By the Numbers: Gas Prices and Cutting America's Oil Addiction

Below are some interesting figures gathered by the Sierra Club that I thought that the TDM Community might find useful.

WASHINGTON - May 3 -

GAS PRICES

$2.92… Average retail price for regular gasoline, up 69 cents from a year ago. [1]

$2,873…Amount average family of four spent on gasoline in 2005[2]

$73.75…Price per barrel of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange[3]


RECORD PROFITS

$8.4 billion…ExxonMobil’s first-quarter profits in 2006

$4 billion…ChevronTexaco’s first-quarter profits in 2006, up 49% from 2005

$3.29 billion…ConocoPhillip’s first-quarter profits in 2006

$15.7 billion…Combined first-quarter profits of ExxonMobil, ChevroTexaco and ConocoPhillips

$63.8 billion…combined 2005 profits of ExxonMobil ($36.1 billion), Chevron ($14.1 billion)and ConnocoPhillips ($13.5 billion). [4]


HANDOUTS TO AMERICANS VERSUS BIG OIL

$30 million…Amount the top 10 oil companies spent on lobbying in 2005[5]

$80 billion…in subsidies and tax loopholes to the oil and gas and other polluting energy industries in the energy law signed in 2005. [6]


OIL DEPENDENCE

25% …Percentage of world oil production consumed by the United States.

3% …Percentage of world’s oil reserves located in the United States. [7]


ARCTIC REFUGE AND AMERICA’S COASTS

1 cent…Amount of savings for consumers at the pump if we drill for oil in the Arctic Refuge.[8]

20 years…When consumers would see the penny savings.[9]

47 days…Amount of oil from opening up parts of Lease Sale 181 in the Gulf of Mexico to drilling


REAL SOLUTIONS

4 million…The number of barrels of oil per day that the United States would save if fuel economy standards were raised to 40 miles per gallon within 20 years. [10]

$2,200…Amount that the average driver would save at the gas pump over the lifetime of a vehicle if fuel economy standards were raised to 40 miles per gallon over the next 10 years, a conservative estimate based on lower gas prices. [11]


POLL NUMBERS

71…Percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way President Bush is handling energy policy[12]


82%…Percentage of Americans who don’t think President Bush has a clear plan for keeping gas prices down [13]



[1] Dept. of Energy's Weekly U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices
[2] Consumer Expenditure Survey from Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Energy Information Administration

[3] http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
[4] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/business/media/03oil.html

[6] Taxpayers for Common Sense – www.taxpayer.net

[7] Energy Information Administration (EIA) – www.eia.doe.gov
[8] http://www.tws.org/Library/Documents/upload/PennyaGallon20yrs1.pdf
[9] ibid

[10] Friedman et al. "Drilling In Detroit: Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient

Automobiles." Union of Concerned Scientists & Center for Auto Safety. June 2001.

[11] ibid

[12] http://www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-05-01-poll.htm
[13] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/01/opinion/polls/main1567675.shtml