Current Oil Price $143.90/Barrel -07/02/2008
Prediction: Gas price Avg: $4.05 by 06/15/08 (Officially hit that price today 06/10/2008)
$5.00 by 12/31/08
BIG OIL
Our elected officials do need to take steps in order to bring our country into a situation where we are energy independent. Most economists agree on this point. This is one of the main reason why we are seeing such huge spikes in oil prices. The other two reason are speculation of oil prices in the futures markets and the weakening dollar. The days of cheap oil are over and will probably not return for more than ten years. It will take some time to get our energy independence on-line. Oil refineries, drilling in our own oil fields in the US, coal to synthetic oil production, sugar ethanol, solar power, electric power, hybrids, natural gas, wind power and even Nuclear power are some of the ways that we can get out of the “BIG OIL” era. we have to take a step in this direction.
Unfortunately there are a lot of speed bumps to gaining our energy independence. The problems are mainly elected government officials with lots of special interests and environmentalists. There is no reason why we can not make this happen. The benefits are outrageous. The 4-5% of people that are unemployed can have jobs working with many of these technologies. So Job creation is a great outcome. Who wants cheaper oil? If there is competition for oil either from our own oil fields or alternative fuels oil prices will go down. We might even be able to export some of these fuels to other countries once we are taken care of here in the states first. So, increased exports, good for our economy! Less money funding terrorists and their affiliates by buying oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries like them. The list goes on.
There are risks of course. There are also some long term changes that have to take place. Uncomfortable changes that I believe we are experiencing currently. Higher gas and oil prices, increased food costs, Transportation changes and cost increases, surcharges to accommodate increases in every facet of business. We are going to have to suffer a little in order to realize that we need to make a change. Our government needs to stop candy coating our problems and fix them.
We all know that the pros out weigh the cons in this situation. Washington needs to see this too. To quote a famous Star Trek Character, “The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the one or the few.” stated by Leonard Nimoy as Dr Spock. (Sorry Polar bear, whales, etc.)