Crude oil prices are now just shy of $121/barrel. Don't stand in the way of this freight train! And just look at the price of natural gas and gasoline, too!
Until America wakes up and gets serious about becoming energy independent, this will continue, and will eventually result in economic catastrophe -- and possibly even worse. I am completely in favor of developing green energy. I think every building in America, including every home, should have solar cells on its roof and a wind turbine somewhere on the property. I think every power pole in the country should have small solar cells and turbines on them also. Green is good. Very good!
However, this is only a partial solution. We must also produce more oil at home, combined with clean coal and possibly nuclear power also. The United States has more crude oil sitting off its coasts than all of Saudi Arabia, but doesn't permit its production largely due to overly-zealous environmentalists and politicians from the states so affected by them. They are determined to reduce use of energy in the United States even if it leads to a depression. They are convinced that's what is necessary to compel everyone to adopt their misguided vision of energy utopia. It is leading America instead toward an energy and economic collapse of cataclysmic proportions -- at the point of an economic government gun!
America's energy solution must be a broad-spectrum solution. The green energy fanatics and global warming lunatics are going to drive the United States into a depression and back to the dark ages because they are determined to limit the solution to just a few forms that simply can't meet the demand nor fill all the needs. Thus far, there simply isn't a replacement for all the utility of crude oil. That's the reality. Until we accept it and develop our domestic oil resources, we will continue toward the edge of the cliff. If you think its bad now, America, just wait until we reach the cliff!
Last week, the President of OPEC predicted $200 oil. And that's not even the edge of the cliff either. The cliff will abruptly arrive when, for some reason, whether an oil embargo, a war, or the complete collapse of the Dollar, the oil supply is completely disrupted. Even the Petroleum Reserves won't be sufficient to fill the gap -- it is only about a 3 week supply for the United States. Just 3 weeks!
None of the 3 major political candidates for President is committed to developing domestic energy independence in a manner that will work. All three are more committed to the global warming sham than to energy independence. All three are ideologues, not solution-finders. Whichever one is elected, I predict will eventually go down in infamy when history gives them their due.
Contrary to what populist/socialist politicians would have you think just to get elected, the oil companies are not the villains. They must acquire oil from the same tyrannical dictators as everyone else. They are literally competing every day with Communist China and other governments around the world that also have a thirst for oil. The risks involved in the troubled sore spots in the world are growing with each passing hour. We ignore those risks and villainize the oil companies at our own peril. By increasing taxes on them, we'll simply end up with less oil and higher prices? Don't believe me? We tried windfall profits taxes before, and what did we get? Higher prices and less oil! Just do your research, study your history, and then wake up!
Heaven help us!
