We need a new drug
By Libby
Following up on Fogg's brilliant post, here's a little statistic you probably didn't know. For all the blaming on world demand, when it comes to oil addiction, we're number one.
[Via the indispensable Newshogger researcher Kat]
Following up on Fogg's brilliant post, here's a little statistic you probably didn't know. For all the blaming on world demand, when it comes to oil addiction, we're number one.
California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California's 20 billion gallon gasoline and diesel habit is greater than China's! (Or Russia's. Or India's. Or Brazil's. Or Germany's.)That's quite a habit and that's just one state. Granted it's a big one but add the other 49 and the odd terrority, well, that's a lot of crude. And like any addict, most Americans are scrambling to look under the carpet for the last few grains of the drug instead of standing up and confronting the problem. I think it's going to be a rude awakening.
[Via the indispensable Newshogger researcher Kat]
Labels: energy, Oil prices, policy
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:51 PM
3 Comments:
When two of my kids became of age, our family like many others had a car for me, one for the wife, and one for each kid. Three of them were gas guzzlers. I don't think any of my kids ever rode a bus - I know I never did and I'm sure my wife never did. But the Public Transportation was so inefficient that we had no choice.
Even if we come out with some new, super energy efficient cars that run on renewable energy sources, most people in the US won't be able to afford them, and when gasoline engines are finally obsolete, those people will be shit out of luck.
We need better mass transit Brian.
They love to blame it on the usual scapegoats, but the demise of the US rail system started with Eisenhower in collusion with Detroit and has been fostered by conservative enmity toward anything public.
When I was a kid, we had the greatest rail system in the world, Chicago had electric buses and street cars and an interurban electric rail system that would take you anywhere from Milwaukee to South Bend, Indiana.
Now we have SUV's and airplanes and you can't get anywhere. Trains are hundreds of times more fuel efficient and modern railways can get you to places hundreds of miles away faster than if you fly, but we don't have them, so while your being raped at the gas pump or being strip searched at the airport or sleeping on the floor because the flights have been cancelled - thank a Republican, thank a lobbyist, thank the snickerati who keep voting for them.
Shanghai has a 300 mph electric train that levitates. It would take me more than 48 hours to get to Chicago by Amtrack.
What the hell is this country still smirking about?
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