MYTH BUSTER - Rising Cost of Gas

Are you sure you know all of the facts?

Myth 1:
People think there is nothing they can do about the high price of gas except sit back helplessly and take it.
 

Fact:

Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, announced his plan to bring some relief to the County's 4,000 employees. He has proposed to move the County workforce to a 4x10 hour work week. This move will save the County employees 20% of their gas costs for commuting to work. There are other ancillary benefits to be derived, i.e. the elimination of child care costs or the avoidance of lunch costs for the 5th day.

The savings under Mr. Patterson's plan are minimal and meaningless.
 

Fact:

The challenge will be for the private sector companies in Oakland County to join with Mr. Patterson in this effort. If 100,000 of the 750,000 workers in the County took advantage of this program, they would save 10 million gallons of gasoline in just one year, while leaving more than $40 million cash in their pockets to be available for their food costs and other living expenses.

Myth 3: 

The United States is solely dependent on foreign oil.
 

Fact:

The U.S. has vast reserves of oil within our own borders. Efforts to drill for oil in Alaska and off our coasts must be pursued in order to ease this current crisis. Some notable experts predict that if the oil crisis continues gas prices could reach $12 per gallon by the year 2011-12. Gas prices at $4 per gallon have already negatively impacted our economy; imagine what $12 per gallon would do!