The Price of Oil, July 4th, and Chuck Berry

I just filled the car for the holiday weekend, $4.53 per gallon. It goes up a nickel every day.

As the dollar signs flew by on the pump, I unconsciously hummed the song blaring on the outdoor speakers:

"Ridin' along in my automobile
My baby beside me at the wheel
I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile
My curiosity runnin' wild
Cruisin' and playin' the radio
With no particular place to go"

Suddenly it hit me: driving with no particular place to go? Is Exxon-Mobil now doing stand-up, or just being sarcastic?

Reminds me of another Chuck Berry song:

"Well, I'm so glad I'm livin' in the U.S.A.
Yes, I'm so glad I'm livin' in the U.S.A.
Anything you want, we got right here in the U.S.A."

Chuck obviously sang of a different time and place. For now let's be real.

George W. Bush's own Energy Department admitted in 2004 that if we opened up the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to oil development, it would take until 2013 to get any crude flowing and would only reduce oil prices by 50 cents a barrel. Not 50 cents a gallon, mind you, but 50 cents a barrel!

The price of a barrel of oil was less than $19.00 shortly after 9/11. Today it's pushing $150.00. The report also said that when ANWR finally hits "peak production" we'll still be importing two-thirds of our oil, as opposed to 70% if we don't drill there. A distinction without a difference.

Thus it's official. Messing with the caribou does nothing to alter our energy plight, now or in the future, and shame on politicians who suggest otherwise to frustrated constituents.

The unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East, which the Bush administration falsely claimed would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenue, has instead rattled the world's oil market.

The economic upheaval that has ensued hurts most of us, including the person running the cash register at the self-serve gas station. It substantially benefits, however, those who are either A/ corporate executives employed by fossil fuel or B/ significant stockholders.

No surprise, really. After all, even during the Great Depression some were able to carry on as if the Gilded Age had never ended.

Back then they were captains of industry, taking care of their heirs for generations to come. Today they're also the highest elected leaders in our land.

So enjoy the parade down main street, the hotdogs and marching bands. And Mr. Berry, I'm sorry your sentiment didn't end up matching modern reality. I truly am. I guess someone should tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Comments

[Sciguy]

I've got a conservative friend who just told me that the reason ANWR wouldn't supply enough oil is because the last survey was done 20 years ago. He also said that if we added up all the sources of oil - presumably including oil that isn't ours yet because we haven't grabbed it yet, like OCS oil - we'd be independent.

How silly. Why do we think that oil is really plentiful enough to bathe in, if only we could suck it all up and keep it for ourselves?

BTW, he also told me that in 20 years, we'd have hydrogen cars and atomic plants and the problem would go away. Um, OK - but I bet he'd rather not have that nuke in his neighborhood. Also, I have to assume that he's found a magical way to get rid of nuclear waste and prevent undesirables (read "terrorists") from getting to it any time in the next 10,000 years. Hell, they could poison a few lakes, streams, and cities by dispersing any radioactive material and it would kill us just as dead.

[Bladernr1001]

You handed power to the established oil interests by over regulating the business. Also, regulation has effectively banned viable alternate energy sources such as nuclear. Even wind and solar (so near and dear to liberals) has run into regulatory hurdles concerning NIMBY issues and other envirowack concerns too.

So we drilled in ANWAR, offshore, etc 10 years ago like we should have and you have the gall to use the same argument again? Give me a break.

[pfc1369]

Don't you understand that the oil found within the USA is not OUR OIL?

It belongs to the oil oligarchy, and they sell it whereever and to whomever they please.

Don't you realize that 80% of the oil now drilled in the USA is sold to othere countries?

This whole deal is called EXTORTION. Let us drill wherever we want, or the oil prices will break your bank. That is the message, and it has nothing to do with so-called "regulatio­n." That is a joke the oil executives call "a hoot!"

[Bladernr1001]

Don't you know anything about how a basic commodity market works?

OK, Let's say you go to the gas station and pump 1 gal of gas into a bucket. Would you be able to tell me where that particular gallon of gas came from?....Y­ou would not. It is all the same by that point. Gas is gas. Whether it came from Saudi Arabia or Jed Clampett.

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHER IT CAME FROM! It is the same price regardless of the source. The origin of a commodity product such as oil or corn or gold does not have an impact on the market price therfore whatever we pump out of our own soil and where those particular barrels end up is likewise immaterial to the commodity price. More supply and/or less demand will make the price go down...so let's pump more of it out of the ground.

[JBS]

You don't know enough geography. Oil from ANWAR won't come to the U.S. even if they do drill it. The tankers won't fit through the Panama Canal, and there isn't enough west coast refinery capacity to take the oil.

There's not enough refinery capacity to handle the oil that's already coming from Alaska. It's exported to refineries in Indonesia and sold to the Chinese. ANWAR oil will be too.

[Sciguy]

Great post, thanks! Do you have any updated stats on this?

[larry278]

W could pay tribute to his Tejas roots by doing C & W covers of Chuck Berry's songs. He could do it Pat Boone style & use the stage name, Dingle Berry. Every body would know that it was W for it's a family trait going to back when W ancestors used their operations in Europe to do business with Hitler & other Nazis. Go, W & take Cheney with you,

[normathumb]

Sensible Texan'z know that, much to the embarassment of Conneticutt, W and all his roots are from New Haven. If your cat hopped in your oven and had a litter of kittens, you wouldn't call them muffins, now, would you?

[CatfishJohn]

:"C'est le vie said the liberal old folks,
Goes to show you vote Republican
And unleash this avoidable Bushco. hell"....
...C'est le vie said the liberal old folks
Too bad they didnt listen to the things about Bush
in 2000 we had to tell"....