BY THE NUMBERS:
GAS PRICES AND CUTTING AMERICA'S OIL ADDICTION
(May 3, 2006)
GAS PRICES
$2.92...Average retail price for regular gasoline, up 69 cents from a
year ago.
$2,873...Amount average family of four spent on gasoline in 2005
Consumer Expenditure Survey from Bureau of Labor Statistics and the
Energy Information Administration.
$3,343...Amount an average family will spent this year, up 75 percent
from 2001. (EIA)
$73.75...Price per barrel of crude oil on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
RECORD PROFITS
$8.4 billion...ExxonMobil's first-quarter profits in 2006.
$4 billion...ChevronTexaco's first-quarter profits in 2006, up 49
percent from 2005.
$3.29...ConocoPhillip's first-quarter profits in 2006.
$15.7 billion...Combined first-quarter profits of ExxonMobil,
ChevroTexaco and ConocoPhillips.
$63.8 billion...combined 2005 profits of ExxonMobil ($36.1 billion),
Chevron ($14.1 billion) and ConnocoPhillips ($13.5 billion). (U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission data)
HANDOUTS TO AMERICANS VERSUS BIG OIL
$30 million...Amount the top 10 oil companies spent on lobbying in
2005.
$80 billion...in subsidies and tax loopholes to the oil and gas and
other polluting energy industries in the energy law signed in 2005.
(Taxpayers for Common Sense - www.taxpayer.net)
$7 billion...Amount oil companies would gain over the next five years
by avoiding royalty payments for Gulf oil and gas drilling, thanks to
an obscure provision in the 2005 energy bill. The costs could soar to
$28 billion. (New York Times, March 28, 2006)
$100...Amount some in Congress proposed giving to Americans in the
form of a tax rebate later this summer.
$400 million...Retirement package for former ExxonMobil CEO Lee
Raymond -- $141,000 a day or $6,000 an hour. (ABC News, 4/14/06)
OIL DEPENDENCE
25...Percentage of world's oil production consumed by the United
States.
3...Percentage of world's oil reserves located in the United States.
(Energy Information Administration - www.eia.doe.gov)
ARCTIC REFUGE AND AMERICA'S COASTS
1 cent...Amount of savings for consumers at the pump if we drill for
oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (.pdf).
20 years...When consumers would see the penny savings.
47 days...Amount of oil from opening up parts of Lease Sale 181 in the
Eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling.
REAL SOLUTIONS
4 million...The number of barrels of oil per day that the United
States would save if fuel economy standards were raised to 40 miles
per gallon within 20 years.
$2,200...Amount that the average driver would save at the gas pump
over the lifetime of a vehicle if fuel economy standards were raised
to 40 miles per gallon over the next 10 years, a conservative estimate
based on lower gas prices.
POLL NUMBERS
71...Percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way President Bush
is handling energy policy.
82...Percentage of Americans who don't think President Bush has a
clear plan for keeping gas prices down.
Strategic Leaking
Leaked document provides overwhelming evidence that the Earth's
climate is undergoing drastic change due to human activity. Read more
in Compass.