Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Oil's Cheap, but Gas Isn't
It seems they're inversely propotionally. Oil prices have hit a new low, but it looks like gas prices are going for a new high, trying to beat last year's $4 per gallon, oh my god. "The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America." It's not like that's going to help us much though without building new billion dollar pipelines over the next few years while oil just continues to flip flop and frustrate people. Not to mention all of the space it would take up, the wildlife it would destroy, and the uselessness of it once we actually stop using oil, either because we've become independent of it or because we've used it all up. But maybe this'll help us get to our future goal of being a nation not dependent on oil. Hopefully things'll work out for the best, because I know that personally, I'm getting sick of having to go pump up my tank and seeing that it costs me almost $10 more than last time.
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3 comments:
I think we definitely need to be looking for alternative sources of fuel because we obviously can't stay dependent on oil forever. BUT I think while we are looking for new fuel sources, we should still be drilling for oil (hides from Jason). At the moment we are dependent on oil, and unfortunately that isn't going to change overnight. It takes time, a LOT of time, to find a new fuel source that is practical and then can be easily distributed. New technology will have to be created to make use of this fuel source which also takes time. And in the meantime, while we are waiting for all of this stuff to be found and created, what do we do if we run out of oil and don't have anymore because we didn't drill? OR, what if the world is out to get us, and our alternative fuel source ends up not working? Then we are really in a bad place!! And that is why I think we need to continue to drill - not so we stay dependent on oil, but as a safety measure, just in case.
I too believe that we should continue drilling. I don't see oil/ gas use as something you can just stop. It is a weening process. Our nation and many others heavily depend on the sales and purchases of natural gases. If we really want to see a change in how we consume oil, I think a few steps need to be followed.
Raising prices, as unfair as a $60 tank may be, will be beneficial in the long run to getting us off of our dependency for oil. It will be important to divert some more resources towards alternative fuels. Also, the less we buy and the less other nations buy oil from other nations, the less the world will be dependent on oil. Once an efficient and beneficial alternative fuel is constructed, that could go as a new form of product for nations to trade. These are just some thoughts.
As I have stated above, getting America, and the world at that, off of its oil addiction is a weening process. It cannot be done overnight.
I agree that raising gas prices is essential. There is clearly a market failure in that fossil fuels have been severely undervalued, as their inevitable exhaustion is largely ignored. The only way to right this wrong is to raise taxes on gasoline (see my proposed plan in a post from December/January).
That being said, more drilling is a rather silly exercise. The quantity of oil that can be derived from new drilling sources is not large enough to sustain us for that much longer after we would otherwise have ran out of oil. The lag time that might be bought is not very much at all. The thing is, though, that oil will not begin to run out for a very long time (most likely :) ). Our current price hikes are not a result of diminishing supply but fixed pricing. Yes, we need to get off oil because it will run out eventually, but mostly we need to get off oil because it is a nasty fuel to be using period (even if were in infinite supply).
Instead, drilling perpetuates the culture that oil will continue to be our primary fuel source (at least until we "run out," stymieing technological advancement necessary to produce alternative fuels and serving only to maintain our addiction. Dictators in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc. are smiling broadly as we try to "expand" our oil resources, as it just means we will be good customers of theirs for that much longer.
We have enough brainpower and capital to pull off myriad alternatives long before we "need" them. The sooner the better.
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