducing unnecessary driving. I might add that the more oil we burn (as well as others like coal, the more pollution we end up with.
It’s been a long winter and it’s a beautiful day out. I think I’ll go for a drive…
Feel free to sit behind your monitor and criticize me. I’ll be busy enjoying life. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t womanize (can’t catch them!) and abhore violence. I’m going to enjoy my one vice…I’m going for a drive.
Oh, one last thing. I’m a 'Nam vet. Have you earned the right to call me unpatriotic? Have you served our country in wartime? If not, go away.
When we lived in town, we “drove around a lot”. When we live in areas of our choosing, we drive much less and bike, hike,boat and just hang out more. So for many it’s where you live and the “curse/blessing” of being in the US. We are a spread out bunch of commuters living in look alike suburbs commuting two hours a day to our job. It’s natural to drive more and “worship” our freedom to do so on our days off. Until we offer more public transportation alternatives and local hiking,biking alternatives…it is the American way and patriotism has nothing to do with it and I would argue for many we are just living the American Dream…"See the USA in your Chevrolet"
As a vet. too, I’ll drive pretty much where I darn well please til I run out of gas;
But your gasoline habit is sending US dollars to the mid east. That money is helping to fund the enemy. My stepson got shot while fighting the war for oil. Luckily he was wearing a flack jacket. He served in the 172nd Stryker BTW.
Me, I came of age right after Vietnam. And by the time Desert Storm came around I was too old.
Don’t get me wrong. I burn a lot of fuel with the heavy equipment I use at work. And I drive a Pickup that weighs over 9,000 back and forth to work. The truck is loaded down with tools, A welder, torches, and an air compressor. But that is for work.
And my big truck only averages about 4 1/2 MPG, not to mention all the fuel I burn in forklifts, loaders and whatnot. But again, that is work It is not Discretionary.
I suspect that you learned your economics when the world was a less global place. Or you’ve been reading Time too much.
Most of the oil we use is not imported. Most of the rest comes from allies. Most of it is also used in industry, much of it to create plastics for all those nice toys you enjoy. And yes, also in industry.
And please remove the patriotism from your arguments. Calling someone unpatriotic because they enjoy driving is, itself, unpatriotic. I served proudly, I love my country (faults and all), and I’d fight again to protect it. Being called “unpatriotic” raises the same anger in me that I felt when I returned home and was called a “baby burner”. Don’t do this. Just don’t.
Give your stepson my sincere thanks. He’s earned my resect and yours. Even if he goes for a drive.
This thread makes me want to go for a joy ride on my motorcycle. It’s called FREEDOM baby!
Well, was your computer made in the USA? If not, typing this message was unpatriotic.
The assumption that most of the money you spend on fuel goes overseas is not really true. For one, even if the crude oil in question is from overseas (like mountainbike says, most of our oil is from North America), it’s US oil companies that are usually pumping, refining and distributing it. The only dollars that go overseas are whatever the local government’s excise taxes are (which in major oil producing countries are not large, at least relative to the price of crude) and whatever money the oil company spends operating there. It’s a lot of money for those countries-- enough to build skyscrapers in the desert, etc-- but relative to size of the US economy, or even the US oil industry it’s nothing.
I think there’s lots of ways you could argue that some of the countries that essentially depend on our oil consumption are countries that do not adhere to our national set of values and that therefore oil consumption is unpatriotic, or perhaps even the environmental argument, but I don’t think you can make the argument just on grounds of increasing the trade deficit (aka “sending dollars overseas”).
Did you forget your meds or tinfoil hat today when you typed that message?
hops in an H2 Hummer and goes driving around the states
Driving around and enjoying buildings, scenery and American life is unpatriotic? NOT! What is unpatriotic is the oil exports to other countries. Our Oil is exported to other countries and we buy OPEC oil. July of last year set a record for oil exports.
Who knew that the US is currently exporting 1.8 million barrels of oil a day?
"To make sure everybody does, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent a public letter to President Bush, asking him to “keep our oil at home.” "
link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sassoon/us-oil-exports-hit-record_b_120058.html
Most imported oil comes from Canada and Mexico.
I can understand the point about using less fuel. However, going after everyone in such a bombastic manner isn;t winning any friends. Since you only get 4.5 MPG, have you considered leaving your truck at the job site and getting there another way? Maybe a motorcycle or second car, for instance.
That’s not quite right. The US exports 1.8 million BBLs/day of oil products– the vast majority of it being refined gasoline. It also counts things like propane and LNG’s. I imagine most of it goes to Caribbean and Central American countries with no refining capacity of their own. Our actual crude oil exports are pretty small.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_exp_dc_NUS-Z00_mbblpd_a.htm
What part of “the vast majority of it being refined gasoline” did I miss?
Oops… I meant “refined petroleum products” instead of just gasoline. Most of these are motor fuels or heating oil.
Refined petroleum products don’t necessarily come from domestic oil, so you can’t conclude that we’re shipping our oil away from that statistic. As you can see here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb0506.html the two countries we export the most refined petroleum products to happen also to be the two countries we get the most crude oil from-- this almost certainly reflects crude oil being produced in Canada and Mexico, being refined in the US due to issues of convenience or ownership, and then shipped back. Another example is Venezuela, which has barely enough refining capacity to meet it’s own demand, also occasionally has to ship crude to refineries it owns in the US and then ship back refined fuel. I don’t know if that’s happened lately, but on the figure cited by Sen. Markey, it would count as “US oil exports”.
I suppose you could also make the argument that since the spike in fuel prices last year was due to limited refining capacity as much as it was to high crude prices, that we shouldn’t be letting refineries refine products destined for foreign markets. But that doesn’t seem like quite as appealing of an argument.
BTW…more pollution is produced by the buildings we inhabit and work in then by the cars we drive. So unless I freeze my butt off in the winter of sweat in the summer, I’m not patriotic as well…I think not.
Are you sure you’re not “joetheplumber” ?
Well I built my computer out of cast off parts. Some imported and some domestic.
Well by “big truck” I meant my class 8 truck. I have a tractor and lowboy trailer for hauling my equipment around. My one forklift weighs 40,000 pounds.
Oil is not, strictly speaking, just an import. It is also produced domestically, although the percentage of domestically-produced oil has been shrinking over the past several decades. As an owner of mineral rights where oil is being pumped domestically, I can personally attest to the fact that we have domestic production of oil. But also consider all the American small businesses you would hurt if you didn’t buy fuel. Don’t those local business owners deserve your support? Those guys sometimes don’t even make any money on the fuel they sell. They use it as a loss leader to sell you items with which they can generate profit.
Keeping your dollars in the USA may sound like a good idea, but it isn’t. We sell a lot of goods to other countries and our economy has come to count on those customers. Enacting xenophobic policies will only weaken our own economy when our overseas customers follow our lead and enact their own xenophobic policies. joethemechanic, you might want to consider that before you cut off your nose to spite your face. All that flag waving makes people emotional, but please think it through before you make our economy worse than it already is.