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| Dec 2008 |
Now gas is dirt cheap again in the States. I heard that it's going for $1.50 / gallon. This is great for many of us short-term as we ride out the current recession. But it's a disaster if we let the cheap gas lure us into complacency and not innovate green technology, such as solar power, etc.
Why?
Because as long as we depend on oil as our primary fuel, we'll always be at the mercy of the OPEC nations. Take a look at the following list of member countries (* denotes founding member):
- Algeria
- Angola
- Ecuador
- Iran*
- Iraq*
- Kuwait*
- Libya
- Nigeria
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia*
- United Arab Emirates
- Venezuela*
How many of them do you suppose is our ally and promoter of human rights we hold so dear? Not many. We worry about things like gender equality in countries like Iran and Iraq and Nigeria and/or Iranian nuclear threats, etc. Guess what? They can do what they do because we give them lots and lots of money for oil.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm · Link
Agreed, and it doesn’t only apply to the US.
Especially when you consider how many people think we’re already at peak oil, and therefore in the long-run, the price of oil is only going to rise.
And OPEC’s trying to enforce a cut in production to bring prices up as most of the countries on that list? Their national budget is based on a price of oil that’s higher than the current price of about 45USD — even the Saudis base theirs on a price of 50USD, and when you consider that oil is their only export, that’s SCARY.
I think one of the Middle East countries (might be Iran) used a price of 75USD, more than 50% more than the current price of oil.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:18 am · Link
As always, you are so on with this economy stuff.
I would have voted for you this election!
December 16th, 2008 at 4:39 pm · Link
May — I think the high fluctuation in crude oil price will bring further instability in the global economy. And I do agree that their estimates are a bit…unrealistic. It bugs me that the US isn’t spending more money and resources on renewable energy. The US can be a leader in this field if it really really wanted to.
Bethany — I wouldn’t want to be the Prez even if they paid me right now. Besides, I can’t run for the office anyway. Thanks for the thought though. LOL. :)