Posted on 08/22/2005 10:23:33 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
Last week, a disgruntled consumer expressed frustration to a stranger at a gas station on Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield: "Would you believe I paid 10 cents a gallon less only yesterday? This is outrageous. Is this why we sent our soldiers to Iraq?"
As gas prices have reached $2.60 per gallon and beyond, there is anger in the land. There is also confusion. It's as if the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was supposed to produce cheap oil for the world's biggest user of fossil fuels. It's also as if Americans are entitled to cheap oil.
Turmoil in the Middle East is not the reason for high oil prices. If there is blame, ascribe it to the rise of India, China and other former Third World nations as economic powerhouses. Their appetite for petroleum to fuel their industrial engines is huge.
Inadequate refinery capacity is also a cause for the price crunch. But, foremost, we should look at ourselves in searching for who is to blame. Americans' lifestyles tell the story of a nation that is by far the biggest consumer of oil. We use at least one-quarter of the oil produced in the world, most of it imported.
When supplies are short, producers naturally have the upper hand. Oil-producing countries and oil companies are enjoying windfalls, while consumers have been asked to grin and bear it. So far, users have paid more and more, although there's been grumbling along the way.
Experts are predicting $3 per gallon prices by December. That's still less than consumers pay in most other developed countries, goes one argument. True, but Americans are far more dependent on oil products than people in industrial Europe and Asia.
Fuel-conserving vehicles are omnipresent in much of the world, with the notable exception of the U.S. If Chinese and Indian families required as much gas and oil to run their households and businesses as we do, the world would not have enough energy to meet the global demand.
One superficially comforting thought is that oil prices, high as they are, are still lower in constant dollars than they were in the early 1980s. Yes, but that threshold, which is about $3.30 per gallon, could easily be reached at the current rate of price ascent.
The wonder of it is that the galloping prices haven't led - yet - to skyrocketing inflation. Many producers of goods and services have absorbed the shocks without passing on much of it to consumers. But that cannot last. If the price push continues, inflation is likely to raise its ugly head.
We have it on no less an authority than President Bush, who said earlier this month that the massive energy bill he signed wouldn't bring down the cost of energy in the foreseeable future. He's right.
More ominously, gas lines due to supply shortages could return, as they already have in some parts of the world.
What can be done?
Our leaders should push their constituents much harder to conserve. The new energy bill pays lip service to conservation, possibly because being more aggressive would require sacrifice and invite a political backlash.
The bill contains incentives for developers of alternative fuels, but not nearly enough. Conspicuously absent from the legislation is language aimed at improved fuel efficiency from manufacturers of motor vehicles.
The centerpiece of the federal strategy is to extract more fossil fuels from the ground and oceans, even if that means environmental despoilment. Also, nuclear power is making a comeback, even though its development is very expensive.
It shouldn't take a seer to figure out that pumping our way out of the problem is no lasting solution. Americans should be prepared to pay higher prices until they show a better energy ethic. We remain unwilling to demand more from ourselves by way of conservation and more from our leaders by way of development of alternative fuels.
Preparing for a safe and prosperous future requires a massive national research and development effort now. The effort should rival American taxpayers' historic investment in space exploration.
N-U-K-E P-O-W-E-R
Ok fine, if China and India are catching up to us in the industrial and auto sectors and needing fossil fuels, then it's time for America to once again be ahead of the curve and start enforcing alternative fueled vehicles. We have the technology, but the oil companies you know... Hate to don my til foil hat for you guys, but oil companies have made record profits in the past few quarters especially. This nearly a dollar a gallon increase in a matter of months is NOT because of China and they believe the American people are freaking gullible (ok, so they are). This happened too fast for it to be consumption.
"and start enforcing alternative fueled vehicles"
Correction, start enforcing the ability to compete in this market USING alternative fueled vehicles"
And that'll push your car along exactly how?
This should be a prime example to tell people when they say "we just went to Iraq for oil." Oh yeah you say? Then why haven't gas prices come down? Hmm??
Actually it's a pretty good long term solution. The "Oil Age" isn't going to end for lack of Oil. Conservation isn't the answer - getting rid of gaia-worship is.
(1) Tap into Yellowstone National Park for energy, which would take care all of our needs for generations
(2) Build dozens of nuclear power plants
(3) Use industrial hemp for fuel
The US? Dominion Resources, the electric company for Virginia and parts elsewhere is building a port to IMPORT coal. Seems that they can import low sulfur coal cheaper from SA than ship it from Colorado.
If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that the US was stockpiling and holding its resources in reserve, using up what's out there and getting ready to say: We got it and now YOU are going to pay for it.
Or this whole thing is strategic and no one knows what the big boys know,
Or
Peak Oil is a fact, and I tend to believe it is after much reading,
Or competition for resources is just that and market forces are now in effect
Or ___________ (fill in the blank)
It's just too easy to blame the oil companies. Price gouging might be going on, but that isn't the whole story and the era of cheap oil is finished.
"This is outrageous. Is this why we sent our soldiers to Iraq?"
Ahhhh.... Some people are just beggin' to be b|tch clapped, aren't they?
You have good ideas, but I would suggest we build 100's of nuclear plants :)
make that "slapped", not "clapped"
NUhydro Power Plants(Simultaneously Produces Electricity, Hydrogen & Drinking Water)
http://www.aaenvironment.com/nuhydro.htm
What are you going to do with the spent uranium?
We don't need alternative fuels. We just need the price high enough to make the 400 years of fossil fuels we have economically viable. Tar Sands, Shale Oil, Coal Gasification.
Plus rewriting of the environmental laws so we can build refineries and extraction facilities.
At $100/bbl we can be a net exporter of energy.
Every company does it's markups as a percentage of revenue. If the cost of oil doubles, the profit doubles, that's called capitalism.
You are not entitled to cheap energy and energy companies are entitled to a respectable percentage profit on their revenues.
So9
American consumers are indifferent to price. They don't pay any attention. I bought gas yesterday and observed a 13 cent difference in price in a quarter mile stretch.
And your evidence is....?
Wind power
Ya think?
Between 1981 and 1989, the number of U.S. refineries fell from 324 to 204, representing a loss of 3 million bbl/d in operable capacity. Since then, the number has further dropped to 149.
If Chinese and Indian families required as much gas and oil to run their households and businesses as we do, the world would not have enough energy to meet the global demand.
So let us, by all means, lower living standard to match theirs.
More ominously, gas lines due to supply shortages could return, as they already have in some parts of the world.
Most noteably China and Indonesia , where government interference (subsidies) prices fuel at well below market value.
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