Running On Empty

Do you believe that gas is too expensive? Considering all of the factors that influence the price of gasoline; market demand, market speculation, the number of boutique blends required by the U.S., and the whims of OPEC, it's my opinion that gasoline is still on the cheap side. Yeah, I said the CHEAP side. If you believe that the current prices of $3.25 to $3.75 a gallon are causing you to change your life style and to make different choices, what are you going to do when the price hits $5.00 a gallon? How about $10.00 a gallon? I truly believe that we will see $10.00 gas within the next five years. Perhaps then we will be motivated to prove once again that we are the most resourceful nation that the world has ever seen and devise a plan to move us forward.

What is it going to take to motivate us, the United States, to move away from oil as a source of energy? Fidel's best friend, Hugo Chavez, is laughing at us and making sure that the world believes anything bad that happens to Venezuela is the United States fault. There would be such a beneficial, global domino effect if the United States was not dependent on oil for energy. Most of the financial sources for terrorism would dry up and dictators like Chavez and Ahmadinejad would no longer have a voice on the world stage. [Are We Motivated Yet? - posted this blog August 19, 2006]

Scandinavia is building a Hydrogen Highway. Now this is not going to solve all of their challenges with gasoline, but it sure is a great start. The plans are to start with a fleet of vehicle for public transportation that consist of both gasoline powered cars and hydrogen powered cars. As the business model proves itself out, they will introduce more hydrogen vehicles and reduce their dependence on oil. The stations are planned to be solar powered and to derive the hydrogen from the air - leaving only water as a byproduct.

Now I'm a southern boy and I don't know a lot about big city commuting, but I've heard a lot of people commute everyday between large cities and the suburbs. There has to be some prime testing grounds for a U.S. Hydrogen Highway project to get us started down at least one alternative path. One thing that I am definitely tired of is seeing TV commercials from oil companies telling me how much they are doing for alternative energy. Give me a break. If the oil companies were really concerned, our cars would be getting better than an average of 20 miles per gallon.

So, now that I dinged the oil companies, I need to make one other point very clear. Taking profits from the oil companies for any reason is both wrong and ineffective. Once you start taking profits from any company based upon some government mandate, where does it stop? If the oil companies are so evil for their profits, then why not cap the net profit that Microsoft can make? For that matter, why not cap how much professional athletes, doctors, race car drivers, or musicians can make? How about the extreme fees paid to speech makers like Bill Clinton? Certainly his net profit from speeches is higher than Exxon Mobil. Furthermore, taking the oil company profits has the opposite of the desire effect. Taking the profits cause the oil company to invest less in research and development which limits supply which drives up demand - ergo, higher gas prices. This is economics 101.

Let's prove to the world that our ingenuity is not running on empty and that we can find sustainable alternative sources of fuel. Let's turn our back on oil and move our country forward showing the rest of the world the way to freedom. Let's see how long the engine of terrorism can sustain itself without oil revenue. Let's see the terrorist states that don't play well in the international community try to grow wheat or corn in desert sand.

OPEC - go pound sand!

##That's my opinion##