Outside the thriving oil patch, it makes for a bleak economic picture. But it didn’t have to be this way.
Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What’s more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America’s oil addiction.
Even as politicians heatedly debate opening new regions to drilling, corralling energy speculators, or starting an Apollo-like effort to find renewable energy supplies, analysts say the real source of the problem is closer to home. In fact, it’s parked in our driveways.
Nearly 70 percent of the 21 million barrels of oil the United States consumes every day goes for transportation, with the bulk of that burned by individual drivers, according to the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan research group that advises Congress.
SO despite the fierce debate over what’s behind the recent spike in prices, no one differs on what’s really responsible for all that underlying demand here for black gold: the automobile, fueled not only by gasoline but also by Americans’ famous propensity for voracious consumption.
“Much of what we’re seeing today could have been prevented or ameliorated had we chosen to act differently,†says Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a 36-year veteran of the Senate. “It was a bipartisan failure to act.â€
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“Much of what we’re seeing today could have been prevented or ameliorated had we chosen to act differently,†says Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a 36-year veteran of the Senate. “It was a bipartisan failure to act.â€
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Let’s face folks. Many, maybe most, of our national strategic problems/crises have been caused or seriously compounded by the mediocre performance of about 85% of our Senators and Congressmen.
They have not addressed problems that are obvious.
And the voting public shares the blame. We are too willing to vote for a face that seems to be pretty on a TV “sound-bite” and we willingly and uncritically accept political statements filled with pleasant adjectives, adverbs and platitudes rather than put contending candidates “to the test” during their campaigns.
It seems that we are much more concerned about seeing our favorite team win, Democrat or Republican, than we are about finding out who is the best candidate and voting for him.
Its time for insisting on measured, that is un-politicized,’ national debate between presidential candidates and similar state-wide/district-wide debate between our senatorial/congressional candidates.
Otherwise we will continue to elect political opportunists rather than politicians who put service to country above self-service.
If we continue with our past voting behavior, we will get what we vote for, and another example of “garbage in, garbage out.”
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Eleves, once again I prematurely depressed the “submit” button. Please erase my comment #1. Thank you.
Not only has congress and our Presidents failed to act but some times act to our nation’s detriment. Nixon created a department of energy to develope a comprehensive energy policy, BOY THAT HAS WORKED WELL. We now have a law that states the only light bulbs we will be able to buy are made in China (CFL)! No off shore drilling. The government will not purchase fuels made from coal. Our largest deposit of low sulfur coal is off limits and now a “National Monument”. Many want to tax oil companies “because of record profits”. The profit margins of oil companies are not that big. What happens when these companies decide to leave America and quite producing gas because there is no profit in it. The taxes on oil companies are only passed on to the consumer (the oil companies don’t have thier own money printing press like the government) so that will sure help the price at the pump. The environmentalist are stuck on stupid and “The China Syndrome” blocking the construction of nuclear facilities. I guess we will sit in the dark, grow our own food and become a third world nation while pedaling our bikes to work (if you can find a job)!! The Democrats and Republicans just point thier fingers at each other and say there there!!
The answer to the issue in the short and middle term is plain and simple. It is drill for oil. That we have major oil in the ground with no well to extract it is a bipartisan failure to act.
As to the long term, four dollar a gallon gas cost will cause capitalist to invest in ways other than oil.
Scott
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am sick and tired of hearing “No drilling for oil in ANWR and off the coasts” from the front men who more often than not are lawyers paid by so-called “environmentalist” lobby groups who have an ax to grind. These are the very same types who live in the big cities and who use mass transit, but what about those of us who live in the country…..and there are MILLIONS of us……who can’t use mass transit because we haven’t GOT any? We’re farmers and ranchers, small business owners in small town America, retirees, etc, and we simply CAN’T use it because IT ISN’T THERE!
There is no likelihood that we will get it. Therefore, we NEED that oil, and if it means drilling in places which have heretofore been off limits, then so be it!
I live on the coast, about 100 yards from it in fact. The local economy is overwhelmingly dependent on tourism and land development. That said, we need to drill on the coast. NIMBYISM is just killing our country. 🙁
The problem is not just oil though – look at the French, they might not be having enough babies, but they get 70% of their power from nuclear. 3 Mile Island was just a disaster – from the standpoint of getting more nuclear plants approved that is (you remember the bumpersticker: Chappaquidick: 1 3 Mile Island: 0).
C’mon gang, let’s ease up (a little bit) on our elected representatives. No one who worked for energy conservation (e.g., a lower speed limit) would have been elected to a second term. (Plus, under our current rules, the oil corps have slathered $$$ on the candidates who support their continued tax breaks.)Truly, we have met the enemy and he is US!
Since the oil shock of the ’70s, we’ve been hearing that fossil fuels are a FINITE resource, and that we should be investing in alternative energy sources for the future. But who wanted to hear that when they enjoyed driving a SUV? The future is HERE and tragically, our current Prez & Co. chose to invest in the Iraqi war of occupation. Why? So that the US oil conglomerates could take control of Iraqi oil (the no-bid contracts deals many predicted have very recently come to pass). The necons wanted to create a ‘new balance’ in the Mideast oil countries, and they have: only it’s lousy for the USA consumer.
I am totally dependent upon my car, and this morning paid nearly $60 for a tank of gas. Even realizing that 25% of this is due to the decline and fall of the US dollar over the past six years, it’s not fun! As a civilization we simply MUST pour our brains and resources into alternative fuels. Drilling is a short term respite (in 10 years or so).
Throughout US history, it takes a crisis to bring about big changes. Hopefully,the current crisis will encourage all of us American voters to push for and support alternative fuels. One place to start: the Federal tax credit for solar power is due to end Dec. 31, 2008. We need to write to Congress to extend it into the future, rather than curtailing it. We need to encourage solar development and installations, as other countries (Germany, for one) continues to do.
Idea: let’s take a chunk of the enormous tax breaks we have handed to the oil industry for generations, and designate it for solar projects for US homeowners and businesses. That’s just ONE place to start.