From "Cool Hand Luke", What we have here is a failure to communicate.
I disagree. Lack of agreement on facts, or the implications of fact, or what should be done about those implications doesn't mean we aren't communicating.
There is a dead end coming wrt oil.
No there isn't. What might become in 20 or 30 or 50 years (10 years is really unlikely) is a peak of production. The US passed its peak of production awhile back and there was no dead end with oil being produced in the US. It won't be different with the world.
note the price of gasoline is expected to hit an all time high this summer.
Measured in simple current dollar terms yes but the real cost of gasoline, measured in inflation adjusted dollars is far below the all time high.
The new sources of oil are not increasing as fast as the world demand for oil. At the same time, the oil that is available, from SA and other oil producing countries, is getting more expensive to produce.
Yup. Both of those statements are true. That's why the price will be likely to increase and as it does the demand for oil will be contained just like with any other commodity.
Our entire Mid-east policy is based on our need for oil to fuel our economy.
So our support for Israel is based on our need for oil? Even ignoring that an any other possible exceptions I would only say that oil is a major part of our ME policy. Its simply inaccurate to say that all of our ME policy is based just on oil.
Do we use those advantages for our military, to secure overseas oil fields? Even when we know that, ultimately, there will be a day of reckoning? Or do we use our economic and technology resources to promote alternatives to oil? And in the process, promote and build new industries, technologies and new jobs?
You present a false dilemma. Do we do A (remove Saddam from Iraq and otherwise involve ourselves in the ME) or B. (use resources to develop the technology and infrastructure to use alternatives to oil) You could do A, B, both, or neither. I would think the best choice is both, with the understanding that not every program or idea to do either is a good idea. In fact we are doing both, and we will do more of B as a natural response to the climbing price of oil. No national industrial or energy policy is needed for B to happen.
Tim |
