O.K., gasoline is $4.50 a gallon, Oil is $150 a barrel, and where is a comprehensive energy policy discussion? Are the Presidential candidates coming up with any great ideas? Is the current President coming up with a game plan? Is Congress coming up with great ideas to solve the problem? Are the auto companies that are on the edge of bankruptcy, breaking any new inventions that will bring them back to solvency? I guess not.
It seems as though both Presidential candidates started their campaigns with the Iraq War as the centerpiece, and they never thought the economy would be in trouble, or that oil would go through the roof. Apparently there aren’t any energy experts willing to sign on with the campaign, or more likely, there aren’t any easy answers that a campaign can condense in to sound bytes. We all wait, anxiously, for them to dazzle us with their ideas. Does that make sense?
GW Bush is an oilman, with close ties to the oil industry, probably with a great many oil investments in his blind trust. The Bush family has a longstanding, close relationship with the Saudi Royal family. The administrations answer is to drill here, drill now, pay less, of course, another branch of the Administration has shown that drilling will have a little effect on the price of gasoline. The Administration also says speculators are just part of normal events, and aren’t affecting prices, but Bush makes a statement backing drilling in the U.S. and oil future drop $9.00 a barrel, with no other changes. Does that make sense?
Congress wants to make the opposite party look bad, so they point fingers at each other and try not to put any ideas forward, for fear the other party will make it appear silly. They each say what won’t work, but don’t work together to come up with new bipartisan ideas, that will pass Congress and be signed by the President. Does that make sense?
The auto companies, rather than coming up with new ideas and technologies, are trying to repackage SUV’s as crossovers, change the name, and we don’t realize they’re the same vehicle. They are trying to use the E85 loophole to improve their CAFÉ numbers, and averaging their CAFÉ numbers across their lines to show how great they are. The only problems with such numbers are, they have tons of SUV’s in stock, and very few of the economy cars available. The American public also doesn’t seem motivated to make the sacrifices to drive the economy cars. Does that make sense?
One of the few answers on the horizon comes from T.Boone Pickens, a lifelong oilman, who says that we can’t drill our way out of this emergency. His suggestion is to use wind and solar, technologies that already exist to provide our power needs and to then use the natural gas, now used to make electricity, to power automobiles, a technology that already exists. He says that within ten years we could be energy independent. He says that for our economy and National Security this is necessary, does that make sense? If so I suggest you go to www.pickensplan.com,
GOOD LUCK
Comments