DRILLING OUR WAY TO OIL INDEPENDENCY ISN’T THE ANSWER
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistAs much as many people would
like to believe…
Drilling in our own backyard for that limited supply of oil; isn’t going to put us on the road to energy independency any quicker today, let alone tomorrow
–especially from the unwavering grip of foreign oil.
For once, Bush had said the one right thing in his entire failed Presidency:
It would take ten years to bring all this refined oil to market.
And from market to US consumers.
In ten years!
Imagine for the moment, that oil and gas prices aren’t likely going to subside from their current peaks–and they just continue to rise and rise, and
rise.
Think paying $4.50 a gallon is bad enough here in the States? Think
double that in just ten years–as global demand outstrips supply; especially if countries like China and India continue to use more and more oil.
Oil prices will most like have surpassed $200 easy, even $300 a barrel; in concordance with a dollar that’s as worthless as the German mark was during the second world war–with most oil-producing countries now trading in other forms of currency like the euro–instead of the greenback.
US consumers are beyond pinched for money–as sky-high gas prices and food prices have forced many Americans to fall back on other means of getting food or growing it themselves.
By the time oil from these allegedly built refineries comes back to America, the average drop in gas prices wouldn’t make much of a real difference to the consumer strapped to the core by high has prices.
The sad truth is, most of the 68 million acres of land
leased to Big Oil has gone unused these last 10 or 20 years. Big Oil doesn’t want to build new refineries or refine further more oil into gas.
What they do
want is more free handouts from the federal government. And in the meantime, production at most US refineries in the here and
now continue to drop here and there; in a transparent effort to artificially
inflate the price at the pump and elsewhere.
Combined with a weak dollar and many other geopolitical factors, there just simply isn’t
enough oil in our own country (that being 3% of the world's total reserves held
by the United States of America) to sustain our current burn rate of 21-28 million barrels of oil per day.
Blaming past administrations for opting out of drilling in our own backyard is not going to make our problem go away either.
The harsh reality is, is that America is finally at a crossroads with its oil dependency. Call it an
apex if you will–a peak which must only start downwards until we hit rock bottom again.
In light of that, we must start developing alternate sources of energy–and wean ourselves off this oil trip. Nuclear power is a limited option, because disposing of all that waste is even more trickier now, than it was back in the 70s–prior to Three Mile Island.
Building ten more–like McCain envisions–would take billions of dollars and years of political and environmental wrangling from all sides, before they can even be started; let alone
completed.
What we can do as a country, as a people, and as a
nation, is to start addressing our failing transportation infrastructure and obsolete power grid.
Rebuild both so that we can go green. The South and the Southwest have the two
abundant sources of energy which has been surprisingly overlooked for the last 30 years:
Solar and wind.
The Northeast can also benefit strongly from wind energy. But they can also start building tidal-generating stations to run clean energy from the ocean that way.
The Midwest has more of the same wind and solar benefits as their southern cousins. And they can build a hydro-electric generating station along the Mississippi River and use its power to generate clean energy.
The West Coast presently is using both wind and solar to power a small portion of their energy needs, but are also into hydroelectric power as well.
However, it’s not enough to give the country its needed independency from fossil fuels.
If we could only apply what we know about improved wind and solar technology nation-wide, we would be close to our oil independency 10 years hence than we are now.
Unfortunately, what’s standing in the way of that nice vision is Big Oil, one-sided politics, and of course…
blind ignorance.
And those will take a long time to get over than our immediate need to exploit our environment for a few years’ worth of black gold.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Big Oil, drilling, economy, energy dependence, energy policies, enviroment, hydroelectric power, oil, solar, wind
ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE NOT SO 'STIMULATING'
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistJust occured to me last night--as I was going to bed--that this economic package that Bush proposed lacks any real substance or
teeth to be of any real help to the sagging economy.
Pay close attention to his words: "This is designed to help
big business stay afloat, and whatever's left--we'll give to the middle-class and working poor."
Think that $1600 is going to you because you're married, have a job, and two kids?
Think again.
In 2001, I was promised $300 for a single person, $600 for someone who is married.
I got $75!
Wow!
I can certainly go to town on this amount! I was completely
fucked by my own government! Ass fucked so severely, my butt's permantly puckered here!
Surprised? Actually, no. The reason why I got that amount (and not the $300 I was promised), was because I was working
minimum-wage. I could only qualify for the $300 if I was making (minimum), $20,000 or more. $600 if I was making $40,000. (Families making this amount got double or even triple the amount.)
So $75 was my damned consulation prize.
And this is the reason why I
curse my fucking government for being such stingy bastards.
Everyone talks big and all, but who gets
reamed in the ass like a corner-plodding whore?
It's people like me whom make less than $15,000 a year on minimum-wage. (Back in 2001, I was only making $11,000.)
That's who!No one
ever talks about us. We just focus on the high-rollers whom make $20K or more. (Like good little sheeple.)
And that's why these stimulus packages are such a joke and waste of tax-payer's monies.
They aren't designed to help those who
truly need it. They just package it in such a way that gives the *illusion* that we are helping you out.
We're not.
We're just adding to the deficit (to the tune of $150B), and the working poor and some lower-class Americans get the royal shaft once again.
But don't think for a second that this stimulus package is going to be of any use to the economy.
While two-thirds of all Americans spent their tax rebate in the first six months of 2001, the rest
saved their money.
And did it jumpstart the economy? It did
somewhat, but the problems plaguing us from the 2001 recession never really left us. Our job creation numbers have sucked for the longest 8 years imaginable.
Our debt has grown so bad, many certified public accountants are having nightmares and needing therapy.
All it did was give more money to the rich and everyone else was left hanging high and
dry.
This time, the problem is
worse. High energy, high food prices, inflation which hasn't been seen in awhile, credit card debt skyhigh, and a housing meltdown that makes global warming look like your average July summer bake sale in the South.
And let's not forget $3 gas--which wasn't the case back in 2001.
Still think that your rebate check is going to save the economy when you're faced with
these problems?
Bush seems to think so. But Bush has always been locked away in his own little fantasy world.
Funny thing is, so are the Democrats we helped put back into power.
It would be ironic if it wasn't such a sad thing to witness first hand.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: $3 gas, economy, high-energy, housing meltdown, President Bush, recession, stimulus, tax cuts
RECESSION OR NOT--HERE WE COME!
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWe all know it’s coming.
A dreaded recession.
Oil is up.
Gas is up.
The dollar is weak.
Gold prices are past $800 an ounce.
Inflation is climbing.
I’m paying $4.19 a loaf for the good stuff. Not to mention $10 for baby loaves of cheese (a piece), along with pricy eggs, butter, and milk.
Heating our homes is going to be costly this winter.
And the cost of living is out of control.
Bottom line: Our nation simply cannot continue on the same path that it has been–spending itself into debt so recklessly.
But despite the warning signs, people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke still
believe that everything will be peachy and we all just gotta keep believing in the mythical Tooth Fairy.
“Low interest rates are going to keep our economy going!”“The dollar is weak!” they tell us,
“but it will rebound! You just gotta have faith
!”
Faith?
Faith isn’t watching our government train wreck our economy by spending out of control to the tune of $9.3T dollars. Faith isn’t watching the Fed play Russian roulette with interest rates–dropping them during this housing and credit crunch; instead of tightening and raising rates to keep oil prices from spiraling upwards and keeping a strong check on the
falling dollar.
Faith is asking the US consumer to open their collective eyes and see how much
damage that our government’s reckless economic policies are doing to us–
the American citizen.
That’s the open reality here. Not these fantasy comments on how the economy is going to continue to weather this and that–when the reality on the ground says much differently.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: debt, economy, fantasy, gold, interest rates, oil, reality
HOUSING BUBBLE HAS FINALLY POPPED
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistDespite Bush’s rosy reassurances that the economy remains strong–there is no
disguising the reality of the housing market and the ongoing meltdown in the sub-prime lending sector.
The housing bubble has finally popped–after building up enough steam in the form of expensive homes, low rates, and virtually no checks or balances in the loan application process.
Everyone gets a
piece of the action, right? Even for those who
can’t afford it?
Now you have skyrocketing mortgage-interest rates, heavy-handed payment practices, a glutton of unsold homes on the markets–and to top it off:
Astronomical foreclosures in many parts of the country and delinquencies stretching all around–including those who have good credit
!
And Bush still thinks this won’t affect the economy at all?
Boy, is he in for a rude awakening!
What
happens in the housing market
affects every aspect of our own economy! If there is an upsurge in spending–based on a strong and healthy housing market–then the economy will do well.
But if it’s like
this–then don’t expect our economy to do the same. And in fact, it
hasn’t. Despite some plentiful jobs in parts of the country, our economy is so saddled in personal debt–that the certain collapse of the housing market was due to follow.
Coupled with high energy and food prices, stagnant wages, and high cost of living expenses, the American Dream is all but dead at this point–with so few families wondering what to do next.
Wall Street certainly woke up to that fact–after months of shrugging off signs that the housing market was indeed in much worse shape than imagined.
It lost 311 points on July 26 and 207 on July 27th, 2007–knocking it off its 14,000 peg.
And with some reports suggesting it will be 2009 until the housing market recovers–if it ever does–both Wall Street and the US economy will be in for one rough ride until then.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: economy, housing bubble, stock market, Wall Street
