If US consumers keep burning oil, oil companies surely keep making more and more money. ExxonMobil just posted 10+ billion dollars profit, a monster profit. Many people call oil companies "evil", and I don't disagree; I'm sure that there are good reasons. But ... US consumers are apparently not even trying to change their behaviors to make adjustments. Apparently, they're not driving less. Apparently they're not driving smaller cars. Apparently, they aren't switching to public transportation systems.

The US is the largest generater or polution on the planet and at the same time the only major country that refused to sign up to the Kyoto treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. If the US government is not interested in taking any steps to help the situation then the people are not likely to either. Changes such as these need government intervention. Car manufacturers and businesses will not implement any restrictions on fuel consumption unless they are forced to.

US government advisers don't even accept what the rest of the world is sure of i.e. that fossil fuel polution is causing global warming!

This post has been edited by Arkanoid on Jul 28 2006, 10:13 AM

They don't accept it because without the oil industry, the US government will be extremely worse off. Then the US economy will probably go into recession.

I don't think that this is about how much money US government can make, i.e., how much tax IRS can collect. Because if this is about how much tax IRS can collect, then the government does not cut tax. However, this is about how much money incumbents, members of congress, senate and other selected number of government officials can collect. Simply put, much of the government is totally corrupted. That being said, I still think that consumers are responsible as well.

The masses won't change any behaviour which short term makes them worse off (i.e. slower cars etc). That's just a fact. It absolutely requires government intervention such as increasing insurance for high fuel usage vehicals, increasing fule costs and imposing restrictions on manufacturers to create cars with less pollution output.

With the oil company providing many officials with "campaign" money they are in no rush to change things. Even worse is when the "leader" has interest in oil companies himself. U.S. automakers already provide e85 vehicles to other countries while limiting them in the U.S. I think all the cars they ship to Brazil now are all e85. Most of the mid-lower class people are in debt and cannot afford a newer fuel effeciant car, and/or they are just getting into more debt by not switching their lifestyle to accomedaite the higher gas prices. It is just another thing that can provide a greater gap in the U.S.

I think we are starting to see the reality of gas prices set in.

People are starting to think about what each gas fill and what each trip in the car is costing -- and some are taking less trips or combining trips.

It's not a new car but it's a start...