Sushi Money

My goodness, fuel prices are totally absurd!  There, I’ve said it… I’m complaining online about gas prices.  I’m half ashamed, especially because after this week’s storms and tornadoes, there are whole towns of people without homes, let alone vehicles to drive.  My heart goes out to them, and we can only do so much to help them rebuild their lives and communities.  Life within the nation still goes on… there is tragedy every day locally and nationally, and yet we must go on, doing the best we can in our own lives.

But I think fuel prices are a tragedy as well.  What makes me frustrated, even angry perhaps, is that we have the technology, the resources and the ability to have plenty of oil and gas… if we really wanted to.  The supply and demand issue is real, but is a house of cards that we built over many decades.  The fact that a new oil refinery has not been built in this nation in 20-30 years is staggering.  But the congressional leadership has thus far lacked the political will to make the decisions necessary to change anything.  I’m all for environmental stewardship and conservation of our natural resources.  I strongly believe in protecting the environment and doing what we can to lessen our impact on the world in which we live.  But at some point the very real human and economic needs must become a paramount concern for how we use our natural resources.  We can balance sustainable resource use with environmental priorities.  They are not mutually exclusive.  And yes, we can focus on renewable energy and further research to lessen our need and dependence upon oil.  But the fact remains that world populations are expanding, especially in Asia.  We drive millions of vehicles at home and internationally- and the demand for oil will only increase.  I believe the research that shows the world’s supply of oil is actually quite abundant.  The limitations we face are finding, gathering and refining that oil to support the nation’s needs.

What can we do?  We can open up key areas off the nation’s coasts to offshore exploration and drilling, as well as the Alaskan oil fields.  What are we waiting for?  It takes years of research and investment for a major oil company to find and begin production of a new oil field.  But our political leaders have not made it any easier.  And no U.S. oil company has had any incentive to try and build a new refinery- the environmental regulations challenge their efforts at every turn.  Do I blame the oil companies for high fuel prices?  No, not really.  It’s too easy to place blame on the very companies that make it possible for us to use the fuel we need.  They compete with the world’s demand to find and bring oil to our nation’s shores.  I place blame on OPEC and those near third-world  nation’s leaders who are laughing all the way to the bank while we pay through our nose to buy fuel.  I also blame myself.  I haven’t done anything to voice my opinion with my legislators, at least not recently.  And those whom we have elected have done little to change the situation.  There’s also a lot of speculation in the energy markets… in an earlier post I blamed Enron for being an example of how a company, or a cartel, can yank resource use around to make billions of dollars of profit.  I don’t believe U.S. companies are doing that at the expense of the American consumer, but I’m sure there will be more congressional hearings on that issue.  Maybe a little out there from the conspiracy theory viewpoint.  But there is a lot of money in the energy markets and that plays a role.   I don’t know when it’s going to get better, but it doesn’t look like anytime soon.  We’re going to feel these prices at the grocery store and everywhere else that shipping costs must be reflected in the prices we pay for goods.  It’s time to really do something… to bring the nation’s leadership together with the oil companies if necessary and figure out a strategic approach to providing more oil and energy resource needs for the U.S. economy.  At some point the nation’s economic needs cross the boundary of security needs. We’re getting there pretty dang quick.   Some research shows that Americans spend less on fuel costs than we did many years ago, as a percentage of total household costs, etc.  But I’m not sure I believe that, especially with the amount of commuting we do, and the number of cars most households have these days.  Just ask the the person in the car next to you at the gas pump how they feel about it… I got an earful the other day.

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