I saw this political cartoon today and it made me wonder – not for the first time – when will the citizens of this country begin to understand what is happening.
Recently President Bush – when he visited Saudi Arabia – asked the Saudi’s to produce more oil in order to bring prices down. Asked, requested or begged – it does not matter what word anyone wants to use – he wanted the Saudi’s to do what we – the United States – is unable and unwilling to do. That is DRILL FOR OIL!
That is why I am upset with the Republican Party. Nobody wants to lead. Nobody wants to take a stand. I get tired of telling people the same thing time after time. We – the United States – have not built a refinery since 1976. We cannot build nuclear power plants. Eight-five percent of our coastline is off limits for drilling yet the Chinese are drilling right off the Florida straits. We cannot drill in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) yet the sole reason ANWR exists was to drill at a time when the technology would do the least damage to the environment. I could go on. The question now is what group is responsible for our high-energy prices? What group is responsible for our dependency on foreign oil? What group prevents the United States from drilling within our country and building new refineries?
It is the United States Congress!
Look at the political cartoon again. Whatever your feelings or thoughts concerning President Bush, he represents the United States. In essence, the cartoon depicts the United States begging a cartel that funds and supports the very terrorists we are fighting for more oil. It does not matter one bit whether Senator’s McCain, Clinton, or Barack Hussein Obama win in November. One year from now, it will be one of those three – representing the United States of America – on bended knee begging an antagonistic oil cartel for more oil.
You can talk all you want concerning alternative energy sources. However, there is no alternative fuel source to run your vehicle coming on line in the near future. As of this writing, gasoline is already at four dollars a gallon. There is talk of gas being five dollars a gallon by Labor Day and at ten to twelve dollars a gallon by this time next year. Those of you reading this who commutes to work – are you ready for that? Anyone with children – are you ready for your schools ending transportation for all after-school activities? That means you have to transport your children, which means more money out of your wallet for gas. Are you ready for milk that costs four, five, ten dollars a gallon? The cost of everything you consume will go up while your salaries stagnate. Are you ready for that?
There is a solution. You need to call your Congressman and Senators, telling them we – the United States – needs to start drilling now. They work for you, not special interests environmental groups. Get involved! That also means you Republicans! From grass-root organizations to national leaders, stop being milquetoasts! Stand up for America and fight for our energy independence! As a great President once said – if not now, when? Alternatively, do you want future generations of Americans begging at the feet of despots? Demand from Congress – DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS!
AVERAGE PRICE PER GALLON
HOW CONGRESS ACTS
Recently President Bush – when he visited Saudi Arabia – asked the Saudi’s to produce more oil in order to bring prices down. Asked, requested or begged – it does not matter what word anyone wants to use – he wanted the Saudi’s to do what we – the United States – is unable and unwilling to do. That is DRILL FOR OIL!
That is why I am upset with the Republican Party. Nobody wants to lead. Nobody wants to take a stand. I get tired of telling people the same thing time after time. We – the United States – have not built a refinery since 1976. We cannot build nuclear power plants. Eight-five percent of our coastline is off limits for drilling yet the Chinese are drilling right off the Florida straits. We cannot drill in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) yet the sole reason ANWR exists was to drill at a time when the technology would do the least damage to the environment. I could go on. The question now is what group is responsible for our high-energy prices? What group is responsible for our dependency on foreign oil? What group prevents the United States from drilling within our country and building new refineries?
It is the United States Congress!
Look at the political cartoon again. Whatever your feelings or thoughts concerning President Bush, he represents the United States. In essence, the cartoon depicts the United States begging a cartel that funds and supports the very terrorists we are fighting for more oil. It does not matter one bit whether Senator’s McCain, Clinton, or Barack Hussein Obama win in November. One year from now, it will be one of those three – representing the United States of America – on bended knee begging an antagonistic oil cartel for more oil.
You can talk all you want concerning alternative energy sources. However, there is no alternative fuel source to run your vehicle coming on line in the near future. As of this writing, gasoline is already at four dollars a gallon. There is talk of gas being five dollars a gallon by Labor Day and at ten to twelve dollars a gallon by this time next year. Those of you reading this who commutes to work – are you ready for that? Anyone with children – are you ready for your schools ending transportation for all after-school activities? That means you have to transport your children, which means more money out of your wallet for gas. Are you ready for milk that costs four, five, ten dollars a gallon? The cost of everything you consume will go up while your salaries stagnate. Are you ready for that?
There is a solution. You need to call your Congressman and Senators, telling them we – the United States – needs to start drilling now. They work for you, not special interests environmental groups. Get involved! That also means you Republicans! From grass-root organizations to national leaders, stop being milquetoasts! Stand up for America and fight for our energy independence! As a great President once said – if not now, when? Alternatively, do you want future generations of Americans begging at the feet of despots? Demand from Congress – DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS!
AVERAGE PRICE PER GALLON
HOW CONGRESS ACTS
4 comments:
Much of the information I've read on the subject suggests that Arab production is actually fairly high, but they're simply not meeting demand in part because demand has been steadily increasing. Aside from industrialized nations, gasoline use has been increasing in China and India, which account for about 1/3 of the entire world population. As the rest of the world modernizes, demand will only continue to climb dramatically. Incidentally, don't we get a lot of our oil from hostile regimes in South America as well (Venezuela)?
Gas prices are never going down under the status quo. Every time there's a small storm and a refinery temporarily goes offline, gas prices rise and never go back down even after the situation is rectified. Any excuse to raise gas prices will do. America's dependence on foreign oil will continue to undermine our position internationally.
However, we can't be so quick to turn our backs on renewable energy. The only long-term viable option is to perfect modern technology to power our vehicles. And I'm not talking about ethanol, which causes many other problems of its own. Hybrids are relatively unhelpful too (unless everyone in the world already owned one). They take almost five years of ownership just to offset the extra cost of the vehicle. Only then do you really start "saving" money on gas.
Hydrogen fuel cells, EV, these are the technologies that need to be researched and implemented. Unfortunately, any of these solutions are most likely a decade away from mass market viability. Although EVs will be rolling out in the next year, they are all high end luxury models with relatively poor efficiency and a price tag well out of reach of the average consumer. See:
http://www.teslamotors.com/ (Tesla Roadster)
http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/ (Fisker Karma)
These early EVs are $80,000+ cars and still do use gas - but unlike a hybrid, they are rated from 50 - 250 miles on pure electric energy (depending on the model and other factors) without sacrificing performance. Once the electricity is depleted, the motor runs as a hybrid to efficiently dispense gasoline. The general idea is that most people commute a short distance to work each day, and they can use these cars to do so without burning a single drop of gasoline. Obviously on long trips you'll have to get some gas. But the savings are still compelling. Instead of filling up once a week, you may only fill up once every few months depending on your frequency and duration of travel. Electric energy of course will raise your power bill but it is estimated that the rise in your power bill will cost you 1/4 as much as the equivalent in gasoline. Due to techniques like regenerative braking and harvesting solar energy, the cars will become more efficient over time.
Unfortunately adoption of these post-20th century technology vehicles will be slow and painful. Even when more affordable models become available, it will take time to train and employ mechanics who can service the vehicles, equip gas stations with the appropriate facilities, and make the necessary transition.
EVs are not the answer either, at least until the technology becomes better. But I'm hoping the lessons learned in their development can be applied to creating cars based on hydrogen fuel cells or equivalent technology - which is 100% renewable and completely clean burning.
Until then I don't mind drilling in US soil to keep gas prices from raising any further. Ten years of unchecked gas prices will bankrupt Americans and cripple our transportation industries. But it is also critical to be developing and perfecting renewable fuel technologies in parallel and not forget about them simply because we were able to lower prices in the short-term. All too often this happens as politicians have knee-jerk reactions to polls. As soon as Americans stop worrying about gas prices, so will politicans. Only the combination of short-term and long-term strategy will truly do America good when it comes to our energy needs.
Incidentally I noticed you used Senator Obama's middle name but failed to do the same for Senators Clinton and McCain. Perhaps you weren't aware of their middle names? FYI it is John Sidney McCain III and Hillary (Diane) Rodham Clinton. No need to thank me!
Sometimes I wonder about you. You seem to enjoy arguing for arguments sake.
We already established in private conversation that you – as a musician – do not want any outside entity controlling your creative processes. I understand and respect that. From speaking with you, I believe you to be an independent individual. I am sure you have a plan in case bad times arrive. You perform an honest day’s work and I am sure you negotiated a handsome salary for your work and knowledge. And yet, for all your independence and intelligence, you don’t seem to mind to have others dictate other aspects of your life or to have the United States dependent on other nations.
The main point of my post is lamenting that there are no conservative Republicans willing or able to lead. You disregard my secondary point, which is being dependent upon foreign nations for our energy. I don’t care if it’s Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, or China – it is against the national interests of the United States to depend on them for energy. I don’t believe that renewable energy sources are the wave of the future though I believe that hydrogen cells will be. However, whichever way we go, we should not stop drilling and using oil and nuclear energy.
You state – “Until then I don't mind drilling in US soil to keep gas prices from raising any further.” I applaud your sentiment. However, the United States are not doing this. The U.S. Congress – led by Democrats and non-conservative Republicans – under pressure from environmental groups – prevent this from happening.
Unfortunately, none of the three candidates – I include Hillary because she isn’t through – are not proposing any programs making our nation energy independent. In fact, what all three want is just the opposite. They not only want the United States continually dependent on foreign and hostile nations for our energy, but they propose and promote a bill – the Cap and Trade bill or Warner-Lieberman bill. Do some research on this nearly 500 page bill – as of now - and see what it does.
Any conservative Republicans out there reading this? I’m asking the question – where are the conservative leaders?
Man, honestly I was unconvinced you even read my post until you quoted me in your fourth paragraph. I got your point and I was essentially agreeing on the second point with the caveat that in addition to drilling (which the Chinese are doing off our coast right now) we should also develop hydrogen fuel cells or other "future" technologies. Otherwise this cycle is doomed to repeat itself decades later. Plus imagine if America is running on mostly renewable energy and everyone else in the world is still stuck running on pure oil! Think of what an economic and tactical advantage that would give us. Until technology improves, oil and gas will still be needed for the next 50+ years at least as most forthcoming commercial power right now still depends on gas as a backup.
Now, to address your points specifically, you said:
"And yet, for all your independence and intelligence, you don’t seem to mind to have others dictate other aspects of your life or to have the United States dependent on other nations."
I'm not even sure what your intention is by stating "you don’t seem to mind to have others dictate other aspects of your life." Never mind the irrelevance. Of course there are many areas of my life I don't dictate. I go to work like 99% of the American public, where I report to a boss, who in return reports to another boss. I have the power to vote and write our lawmakers, but I can in no way directly set policy on my own. There are the things within my life that I can control just like everyone, and then there are the things largely beyond my control (or willingness).
As for your stating I don't mind having the "United States dependent on other nations," could you please tell me where I stated that, or even implied it? In fact I actually said nearly the opposite:
"America's dependence on foreign oil will continue to undermine our position internationally."
Since I'm saying America's dependence will undermine our position, I thought that I was saying that was a bad thing? I didn't know I was actually endorsing that as a good thing (I'm not). I fail to see how you can equate support of alternative technologies with selling out America, when in reality it's strengthening us and making us more independent. Just so long as we understand the technology is not there YET and some of these technologies (ethanol) are over-hyped and not viable in the long term.
I haven't done full research on cap and trade but from the summaries I've read so far it seems like a pretty lousy idea, however at this time I'm unprepared to substantiate that claim.
There are two "viable" candidates for president from the major parties - Obama and McCain. Clinton is done barring an Obama assassination or the surfacing of this rumored Michelle Obama "whitey" tape that can't seem to manifest itself. Of those two, Obama seems to have an energy policy (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/), while McCain has a section of his website called "Climate Change" (http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/da151a1c-733a-4dc1-9cd3-f9ca5caba1de.htm) that seems more about the environment than energy independence. You are probably right that neither will enact too much true positive reform. McCain has clear ties to oil lobbies and Obama may have some questionable ties to Exelon (nuclear energy). But I do feel Obama is sincerely more interested in addressing the issue and although some of his plans (like cap and trade) may not be good (McCain has a similar cap and trade plan), he will invest money in developing and deploying future technologies, including setting federal mandates to spur progress.
The unfortunate thing about drilling now is that my understanding is it will take years to actually harvest the oil. As in, when Bill Clinton barred the drilling back in 1995, now is when we would be actually reaping the benefit. So we don't need to drill now to save us in the short-term; we need to start drilling now to prevent an econonmic apocalypse in 10 years. Although the burden on Americans paying at the pump is where most of us feel it, residential use is less than 25% of US energy consumption (http://www.aceee.org/transportation/transoverview.htm). I am a lot more concerned about the impact on the transportation and related sectors which drive our economy.
I don't like arguing for the sake of arguing - but I also don't like my positions being grossly misrepresented. You're smarter than that.
Regards,
William
Okay - maybe I jumped the gun somewhat on your remarks. I do agree that if we can develop hydrogen fuel cells, it would give us a huge boost over the world - especially those nations that without oil would still be living in tents or the tress. And I do realize that drilling now would not help us right now. I thought I mentioned that in my first post.
However, the more we delay the longer we stay behind the eight ball. I disagree that we do not have much influence with Congress. We have to call, write, call, write and then call and wrtie a little bit more. We have also to pester our friends and family to do the same.
One thing I forget to address in my first reply. Of course I mentioned B Hussien Obama's middle name and I also knew Hillary Rodham's and McCainiac's middle name. But it bothers Obama and his supporters whenever his middle name is mentioned so I will continue to use it.
Steve H.
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