As the world grapples with the existential crisis of climate change, environmental activists want President Joe Biden to phase out the oil industry, and Republicans argue he’s already doing that. Meanwhile, the surprising reality is the United States is pumping oil at a blistering pace and is on track to produce more oil than any country has in history.
The United States is set to produce a global record of 13.3 million barrels per day of crude and condensate during the fourth quarter of this year, according to a report published Tuesday by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Last month, weekly US oil production hit 13.2 million barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s just above the Donald Trump-era record of 13.1 million set in early 2020 just before the Covid-19 crisis sent output and prices crashing.
That’s been helping to keep a lid on crude and gasoline prices.
mandate WFH wherever possible, institute generous EV tax rebates, etc etc
That takes care of a small fraction of oil.
Plastics production makes up ~45% of all petroleum production.
Then you have shipping. Aircraft. Trucking. Then you have passenger vehicles.
Aircraft are the exact reason we need to figure out how to restrict production enough to raise prices. New non-fossil fuels have been “almost here” for decades, but somehow never actually get adopted. It’s time to push airlines with the prospect of more expensive jet fuel.
And lead too. I used to fly so I understand a little about the difficulties the general aviation industry has in switching to an unleaded fuel for prop planes, and have even defended the industry for it. And it’s small and shrinking. But lead has really got to go and if it takes more serious price increases to encourage it, so be it
Where are you getting the 45% number? I am seeing petrochemicals (plastics, resins, and petroleum based feedstocks) @12.12% of total oil demand in 2022. I see that road (all forms of shipping and transport on roads/care with petroleum products like tar/asphalt) is 49.24% of demand.
Diving deeper into the transportation sector, light trucks + other trucks make up 57% of the transportation sector’s petroleum usage. Following with cars/motorcycles @21%.
I agree with the sentiment you raise, that industry accounts for a very large portion of crude oil consumption, and that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I just am unsure where you saw your data or if its perhaps looking at a different region specifically?
Sources for my figures: -total demand%: https://www.statista.com/statistics/307194/top-oil-consuming-sectors-worldwide/
-Transport sector breakdown: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/transportation.php
yes, there are things congress could do to greatly improve the situation, but that takes time. and, ya know, congress not wasting all their time trying to expel and elect another speaker or trying to distract the country from the Trump show with their own Biden revenge impeachment and actually doing their jobs.
as a side note, tax rebates are not very helpful when people need to wait until the end of the year (or the middle of the next) for their savings. why not instant tax rebates/saving at the time of purchase?
Calculate the difference in what it costs to maintain the highway system and what is brought in by the gas tax, and then charge that amount of money to every employer but offer them a tax credit that offsets this new tax if they can prove their Worker Works from home at least 90% of the time, and there will be Financial incentives for employees to report their employers for violating this rule
The air in my area was so clean during that first month of covid. Traffic would also be a lot better for blue collar people if all the office workers weren’t fighting them for road space.
