Key word is "protracted" there, subby. SPR only holds enough for 33 days at current levels. Then you start looking for you bicycle helmet.

gromitcu: Key word is "protracted" there, subby.

You might be talking to someone who thinks that advance planning is when you save one cupcake for after dinner.

America Is Totally Prepared for a Protracted Cable TV Interruption!!!!

downstairs: Meh. I can bike almost anywhere I need to go. Work at home. I say go for it, let people learn that moving 70 miles outside of a city, driving 140 miles a day, is just plain dumb living.

That's why I live near a grocery store that brings everything in with teams of cyclists.

Sometimes the boxes with granola bars are a little light, but it's totally worth it.

Gas is 3.14/gal in Kansas City, Mo. I am not sure why anyone would panic. I felt like an aristocrat topping off my tank when there are people in this country that can't even buy gas.

The strategic reserve is for us, right?


....right?


.....*crickets*

nirwana: The strategic reserve is for us, right?


....right?


.....*crickets*

Kind of. It's for the air force, so we can bomb the hell out of the people cutting us off.

Didn't some politicans start tapping that reserve a bit ago....

Yeah, because everyone will just stop selling oil to the US all at once. Everyone. Like somehow, us Canadians are gonna go: "Y'know, maybe we should keep all this oil. We've got enough money."

I'm assuming the people at FOX couldn't think of something else to make people worried, today..

gopher321: Hordes of panicky people seem to be evacuating the town for some unknown reason. Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?

Yes I would, Kent.

Nice.

The SPR is there to keep the Armed Forces running just long enough to overthrow the government of whatever towel-headed regime decided to turn off the tap.

/no gas for you.
/Chavez is target #1.

I find it a little weird that I take two tonnes of metal and plastic with me on my travels and we are powered by the rotting corpses of teeny weeny animals that died millions of years ago.

/yes I am a little inebriated

The reserve is727 million barrels. Consumption is 20,680,000 barrels/day. That's about a month. Will that get us anywhere, especially if that reserve has to be diverted to fuel martial law?

Faux News creates a fear-mongering article? I am shocked.

America is totally unprepared for a protracted oil cut-off. You know, except for that whole strategic reserve thingy

That's like saying I'm prepared for a total collapse of the food system because my fridge is full.

Marcus Aurelius: "America Is Totally Unprepared for the Dallas Cowboys to miss the playoffs again this year".

Dont talk like that

What reserve, that thing we've tapped at least once recently? I always figured that that was a "strategic" reserve -- as in, we lose the capacity to import oil from some serious attack, and the military uses it to fuel war machines one last time, to address that problem. Or a serious cold snap greatly affects importation of oil, and the reserve is rationed out to municipalities to fuel emergency vehicles, so US civilization doesn't go to shiat suddenly.

But didn't Dubya just release some just to lower prices?

America is totally unprepared for flying, particle cannon-equipped, napalm-shiatting humpback whales.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Who cares about the oil problem and renewable energy. Let's just walk into the ocean, singing songs and eating olives. It's simple, quick and no more dealings with Arabs.

You are telling me in the near impossible event that all oil producing countries stop producing oil or halting exports or sale to the world market, that within the 30 days while using the reserve, the USA can't threaten some countries or play nice and get oil?

STFU & GBTW.

Anyway it's a lot more than 30 days. Because a halt in oil from those countries doesn't remove the existing oil in the system (e.g. being refined, being transported).

McCain is unprepared and so is Obama. No surprise here. However, Obama has the ability to lay his hands on it and make it right.

How about driving this beast:

downstairs: Meh. I can bike almost anywhere I need to go. Work at home. I say go for it, let people learn that moving 70 miles outside of a city, driving 140 miles a day, is just plain dumb living.

As pointed out above, I guess your food and other necessities arrive by bike...or some magical transport?

After 20 days Amercians would demand Chavez' and Ahmadeniwhatshisname's heads removed on PPV.

Marcus Aurelius: I got my driver's license in 1973. It can't be any worse than the OPEC oil embargo after the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

In 1973 the US made 64% of the oil it used, now it is around 33%, so it would seem fairly easy to imagine scenarios where the US is far worse off than in 1973.

gund: Anyway it's a lot more than 30 days. Because a halt in oil from those countries doesn't remove the existing oil in the system (e.g. being refined, being transported).

..or from domestic sources, or other countries who aren't cutting us off.

But anyway, gullible people, please do panic. Nobody can cut off the sun (except old man Burns), so let's get renewable energy OK?

tuna fingers: Wait, I just received this in the mail:



I am trying to get prepared to panic and vote for our hero, John McCain, please don't confuse me. I want my panic focused.

/Is everyone receiving this?
//I'm actually not voting for the funny, senile dude.

Just got that in the mail today too.

America is certainly prepared for every country to stop giving us oil at once. I believe we call this preparation nuclear warheads.

Sorry, I messed up:

Link (not a rick roll)

The strategic oil reserve is a work of genius. They pay oil companies to pump oil out of the ground, so the government can put it back in the ground. It's the next best thing to a strategic dirt reserve.

The real question would be whether they could take a protracted America cutting back on our useage of oil. All this talk of 'lectric cars, alternate fuels, carpooling, offshore drilling,and now, going into a recession scares them more then they do with threats of cuts- to the point where they've 'given us a couple breaks' by bringing down the price of oil.

They call us 'insignicant players' on the world economic stage; so why are the world's markets following our crash?

More scare tactics on the part of the worldwide rich as they realize time is running out on them.

Something to ponder. Why is it when our financial giants weren't under the gun, a 400 point drop in the market would be considered a 'correction' but now these financial wizards are going bust, we are now in a recession. And why does America's survival depend on us bailing out unsound businesses instead of offering gov backed refinancing to the homeowners who, if you believe the monetary masters, got us into this mess? You wouldn't give a recovering alchoholic a celebratory beer- why would we give 're-financing' to businesses with failed fiscal policies? Screw 'em.

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

OK. Wall street runs the show like a gambling casino. No panic except from themseleves. Useless war. No panic. Government wipes it ass with the constitution. No panic. Mississippi has black and white tv tonight. No panic. Fox news, something thats next to nothing prints a bs story, PANIC! lol.

No this is not a reprint from 1973.

Gasoline in Cambodia is $5 a gallon. (I was there a week ago)
A rice planter in Cambodia makes $4 for a 12 hour work day.
We have it good.
We're not going to run out any time soon. People don't need to drive as much as they do by a long shot.
We are just used to being able to drive anywhere anytime for the hell of it.

downstairs: Meh. I can bike almost anywhere I need to go. Work at home. I say go for it, let people learn that moving 70 miles outside of a city, driving 140 miles a day, is just plain dumb living.

I live 81 miles from work, and 3 miles from a train station. Your smug is misplaced.