Oil, Politics, and You

At this writing, Crude at $71-plus is breaking into new all-time high ground, and you can see it reflected at the gas pump. This is only the beginning - as summer approaches, and demand increases, we could see $4.00 gasoline here in the U.S. One little conflict in the Middle East, and it could get a lot worse than that -- literally overnight.

So think about these facts as you pull up to the gas pump, getting ready to spend $80 or more to fill up that gas-guzzling, atmosphere-polluting SUV that you just love to drive so much. Your "SUV Habit" does double damage:

1. It sucks up twice as much gasoline as you need to get from point A to point B, putting even more pressure on the demand side of the energy equation. If you car pool and actually have 4 riders in that ugly fat "thing" I could say, "Bully for you" - but 95% of the time all I see in there is you and you alone driving to work in it.


2. It pumps out twice as much emissions, further polluting the atmosphere and contributing to global warming, which has already started to become a real problem for humankind. Congratulations on the wonderful contribution you are making to society.

Brazil has it figured out; why can't we do it?

In Brazil, 100 percent of all new Brazilian cars are able to run on 100 percent ethanol. Brazilian sugar-cane-fed biorefineries are capable of producing sufficient ethanol to allow the entire fleet, new and old cars alike, to do so. Ethanol costs about half what gasoline costs. It doesn't contribute to global warming. It doesn't produce noxious fumes that pollute the environment, causing smog and making people ill, driving up healthcare costs.

Here in the U.S, we could produce enough switchgrass to biorefine ethanol stocks that could power every car, truck and motorcycle on the road in the United States today - and do it in about 2 years, if we really, really decided we needed to.

Brazil today has ZERO dependence on foreign oil. If oil goes to $100 a barrel, it will hardly affect Brazil's economy at all. Now the U.S. of A., supposedly a superior country with more technical resources, could have done what Brazil started to implement 15 years ago, but it didn't. How come we "just don't get it" over here?

Since its inception, Brazil's ethanol program has displaced imported oil worth $120 billion. This is comparable to a savings of almost $2 trillion for a U.S.-sized economy.

Now let's take a look at what dependence on oil will do to the U.S. economy this summer. Here's a chart of oil vs. inflation:

It's not rocket science folks. Gold is doing the same thing, having recently hit a 25 year high. If oil shoots up to $100 a barrel, even temporarily like it did back in 1979, our economy will come to a screeching halt. Inflation could hit 10% and interest rates will go through the roof. And, all this could happen by late summer, 2006.

Now you take this to your elected representative and ask them why, after 40 years of the lessons of history, we are still so dependent on foreign oil to run our economy. Ask them for answers, not political rhetoric, and ask them to show you a plan. All this won't get any better until we do something about it, and the way to get that done is at the voting booth, by electing enlightened polticians.

Ask your favorite politician why we never had and still do not have a plan to make America completely independent of foreign oil, and yet Brazil seems to have been able to do this gracefully and has a vibrant economy from doing it.

Oil Companies aren't the cause, but they are part of the solution

Don't be so quick to blame the "Big Oil Companies" on the problem. Blame yourself, for not insisting on having elected representatives that are committed to taking appropriate action.Yo! We put men on the moon 35 years ago, and yet we can't seem to solve our energy problems? What a bunch of HORSESHIT! The reason why we haven't solved our energy dependency problems is because we've elected a bunch of Chicken-Shit politicians with no plans and no priorities to run this country.

The first candidate to put energy independence front - and - center on the platform has my vote be they Republican, Democrat, or Illegal Alien!