There are a few facts that these people aren't considering.
First of all, it will be years before there are any more drilling platforms off of our shores, no matter who is in charge of this country. The states will have to agree to any new drilling, according to the legislation now being considered, and then the platforms will have to be requested by the oil companies, and then they will have to build the platforms.
Second, the oil companies have absolutely no plans to do any more drilling offshore. Why would they want to? The current market is exactly what they want. Banks may be hitting the dirt right and left, but when was the last time you heard about an oil company having any financial problems?
Third, and finally, we are at refining capacity! In other words, no mater how much oil floods the market, we can't turn any more of it into gasoline than we already do in this country! Until the oil companies decide to build more refineries, and until they manage to pass these refineries past all of the inevitable NIMBY protests, the supplies of gasoline are staying right where they are in this country.
Sorry, Hummer fans, but those are the facts. Allowing more drilling won't do a damn thing to lower prices.
How do we lower gas prices? Simple. We use less gas.
We can drive the speed limit. We can drive vehicles with better mileage. We can drive less. We can take better care of our cars. You know, all of those pesky "personal responsibility" and "sacrifice" pieces of nonsense.
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thisdaydreamer- Up Too Late
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According to this site, they use approximately 50,000 gallons of gasoline a WEEK. That makes out to roughly two million gallons a season, on only NASCAR official tracks.
Say the average person has a twenty gallon tank, and they fill up every other week... in an entire year, they use only 480 gallons of gasoline.
Ridiculous!
I imagine that it's only a drop in the bucket when you look at nationwide statistics, but ye gods that's one hell of a lot of petrol.
We are assuming that the average person uses 480 gallons a year in petrol. US population as of today's US Population Clock is 305,234,503.
480 gallons times 305,234,503 people = 146,512,561,440 gallons per year for the entire US.
And 146,512,561,440 gallons plus 2,000,000,000 is 148,512,561,440 (to account for the separate use of NASCAR gas from the regular population gas) then divided INTO 2,000,000,000 gallons is approximately... 0.013467.
So NASCAR races uses about 1.4% of the US's gas.
Which doesn't really seem like that much, until you take into account the amount of extra gas that the races use on the small tracks, and then fans driving to and from races, and officials, plus the extra gas that the trailers that haul the cars to and from races use, and the driver's own cars, and the pit crew's cars to and from the races... That adds up to much more.
(I have to much time on my hands and I really need to start working! LOL)
Okay, forget about the drop in the bucket thing. Dropping that much demand would be enough to knock a few cents off the cost of a gallon.
It all adds up really quickly! NASCAR, of course, isn't the only racing medium, but it is (according to that article from before) one of the very few that still use gasoline. Most others are using ethanol or "green" fuels.
It would be... 146,514,561,440 gallons into 2,000,000... 0.00001365.
Making it 0.0014% of the gasoline used in the US. Not nearly as impressive! LOL... oops.
Will the lesson finally be learned to conserve our usage of fuel? I seriously doubt it until Americans think of the concept of smaller (as in cars-houses-luxuries) and alternative energy sources.
I just get so sick of the hue and cry for offshore drilling to bring prices down. Just park that wheeled mountain you drive, idiots.
I wish we would start hardcore trying to bring down the cost of installing solar, and really focusing on alternative energy sources. If we did that, I think oil companies would realize, hey, they're not going to use our product, and either start investing in the new technologies, or drop the price of their product.