Are they still getting any oil out of the ground in Pennsylvania? (or Texas & Oklahoma I wonder)
Is all of our oil imported?
We indeed might see an increase in two wheel riding this spring - dealers could use a little good news.
Stig
There is still some crude oil pumped in PA, along with a fair amount of coal. However, even though PA still has MASSIVE unmined coal reserves, the economics of mining it no longer make sense on a large scale due to the fact that it's a "dirty" form of energy and most power plants have either moved away from it or are in the process of doing so. In my area (a coal-mining region) coal is still a very popular home heating fuel, and still quite affordable compared to home heating oil.
However, the really big source of energy nowadays from an economic and industrial standpoint is natural gas. A large portion of our state (not my area) sits on what is called the Marcellus Shale bed, which contains huge stores of natural gas. Fracking is a major thing here, though our current Democrat governor has not been as kind towards it as previous administrations. My sense, given current events and political winds, is that if a Republican gets elected this fall (current governor finishing his second term and cannot run again) we will see a renewed push on gas drilling in the state, which is good in terms of jobs, economic impact for rural communities and energy prices for America.