Drill for Oil off the coast of Florida or raise automobile efficiency standards - why not do both?

Question

It seems like everyone even Repubs & Dems want to decrease our dependance of foriegn oil. Republicans want to allow off-shore drilling which has become many times safer and more enviornmentally friendly than it was 27 years ago when it was banned off the coast of Florida.

On the other hand Dems refuse and insist we should increase fuel economy standards.

My questions is this - is there any good reason we shouldn't do both?

Consider we only produce 40% of the oil we use. Also consider domestic oil production is declining. Consider even further than automobiles only use about 60% of all the oil we use. With all this in mind if we stopped using gasoline for cars completely we would still only produce just enough.

So it seems obvious to me that raising fuel economy standards alone isn't enough, and drilling off the coast of Florida isn't enough. Why do we have to choose only one?

Answer 1

You're right.  We should be doing both - but as you see politics get in the way and we end up doing neither.

Answer 2

We should allow more oil production in the U.S.  The ability to do it safely is there.  When hurricane Katrina shut down several oil rigs did you hear of any related environmental disasters.  I didn't.  If that doesn't prove it can be done safely I don't know what does.  I am against government mandated fuel efficiency standards.  With the demand for more fuel efficient cars I don't see the need for mandates.  The market will take care of that.

Answer 3

The attempt to boost fuel efficiency has been made, yet irrelevant to Party Affiliation, it was shot down Continuously. As a former student of MN, I recall since 1984 working on fuel efficiency in High School. Some of the best came from High School Students, yet the monies allocated for such projects disappeared.

http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/repor...

Answer 4

increasing fuel efficiency is a no-brainer.

you can expect that early next year.

just as soon as bush and cheney move out.

with the oil industry in control, one shouldn't be surprised that nothing's been done.

drilling offshore is very different.

there are problems in Alaska to this day.

it's thought that the sardine schools are still depressed because of the oil spill.

and that affects other species as well.

in addition, you might consider the ... of the "let's drill offshore everywhere" folks.

ANWR is a large find.

it has enough oil for 6-9 months use in the US.

that's not about to help prices much.

it will, however, create hundreds of billions in profits for the oil companies.

what will make a difference is more efficient cars.

the plethora of SUVs on the road today is inexcusable.

that's the problem.

and drilling is not going to solve it.

Answer 5

the problem is congress and the environmentalists. we need to get them out of the way of energy independence. mandating higher fuel economy has been done, now we need to get to drilling for oil, liquefying coal, growing sugar cane to make ethanol(it has a much higher yield than corn does), back off the emission standards for diesel engines so that the automakers can put out small and mid size cars powered by diesel engines. back off the stance of forcing the use of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel to make refining diesel less expensive. develop more biofuels.

if we can make this country energy independent, even at the fuel prices we have now, we can stabilize the economy, and work to strengthen the dollar, as well as bring back manufacturing jobs to the US.

Answer 6

If people are willing to buy fuel efficent cars and its apparently a simple thing to build them.  Why don't legislators build and sell the cars instead of passing laws to make the car makers do it.  Unless the real goal is to make people drive the cars that nobody wants.

Answer 7

If we raise the automobile efficiency standards much higher, we are going to be driving card board cars! We have cut gas usage by more than a  million gallons since this time last year according to the New York Times.   We need to drill. We need to continue to look at efficient sources of energy that do not have negative consequences. Ethanol has done nothing to decrease price of gas and has increased the price of corn and corn related products.  We need to build refineries so that when we have more oil we can actually use it without sending it another country. It is a complex problem with a four part solution

Answer 8

Absolutely...we need a multi-pronged approach, not a one-solution-fits-all.

Realize that Oil Speculators are a fickle bunch...any rumor about a change in supply and they react by buying or selling off futures contracts.  Selling off contracts will cause the crude barrell prices to drop.

Answer 9

Congratulations, you've discovered the false dichotomy of liberal democrats and conservative republicans.

You're right. We should do both. We should also take steps to legalize smaller vehicles, such as Japanese-style kei-cars.

There's a million different things we could be doing, (and a very real question about whether more government regulations are the answer at all), but instead of arguing policy, they're arguing semantics for the theatre it provides.

Answer 10

I see your point and I think that the foreign competition has forced Detroit to make more efficient vehicles that get better gas mileage. Both Toyota and Honda make excellent cars are have earned a giant sized proportion of the market. Competition has made us better.

Oil is way to high in price, mainly because we are so dependent upon oil from Countries like Canada, South America, and Saudi Arabia. We have to not only drill for known sources of oil like ANWR, we also have to do major exploration for it. I do think that there are vast stores of oil that have yet to be discovered in America.

As for choosing one, it’s mainly the democrats that stand in the way to offshore drilling, and it should become a political issue in this election. We need a choice in this matter, because our future is at stake and like it or not, oil is the main driver of the economy.