gas pumpSo gas prices are still going up. Which totally sucks, by the way. Because it means that some other lines on our budgets are going to have to be cut. Road trip this summer? Maybe not. Braces for your crooked-toothed adolescent? Not so much. Date night? Hope you like walks in the park, because dinner and a movie might not be financially feasible with $4 a gallon gasoline.

We are all making cuts to our budgets to cover the cost of filling our tanks. Which leads one to ponder … what would cut the cost of fuel?

Electric and hybrid costs would certainly cut the cost, since they use far less fuel (if any) than their conventional internal combustion counterparts. Unfortunately, they also cost far more than their gas-guzzling buddies, so you’re not really going to be saving any money.

The only way to reduce the cost of fuel is to increase the supply of it. In 2009, we imported over half of our petroleum, mostly from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. That’s ridiculous in a country that’s as resource rich as the United States, and even more so in our flailing economy. If we drilled right here, we’d create hundreds of thousands of jobs, plus reduce the cost of doing business, since fuel would be cheaper. 

Take a look at this video from MomThink.org: 

 

Critics say that drilling isn’t the answer because it would take ten years for the oil to reach the market. They’ve been saying this for the last 40 years or so. If we’d started the process then, we’d have had cheaper gas for the last three decades. You have to start somewhere. In the meantime, think of what it would mean for the unemployment rate. A lot of employees are needed to build those rigs, after all. 

But what about the safety risks to humans and to the environment? How can we forget about last year’s rig explosion and subsequent unpluggable leak in the Gulf of Mexico? It killed eleven men, injured seventeen others, and generally wrecked havoc in the Gulf States. How can we possibly consider drilling for more oil when disasters could happen?

It’s a good thing that automobiles weren’t banned after the first fatal car crash. Otherwise we’d still all be riding horses.

In the Deepwater Horizon incident, both BP and our government mucked things up. Safety protocols were neither followed nor enforced. It was a tragic accident that never should have happened, but it is not an excuse to block progress. We need more oil to grease the wheels of our economy, and lucky for us, we have it. We just have to go get it.

Drill, baby, drill.

 

Image via MomThink