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Wednesday, March 22, 2017

No Place too Risky to Find Oil


The higher demand for oil has prompted oil companies to start drilling in risky territory. However, continued oil spills have forced people to start thinking about what drilling does to our planet, and calls for alternative options.

These alternatives have been proposed as utilizing public transportation or switching to an electric powered car, but how much of a difference would this make? Apparently not necessarily enough to stop these risky drilling proposals. Perhaps a tax on oil would slow these projects? According to Ian Parry, an employee at the environmental think tank, Resources for the Future, seems to think this tax would still not sway the United States from being oil dependent. So how do we fix this problem?

The International Energy Agency proposed a rather intense scenario that would help the United States cut consumption by 29 percent in just 23 years. Sixty percent of that cut would be from using cleaner modes of transportation. The rest made up of using different modes of electricity to heat homes and power buildings.

The implementation of a plan like this would benefit the United States in many ways. It would decrease our reliance on other countries for oil and we would be less susceptible to rising oil prices. Greenhouse gases and pollution would also decrease. The thing is that these types of plans take time, and with oil spills and ongoing risky drilling projects, it might not be a luxury that we have.

Source: http://www.cfr.org/oil/reducing-us-oil-consumption/p22413

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