I admit, I have no idea how long it would take for the effects of new oil drilling to be noticeable, but watch this clip and you can understand why people are confused. Is it 22 yrs or 2 months? Funny shit!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=178663&title=indecision-2008-to-drill-or-not

I was being sarcastic. While your statement above is correct, my point was, it’s not exactly a new revelation. It’s not like we just figure that shit out a year ago and then said, damn we”re screwed.

“I think our ‘energy’ crisis is two-fold: it is both part of a cultural problem and a greater economic crisis. The problem is not that we are paying $4 a gallon for gas. It is that we rely on gas to get _everywhere_ in this country, and that the vast majority of our nation cannot afford $4 a gallon gas because their pay has not increased to match inflation.”

I agree.

@Rick, great points. I have questioned for a while the reality of our ‘energy crisis.’ It strikes me as odd that we have an energy crisis in America while we’re still not paying close to what the rest of the world has paid for gas for twenty years.

As far as oil being a finite resource, mainstream scientific evidence points toward it taking centuries to develop, so yes, it kind of is. The other problem is that even if we did start pulling more out of the ground (i.e. new refineries), it’d take us nearly ten years to see any effect. We do not have the capacity to _refine_ anymore oil than we already are. It’s not just a matter of how much we pull out of the ground.

I agree that hybrids are not an ultimate solution. But they are a stepping stone in the right direction – just as the Yugos, etc. were a step toward progress.

And you are correct. The election cycle has greatly overblown our energy crisis.

And, finally, I think our ‘energy’ crisis is two-fold: it is both part of a cultural problem and a greater economic crisis. The problem is not that we are paying $4 a gallon for gas. It is that we rely on gas to get _everywhere_ in this country, and that the vast majority of our nation cannot afford $4 a gallon gas because their pay has not increased to match inflation.

What energy crisis? Did some scientist recently discover that oil was a finite resource, or is this the same energy crisis we’ve been having since the day I was born? Hasn’t the price of gas and big oil company profits increased pretty much every year(coincidence I’m sure)? Has technology suddenly been reversed and thus made oil harder to pull from the ground?

I’m not saying we don’t have energy issues that we need/should address, but we’ve always had those. Right now we have a culmination of issues that have exasperated each other (IMO).

Hybrid vehicles are a great idea, but remember 20 or so years ago when gas hit 2 bucks a gallon (or whatever) and the Chevettes, Pintos and Yugos were going to be the answer. Then another ten or so years went by and Suburbans and SUVs were all the rage. Well, I think this is that same crisis.

Also, this is an election year, and the energy crisis is as good of a “hot button” issues as any. What was it fours years ago? I think social security was going bankrupt. Is that problem fixed now?

This will never happen. The oil companies have too much control over Washington. We all sit by and watch other countries pass us by. Look at the shit in Dubai for example. Amazing!