Today, President Obama announced his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil by one third by the year 2025. This means a heavier reliance on alternative sources of energy, further development of alternative fuel technologies, and methods for obtaining theses fuels must be advanced to meet increased demands. Obama has begun his push towards alternative energy by promising that all federal government vehicle purchases will be some form of higher efficiency vehicle (hybrid, electric, etc.) by the year 2015. Steps have already been taken in the past, involving slowly rising fuel efficiency ratings, more of which will be coming later in the year in a greater leap of miles per gallon than usual. Even with all of this, more domestic oil drilling is needed to meet the energy needs of the time, we are still too heavily dependant on oil to just cut ourselves off from it. Apparently we need it bad enough that even while reducing imported oil by one third, we still need enough to quantify a need for more oil wells domestically. It appears that while attempting to reduce the permits for domestic oil drilling after the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, some republicans see these attempts as a way to slow down energy development. It seems, however that continued reliance on a fuel with a finite amount that is quickly dwindling is a much stronger factor halting innovation.
I really have no clue what this particular assignment is asking for except for the one sentence instructions.
I didn't really know where we were supposed to find our story so essentially I just summarized, rephrased, and added a little personal conjecture to an article I found on the CNN website. http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/30/obama.energy/index.html?npt=NP1
After reading Energy Crisis , I have to agree that the government needs to find alternate methods to the fuel dilemma. Something needs to be done, especially since oil consumption in the United States continues to rise. The United States relies heavily on the oil supply from the Middle East. In order for the United States to cut its dependency on foreign oil, changes are definitely going to have to be made. It is about time that the United States is taking a step towards independence from the tyranny of overseas oil prices.
ReplyDeleteA public concern might be that since President Obama is pushing for all government vehicles to have a higher efficiency rating, that the price tag on all those vehicles will hit the taxpayers even more than we already are. Maybe since the government bailed out several large car manufacturers, maybe they could just donate them to the federal government as a way of saying thank you for saving our company. Understandably that with progress and change, there come give and take, but at the expense of an already taxed society? The federal government has a hard enough time agreeing on a budget, then how in the world can we expect them to agree on where to get the supply of oil and how exactly to “go green”.
Other energy sources, such as wind, electric, battery operated, and solar sources, should be continued looked upon as possible solutions to this issue. Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and other states, is possible another step towards dependency. It would also produce jobs and probably help the economy in the process. The government needs to set aside their differences and focus on the tasks at hand.