[INTERESTING - this story uses a picture of Akard DART Station on Pacific]
Back in 2001, the Union of Concerned Scientists did a report called Drilling in Detroit, which cleverly reframed the drilling issue by pointing out that we could recover more oil from building better cars than we could ever hope to get by drilling under our soil and sea. Ten years later, we actually are drilling in Detroit – fuel economy standards are on the rise for the first time since the 1970s, and the EPA and DOT are working to raise the bar even higher. So where do we “drill” next? Main Street.
Yes, there is plenty of oil to be found on Main Street, and it’s ours for the taking. Not with a drilling platform, but by creating oil-savings opportunities in our cities and suburbs. An aggressive expansion of transit in cities and suburbs, for example, could save us almost 4 million gallons of oil each day by 2030. And consumers would save billions of dollars on vehicle operating costs (we all know owning, maintaining, and especially fueling up our cars isn’t free).
Read remainder of the story at NRDC’s Switchboard
