All great ideas..and have seen many of them posted all over.
I would add -— form alliances with non OPEC energy producers as a counterweight to OPEC.
OPEC delendum est!
Excellent, Smithers! I’m adding that OPEC idea to my list. Thanks! :)
OPEC is not our problem. In fact, OPEC is probably almost irrelevent in this current market.
Our problems are
Too many years of deficit spending driving down the value of the dollar.
Too many politicians interfering with supply and demand (drilling, refining and taxing)
Too many people competing for the current resources.
Rampant speculation
Global instability
Everybody that produces a product wants to maximize their profit. Everybody buying a product wants to get it for free. There is nothing wrong with that, that is how a free market is supposed to work.
The problem is not the price of oil, it is the freedom of the market. In a perfect market, the increased price of oil should be driving up production until the cost evens out. At some point in the future when the supplies begin to dwindle, the prices will go up until they hit a point where the development of alternatives makes monetary sense.
The problem is that now we have an artificial shortage. It doesn’t make sense for business to invest in alternatives because the artificial shortage can be ended by turning on the spigots and killing any business heavily invested in alternatives.
We need to tighten our belts collectively. Save more money, buy less imports, spend less tax money, open the American oil fields, use our energy more efficiently and maintain a strong military. If we do these things, the market will settle and carry us until the economy moves from oil to whatever the future holds.