As I am going to the dentist in two hours, the word "drill" repeated several times over almost immediately has me searching for an alternative. Although this isn't about my teeth, it is about our nation's coastline and pristine wilderness. Republicans want to lease even more land so that oil companies can have "instant assets" by taking their new properties (c/o us, the taxpayers) and selling them on the market to increase their margins.
This really isn't about reducing the price of oil, no matter how many times Minority Leader Boehner threatens to shut down the government in order to achieve it. However, there is an easy way to get that supposed oil that drilling proponents claim will come with their idea. It is called conservation, but there's an easier way than that, as Barack Obama pointed out, just get your tires inflated and your car tuned up.
From Time Magazine:
How out of touch is Barack Obama? He's so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce. Gleeful Republicans have made this their daily talking point; Rush Limbaugh is having a field day; and the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.
But who's really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.
And as Time points out a few paragraphs below, conserving energy is easy as long as you get in the habit of doing so. Unplugging appliances, having low-energy bulbs, taking mass transit, all things that are good for your wallet and the environment simultaneously. So while the right makes fun of Obama for leading people to conserve and help our energy crisis in a multi-faceted way (of course wind and solar projects are on their way too), he actually has a plan, while McCain is offering someone $300 million for a battery.
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