TV Commercial from the American Petroleum Institute: Disingenuous17 Apr

According to an American Petroleum Institute (API) TV commercial, “The U.S. has enough untapped oil and natural gas resources to power more than 60 million cars and heat 160 million households for 60 years. But unlike many countries, our Congress puts much of it off-limits. A majority of Americans say that should change. Today’s technology allows us to tap these resources and protect the environment. So let’s put America’s oil and natural gas to work for Americans.”

This API commercial is disingenuous at best and does not disclose the fact that the lower 48-states, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska have declining oil productions (i.e., past Peak Oil production). Where are the untapped U.S. oil resources?

Also, “swept under the rug” by the API commercial is the reality that the U.S. imports 60 percent of its crude oil needs (2010 data from the Energy Information Administration).

The API commercial claims that there is enough natural gas to power 60 million cars, but offers no proof of that statement. Where is the API plan to scale up the conversion of 60M cars to  operate with natural gas?

It might interest the API to know that there are more than 250M registered vehicles in the United States. What will power the other 190M vehicles with fuel other than gasoline or diesel?

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About Dr. Everson

Prior to forming this autonomous vehicle consultant practice, Dr. Jeffrey Everson was director of business development for QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group (previously Foster-Miller, Inc.).

Dr. Everson has been the principal investigator for collision warning systems for automobiles and inner-city transit buses. These programs were awarded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). For his work on developing a collision warning system for inner-city transit buses, Everson was the first U.S. Department of Transportation contractor to win an SBIR Tibbetts Award.

Previously Dr. Everson held senior scientist positions at Battelle Memorial Institute, The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC), Honeywell Electro Optics Systems Division, and Itek Optical Systems Division.

He holds a PhD in physics from Boston College and a MS/BS in physics from Northeastern University.

Contact

For more information about how JHEverson Consulting can help your company with autonomous vehicles, please contact Jeff Everson.

JHEverson Consulting is based in the Boston area but consults for clients throughout North America.