One quick way to save on gas: close student parking lots

b4184 ask the right question What are Kerrys childens age and will her youngest drive??? Something like this would not be fair to young people in the process of getting their license

OK, this is how I understand the situation. Most of my info is from various NPR programs, mostly Left, Right and Center.

The current oil cost is controlled mainly by the Mideastern oil producing countries and however much oil they want to supply. They have the oil there, they just control the amount they send. Send 10 barrels now for $150 a barrel is better than sending 200 for $75, because now they still have that 100 barrels for a later date to sell for $150...

Currently the world uses like 200 million barrels of crude a day, those that control the spigot keep the margin of supply to demand very close (<1%) to keep the prices high. Drilling in the US would increase that margin as much as 4% by puting up to 2 million barrels a day on the market. That is until the spigot masters close their supply to reduce that margin again, throwing us back into the prices we are in now.

especially for you. I could not agree with this article more its not the governments job to tell us how to consume gas. if we can't afford it we will consume less.

Thanks Mark, but you failed to tell how much oil companies' money has gone to the democrats. You can prove anything by only telling the story you want and ignoring the rest.

Thanks for giving us the stats, but could you also give us the link to these stats.

What about the "Not in my backyard" thing? Aren't there proposals on the table for refineries right now, but no one wants to live near them? Cheers, MGM

You are asking the wrong question. “We need the breaks to look for more oil” is the industry’s excuse for making such an obnoxious demand when they are recording obscene and record profits.

Ask a different question like, “Well, are they investing in refineries?”

After all, we are paying more for gas, according to experts, because our refineries can't pump out enough fuel to meet our demand.

So you might ask, “Are they investing in refinery capacity?”

No. The last U.S. refinery was built 1976. In 1985, there were 254 operating refineries. Today, there are approximately 140.

That’s what makes the suggestion that we endanger the environment and drill everywhere for oil so absurd. If we had it, we couldn’t refine it.

Where are the tax breaks going? Well more than $2 million of it was donated to bush’s 2004 reelection campaign …

Are the tax cuts supposed to stimulate exploration of other energy sources or line the pockets of already rich CEO's? Have we seen any plans for how to make better use of resources? I've seen wavering on off-shore drilling. How about my favorite plan? Buy from the Siberian pipeline and bring it all over the North Pole, since the ice is breaking up there several times a year. Bring it direct to Northern Canada, to come here via trucks, trains, or even any pipelines they have running in our direction. I believe, from earlier Pilot articles, the future of direct and quick shipping is right over the Pole when the ice is at its lowest level (we can get icebreakers to help when necessary). Cheers, MGM

In 2005, bush and thre republican-controlled Congress signed the Energy Policy Act that included tax reductions of $2.8 billion for fossil fuel production.

In 2006, the republican-controlled Congress passed an energy bill that spread $14.5 billion in tax breaks among hundreds of U.S. companies. The legislation contained tax breaks of $1.6 billion for oil and gas producers and refiners and $3.1 billion for utilities.

In 2007, bush and his republican buddies blocked a plan by the Democrats that would have cut tax breaks for oil companies and boosted support for renewable energy.

In 2008, George McCain has proposed a tax plan would cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. That would cut corporate taxes by nearly $45 billion every year for America's 200 largest corporations, including Exxon.

Another way George McCain plans to do business as usual in the White House.

marym63204, you are asking way too much! You can throw out as many stats as you wish, george will ignore them and never provide any of his own.

Jersey-girl, the age to get a (provisional) driver's license in NJ is 17, not 18.

Kerry, your daughter is off to college, but isn't your son driving now, too? If I remember correctly, he is around 17 or so (almost 18?)...Will he be driving to school this year?

Would you humor a gal who's taking chemo for breast cancer and share the statistics you found in your own research? If the tax breaks are that out of whack, I would like to know. Cheers, MGM

I assume your point is that high school kids have transportation to school, but that they simply choose not to use it. Therefore, force them to do so by closing their parking lots. I would like to point out that you and most other adults working in offices have transportation to work as well ... the public transit system. Most adults simply choose not to use it. So are you suggesting that we make the kids use public transportation, even though we have no intention of being inconvenienced in this way, simply because they are young and we can push them around? If you're going to close parking lots, be fair and close them all.

You really need to do some research on oil comapanies and their corporate welfare provided by us. It's costing us billions in tax breaks.

Would someone pls show me where the tax breaks are higher for oil companies than for any other entrepreneurs that make the world go round for our capitalist system??? Remember these are the folks taking the risks and using their own money (or raising it elsewhere) to obtain the gas and oil we need. I, personally, am risk averse and would not want that job. So it looks like I need to be willing to pay someone else to do it for me, as do many of us in the States!
While we are at it and calling all tax breaks "welfare," how about all homeowners turning back in the tax breaks we get for homeownership or all married people turning in their breaks for "married, filing jointly" and tax deductions for their children.
See, sometimes we want to call tax breaks that we personally don't like "welfare" but, in the end, almost *all* of us get them. Cheers, MGM

As I recall that is Kerry's *eldest* child (of about four) headed off to college. She may have no dog in the fight but she certainly has a few puppies coming up for it. Cheers, MGM

Funny that the esteemed columnist now has this idea AFTER sending her daughter to college this summer....

So quick to rush to judgement when there's no dog in the fight, eh Kerry?

Kerry, this was my idea that I've posted on PilotOnline more than once. Since you have the bully pulpit, you're more than welcome to run with it.

What we need to cut is Corporate Welfare. Stop all the tax incentives for oil companies would save us billions.

I think the idea is a valid one. Not only would that reduce the amount of gas, it would reduce the amount of traffic on the roadways saving us time and maintenance on the roads. Besides, the driving age in VA is too young. Children who can drive here have not reached the age of consent for ANYTHING, yet we give them a piece of paper and some keys telling them that they can operate 2000+ pounds of machinery. Isn’t that ludicrous? Maybe we should follow NJ’s example where you have to be 18 years old to get a basic drivers license and drive unsupervised. While I do agree with you Kerry, I still have to wonder if your daughter drove herself to high school?

Sorry I don’t agree with you on this one. I really believe there is NO shortage of gas, just paying TOO much at the pump! We cant stop people from driving, they bought the car, pay the insurance and why should the car sit in the driveway?? If the oil companies would get over their greed, and price oil lower we would all be fine! Because of the oil price being so high everything has gone up!! So what give up eating, electricity??

My issue with high school buses is safety, not the bus driver but the other kids on the bus and even some of the neighborhoods the buses drive through are dangerous. Several years ago, I took to adjusting my work schedule so that I could drop my kid off at school on my way to work because she was being harassed on the school bus. Remember, not everything is black and white and a clear cut decision.

I like the Bee Gees and normal70608 (hope I got that right) made an excellent point, but I would add I don't see why Judge's can't ride the bus, they are no better than anyone else, so let's turn their parking spaces into Green Spaces. Sounds like an excellent idea to me! Oops, this comment will probably be pulled.

It has always galled me the amount of traffic around school zones. Students trying to get to school, and parents dropping off kids who either missed the bus, or are just too precious to ride the bus. My taxes, your taxes, everybody's taxes, WHETHER YOU HAVE KIDS OR NOT go towards keeping those big yellow buses on the roads, even if they are empty. Let's close the lots and fill the buses.

I agree that Kerry is on to something. For example, when my son was in high school, that parking lot only encouraged him to drive to school so that he wouldn't have to ride the bus for an hour school. On top of that, my son had the nerve to participate in after school activities such as cross country and track, thus allowing him to stay after school until after 6 p.m.!! On top of that, he then had the audacity to take on a job to pay for that gas, so he used that school parking lot during track practice until he left from there to go work his job. I'm so sorry Kerry, but until they spend the money to purchase and fuel about 100 more activity buses, as well as build mass transit accessible to each high school and each destination, these spoiled rotten teenagers are going to continue to participate in such insolent activities as sports, after school activities, church youth groups and working jobs.

While we're at it, let's close ALL parking lots, (including churches, shopping malls, governmental offices, employee lots, etc.) tear them up and return them to parks (the kind with grass and trees). Expand the bus lines and put the trolley back in. We could knock down the parking garages, and we won't need that third crossing, much less the HRBT, MMBT, or JRB. The military could help by requiring ALL personnel to live on base in barracks or on the ships (I remember having to request permission to live off base in the late 70s!). We could install bike racks all over town; the increased ridership would help to reduce the obesity epidemic. Restaurants could use the green space around their buildings to plant gardens so as to preclude importing salmonella-tainted produce from Mexico...the possibilities are endless!
Ouch! Someone just pinched me and I woke up. Now to find some gas for my guzzler...