The Oil Debate

With oil at record highs, more people are wondering what is going on. Who is to blame? Is it the oil companies? What about OPEC? What about the auto makers? Why haven't the politicians and scientists been working on this since the 70's? If they have, where are the results? Is it us, the public? Yes to all!

The first thing we need to do is separate the two issues here. The first issue is our dependence on oil. Which would include the high costs, the need to fight wars and the financial backlash to the everyday person. The second issue is the environmental impacts that burning fossil fuels have.

The price of oil has less to do with supplies and more to do with poor planning and oil companies wanting to make big money before the party is over for oil. Why else would an energy bill have tax breaks for fossil fuel production? If Exxon is turning a $36 billion profit, why do the American taxpayers need to give them $2.8 billion more? Not to mention there is plenty of oil around the world. For example, most people don't even realize the Canada has the second largest oil reserve in the world.

The shortage is only in the control the U.S. has in the distribution of oil. And even if we do move to alternative fuel in America, how long would it take for all Americans to make a switch? Not to mention the rest of the world. So this is why we see Iraq and Iran on our radar. While I am not saying anyone was complicit in the attacks of 9/11, it did give cover under the guise of "The war on terror" for our government and the British to make the Middle East more "compatible" with the West.

This and only this can be the reason we left Afghanistan to go to Iraq. If there was oil in Afghanistan we would still be seeing Kabul on CNN, MSNBC and FOX. I now we didn't leave because the Taliban, Al Qaida and OBL were no longer important.

The environmental impacts of fossil fuel are really more urgent and pressing then our dependence on oil. The damage we do by using fossil fuels is almost to the point of no return. Greenhouse gases can change the landscape of the Earth, and the only way we can start changing this is by getting off fossil fuels completely. Not even 15% gas and 85% ethanol. Or hybrids. O% is the only way to fight greenhouse gases.

It can be done. There is no reason why we couldn't make ethanol based vehicles. Why not ethanol hybrids. The technology is there. And now with the oil companies being forced to include ethanol, which is causing the outages in the East today, more gas stations will be ethanol ready. Ethanol Hybrids would be a 100% fossil fuel free vehicle. How do you think Exxon would feel about that?

Brazil has been able to start switching over. And wouldn't you rather buy sugar cane from Brazil instead of oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iraq? Not to mention we can use corn, grain sorghum, wheat, barley or potatoes, which we can grow right here.

This is not the answer forever, but it seems the quickest way to fight both of the issues that oil presents to our long term existence.