Brazil stopped buying oil and uses an environment friendly fuel… why can’t the USA and Canada do this?
487394
I think its more about lobbying. Gas has long been important in US politics, flourishing in the last 2 terms though.\n\nBrazil politics, 30 years ago, may have slipped some oil lobbying at point and then it propagated.\n\nUS gov does try to promote hybrid vehicles but they are meanlingless unless actually powered by electricity than gas. The only use of hybrid is when you hit the break, the car energy is stored as electricity - otherwise its all gas.
471050
Are you people serious? our oil and gasoline is Subsidized by the US government.  While your crying about $3 a gallon for gasoline, Europe is paying upwards of $7 a liter for their petrol.  The government is the only thing keeping you driving the 4X4 and giant SUV, wake up.\n\nEdit: and while your on Yahoo Answers moaning to all of your "friends" about how evil a democracy the US gov't is, they are loosening the restrictions on your car's waste output, and opening the countries fuel supply for personal use so YOU don't have to ride your bike to the mall tomorrow.\n\nEdit2: YES they CAN use the excuse they cannot convert oil->gasoline.  We are currently refining at MAX capacity (when weather systems allow) We havn't made a new refinery since the 70s, and since it take almost 20 YEARS to complete a new refinery, don't hold your breath. (10 years to complete an oil rig)  Also, why the hell would Exon make a new refinery? From a business standpoint, they have NO motivation to do so, they are getting prime price for their product.
632768
The truth is that we have an alternative and used it for a while in the 70s.  While the public used it and liked it, the oil companies hated it.  The oil companies have so much pull with congress that they were able to have the fuel removed from the market.\n\nThe technology exists to make gas from corn (as it was in the 70s) and from sugar cane (as it is in Brazil).  It is the oil companies who have a hold on congress and congress doens't want to cross such big contributors.\n\nDid you know that Brazil is totally oil free?  They had passed a law years ago that they would be totally oil free by a certain year (don't remember what the year was).  They succeeded.  All their gas is made from sugar cane.\n\nWe will only get rid of oil dependence when we all pressure our senators and representatives into giving us what we want.  Those who don't want to do away with oil need to be voted out of office.  Our own government is keeping us dependent on oil.
1156456
First, we have an oilman as president! Bush has to go first before we can require that alt. fuels be used. Next, the government has to realize that we need to use alt. fuels for both the environment and for the economy. It would be so great to liberate ourselves from the Middle East and make that area return to its position before oil was discovered.
1183930
~I assume somewhere in this drivel you actually think you posted a question.  Sorry I was to ignorant to figure out what it was.  Maybe you should consider going back to school to learn how to speak and write in intelligible English.  As to to concept of oil being a renewable resource, of course it is.  It just might take a few million years for the ferns to grow, decompose and transmogrify.  What the hey, Sequoias are renewable too.
333263
There just isn't enough oil in US arctic waters to make much more than a blip. If we enlarge drilling operations, we have two options: A small, negligible but steady supply, or a big, short-term operation that would also make a negligible difference.\nThe big issue is that it’s mostly low-grade crude, and any economic benefit is probably offset by the twin bugaboos of the additional refining costs, as well as the inevitable environmental cleanup.\n\nIf we assume Americans start using less gas—which is darn unlikely—then gas prices go up as oil and gas producers adjust to preserve their profits.\n\nAmerica, however, is about to become a bit player in all this. China will, within 10 or 15 years, out-consume America for oil, and there are NO efficiency measures on the horizon there, primarily because the demand is for industrial processes, not cars. If America slows the rate of increase in consumption, it will just mean that the global rate increases slightly less quickly. Bottom line: Nothing America does is going to have much of an impact on demand or supply.
223519
Have you checked the fuel prices lately?  I think people are looking for an alternative fuel source because of the rising prices of gas.  Not only that, this whole gas exploration thing creates such a power play in the world and even causes wars and embargoes.
329902
Do what they successfully do in some other countries - boycot the big oil companies one at a time - if NOBODY in the US bought gas from Exxon for a specified  time you can bet your bottom dollar they'd reduce the price at the pumps!  Then go on with Chevron or whoever is the chosen one - main thing - target them one or two at a time! They don't care about the US or its citizens - they're in it for the megabucks!  And if they can't get megabucks, they'll take whatever bucks they can get!
1171490
So far, there's not enough demand to warrent the extra cost of developing alternative energy sources.  In order to stop using oil (for power) we will need to find cheaper ways of getting alternative energy or become much more motivated to do so.
441158
because that is something Iran would do.\n\nQuite honestly, it would hurt us more than them, with the premium on oil prices.\n\nKeep in mind that we are actually doing things to diversify our oil partners.  The lumber dispute will sort itself out.  It may take time, but trust me, it's not worth the current oil revenues.\n\n\nRE:  Additional Details:\n\nIt's not that you're wrong in principle, because you're not.  The thing is, these things take time.  There is a legal process.  Yes, we could stop trading with the U.S.  We would lose more than them, though.  It's about losing battles to win wars.  It is good to have a strong relationship with the US.  Some of our most valuable resources are in territory not recognized as Canadian by much of the world, and I think we protect it with not much more than a row boat.\n\nSo we turn our noses up at the US now, and tommorrow, Northern Canada is US territory. \n\nJust one example.  \n\nMaybe we should beef up our military before swinging economic weight around?
397625
In general gas prices are high due to the federal and state taxes piled on each gallon (24% last check).  We would be led to believe the technology does not exist to make other sources viable.  This is probably untrue, but the gas companies may have it all tied up.  The answer is we must push aside the environmental wackos and drill for our OWN oil.  There are thousands of years worth of supply in many parts to the US.  Canada does not buy foreign oil, in fact we buy some of ours from them.  All we need to do is start DRILLING.
293797
I had a website addressing this very issue. We have many options available to us presently, but as long as their is a dollar in fossil fuels neither government nor corporate America is going to move in that direction. If you would like to be a mirror for the site let me know and I will get it back up!
970194
It is a non-renewable fossil fuel.  Oil and natural gas are also fossil fuels.
436046
It has a lot to do with the run up to the Iran conflict, loss of output from Iraq and the growing needs of developing countries (China & India) for petroleum.  What's really amazing is the the disinterest in the United States for alternative energy and the oil industry's continued collusion with automakers and government to keep us from using that technology.  Greed, power and stupidity sums it up nicely.
686072
Thats because the USA is one of the highest consumers of Oil in the world.Also the USA hardly has any Oil resources.That leaves it with no choice but to import oil which makes it dependent on foreign oil.
525342
Plenty of buses run on LNG, it is one of the options car companies should be thinking about.  \nWhat we really need to be working on is more renewable fuel sources like E85.  Many cars can already use this and their owners don't ever know it (check out www.cars.com).  The solution is certainly not to "open up more federal lands to oil and gas exploration", as the person above says. We need to be thinking long-term and not just coming up with ways to destroy the environment more quickly.
53421
YES YES YES... The USA and Canada should DRILL IN THE NORTH COUNTRY.. Use OUR OWN OIL and drive the price of gasoline down to improve both countries ECONOMIES.. As soon as the ECONOMIES are at a point where everyone isn't spending so much on fuel that we can invest the money in FUEL ALTERNATIVES.. After we develop HYDROGEN and NATURAL GAS powered vehicles we can go in and REPAIR and REPOPULATE the areas that we had to use to DRILL and MINE.. It's a pretty simple plan, but of course we'll FOREVER have some ECO-FREAK or LIBERAL whining and crying about the spotted-left handed-migratorial-one eyed-ring tailed otters habitat..