Article

[CassiesMan]

Well everyone, as promised, here is my article that I wrote about oil addicition. I have confirmed that it is going to be published, and I've been asked to do a follow up piece about the possible solutions to end our addiction to oil (alternative fuels and such). I was gonna add that into this piece, but the 1500 word limit kinda kept it out. Hope you enjoy it!

No Replacement for Displacement:
Our Addiction to Oil and the American Mindset

At the time of this writing, I’m looking at a list put together by the automotive industry as a whole. This list, available from any search engine, will tell you the top ten best-selling vehicles in any given year. I’m looking at the list for 2005, and I’m honestly not surprised. Coming in at number one, with a rather large number of 901,463 models sold, is the Ford ‘F’ Series pickup truck. Coming in at a distant second with 705,891 models sold is the Chevrolet Silverado pickup, and finally at third is the Toyota Camry with 433,703 models sold. Nowhere on this list do you see the ultra-efficient hybrids such as the Toyota Prius or the Honda Insight. In the United States, the Ford F-150 pickup truck has been the number one selling vehicle for 25 years. Now, I would like to relay to you a direct quote from President Bush made during the most recent State of the Union Address: “America is addicted to oil.”

We have to ask, what does that phrase mean, “addicted to oil”? Well, let’s look at a few numbers first to get an idea. In 2005, we averaged an importation of 20 million barrels per day. There are 365 days in a year. So, at 20 million times 365, we consumed approximately 7,300,000,000 barrels of oil. A barrel of oil holds 42 gallons. I’ll allow you to do the math, but that’s a lot of oil. And guess what? It’s not stopping. As of February 10, 2006, we had already had daily averages between 14 and 15 million barrels per day. So it’s obvious we aren’t slowing down our consumption. And I would like to add this is also only concerning the amount imported into the U.S. It does not include domestically produced oil.

So who’s to blame? You might be surprised if I were to say it isn’t President Bush, nor it is the domestic automotive industry. No, the problem is us, the American people, and our love of the automobile. The American mindset of power, power, power is finally catching up to us, and it’s now when we need to address the problem we created. At this point, you’re probably wondering what I’m getting on about. I’ll put it simply: You cannot blame Detroit for pumping out SUV after SUV, or dropping large-displacement V8 engines that drink more gasoline in one week than many cars will in one month. No, it is not their fault. We are addicted to oil. The blame lies with us, the American consumers, and our desire to get to work faster in cars that are louder than everyone else’s. Dodge has already released the new Charger with the option of having a 5.8L or 6.1L V8, and is re-releasing the Challenger with the same options; Chevrolet is bringing back the Camaro, which will most likely utilize the LS2 6.0L V8 found in the base-model 2006 Corvette, and has already begun sales of the new Corvette with your choice of a 6.0L or 7.0L V8; last year, Ford released a new Mustang with its own 4.6L V8, and this year they are releasing a model that will have a supercharged 5.4L V8. The number one selling vehicle in the US (not just among trucks, but over all vehicles) is a pickup truck that gets 14 miles to the gallon in the city and 18 on the highway. We have no one to blame for our problem but ourselves. It’s not that we do not have access to fuel efficient vehicles, and it’s not that Detroit isn’t making them. We just don’t buy them when they do.

Now, you might ask what we can do to solve the problem of our oil addiction. The obvious answer is, we need to cut back severely on the amount of oil we consume as a whole. Not just oil from the Middle East, not oil from Canada and non-OPEC nations. No, we must stop consuming oil produced here at home and abroad. This isn’t going to be as easy as suggesting we start carpooling, or deciding to give more money to Detroit if they find a way to make more hybrids. We need to find a way to change the mind of Americans. We need to convince the market that there is a distinct difference between needing, and wanting. No American needs a three-hundred-plus–horsepower V8 sports car to get to work. No body in our nation needs an SUV that rivals the size of military vehicles to get to the mall or soccer practice. Now, if you have five kids, a dog, a boat, and the in-laws to drive around, then maybe I can concede that you could use something along the lines of a Suburban or Excursion. However, try to limit your use to that time alone, because if I had a dollar for every time I saw a Hummer holding a single passenger, then I might be able to afford a tank of gas by this summer if prices keep going the way they are.

Recently, a fellow student made a comment along the lines that we should just keep back and rely on technology. Well, the technology is here. The Toyota Prius, which gets over sixty miles per gallon on the highway, has been available in Japan since the mid nineties. Ford is leading the push to create hybrid vehicles that get better mileage, which they have already applied to the Escape SUV. GM has a number of vehicles that run on flex-fuel technology. BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Volkswagen all have tested and produced fuel efficient cars. We can’t rely on developing the technology, because we already have it.

The onus is on us, the consumers. It is not the government’s job to tell Detroit what cars they can and cannot make. It is up to us to tell Detroit what we will and will not buy. We need to change our mindset and step away from overly powerful sports cars and large SUVs that struggle to get above ten miles per gallon on the highway. We need to change as a nation to solve our oil addiction. Now, I wouldn’t mind waking up to a nice Enzo Ferrari (6mpg city/12mpg highway) or a F430 (11mpg city/16mpg highway), but that’s not what its going to take to end our addiction. What it will take is taking advantage of the technology we have access to and making the right steps towards fuel efficiency to put an end to our addiction.

[clawhammer]

Your article is very good

Except you don't give any credit to af

I'd be interested to read the followup article.

[TheStang00]

its good. just curious, did you ever find that time article?

[Igovert500]

tree hugger. jk. nice job.

[CassiesMan]

Tree hugger? My dream car gets 12mpg highway, lol.

AF does get credit, as well as fueleconomy.gov and a few opther sites, its listed with the email i sent to the editor for credidation at the end of the article.

[clawhammer]

Originally Posted by CassiesMan

Tree hugger? My dream car gets 12mpg highway, lol.

AF does get credit, as well as fueleconomy.gov and a few opther sites, its listed with the email i sent to the editor for credidation at the end of the article.

You should have included qoutes from the original thread. And in your article say something like: Accordin to clawhammer from automotiveforums.com SUVs suck.

[CassiesMan]

I actually asked about that, the editor was like...I don't think we can say that, lol. I'll see what I can do for my next article.

[Jaguar D-Type]

The Camaro concept has displacement on demand for a reported 30 mpg.

The new Corvette C6 is the only car sold in America with 400 hp that doesn't have a gas-guzzler tax. The new Corvette C6 Z06 is the only car sold in America with more than 400 hp that doesn't have a gas guzzler tax.

Gas is $2.00 here in Salem, OR.

[BlackGT2000]

Don't blame it all on V8s though, sure they use lots of gas but so do all cars making that kind of power. Look at the evo 19 city miles and 25 highways miles, That is about as bad as my mustang, unless you are on the highway when the mustang actually is rated better. Small displacement dosn't necessarily equal good MPG, small cars with small weak engines equal good MPG.

[CBFryman]

Fuck the toyota prius. Honda needs to bring back the CRX with the exact same motor platform only updated. Going easy on the pedal it was more than possibly to hit 40-50mpg and you sitll have a "sporty", light little car. Heh, CRX with a RWD platform would be even better.

Ofcourse what yo uare suggesting will never happen, i will never not have acess to a vehicle that can go down to lowes and pick up a few sheets of wood or w/e in.

I want an E-85 fule station somewhere near me but that isnt going to happen anytime soon. My tuck is Flexi Fule but it doesnt do me any good. Besides, if america was to make a drastic change to E-85 the price of Ethanol would shoot through the roof. In other countries where fule is already through the roof for petrol (gasoline) it would be fine, but with E-85 hovvering around 1.85 a gallon now, and with a demand for billions of gallons a year the corn feilds just wont be able to keep up, hell you'll be able to buy some jack daniles and pour it into your tank for the price of a gallon of E-85.

still a good write up.

[TheStang00]

Originally Posted by CBFryman

Fuck the toyota prius. Honda needs to bring back the CRX with the exact same motor platform only updated. Going easy on the pedal it was more than possibly to hit 40-50mpg and you sitll have a "sporty", light little car. Heh, CRX with a RWD platform would be even better.

Ofcourse what yo uare suggesting will never happen, i will never not have acess to a vehicle that can go down to lowes and pick up a few sheets of wood or w/e in.

I want an E-85 fule station somewhere near me but that isnt going to happen anytime soon. My tuck is Flexi Fule but it doesnt do me any good. Besides, if america was to make a drastic change to E-85 the price of Ethanol would shoot through the roof. In other countries where fule is already through the roof for petrol (gasoline) it would be fine, but with E-85 hovvering around 1.85 a gallon now, and with a demand for billions of gallons a year the corn feilds just wont be able to keep up, hell you'll be able to buy some jack daniles and pour it into your tank for the price of a gallon of E-85.

still a good write up.

i disagree... with mass use the price will drop, more buyers = lower price. the only thing that could stop the price from dropping could be the government price floor on corn, but it may not idk, and it could be changed if a change to E-85 happened. and we will not have a corn shortage. do you have any idea how much excess corn is grown every year? due to the price floor on corn there is a HUGE surplus, the government buys it to keep the farmers in buisness and a large quantity of that is dumped straight into the ocean. the rest of it is stored, and given to countries in need. we produce so much extra corn that we have plenty of room for growth in the ethanol industry, maybe if we made a big transition to ethanol the government wouldnt have to waste so much money on corn every year. i dont see a large transition to ethanol happening though. it doesnt creat a whole lotta power comapired to gasoline.

[CBFryman]

though Ethanol doesnt contain near the ammount of energy gasoline contains reports back show little or no noticble pwoer loss and a very small drop in gas mileage.

I knew the government used to buy butt loads of corn, i didnt know they still did.

[CBFryman]

on top of that, engines set to run strictly off of E 85 can have a higher compression and more advanced timing resulting in greater thermal efficency.

++ for E85.

Acording ot my mom in the years comming ALL regular unleaded witll be E15, i dont know how they are going to pull that though because the main thing you ahve to do to convert a car to run off of any ethanol is change all fule fittings to brass and neoprene. Kart racing with alcohol 101.

[clawhammer]

They found a way to make ethanol from agricultural "waste" products, so they're using corn cobs, etc which would normally be burned for gasoline, while the actual corn is used for food.

[CBFryman]

Ethanol can be made from ANY vegitation. If it has startch or sugar in it it can be made into ethanol. How ever corn is the #1 producer. Has a good balence of surgars and startches so it takes less distilling to get it near 100% purity (will always have a trace of water and methanol)

Potatos are also a good source but we have to think of the irish.

Question is, how quick will the alcoholics be to find away to distill the gasoline out of it and get their fix for 1.85 for 0.85gal of moonshine.