Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Oil


Black gold. Texas tea. Bubblin crude as Jeb Clampett would say. Much has been written on the subject of late. But so much has been inaccurate. People focus on politics and geographic locations and fail to ponder the underlying causes of our present situation. I hear talk of alternative energy and a push away from oil. All well and good in theory but there are no replacements at the present time. Take a look around the room and count how many things are made from oil. And even if they weren't made from it they had to be transported there with oil. We are stuck with a major infrastructure built on oil and nothing is going to change anytime soon. Why you might ask? Because those who run oil companies will not let it happen. They may talk a pretty game of change with flowers and butterflies flitting around solar panels but they have no intention of killing their cash cow just for your or the planets' sake. They have said as much in interviews. It's always something like "In 40 or 50 years we'll be able to move away from oil". But of course all the oil executives will be dead by then so what would they care. Just a matter of keeping the game going until then and as the supply dwindles and the price goes up they'll make even more money.

A couple of statements from a business paper -
We're highly dependent on a finite fuel source controlled by crazy people who hate us
We've done next to nothing about this problem for four decades

To which I'd reply - they may be crazy and they may hate us but they aren't stupid. They realize that their income is tied to oil and that the world needs oil. And like the addicts we are we'll come crawling for the stuff. They know perfectly well that economies can't function without oil. So you'll see back room deals and cheats as we've seen with other embargoes all under the guise of humanitarian facades. Did we do anything in the last forty years? Yes we went from the gas guzzling behemoths of the late sixties and early seventies to the smaller cars of today but the population increased as did the number of cars. And with those new cars came plastic parts made from oil. And the greed and the quest continues. So sit back, watch the show and don't be fooled by the loud mouth characters on stage. They are but a diversion from what is really happening. I'll bet the speculators are just loving this show.

5 comments:

BBC said...

Yup, can't do shit without oil, will fill my tank up on Saturday before my 10 cent a gallon discount gets dropped. Or maybe I'll spend an other 60 bucks at Safeway first so I get a 20 cent a gallon discount.

We have so damn much natural gas here that we should be running our rigs off of it, or propane, it's a buck a gallon cheaper than gas.

BBC said...

A ballot initiative requiring Los Angeles porn actors to wear condoms has qualified for the June election, organizers said on Tuesday.

Hahahahahahaha

Demeur said...

That last bit of info was more than I wanted to know.

Hahahahahah.

Randal Graves said...

Oh, oil wars will be child's play compared to the fisticuffs over water. Fire up the popcorn maker for that.

Just move the filming to Anaheim, problem solved. Save the money shot!

The Blog Fodder said...

People act like the oil companies invented our dependence on petroleum. Actually it was the other way round, our dependence on petroleum created the giant oil companies. Assuming CO2 IS the cause of climate change (and I remain to be convinced) it is not the oil companies that are holding us back from reducing oil consumption. It is first the lack of suitable alternative energy sources as you point out. Solar and wind are mere dreams. We are NOT, any of us, going to give up our lifestyle in the service of the Sky is Falling folks and their half baked computer models.