Is increasing supply or cutting demand the answer to America's energy problem?

Question

Increasing supply, drilling for more oil, does the least harm to the economy. Increasing supply by drilling in preserved areas will bring the price of oil down without increasing the cost production or the selling price of cars and trucks.
Decreasing demand by higher fuel efficiency or alternate fuels will cut the demand for oil by increase production cost and the price of cars and trucks.
Which is the answer to the energy problem?
Your thoughts.

Amazing. There arwe no thumbs down on any answers. Seems the country is in agreement on this issue.
Thanks for all your answers.

Answer 1

I think we need to drill locally so that we can ultimately wean ourselves from the dependency of foreign oil while we research and develop alternative energy sources.

Answer 2

In most cases, how do you cut down on the demand? We live in the country. My husband commutes 60 miles one way. There is no alternative transportation, or anyone else to car pool with. We live in the country. Our Heat is propane and we keep it at its lowest setting, as those prices are outrageous. I am sure many people are not able to cut back.

My husband works for a big oil company in engineering. They would drill in Alaska as the wildlife loves that pipeline because it brings warmth! However, we do have a faction that fears the endangerment of the wildlife.

If there was a way to drill in other places the oil companies here would do that, but they are given the red light at every turn. Remember when we have bad weather in the Gulf it hits the oil rigs causing prices to shoot up also.

Using corn has driven up the price of chicken and beef. Other alternative methods cost as much as oil. Agreeably, they need to explore alternatives that won't be so costly, or have the domino effect.

Don't forget the taxes increase the costs by very high percentages also!

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Answer 3

I commute 66.9 miles into Houston, each way for business. It takes about 2 hours, as I live in a rural area and have to pass through several small towns.
I have noticed that 1. Especially in Houston, Texas, the 11 traffic lights I have to go through, just to get to I 45, at the posted speed, I will be stopped at least 7 times !! 2. IF the Houston Traffic 'engineers' would reschedule the traffic light's timing to accommodate the traffic flow to match the speed limit, My calculations are that on an average day 800,000 gallons of gas would be saved, in Houston- alone, EVERY DAY ! 3. Today's gas and oil "shortage" is 90% the result of the 'environmentalist's ' past and PRESENT fears that "THERE MIGHT(MIGHT) BE AN ACCIDENT 'RUINING SOME OF OUR ENVIRONMENT'"!!!!!!!
This activity has caused the drastic shortage of new petro-chem refineries being built, AND a drastic slowdown in the drilling's for more petrolium production.
I AM A DEDICATED ENVIRONMENTALIST, how ever, I am also a realist !!!!
" YOU CAN NOT HAVE YOUR CAKE, AND EAT IT, ALSO".

Answer 4

Reduce energy demand across the board while increasing the supply of renewable energy sources.

One can design and build a net-zero energy house, for example: people have done it already all over the world, and it was just announced that this will be mandatory in California by the year 2020. In some building locations it is even possible to build a house which produces more energy than it uses, the surplus being fed 'back into the grid.'

Reduce energy consumption by producing your own food or getting from close neighbors instead of hauling from across the nation or even importing it from across the world won't save much energy but if 300 million people do it...it adds up.

There are lots of things that can be done to reduce energy usage. What is required is the individual act of doing so.

Drilling for oil in distant locations, in deeper deposits, or in places hard to get to, such as the ocean, only gives us more expensive oil.
And more energy-intensive oil.
The Alberta Tar Sands oil, for instance, takes the production of 3 barrels of oil to net one barrel to sell to the market.
For the Colorado oils shales, it will probably take 5 or 6 times as much energy to process the shales than you'll get out to sell. And what do you do with all the left-over rock and sludge? Dealing with that will cost something.

And what about the future? How are you going to lubricate machinery 2-300 years from now if there's no oil left?

The little personal savings do help. Right now I have 3 lights on in my place, for a total of perhaps 85 watts. If I replaced the fluorescent fixture in my kitchen with LED's I could be down to maybe 5-7 watts/hr. I could power those using a bicycle generator if I felt like it: one can produce about 450 watts in 5-10 minutes, so a bit of exercise would charge up batteries enough to run the lights for over 64 hours. ( YMMV.)

So, reduce demand, increase the supply of renewable energy, and save the remaining oil for higher uses.

Answer 5

The answer must be comprehensive. In other words, a combination of both strategies.

The punks in the trading pit where the price on the spot market is set, are easily influenced. They are a cowardly bunch. We could begin drilling and the price would come down just because the work was begun long before the first drop of oil emerged.

The mere suggestion that the American people, their political parties, their industrial partners and their government might be able to unite and speak with one voice to address the problem in any way would send the price plummeting.

Answer 6

the supply of oil has little to do with the price of gasoline on the US market

the biggest factor is the lack of refineries to process the oil into gasoline, even the refinieries that are opperating are not running anywhere near capacity due to lack of maintenance and investment by the oil companies that own them

why put money into a refinery when you can claim theres not enough oil to go around and then raise the price of gas 20 or 30% without spending a dime?

note Exxon claimed $9 billion in profits in the last quarter (90 days) thats $30 for every man, woman and child in the US, yet then they say they are NOT gouging the people of the US

speculators are the other ones that are driving up the price for no reason, every time bush mentions Iran or some 2 bit pirate wanna be in Nigeria attacks a sampan they decide its an oil crisis and the price goes up hurting the consumers

Answer 7

A combo of both.

What gets me is why more energy efficient autos and appliances haven't been on the market until now. The technology isn't anything that new. In fact, some have been around for years. We should be driving cars that get 50 mpg by now.

Answer 8

not "cut off" the energy supply, rather, do our best w/ newer technology to create the energy in a cleaner and safer way. it has to start somewhere. amd while we will not be able to rework the entire grid and infrastructure immediately, we can do this over time. that length of time should allow enough research and allow for needed breakthroughs to eventually convert the grid...

Answer 9

Although I am not an expert in this by any stretch of the imagination, it seems to me that cutting demand is the ultimate choice here. Concentrating on alternate methods such as solar, wind,hydroelectric, and hydrogen power, geothermal and wave where feasible, are all methods that need to be used more. It is our literal addiction to oil that causes many of our problems.

Answer 10

Both, and a movement away from oil to alternate fuels not only in the long term but in the short term.

Answer 11

In the short term, cut demand. In the long run, increase supply.

Increasing supply will take time. The quickest and cheapest way to drop the price of fuel is to cut demand.