The Energy Crisis and Domestic Oil - Revision

One of the major topics discussed today is how could gasoline prices be brought down, as most people would like to see? Refined crude oil has been the primary gasoline used to power automobiles since their invention in the year 1885. Fossil fuels make up 70 percent of the United States energy and with current technology, this method cannot be replaced. Wind and solar power combined only make up 2.8 percent of the United States’ energy. The constant fluctuation of the gasoline prices per gallon have steadily increased over the last ten years which has challenged many people to make ends meet. Since fossil fuels provide most of the energy in the United States, an increase in gas prices is not strictly noticed at the pump. Nearly all goods and services require gasoline for their manufacture and distribution. As a result, the cost of these goods and services will also increase with an increase in the price of gas. Increasing the domestic production of oil in the United States could provide the solution for many of our economic, national security, and environmental problems.
Experts agree that the cost of gasoline is based on supply and demand in the world market. Currently, the United States is one of the larger consumers of oil in the world, but as a nation, we only produce thirty-eight percent of our domestic need. We import much of our oil from countries that are hostile to the United States. This not only makes us susceptible to unpredictable fluctuations in the market, but also threatens national security. The United States provides large sums of money through the purchase of foreign oil that could be used by these nations to build weapons or fund terrorist activity against us.
So why is it necessary to buy oil fro...

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...construction in 1977. As of 2010, over 16 billion barrels of oil have been safely moved from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez producing economic prosperity in Valdez, Fairbanks and Anchorage. Like pipelines, problems encountered while drilling on land are surely easier to deal with than those encountered on off-shore drilling rigs.
History has shown the United States to be exceptionally safe and environmentally friendly when it comes to energy production. Producing our own energy makes sense for us economically, it makes us more secure as a nation and we control its environmental impact.

Works Cited
“www.npr.org” Where Does America Get Oil? Corey Flintoff, 12 April 2012
“www.keystone-xl.com” Jobs and Economic Benefits. Keystone XL Pipeline, 2014
“The Wall Street Journal” North Dakota Population Booms Amid Low Unemployment, Ben Casselman, 20 Dec. 2012