Pocketa-pocketa my oh my:
Industry experts say that if President George W. Bush wants to make a push to reduce oil consumption in the United States, there are some solutions at hand. But with names like carbon composites and new metal alloys, they may seem banal and do not create much buzz.
Perhaps the most significant step the country could take in reducing oil dependence is to change the way cars are produced, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy research organization that has consulted for the Department of Defense. Automobiles, for instance, use about 9 million barrels of the 20 million barrels or so of oil that the United States consumes each day. Trucks, heavy machinery and some power plants consume the rest.
Improving the efficiency of hybrid engines, and using advanced metal alloys and carbon composites instead of heavier steel to make cars could double or triple the fuel efficiency in these automobiles.
Bush's push to reduce what he calls America's "addiction" to oil comes at a time when China and India are scrambling to secure oil resources to fuel the needs of their roaring economies.
"We could reduce our consumption by 4 to 5 million barrels a day by going down this pathway," said Odd-Even Bustnes, a principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute. Referring Tuesday to the president's State of the Union address, Bustnes added, "What the president said yesterday is a step in the right direction, but I'm not sure it's a step of the right magnitude."
- Simon Romero/NYTimes-IHT 02.Feb.06
Updated!...the US consumes enough oil to cover a football field with a column of oil 2500 feet tall. That's 121 million cubic feet. 55-60% of US consumption is imported at a cost of $50 billion+ per year, amounting to the largest single element of our trade deficit. In summer 2004, thanks to higher prices, increased demand, and lower production, record trade deficits of more than $50 billion per month were recorded, with approximately 30% of that attributable to imported energy costs. In September 2004, the US reported its lowest montly oil production in 55 years, at an average of 4.85 million barrels per day.
- Dick Gibson/Popular Geology
"roaring economies" is a good phrase.
Lots of things roar - fires, big waterfalls, hurricane winds, storm waves, large carnivores, angry drunken louts. Not many roaring things are what you'd want to have around the house.
Odd-Even Bustnes is good. Not touching that.
Something not good is the absolutely sacred taboo/prohibition against mentioning the possibility of reducing the demand for what it is the oil does - the actual drug "experience", to stick with the addiction metaphor.
The only talk is about reduction of consumption by the machines themselves - better mileage, better materials, etc. Robot demand, that's what's wrong.
This is exactly why junkies use needles - it's a more efficient way of using the drug.
It's exactly why crack cocaine is smoked in glass pipes.
