Posted on 11/24/2009 6:27:48 PM PST by Kaslin
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein told us this. And while he probably wasn't referring to the last 50 years of U.S. energy policy, it certainly applies to today's situation.
Volatile energy markets, high prices, instability abroad — if it feels like we've been down this road before, it's because we have. Unfortunately, reaching back over a period of more than a half-century, Washington has been a serial offender in missing key opportunities to deliver an energy policy worthy of the world's greatest nation.
The year was 1859. In the small, rural community in northwest Pennsylvania, America's first wildcatter Edwin Drake struck oil, forever changing our way of life. And for the better. Lighting, automobile and air travel would follow.
Over the years, oil was refined in such a way that it could deliver more effective and powerful results. And leading up to the mid-1960s, due mostly to steady access and new technology, America's economy flourished thanks to an abundance of low-cost, readily available, American-made energy.
Major turning points in world oil supplies — some driven in part by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, others originating at home — would have a profound impact on the price American consumers would pay at the pump. Like the responses we've most recently seen from Washington, the actions taken in the 1970s only served to exacerbate the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Surely when we pull out of Iraq & Afghanistan and Iran moves westward into Iraq and the Taliban & Al Quida move back into Afghanistan, gas will easily double or triple sending the economy into a tailspin yet again.
I was recently reading a magazine from 1920. It happened to come up that a tenured professor at an Ivy League college was paid $1800/year. I’m sure I’m being conservative when I assume the same position today pays at least $90k.
That’s a 50:1 differential from 1920 to 2009.
In 1920 gasoline cost about .35/gallon. Passed a gas station this pm price was $2.69.
That’s a 7.7 differential. IOW, gas is a whole lot cheaper today, or at $4/gallon (12.5:1 differential) for that matter, than it was in 1920.
While writing this post I ran across the average salary for a tenured Yale professor in 2006. $151k.
There have already been 16,000 oil and gas jobs lost in Houston just since 2009 began! Thanks, Hussein Obama!
Your point about the true cost of gasoline is certainly valid. However, it does not diminish the fact that preventable spikes in energy cost would be devastating to our current financial situation.
I say preventable because we have our own energy resources here at home that would make us much more self-sufficient with stability in prices. This industry would also provide good jobs for Americans and good tax revenues to boot.
Your point is also valid.
Oddly enough, only one person came out with a rational energy policy during the last campaign.
Paris Hilton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySc12uzoxqU
But it IS bad, because Bush’s “oil buddies” were supposedly profiting at $4 per gallon. It’s acceptable under a democrat administration.
“More Of Same Won’t Keep $4 Gas At Bay”
Well, rather than paying $250,000 for a New York City trip to take Bigfoot on a date, we’ll pay $500,000.
Whatsa matter? You got no romance?
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