The inspiration for this blog article is the postings of some of my friends on facebook to boycott oil companies by not buying oil on some date. This has been attempted numerous times over the last ten years, mostly through email chain letters. The fact of the matter is though is that it does absolutely nothing. You can never get enough people to make it worth something. And what happens if I really need gas that day? What we need is a common sense energy policy for the U.S. not boycotts. Here is my energy policy for the United States for your enjoyment.
1. End all subsidies, tax credits and deductions for energy sources. If we want to know what it really costs to produce gasoline and other fuels for our cars we should end all subsidies. I don't care if they go to big oil or big ethanol. This is a good idea in general, but lets apply it to this sector of the economy. This will make prices go up, but with those prices going up the market will then shift to more fuel efficient cars on their own. Those who want to own gas guzzlers are free to do so and pay that much for fuel which is their right.
2. Lower taxes on big oil. People make a big deal about the billions of dollars of profits made by big oil companies. The fact of the matter is that oil companies only make an eight cent profit of every dollar bought in gasoline. The different levels of government make between twenty to thirty cents off of every dollars bought in gasoline. So who really profits from big oil? Big oil or big government. This will make fuel more affordable to everyone because high oil prices affect the poorer classes more than the rich, since their resources are more limited. Also, it will bring down the price of all other goods since gasoline is used to transport them to market. It will be a boon to our economy.
3. Utilize our own resources. We have vast untapped resources of oil within the United States. We need to use these now, instead of sending our money to people who use that money to fund our enemies (i.e. Saudi Arabia and al-qaeda). The vast majority of these resources are in places people never go or see (i.e. ANWR). We can utilize technology to convert coal to gasoline, just like Hitler did when he had an oil embargo on him. We need to be self-sufficient. We need to drill here and drill now. Also, oil is used for more than just gasoline, so we will almost always need some source of that resource.
4. Technology must catch up. Electric cars are coming, but right now they suck! No one wants to buy them. Also, their is no infrastructure to support their widespread use. This requires years of investment and research by all levels of economy for it to be implemented. Electric trucks need enough power to pull heavy loads. We need the technology for rapid charging of the batteries, because no one will wait hours to get their car charged on a cross country trip, when they can fill up with gas in 10 minutes. We need mechanics trained in the maintenance of these vehicles. We need the battery technology to store the power generated by solar, wind and other sources because solar only works when the sun is out. All of these advances must not rely on the government for funding either. To rely on government funding is to mask the true costs of these technologies. The free market will decide which of these will succeed and fail.
Big Oil is a problem with the lobbyist they have in Congress, but lobbying is a problem in general in our government. I am not against lobbying our government for legislation. Special interests groups are the modern day factions that James Madison talked about in Federalists #10. Lobbying regulations must be drawn up to prevent undue influence on our representatives. But that is a another problem for another day. Hey there's another topic for my blog. Gonna have to do some research on that before I open my mouth on that one.
Any questions, comments, concerns. Class dismissed!
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