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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:34 am Post subject: American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot |
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A present for Joo today in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06oil.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What�s more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America�s oil addiction.
Even as politicians heatedly debate opening new regions to drilling, corralling energy speculators, or starting an Apollo-like effort to find renewable energy supplies, analysts say the real source of the problem is closer to home. In fact, it�s parked in our driveways.
Nearly 70 percent of the 21 million barrels of oil the United States consumes every day goes for transportation, with the bulk of that burned by individual drivers, according to the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan research group that advises Congress.
SO despite the fierce debate over what�s behind the recent spike in prices, no one differs on what�s really responsible for all that underlying demand here for black gold: the automobile, fueled not only by gasoline but also by Americans� famous propensity for voracious consumption.
To be sure, the American appetite for crude oil is only one reason for the recent price surge. But the country�s dependence on imported oil has only kept growing in recent years, undermining the trade balance and putting an added strain on global supplies.
Although the road to $4 gasoline and increased oil dependence has been paved in places like Detroit, Houston and Riyadh, it runs through Washington as well, where policy makers have let the problem make lengthy pit stops.
�Much of what we�re seeing today could have been prevented or ameliorated had we chosen to act differently,� says Pete V. Domenici, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a 36-year veteran of the Senate. �It was a bipartisan failure to act.�
Mike Jackson, the chief executive of AutoNation, the country�s biggest automobile retailer, is even more blunt. �It was totally preventable,� he says, anger creeping into his affable car-salesman�s pitch.
The speed at which gas prices are climbing is forcing a seismic change in long-held American habits, from car-buying to commuting. Last week, Ford Motor reported that S.U.V. sales were down 55 percent from a year ago, while demand for its full-size F-series pickup, a gas guzzler that was the country�s best-selling vehicle for 26 consecutive years, is off 40 percent. The only Ford model to show a sales increase was the midsized Fusion. A Ford spokeswoman says the market shift is �totally unprecedented and faster than anything we�ve ever seen.�
If the latest rise in oil prices isn�t just another spike � like those of the 1970s and 1980s � but is instead a fundamental repricing of the commodity responsible for much of modern American life, the impact of that change will affect everyone from home builders and homeowners in exurbs to corporate leaders, landlords and commuters in cities. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Nearly 70 percent of the 21 million barrels of oil the United States consumes every day goes for transportation, with the bulk of that burned by individual drivers, according to the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan research group that advises Congress.
SO despite the fierce debate over what�s behind the recent spike in prices, no one differs on what�s really responsible for all that underlying demand here for black gold: the automobile, fueled not only by gasoline but also by Americans� famous propensity for voracious consumption.
To be sure, the American appetite for crude oil is only one reason for the recent price surge. But the country�s dependence on imported oil has only kept growing in recent years, undermining the trade balance and putting an added strain on global supplies.
Although the road to $4 gasoline and increased oil dependence has been paved in places like Detroit, Houston and Riyadh, it runs through Washington as well, where policy makers have let the problem make lengthy pit stops. |
The current high price of oil can be explained primarily in terms of the fall of the dollar and the expansion of the money supply. In terms of gold or silver, the price of oil has not risen dramatically.
As far as US consumption, the US overconsumes energy due to the massive subsidies the government pays to consumers of energy (along with the rest of the world which has followed the wrong-headed US socialistic policies).
This article supports 100% my previous postings that it is socialism that has caused our energy/transportation problems. It is socialism that has caused our overconsumption and dependence on oil - foreign and domestic.
Government subsidization of the transportation and energy industries has caused massive malinvestment in the wrong infrastructure. We cannot escape except by rationalizing the existing infrastructure and rebuilding under free market principles. To do this, to solve our energy/transportation problems, the US government at all levels (federal, state, local) must exit entirely from the transportation and energy markets.
I have written and explained this on various threads and do not have the time to look for those threads or repost here.
We do not need more oil.
We need to have fewer roads, highways and cars.
We need a rational, free market, energy and transportation system.
Any government program to create energy of any kind, or to ration, tax or control energy or transportation in any way will make things worse. No matter what action the government may take it will make things worse because government can NEVER anticpate the correct market solution, nor could government action ever replicate free market solutions. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: ... |
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When I think of spigots, I think of taps on old, oaken barrels, maybe full o' cider or something, not oil. I know journalists gotta keep coming up with clever plays on words, but this just doesn't do it for me.
And while I'm at it, why does Joo always get the presents on this board?
Oh, wait, I know. It's because the whole world is on a rocket sled hurdling straight down the spigot. |
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