All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Bulletin: The world is not running out of oil.

If America wants a recovering and expanding economy it must declare a moratorium on alternative energy and return to the cost efficiency of oil. The Oil Depletion crowd of the 1970’s was wrong. The world is not running out of oil and there will still be plenty left when we have moved on to a more efficient source of fuel. But for the near future oil is the most organic, diverse source of energy ever discovered by man. It is more useful than almost all other forms of organic material and is the residue of all organic life that ever lived on the Earth. Unlike coal whose versatility stops at burning and diamond making, or natural gas, which is a little more flexible, oil is the most versatile of all existing energy sources. The list of products derived from oil would fill a book merely by listing them without an accompanying text. Some of the basic categories include fuels, solvents, plastics, fabrics, resins and medicines. Within each of these categories are many of the things we use in everyday life that are cheap and widely available. It is the secret of the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed and the secret to the wealth of modern society. More expensive alternatives merely rob us of that future. Alternative sources of energy are still in the infantile stages and will remain that way for a long time. We should not abandon them, but we should be more realistic about what is good for our future and our country. Congress must lift the moratorium on oil drilling. The government must permit the refining of oil, oil shale and other oil-based alternatives on federal and private land. States must reduce the level of bureaucracy and increase the number of permits issued for oil exploration and production. America began its search for alternatives to oil when it was thought we were running out. The environmental movement began as a vehicle to support the move from oil to other fuels. It is now almost forty years later. We use more oil than ever and more is being discovered everyday. The world is not running out of oil and America should not suffer because some people think it may happen someday.