For Immediate Release: May 3, 2006
Contact: Josh Dorner: (202) 675-2384
Annie Strickler: (415) 977-5619

With gas prices soaring, politicians in Washington are scrambling to find a
quick fix even as they admit that there is nothing they can do in the
short-term to bring down prices. But that hasn't stopped some from ignoring
America's oil addiction and turning their backs on real solutions in an
effort to pander to Big Oil.

"American families are feeling the pinch at the pump while Big Oil reaps
record profits, yet the only answer President Bush and some in Congress
have is to give them more," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director.
"When all else fails, they resort to drilling in the Arctic Refuge and off
our coasts even though that won't bring down the price of gas and only
perpetuates our oil addiction."

Here is a closer look at the numbers behind the current energy debate.

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                              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.  (
                  http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html
                  )

$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)

$73.75…            Price per barrel of crude oil on the New York Mercantile
Exchange (http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/)


RECORD PROFITS

$8.4 billion…            ExxonMobil’s first-quarter profits in 2006

$4 billion…       ChevronTexaco’s first-quarter profits in 2006, up 49%
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
                  (
                  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/business/media/03oil.html
                  )

$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)


$100…             Amount some in Congress proposed giving to Americans in
                  the form of a tax rebate later this summer.


OIL DEPENDENCE

25% …       Percentage of world oil production consumed by the United
States.

3% …              Percentage of world’s oil reserves located in the United
States. (Energy Information Administration (EIA) – 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. (
                  http://www.tws.org/Library/Documents/upload/PennyaGallon20yrs1.pdf
                  )

20 years…          When consumers would see the penny savings. (ibid)

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.  (Friedman et al.
                  "Drilling In Detroit: Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to
                  Build Safe and Efficient
                  Automobiles."  Union of Concerned Scientists & Center for
                  Auto Safety.  June 2001.)

$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.
                   (ibid)

POLL NUMBERS

71…               Percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way
                  President Bush is handling energy policy (
                  http://www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-05-01-poll.htm
                  )

82….              Percentage of Americans who don’t think President Bush
                  has a clear plan for keeping gas prices down  (
                  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/01/opinion/polls/main1567675.shtml
                  )