Transportation, this summer, and that presidential election
The Republican plan to address high gas prices can be distilled down into one word -- drill. Oh, there's stuff in there about nuclear power (how this will impact gas prices is anyone's guess), but they're mostly so set on drilling that they've taken to throwing a now-week-long temper tantrum on the floor of the House, hoping to force Congress back into session (or, just generate headlines).
Meanwhile, despite our lack of drilling in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf ... the worldwide price of oil continues to drop. Analysts are starting to suggest that the price might be correcting itself thanks to a strengthening dollar and lower demand.
The connection? There is none, which is the point. For the last three months, Republicans and their mouthpieces in the media have been shrieking at the top of their lungs that we need more supply to bring prices down. It's made no difference whether that new supply would actually bridge the gap between projected increases in demand vs. extra supply (it wouldn't) ... it's been all about drill, drill, drill.
Naturally, they were wrong, and after I read this Bob Novak column mocking the idea that speculation, I began to think that maybe speculation was playing a bigger role than I'd previously thought. Apparently, I can add this to the growing body of evidence supporting my hypothesis that when Bob Novak asserts something as fact that it is not. Nothing today is different than what it was last week -- we still have the same sources of unrest in the Middle East and South America, and although demand is dropping, it's not dropping so significantly that oil would fall that far that fast. From the same article:
Unfortunately, the same problems exposed by the oil spike remain. What it did was expose how flimsy is the foundation of our lifestyle, and how dependent we are on petroleum. You hear the word addiction tossed around a lot to describe this, and it fits.
We've also been presented evidence with how completely shallow and content-free our presidential campaign has become. I allude to the Paris Hilton video, naturally, and her moronic suggestion that we can drill to satisfy demand until alternative energy comes into more widespread use (that this, in turn, is being hailed as intelligent tells you the sorry state of our national awareness).
Since this was apparently a scare rather than the real thing (a drill, if you will), then the question is what we do today to prepare for when oil becomes scare. And, oh yeah, we probably ought to start doing something about global warming while we're at it.
That means something a great deal more adult than what we've gotten. Rather than discussing public transportation and how our communities are organized, and the wisdom of relying entirely on commerce carried by a finite resource, we've gotten temper tantrums in darkened buildings and Paris Hilton back into our national consciousness. I'd say that's just about as definitive proof as anything that when oil really does become scarce enough to permanently push prices up that we're fucked.
Meanwhile, despite our lack of drilling in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf ... the worldwide price of oil continues to drop. Analysts are starting to suggest that the price might be correcting itself thanks to a strengthening dollar and lower demand.
The connection? There is none, which is the point. For the last three months, Republicans and their mouthpieces in the media have been shrieking at the top of their lungs that we need more supply to bring prices down. It's made no difference whether that new supply would actually bridge the gap between projected increases in demand vs. extra supply (it wouldn't) ... it's been all about drill, drill, drill.
Naturally, they were wrong, and after I read this Bob Novak column mocking the idea that speculation, I began to think that maybe speculation was playing a bigger role than I'd previously thought. Apparently, I can add this to the growing body of evidence supporting my hypothesis that when Bob Novak asserts something as fact that it is not. Nothing today is different than what it was last week -- we still have the same sources of unrest in the Middle East and South America, and although demand is dropping, it's not dropping so significantly that oil would fall that far that fast. From the same article:
Oil's fall is all the more stunning given current affairs. Russia, the world's second-biggest oil producer, invaded its neighbor Georgia on Friday. The United States and Europe are poised to impose more economic sanctions on oil-rich Iran. And a pipeline in volatile Central Asia that carries vital global oil supplies exploded this week.It's stunning only if you remove as a potential cause the artificial inflating of oil futures by speculators.
Unfortunately, the same problems exposed by the oil spike remain. What it did was expose how flimsy is the foundation of our lifestyle, and how dependent we are on petroleum. You hear the word addiction tossed around a lot to describe this, and it fits.
We've also been presented evidence with how completely shallow and content-free our presidential campaign has become. I allude to the Paris Hilton video, naturally, and her moronic suggestion that we can drill to satisfy demand until alternative energy comes into more widespread use (that this, in turn, is being hailed as intelligent tells you the sorry state of our national awareness).
Since this was apparently a scare rather than the real thing (a drill, if you will), then the question is what we do today to prepare for when oil becomes scare. And, oh yeah, we probably ought to start doing something about global warming while we're at it.
That means something a great deal more adult than what we've gotten. Rather than discussing public transportation and how our communities are organized, and the wisdom of relying entirely on commerce carried by a finite resource, we've gotten temper tantrums in darkened buildings and Paris Hilton back into our national consciousness. I'd say that's just about as definitive proof as anything that when oil really does become scarce enough to permanently push prices up that we're fucked.
