» peter sterling wrote on 08/15/08 @ 11:37 AM

LIFE WITHOUT HYDROCARBONS
Our entire modern society is build on fossil fuels. If the oil companies went on strike, within a month half the population would be dead! Alternative energy supply systems such as wind etc., aren’t being built because they cost way too much.

“...Randall Luthi, director of the US Minerals Management Service, said the US should aggressively pursue energy development in the Outer Continental Shelf off Alaska, as well as regions of the OCS currently closed to drilling, including the eastern and western US coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

“Much of the future US demand can—and let me underline can—be met by OCS production, particularly from new areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, if we can survive the threat of hurricanes and survive the hurricane of litigation that surrounds oil and gas development,” he said....”
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/…

Oil is still the fuel of the immediate future - you can bet on it! We must move forward to a future in which cleaner natural gas, electricity, and renewable energy fuels cars and heats homes. But this transformation will take 20-30 years. Yes we need to wean ourselves from oil, but only as fast as technology can replace oil energy while we keep our country and economy safe. This is breaking the backs of American consumers and domestic industry infrastructure still dependent on fossil fuels, this is unacceptable anti-social, Anti-American behavior. Change is urgently needed.

“Before you get all excited about tearing down the energy industry, stop and think for a moment about what makes your comfortable life possible. Your heat and most of your electricity are provided through the burning of oil and natural gas. The thousands of plastic items in your home, car and office are all made from crude oil. Much of your clothing is woven of fibers made from petroleum.
Without the hard work and ingenuity of the men and women who work for the energy companies, we would be living in the 17th century - no electricity, running water, cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, factories, waterproof clothing, soda bottles, safety glass, sterile food and medical containers, air conditioners, televisions, microwave ovens, X-Boxes, I-Pods, or any of the millions of other products made using power generated from the burning of fossil fuels.”
“You would have to grow your own food, or ride your donkey to a nearby market, where there would be no refrigerators or electric lights. You’d have to kill and clean your own meat and cook it over an open fire. You’d have to chop down the trees for your home, and provide your own light by making candles from the fat of animals. Every single thing in your modern life is utterly and completely dependent upon a steady supply of oil and gas. Without it, the entire Western world would collapse completely in a matter of weeks; tens of millions would perish from starvation, exposure, and disease.” Todd Keister
To bring down the price of gasoline you need to drill where there is a lot of oil quickly. Not where there is little or no oil. America is sitting on vast supplies of proven oil and gas reserves, all ready to produce in short order.

Its all under an OPEC sponsored embargo compliments of Congress.,
Our Modern Economy Still Needs Oil and Gas Today.
Without hydrocarbons fuel the United States would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country. Except that we would have 10 times as many people and no way to distribute food to most of them.
Without hydrocarbons fuel you would soon be walking. You couldn’t be driving cars, and it wouldn’t do any good to call the maintenance or repair people because they wouldn’t be able to get there, as they would be walking too.
The food distribution system would quickly grind to a halt as cold-storage warehouses stockpiling perishables went offline due to lack of electricity, (which is 20% powered by natural gas and 50% powered by coal) and by the lack of diesel fuels for trucks. Warehouses equipped with backup diesel generators would fail, because we wouldn’t be able get fuel for generators or trucks to distribute food.
Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own food assets and those we could reach by walking to them.
America would begin to resemble the 2002 TV series, “Jeremiah,” which depicts a world bereft of law, infrastructure, and memory.
Without hydrocarbons fuel people in hospitals would be dying faster, because they depend on electrical power and natural gas for warming to stay alive. But then stoppages would soon include water, food, civil authority, emergency services. And we would end up with a country with many, many people not surviving.
We can treat our oil addiction, but it’s not going to disappear. U.S. consumption has started to ebb, but the U.S. still accounts for 24 percent of the 86 million barrels of oil consumed in the world every day. We buy about two-thirds of the oil we use from overseas. Much of it comes from lands that are engulfed in political turmoil.
It’s critical to reduce the U.S. dependence on oil. But it’s most critical to reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Technology is making drilling less of a risk and the demand for it is growing. The Democratic leadership in Congress has to start listening.
We need to support the continued development of alternative and renewable sources of energy and to increase conservation. In the meantime, lifting the congressional ban on oil and natural gas exploration in outer continental shelf waters is an absolute imperative if we are to rescue any sort of functioning economy.