| Let's get real. Forget all the Gobbledegook about | | | | production, raising bread and cereal prices in the |
| foreign oil fields peaking and the rapid increase in | | | | grocery store. |
| worldwide consumption... | | | | And just to make sure none of that cheap |
| 1. Oil production in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, | | | | Brazilian ($40/barrel) sugar-cane ethanol gets to |
| Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, HAS either peaked, or | | | | our shores, Congress slapped a 54 cent/a/gallon |
| it has NOT peaked. (Consider that each of those | | | | tariff on it some time ago in a U.S. farm bill...note |
| countries have poor records in the benevolent | | | | that the cast-off sugar cane stalks feed Brazilian |
| treatment of their own people - so why should | | | | electric power plants. |
| their attitude toward anyone else be different? | | | | Dwell with me a bit longer on our (invisible) national |
| I'm saying that you are not going to get the truth | | | | energy policy. And forget about drilling up more oil. |
| about how much oil any or them have left in the | | | | (Let's assume the oil industry is hastening its own |
| ground, or how much oil they are capable of | | | | demise.) |
| producing over any given period of time. Nor do | | | | 2. Nuclear fuel (Uranium) is cheap and mineable in |
| these producing countries give a hoot about your | | | | the USA and Canada. Consider that 80% of |
| creature comforts or the harmful effects to your | | | | French electric production is nuclear, and, so far, |
| pocketbook) | | | | no accidents. Why haven't we moved ahead with |
| 2. Indonesian oil has undoubtedly peaked. OPEC | | | | more nuclear (no atmospheric pollution) electric |
| has just kicked them out of its organization as a | | | | production? It's tree huggers and Greenpeace, |
| "producer." They are now a net importer - a once | | | | they tell us... |
| stellar producer, reduced to beggaring for their | | | | 3. Why have we neglected public Bus, Trolley, and |
| oil...a bit like you and me. | | | | Train transportation? |
| 3. Brazil, in addition to refining ethanol from | | | | .(See Japan for countrywide 200 mph trains.) |
| sugar-cane, has a major off-shore discovery | | | | 4. The other night on TV, I observed a $27,000 |
| called Tupi. It's huge (50 billion barrels of crude). | | | | bug-like car that provably carried two people 300 |
| It's deep, 2 miles down and locked in rock. With oil | | | | miles on ONE gallon of gas, at speeds up to 90 |
| at $138 a barrel, the 100 billion dollar financing to | | | | miles an hour and had amazing acceleration from |
| extract it will be forthcoming. It won't come | | | | a standing start. |
| cheap. | | | | DETROIT, WHERE CAN YOU BE? |
| 4. Russian Oil and gas, plenty of it at the moment, | | | | (Too busy building Hummers...) |
| but they don't love us any more than the Arabs | | | | 5. Hats off to those busy Detroiters who, over |
| do. And the Russian record for loyalty, truth, and | | | | the years, bought up patents that would advance |
| fair play is about as dim as anyone's. Forget them | | | | more fuel-efficient carburation and develop |
| as a dependable supply source. | | | | super-storage batteries for electric cars - then sat |
| 5. It's a given that India and China import nearly all | | | | on those patents. |
| their oil needs and currently have an increasing | | | | 6. How about converting natural gas to fuel - why |
| demand spurred on by a 2 billion+ citizenry. | | | | is that industry invisible? |
| 6. Bakken, on U.S. soil in South Dakota, is 2 miles | | | | 7. Coal gasification and coal-to-fuel? The Chinese |
| deep and locked in thin layers of dolomite. At 413 | | | | are into it. The Germans fueled their WWII effort |
| billion barrels, it is potentially larger than the Saudi | | | | with petroleum extracted from coal. |
| Ghawar field. Horizontal fracking of the complex | | | | On nightly TV, you can observe a major industry |
| layers of rock to release the petroleum will | | | | disappearing before your very eyes: |
| definitely make it expensive. Soaring oil prices are | | | | THE AIRLINES... |
| pushing this field toward a development | | | | 1. Loose regulation paves the way for chaotic |
| consideration. Again, this oil won't be cheap. | | | | conditions at understaffed flight control centers |
| 7. How much faith do you have in U.S. oil | | | | and airport control towers. Too many new |
| companies giving you the honest truth about | | | | carriers; too many scheduled flights; ramp |
| anything, yet oil production and consumption | | | | accidents and mid-air near misses. |
| statistics? If you are anything like men - ZILCH! | | | | 2. Free food is reduced to snacks; seating |
| Now let's turn over, in our numbed minds, a few | | | | jammed to the max. Nonetheless, public rushes to |
| simple thoughts regarding oil and our daily lives | | | | book cheap flights - bound for every spot on the |
| here in these great United States of America. | | | | globe. |
| 1. Why are pump prices, state to state, pump to | | | | 3. Loose regulation of maintenance procedures |
| pump, varying only a penny or so - one from the | | | | raises few questions. Aircraft and airframe safety |
| other? (Can you remember a time when there | | | | quietly, but steadily, nosedives. |
| was a free market in gasoline...when there were | | | | 4. Annual fuel costs jump to an industry-wide $65 |
| gas wars and bargains to behold, gas station to | | | | billion, squeezing profits and tripling fares; |
| gas station? Believe it or not, when I was a kid, | | | | passengers hesitate. Airlines fight back, cutting out |
| that was a fact.) | | | | snacks, charging for baggage, on-the-spot |
| The U.S. Congress will solve the problem. | | | | canceling of flights not filled. Passengers search |
| 2. Did you watch the recent Congressional | | | | web for last minute price cuts as lines try to fill |
| charade, wherein oil company execs were | | | | seats 100%; arrive at airport to find seat and |
| interrogated, presumedly, by their own loyal | | | | flight canceled - line just declared bankruptcy. No |
| subjects? (You will be pardoned for the suspicion | | | | one wants to hear about the wheel that fell off |
| that nearly every Congressman profits from gifts | | | | your baby stroller...customer rage. Sour counter |
| dispensed by oil industry lobbyists and/or | | | | people. Smoldering pilots and crews... |
| contributions to their PACs.) | | | | At the risk of running you off the far end of the |
| 3. Did you hear Congress raise a hue and cry | | | | runway - a final blast... Have we, in America, been |
| about SUING SAUDI ARABIA for withholding oil | | | | put totally to sleep by the hucksters of Madison |
| production? Yes? And last week, Congress was | | | | Avenue? |
| going to get to the bottom of Oil | | | | In the 1950's, Madison Avenue was held in the |
| Speculation...those horrid "speculators" who have | | | | kind of awe later directed toward Silicon Valley |
| been driving oil prices higher... | | | | and our various bubbles - technology, housing, and, |
| Isn't it wonderful that oil prices promptly dropped | | | | most recently, commodities. Lusting for financial |
| - dignifying Congress. I retired to my bed, pleased | | | | gain, we've ignored the transference of |
| and eased. At last, lower oil prices! Hmm...just give | | | | advertising industry wiles to corporations, |
| the oil boys a day or two.... | | | | Washington think tanks, lobbyist groups, Congress |
| Okay, while we are individually suffering a collapse | | | | - permeating even the inner circles of White |
| of housing prices, along with our family budgets, | | | | House administrations... absorbed so beautifully |
| the big oil companies are making BILLIONS and | | | | that we've been totally rocked to sleep in |
| BILLIONS in obscene (reportable) profits. How | | | | comfortable cradles of SPIN. |
| much more are they hiding? | | | | Is it possible our leaders have blinded themselves |
| Hunnh?.. | | | | with their own spin? Twin emergencies now upon |
| 1. Where is Congress on that one? Why are we | | | | us - energy and credit. Busy coddling one industry |
| accumulating horrendous personal and national | | | | after another, our leaders have blatantly ignored |
| debts, while big oil companies are allowed to pile | | | | preparations to combat these crises. |
| up unconscionable profits? | | | | "Industry will govern itself perfectly," has been the |
| (Oh, yes... Now I recall - it's the NIMBY tree | | | | cry of the regulators, letting foxes guard the |
| huggers. They've stopped all the new refineries | | | | chicken house. And the results: Bear Stearns; the |
| from being built, all the offshore drilling from going | | | | mess at the gas pump; the airline chaos; the |
| ahead.) | | | | sub-prime housing and credit collapse, with its ugly |
| How about a national energy policy? | | | | offshoot - the yet-to-be felt trillion dollar, |
| 1. Hunnh?... We have one - ethanol. It's a | | | | derivative phantasia. |
| dandy...costing more in fuel to cook up a gallon of | | | | Why don't we, ALL OF US, take TWO weeks off |
| ethanol than it saves by burning in your car's | | | | from work? Stop driving! Stop flying! Stop |
| engine. It throws carbon into the atmosphere | | | | shopping! Live on what you have in the |
| during its manufacture and provides less mileage | | | | cupboard...take a walk around your community... |
| per gallon than a gallon of diesel or gasoline. Worst | | | | shake hands with the neighbors... go to your |
| of all, it has thrown many square miles of | | | | church or temple and volunteer for three days of |
| Midwest ag. land out of soybean and grain | | | | something that will benefit anyone but yourself. |
| production (in favor of corn for ethanol | | | | HOW BAD COULD THAT BE, IF WE ALL |
| production) thus creating a monumental shortage | | | | DECLARE ALLEGIANCE TO ONE ANOTHER, OUR |
| of corn for animal feed, raising chicken and beef | | | | FLAG, AND OUR COUNTRY? (Don't forget, we |
| prices. And the lost acreage shrinks grain | | | | have boys and girls in Iraq doing that very thing... |