Two in every garage?
FUEL EFFICIENT CAMELS?
Today, Sunday the 30th of April 2006, I am listening as usual to a morning menu of cable and network weekly television news shows. It starts with Washington Journal on C-Span, then Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation and then CNN.
Right now I am up to This Week. Each of them are copycatting the topic, the price of gasoline. This is the hot item on the agenda because in most areas the price per gallon has soared to over three dollars.
Every season within memory the price has escalated in concert with the summer vacation motoring activiy. Yet there is universal denial that the oil companies are manipulating anything. And there is equally vehement objections to citing the record breaking reported profits as an indication that these are at windfall levels. Adding another type of fuel to the fire is the recent revelation that a retiring CEO is being given a three hundred million dollar golden handshake plus other embellishments.
Redundant old chestnuts that were batted back and forth with the predictable comments were a) supply doesn't increase as fast as demand and laying the increased demand on a country that the administration wants to paint negatively--China, b) it's the Democrats fault: translation there are more enviromentalists in that party and they have prevented construction of new refinery facilities and/or drilling in ANWAR; c) if the government would just increase the CAFE requirements we wouldn't be having this problem,d) nothing will be done because there are two oilmen at the position of president and vice president, e) Americans are spoiled by the low prices of the past and they might as well get used to higher prices as Europeans have.
Whenever the latter defensive comment is made, there is this missing element: most European countries have extensive public transporatation systems that residents can rely on to get to their jobs, do their errands or keep medical appointments. Not so in America, we are much more dependent both on the economic and social dimensions of the addiction.
Never, never, ever is it mentioned that we are spending those billions of military budget dollars on a force that will become impotent when the oil resources are gone. Nor is it mentioned what drain the present deployment has placed on supply. Those Humvees, fighter planes, destroyers, aircraft carriers, tanks etc. aren't fuel efficent vehicles either.What sort of a dead-end is this? Will the end of petroleum supply mean the beginning of peace. A peace dividend.
Some of the hated environmentalists can probably tell you that after the petroleum shortage has had its way the next resource we will find in short supply for the global population needs is water. But this is again just one of those pesky subjects it is best to pretend isn't on the horizon, after all the Darfur genocide can be ignored so don't get your undies in a twist - things will be okay if you will just be a docile unquestioning consumer. Oh, come to think of it how are all those products outsourced all over the globe going to get back to our malls when the sea and air commerce gets diminished by the oil depletion and the prices become higher than if they were domestically produced with labor earning a livable wage? Better not think too long term or you might have visions of walking to the mall and being limited to buying only what you can lug home -hmm wonder how refrigerators and mega sized televisions can be strapped to dollies and wheeled home when replacements are required, now the futurists must have some answers to this but I don't see them on the week-end talk shows touting aircraft that fly by peddling.
Are we headed for two camels in every garage - or at least back to having a horse and buggy rig? Will this resolve in five years, or ten? I insist on living until this plays out, I've got to know the ending.
Today, Sunday the 30th of April 2006, I am listening as usual to a morning menu of cable and network weekly television news shows. It starts with Washington Journal on C-Span, then Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation and then CNN.
Right now I am up to This Week. Each of them are copycatting the topic, the price of gasoline. This is the hot item on the agenda because in most areas the price per gallon has soared to over three dollars.
Every season within memory the price has escalated in concert with the summer vacation motoring activiy. Yet there is universal denial that the oil companies are manipulating anything. And there is equally vehement objections to citing the record breaking reported profits as an indication that these are at windfall levels. Adding another type of fuel to the fire is the recent revelation that a retiring CEO is being given a three hundred million dollar golden handshake plus other embellishments.
Redundant old chestnuts that were batted back and forth with the predictable comments were a) supply doesn't increase as fast as demand and laying the increased demand on a country that the administration wants to paint negatively--China, b) it's the Democrats fault: translation there are more enviromentalists in that party and they have prevented construction of new refinery facilities and/or drilling in ANWAR; c) if the government would just increase the CAFE requirements we wouldn't be having this problem,d) nothing will be done because there are two oilmen at the position of president and vice president, e) Americans are spoiled by the low prices of the past and they might as well get used to higher prices as Europeans have.
Whenever the latter defensive comment is made, there is this missing element: most European countries have extensive public transporatation systems that residents can rely on to get to their jobs, do their errands or keep medical appointments. Not so in America, we are much more dependent both on the economic and social dimensions of the addiction.
Never, never, ever is it mentioned that we are spending those billions of military budget dollars on a force that will become impotent when the oil resources are gone. Nor is it mentioned what drain the present deployment has placed on supply. Those Humvees, fighter planes, destroyers, aircraft carriers, tanks etc. aren't fuel efficent vehicles either.What sort of a dead-end is this? Will the end of petroleum supply mean the beginning of peace. A peace dividend.
Some of the hated environmentalists can probably tell you that after the petroleum shortage has had its way the next resource we will find in short supply for the global population needs is water. But this is again just one of those pesky subjects it is best to pretend isn't on the horizon, after all the Darfur genocide can be ignored so don't get your undies in a twist - things will be okay if you will just be a docile unquestioning consumer. Oh, come to think of it how are all those products outsourced all over the globe going to get back to our malls when the sea and air commerce gets diminished by the oil depletion and the prices become higher than if they were domestically produced with labor earning a livable wage? Better not think too long term or you might have visions of walking to the mall and being limited to buying only what you can lug home -hmm wonder how refrigerators and mega sized televisions can be strapped to dollies and wheeled home when replacements are required, now the futurists must have some answers to this but I don't see them on the week-end talk shows touting aircraft that fly by peddling.
Are we headed for two camels in every garage - or at least back to having a horse and buggy rig? Will this resolve in five years, or ten? I insist on living until this plays out, I've got to know the ending.
posted by graysmoke @ 8:40 PM
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