The Truth About Oil

You've seen the scare-tactic ads from the oil & gas industry. Do you believe Obama's to blame for "higher" gas prices? Do you think that if we turned the continent into a Swiss cheese of oil wells we'd suddenly get Newt's magical $2.50 gas?

If you do, you're an idiot and therefore you're not reading this. If, on the other hand, you are reading this, you understand that oil industry attack ads are an obvious acknowledgement of end-game panic and desperation, and you, sir or madam, are OK by me. You get it. Unfortunately, there are way too many idiots out there.

Here's the truth:

U.S. oil/gas production and supplies are up, higher than under Dubya. We have more oil rigs operating now in America than in the rest of the world combined. U.S. demand is down, but global demand is up. China and other emerging nations are thirsty and they'll insist on taking their turn to consume, combust, and pollute with gay abandon, just as we once did.

Growing global demand is driving the price bus, and the American oil industry's desire to punch holes every-goddam-where won't slow things down. And world market speculators play a significant role too, betting on ever-rising gas/oil prices and thereby fueling a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's like when everybody bets on the favorite horse at the race track, that horse becomes even more of a favorite.

In trying to meet increasing demand for a finite supply, the petro industry resorts to more and more unconventional methods to extract the precious juice -- sideways drilling, fracking, arctic drilling, ultra-deepwater drilling, tar/oil sands mining, and god knows what they'll think of next. Compared to what's gone before, it's all riskier, dirtier, and a lot more expensive.

At what point do we consider the consequences of pursuing every last drop?

President Obama is certainly no Greenpeace activist, but in light of the obvious truths, his fairly reasonable energy policy is "all of the above", not just oil. And not every break in the book just for oil. He upholds some clean air/clean water standards. He pushes for higher vehicle MPG standards. (Doubling your gas mileage equals cutting your fuel cost in half.) He calls a timeout on the Keystone XL pipeline. He advocates for alternative fuels and energy sources.

And for this he is absolutely pilloried by pandering, fear-mongering, billion dollar ad campaigns from oil/gas/coal (and now by Romney too). Remember the days when oil/gas advertising was all about a tiger in your tank and fuel line freeze-up and Arnold Palmer's old tractor? Well, that shit's over! Virtually every single industry ad you see today is a lie -- straight spin, propaganda and disinformation about how this wonderful, trustworthy industry simply must be allowed to frack in your backyard and create a million jobs. "What good news!"

What bullshit! Obama's right -- we need to diversify and explore all energy options. But that doesn't mean that oil/gas gets to use every Rube Goldberg scheme they can come up with. This ain't Maxwell House -- it isn't gonna be good to the last drop.

(Check out Tower of Power performing "There's Only So Much Oil In the Ground")