The Big Oil Tractor Beam
Mike Williams
May 14, 2008
I struggle every day to find meaning in most things I read these days. Recently, I stumbled upon an article that discussed 6 truths that we have all been told growing up only to find that they aren´t true. One of the items was the classic tale of eating so many spiders at night when you sleep. You see, at night the spiders like to hang around your mouth while you sleep. You eat them without ever knowing about it. The other more interesting tidbit was the tale of waiting to jump into the pool until 30 minutes after you´ve eaten. You don´t want to cramp up now do you? Both tales are not true.
This morning I´m reading through the news stories and came across a tiny little sentence near the end of the article that said, "Democrats criticized the measure, saying the country can´t drill its way to energy independence and should focus instead on conservation and renewable energy." Wait a tick. What´s wrong with that sentence? I have heard a lot of dumb statements in my day but this has to rank right up there with Al Gore inventing the internet and the whole spiders in the mouth thing.
Right now, we get mostly all of our oil from Canada and overseas among others. We are depending on those areas for our oil supply needs. We have oil right here but we´d rather let someone else mess up their country drilling for it then to go ahead and drill right here which would mess up our country right. Wildlife concerns, environmental impact, and dirty smelly oil. I get all of that. To the people who are worried that drilling here would impact the environment, let me ask you this. You are concerned about "global warming", right? If France drills for oil and makes an environmental impact doesn´t that effect us all globally?
I digress. To me, it´s a simple matter of having your cake and eating it too. Oil is not only used in your gas tank. I´ll list a few other uses below.
Man-made fibers used to create curtains and carpets
Pesticides and fertilizer
Candle Wax
Detergents
Food additives
Sneakers
Pen Ink
Plastic Bottles
Vitamins
Camera Film (going to digital but still in use)
Compact Discs or CDs and tapes
As you can see, oil use goes way beyond the gas in your gas tank and the oil in your engine used for lubrication. We will never be able to truly get away from oil so it stands to reason that we should start focusing on where we get it from. Getting it from your own back yard makes sense, right? No. We´d rather have it shipped from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Is America as a whole retarded? Leaning towards yes on that one.
The second oil related story I saw today talked about the oil reserves that we have and whether or not we should stop feeding it in an effort to drive down the price of gas at the pump. I get lost trying to figure out how this works exactly. We only have a few refineries in the U.S. right now. Liberals will not let us build any more. Every time the subject comes up in Congress, the liberals shoot it down. As it stands now, the refineries are operating at maximum capacity as well as being old and in need of repair.
Releasing more oil into the market sounds like it would drive down prices because the demand isn´t there. Because of the limited number of refineries, I don´t see where releasing more oil is going to make an impact. Not only that but now we have less oil in reserve. In addition to that, the world wide web is making it possible for everyone who hates the United States to know that as well.
In both of these oil stories I see a common theme or thread and that would simply be that those who analyze oil drilling and the oil market as it relates to gasoline prices are wearing "blinders." You know. The kind they stick on horses to limit their vision. They want an immediate result on one issue but can´t see the impact of that decision down the road.
The sad part of the whole story is that whomever is elected President will have no more of an impact on building new refineries or driving oil prices down then you or I. If those things could have been done, President Bush (oil man, you know) could have and probably would have made that happen. None of the current contenders have an oil background.
Will it matter? No.
This morning I´m reading through the news stories and came across a tiny little sentence near the end of the article that said, "Democrats criticized the measure, saying the country can´t drill its way to energy independence and should focus instead on conservation and renewable energy." Wait a tick. What´s wrong with that sentence? I have heard a lot of dumb statements in my day but this has to rank right up there with Al Gore inventing the internet and the whole spiders in the mouth thing.
Right now, we get mostly all of our oil from Canada and overseas among others. We are depending on those areas for our oil supply needs. We have oil right here but we´d rather let someone else mess up their country drilling for it then to go ahead and drill right here which would mess up our country right. Wildlife concerns, environmental impact, and dirty smelly oil. I get all of that. To the people who are worried that drilling here would impact the environment, let me ask you this. You are concerned about "global warming", right? If France drills for oil and makes an environmental impact doesn´t that effect us all globally?
I digress. To me, it´s a simple matter of having your cake and eating it too. Oil is not only used in your gas tank. I´ll list a few other uses below.
Man-made fibers used to create curtains and carpets
Pesticides and fertilizer
Candle Wax
Detergents
Food additives
Sneakers
Pen Ink
Plastic Bottles
Vitamins
Camera Film (going to digital but still in use)
Compact Discs or CDs and tapes
As you can see, oil use goes way beyond the gas in your gas tank and the oil in your engine used for lubrication. We will never be able to truly get away from oil so it stands to reason that we should start focusing on where we get it from. Getting it from your own back yard makes sense, right? No. We´d rather have it shipped from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Is America as a whole retarded? Leaning towards yes on that one.
The second oil related story I saw today talked about the oil reserves that we have and whether or not we should stop feeding it in an effort to drive down the price of gas at the pump. I get lost trying to figure out how this works exactly. We only have a few refineries in the U.S. right now. Liberals will not let us build any more. Every time the subject comes up in Congress, the liberals shoot it down. As it stands now, the refineries are operating at maximum capacity as well as being old and in need of repair.
Releasing more oil into the market sounds like it would drive down prices because the demand isn´t there. Because of the limited number of refineries, I don´t see where releasing more oil is going to make an impact. Not only that but now we have less oil in reserve. In addition to that, the world wide web is making it possible for everyone who hates the United States to know that as well.
In both of these oil stories I see a common theme or thread and that would simply be that those who analyze oil drilling and the oil market as it relates to gasoline prices are wearing "blinders." You know. The kind they stick on horses to limit their vision. They want an immediate result on one issue but can´t see the impact of that decision down the road.
The sad part of the whole story is that whomever is elected President will have no more of an impact on building new refineries or driving oil prices down then you or I. If those things could have been done, President Bush (oil man, you know) could have and probably would have made that happen. None of the current contenders have an oil background.
Will it matter? No.