Now That's A Footprint!

I came across some stats the other day that, if remotely accurate, are astounding, shocking and demand action. Fasten your seatbelt and prepare for a jolt.

According to this info it takes 21 to 35 days for a Russian oil tanker to get to a US port to be offloaded. It takes between 35 to 60 days for a tanker from the Middle East to make the same trip.

It takes about 10 hours to load a tanker and up to 24 hours to unload if it has to wait in port, and to get to an unloading dock can take up to 3 days.

The average tanker burns 2,600+ gallons of diesel fuel per hour. Burning 1 gallon of diesel fuel produces 22.38 lbs. of CO2. In one hour a tanker ship hauling oil to US refinery creates 58,757 pounds of CO2 per hour.

Averaging the travel time of the tanker, that’s 27.6 million tons of CO2 per trip. In comparison, your average car produces 6 to 9 tons per year.

If these figures are even halfway accurate, why are we importing Russian and other foreign oil? Surely the green earth folks are up in arms about all this CO2 that is needlessly being pumped into our planets atmosphere.

Surely this amount of CO2 will trigger a massive world ending event in the very near future. Maybe, even next year!

What can we do to dramatically reduce those CO2 emissions?

May I respectfully suggest the following.

First: Drill for more oil in the United States of America.

Second: Finish the Keystone Pipeline.

Third: Open up more of the Alaska North Slope area to oil exploration and drilling.

Each of those steps would assist our poor planet in two significant ways. First: Without having to rely on Russian tankers we would eliminate the production of 27.67 million tons of CO2. Second: By eliminating the biggest middle man in the world (next to China) it would dramatically reduce the cost of heating oil and gasoline.

Oh, yeah! It would also reduce the production of the massively expensive batteries needed for electric cars. In doing so, that will reduce the tonnage of worn out electric car batteries that would otherwise end up in our garbage dumps.

Finally, by eliminating the need to convert millions of vehicles to battery power, the average Joe and Jane Smith will be able to buy a new car once in a while.

P.S. Check out the price of an electric car, plus the cost of installing a home charging station. It will blow you mind… and your budget.

P.P.S. We will still have enough CO2 in the atmosphere to be able to provide for all of the green growing plants on the Earth. So we will not be endangering the lives of people and animals that need plants.