As the world grapples with the existential crisis of climate change, environmental activists want President Joe Biden to phase out the oil industry, and Republicans argue he’s already doing that. Meanwhile, the surprising reality is the United States is pumping oil at a blistering pace and is on track to produce more oil than any country has in history.

The United States is set to produce a global record of 13.3 million barrels per day of crude and condensate during the fourth quarter of this year, according to a report published Tuesday by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Last month, weekly US oil production hit 13.2 million barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s just above the Donald Trump-era record of 13.1 million set in early 2020 just before the Covid-19 crisis sent output and prices crashing.

That’s been helping to keep a lid on crude and gasoline prices.

  • @[email protected]
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    1511 months ago

    Personal passenger EVs won’t do much to dent global climate change. Gotta build mass transit and rail shipping, and clean up the electricity grid.

    Carnival Cruises (63 ships) emits as much as 300,000,000 cars, and electricity generation and shipping are even more insane. All transportation combined is only 27% of our emissions. And EVs still need a lot of oil for tires and asphalt.

    EVs are definitely better than ICE, especially for local air quality, but for global climate they’re like deleting a text file to clear up hard drive space, instead of looking at the 400GB rip of LOTR.

    • gregorum
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      711 months ago

      No one single thing is gonna make the difference. It’s really the combination of everything together sustained overtime. I mean, you’re not wrong, but it’s really everything working together that’s gonna be the trick.

      • @[email protected]
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        411 months ago

        I agree. My bad I took your comment as that being the only thing we need to do. Apologies

        • gregorum
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          511 months ago

          Yeah, no, it’s fine. I was just speaking within the context of why ramping up oil production in the US is important to the administration, for the sake of offsetting increasing costs from organizations, such as OPEC. If you recall, people in this country have been screaming about gas prices, and blaming Biden for it. Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise that he actually did something about it.

          • @[email protected]
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            311 months ago

            Ah nah sorry I don’t recall. I’ve intentionally cut myself off the news and most social media. It’s made me happier but it can bite me in the ass, like in this thread 😅

            • gregorum
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              211 months ago

              oh, well, now you have some context. I hope it makes more sense to you now ;)

      • @AA5B
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        111 months ago

        This is my argument for restricting supply enough to increase prices. Higher prices are incentive for every usage to find alternatives. Most of the alternatives do already exist but will never be adopted when fossil fuel solutions are cheaper

        • @[email protected]
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          111 months ago

          Yep. As much as individuals may care, and corporations may give lip service to the environment, large scale usage patterns are still dictated by economics.