Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Black Gold
Certainly, if one were to flip on their television they would be greeted with terrifying images, scary statistics and talk of several unstable situations. From the awful events occurring in Libya to the still staggering economic uncertainty, the United States seems to be suffocating; U.S. citizens can sense this, too. President Obama recently stated that he plans to cut one-third of oil imports into the United States. In this article posted by the New York Times, Mr. Obama has stated that he is turning his attention to the sky-rocketing gas prices. He "pointed to the continuing upheaval in the oil-rich Middle East to argue that the nation must end the long political bickering that has stymied progress toward energy"; Obama continues to assert that his administration is not the cause of the gas prices rising. I agree with this. From an economic perspective, the chaos in Libya and the constant unrest in other oil-rich countries definitely impacts how much oil can be imported into the United States. I believe that Obama and many other officials are trying to explain to the rest of the country that as long as we rely on foreign oil, they will have the upper hand. Furthermore, it is ignorant to depend on other nations for oil when there is so much turmoil in other regions of the world. Now, I'm not saying that we should start drilling in the United States or that we need to become one-hundred percent, completely independent, but I do think that the gradual weening from dependence on foreign supplies will strengthen the United States as a whole. Mr. Obama's plan involves not only decreasing our dependency on imported oil, but also a green movement that focuses on fuel-efficient cars; He would like to build new refineries to create billions of gallons of bio fuels and increase fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. I appreciate the President's attempts to use unorthodox methods to decrease the amount of resources we use. Drilling in the U.S. would surely have its advantages, but it is wise to leave domestic pumps as a back up plan rather than hastily use up our only sources of oil. It is wise to try and solve the problem by slimming down the amount of fuel we need to operate successfully, as opposed to tapping into what could be our last resort. I say that Obama's movements are progressive and should be adhered to, not dismissed because it is challenging.
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I recently read an informative editorial by Christi Duderstadt. In her piece titled “Black Gold”, she gives the reader an insight into what President Obama wishes to do in concerns with the rising oil and gas prices. Duderstadt states that Obama “would like to build new refineries to create billions of gallons of bio fuels and increase fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles”. She also comments that while our nation is sitting on an abundance of oil, we shouldn’t start drilling and become co-dependent on ourselves for oil. While I am a firm believer in finding a resolution to our gas prices quickly, I have to agree with Duderstadt. It is unethical for our country to go from relying heavily on foreign, imported oil to simply producing all of our own. At the same time, I don’t fully support Obama’s angle towards creating bio fuel as Duderstadt does. I don’t agree with this because of the mere fact that in the event of producing billions of gallons of bio fuels for fuel-efficient vehicles, who all will benefit from the fuel? Not every person, or even the majority of the population, owns a fuel-efficient car. For Obama’s plan to effectively work for the whole, many people will have to dip even farther into their budgets in order to purchase different vehicles that can use the supply of fuel. I think that the idea of mass production of bio fuels is a good start for the long run, but the country needs help sooner rather than later. Duderstadt effectively portrays her thoughts on mass production of bio fuels being the best answer. While I agree that it is a valid idea, I disagree that it will help in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI found Christi Duderstadt’s posting right up my alley. It was nice to hear someone stand up for President Obama for a change. I mean, I am not one-hundred percent happy with everything he and his administration have done, or the lack of the things they have done, but I do not think it is fair for everyone to just give up. Also, they cannot be blamed for all that is wrong in this country. As a matter of fact, I have yet to see how anything has gotten worse since he has been in office. Christi explained President Obama’s plan in a way that it finally made sense to me. They do not want to drill in the U.S. yet because it should be our last and final resort. Instead, they are suggesting that we reduce the amount of oil that we use and in turn reduce the amount that we are dependent upon other countries supplying us. And while we are doing all of that, just an extra little bonus, we are helping save our beautiful planet! The last line of Ms. Duderstadt’s post is one I wish I could share with the rest of the country, “Obama's movements are progressive and should be adhered to, not dismissed because it is challenging.” He really does have some innovative ideas that we haven’t tried yet. Why not give them a shot? Oh, I forgot…global warming is a myth. I sure hope we do not have to wait and see!
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