Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Oil Reaches New High - $100 A Barrel Closer than You Think

Let me show my Independent stripes here. While many Democrats will blame the oil companies for price gouging as consumers start to feel real pain at the pump the truth is oil is a commodity that has gone up in price as demand has outstripped supply. That’s just the way the market works. Oil is a natural resource in limited amounts. The U.S. has very little of it and has to depend on imports to keep our economy humming.

Let me join the chorus of Peak Oil prognosticators. Cheep oil is over folks! Get used to it. It’s extremely costly to develop new oil sources and it takes many years to get production up to speed. China and India are also demanding more oil for their rapid growth so don’t plan on demand dropping any time soon. If it was up to the geniuses at GM we’d all still be driving Hummers and gas-guzzling SUV’s.

If you ask me it’s a good thing oil prices are going up. As Oil becomes more expensive alternative fuel sources will become more competitive in the market place. Ethanol, natural gas and Hydrogen Fuel cells will all become attractive energy options.

This is good for two reasons. First, the U.S. needs to be energy independent or it will face a very difficult future being so dependent on foreign oil sources, especially from parts of the world that don’t always like us. Second, global warming is real, and unless drastic measures are taken to reduce CO2 emissions the world faces catastrophic changes that could bring about a decline in our civilization.

If dems want to do more than score political points they will talk about long term solutions and spending 10-20 times the amount the Bush administration is currently spending on research for conservation and clean energy technology.

In the 1970’s America was the leader in innovative solar and wind technology, but as the coal and oil lobby took over the halls of congress we lost decades of valuable research time and are now behind most European countries in terms of technology and political accountability.

Instead of blaming oil companies Dems should be using this opportunity to promote alternative energy.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

With China and India using energy so inefficiently, is it not beyond the realm of possiblity to hope that improved efficiency will cover for increased need?

9:50 PM  

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