Musings on Energy

I’m almost always surprised at John Q. Public’s behavior. Sometimes we do very stupid things, sometimes we are a lot smarter than you’d think. The current media brouhaha about gas prices is an example of the latter. Just about all of the interviews I’ve heard with the public with regards to gas prices demonstrate that people are using their brains. Some are taking public transportation, some cutting back on their driving, some planning to buy a more efficient vehicle. What are our leaders doing?

Bush and company want more oil from Saudi Arabia and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Saudi Arabia says no. But is that because it wants to keep its profits high? Or maybe it does not have as much oil as we think? Drilling in the pristine Arctic wilderness would result in a savings of 75 cents per barrel, according to the Department of Energy. And that would happen 10 years from now.

Our leaders are giving tax breaks and spending money on biofuels, much of it corn-based which is increasing the price of food around the world. But they are also keeping the import tax on ethanol from Brazil, which uses sugar for the fuel and, as a result, produces much cleaner emissions. I wonder whether we will have an import tax on Brazilian oil, as they are becoming a major force in oil production.

The Senate wants to tax the oil industry for excess profits but they never say what profits are excess. They also assume that the oil companies are the real culprits in this mess, never mind the facts – we are not a conserving nation; the new world economy has increased demand significantly; supplies are uncertain; our weak dollar, driven in some measure by the war and our greed, is a very important factor in the price of oil.

The House has the brilliant idea of suing OPEC. Talk about intelligence and pandering! How stupid do they think we are? This idea may be even more stupid than the gas tax holiday of Clinton and McCain.

Why have our leaders not pushed harder for conservation and efficiency? Why have they not pushed a fuel, natural gas, we have in abundance?

Why don’t we throw the bums out?