[quote=Butleroftwo]UCGal,
That black tar on the beach in Santa Barbara is naturally occurring. This is a pretty well known fact. I am surprised you didn’t ask any locals.
Did you read your second website? You really pulled that quote out of context. Here is another quote from the same site;
“According to a report on “Oil in the Sea” from the National Academy of Sciences (1995), far more oil enters the ocean from natural, underwater seeps than from offshore production platforms. In fact, the seeps introduce about 1700 barrels of oil a day into U.S. marine waters, which is about 150 times the amount from oil and gas activities.”
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On the first point – no one told me that. I’ll take your word on it till I can verify it. (Reagan’s famous “Trust but Verify” is a good rule to live by.)
On the second point – My argument was that the McCain talking point, oft repeated, that there were NO spills caused by Katrina is simply not accurate. I didn’t suggest that it was the only source of oil, just that there were oil spills from Katrina. McCain has made unequivicable statements that are factually incorrect. But that is common in politics – even from straight shooters.
And, back to the tire guages. Time Magazine posted an article yesterday with the following quote.
But who’s really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.
The article then goes on to talk about the tactic of the tire gauge controversy.
As I said in my previous post – tire gauges aren’t the silver bullet, neither is off shore oil drilling. Any solution has to be comprehensive and reduce our dependance on oil, longterm.
