Oil's Well That Ends Well In Media, Politics

How full of rubbish are these neocon GOPers? Worse, how gullible, brain-dead, or bought hook-line-and-sinker are our media and by extension much of our nation?

It was troubling seeing this before the last two presidential elections and infuriating to watch during the post 9/11 build-up to the Iraq war. But you'd have thought the mainstream news outlets would've seen the errors of the past by now and made some attempt to publicize them. Whatever happened to the most important function of a free press: to tell the truth? Corporate conglomerates have bought all the media and use the news as a cheap front for thinly veiled advertising propaganda.

What's got me going is this "energy crisis," and how it's become THE dominating domestic news item. In case some haven't been following along, our primary crisis in America is the economy. Remember the economy? Yes, energy-price escalations play a notable role in economic problems, but this is not a "one-size-fits-all" crisis. Sure, oil prices coming down eases short-term budget problems. But it won't fix the housing bust and other myriad economic woes. It will have very little impact on easing the credit crunch we're in.

Most pointedly, fixing oil prices will do absolutely nothing to solve the runaway divergence between haves and have-nots in this flat-wage society. Everyone in corporate America, in the media, and almost all of our politicos (Democrats, where are you?) are studiously avoiding the obvious: only the elite see their incomes rise, and the rest of us flounder with flatlined wages and burgeoning prices for everything -- especially necessities. Jobs will continue flying overseas at a breakneck pace, and Wall Street will cheer this on and reap the rewards.

On the flip side, any talk at all of windfall profits taxes on Big Oil (currently the most egregious of profiteers) brings howls of pain. Republicans wail that oil companies will use price increases to offset the increased bite on profits. In fact, the situation is so dire that a month ago the GOPers started whining that America's economy was in the tank because we didn't have enough gas to put in the tank. We desperately needed to open up drilling in offshore areas that had been declared off limits by both Congress and then-President George H. W. Bush. (Yes, that ultra-green, ecoterroristic, liberal enemy of oil companies everywhere, Bush!)

Without opening up drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we're warned, America will never see oil prices go down and affordable gasoline ever again. The alarms have been dire enough to persuade even the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, and the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to amend their previously firm positions. They joined the Republicans in parroting that "America is hurting due to high oil and gasoline prices that won't come down."

Funny thing --

Since this has become the mantra of GOPer neocons, scaring the Democrats into dancing to the elephantine tune, oil has magically dropped by 25 percent. One-quarter of the price, evaporated -- and with no drilling whatsoever. Not even any pending legislation up for consideration. Think we still need to drill in order to survive as a country?

Of course, the retort has been that gasoline prices would lag behind, would not fall nearly as precipitously as oil prices. Here in America's petro-capital, Houston, prices for regular octane topped out at a minimum of $4.01 a gallon a little over a month ago.

Since then -- guess what? The recent typical pump price has dropped to an average of $3.49 a gallon, and it is cheaper in some areas, Houston used to be within about 20 cents of the highest gas prices nationally; now we're on average over 50 cents cheaper. (Can you say "industry price collusion"?)

But it gets better! Today we have seen the beginning of gasoline price wars. No -- not who can be the highest. It's just like the good old days-- who can be the most generous of price-cutters. As I write this, the price of a gallon of gasoline at competing stations in northwest Houston is below $3 a gallon At first, two stations, Chevron and Shell, were charging about $2.89 a gallon. Then the Chevron station bested its Shell competitor across the street by taking it down to $2.34 a gallon! At 10:00 P.M., I drove by the stations. The line at the Shell station, where the price of gas had been dropped to $2.17 per gallon, was too long to be bothered with, and then the Chevron station dropped their price to $2.16 a gallon.

$2.16 per gallon! That's not a typo or misprint.

That's over 40 percent cheaper than it was a mere month and a half ago. No wars magically cleared up! No refineries recently came on-line after being damaged during hurricanes! No opening up of more land for drilling!

And the mainstream media? Neo-con GOPers? The corporate-spooked Democratic rabbits? Nobody's paying a darn bit of attention, save for this: the media merely reports on the daily reduction in the price of a barrel of oil -- 26 days in a row!

Even with the price drops, the media still only harps on the neo-con talking point: the "energy crisis" and the debate over how to solve it.

For starters, this completely masks the real crisis, America's true "elephant in the room." Our economy is still tanking. Jobs are still disappearing. Americans are still losing economic ground. And the middle class and working class are watching their American dream vanish, while the poor are watching all possible hope shrivel and die before their eyes. More drilling and lower oil prices are doing zero for that.

Furthermore, if this is truly an energy crisis, then how is it suddenly solving itself? We haven't caved in to corporate "wish lists" or started full-scale panic drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or off the California coast.

Here's what's bringing oil prices down: high oil prices.

Yep! High oil has meant increased domestic competition in places that long ago gave up the petroleum drilling ghost (like Pennsylvania) or have become recipients of the newest oil boom in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Even Canada's oil-sands reserve is in full-bore production right now. Why? The high crude per barrel prices make it worthwhile to drill.

At the same time, Americans have dumped their SUV's and other gas guzzlers, begun driving less, taking public transit, riding bikes,and eliminating vacations, thus reducing their dependence on gasoline This past year, we've had a drop in usage of over 800,000 barrels of oil. And we're collectively sick of the oil addiction and beginning to budget for eventual hybrid-electric or hydro-cell vehicles. In short, we can't afford oil.

So what happens when consumption drops? So does the market price. It's not a hot commodity any more.

Meanwhile (say it again): the economy still sucks. And nobody seems to know it, except for those of us getting crunched under its wheels.

Way to report the real news, newsies! Way to see the real problems and seek out true cures, politicos! You're all earning your keep, eh?

"But some days are hard, like a soldier's steel-toed boots
And the rent we pay to stay here gets high." -- Hard Times For An Honest Man, John Mellencamp

Comments

[jtittsworth]

the cost of gasoline is directly connected to the interests of the wealthest in our society. The so called war in Iraq is actually another Police Action to benefit the pockets of the wealthy oil machine. Exxon reported two consecutive quarters of history making profits in the BILLIONS. CEOs are getting huge pay raises when they layoff the commoner (we do live in a cast society). The big Oil Machine will stop at nothing to block progress to find a source of energy that is not attached to Oil or Gas. With record underemployment, the commoner is not able to justify going to work because of the cost of fuel to fund transportation and household needs. The illegal war in Iraq was planned long before Bush first got into office. Ted Kopple on Nightline reported this very thing and yet the population is still buying into the propaganda from a President who should be impeached anyways. Once the war started the gasoline prices went up. Iraq is recording record oil profits and yet the United States is still financially supporting that country. Our children are going hungry because of livable jobs are leaving the country with Bush's blessings of course. I disagree with most Democrats on one issue concerning energy, I support the use of Nuclear Energy.

[abarafi]

What has been affecting jobs and economics is the new industrial revolution. Corporations in first-world countries have been opting to build products in low-wage countries and then ship those products back to their first-world markets. Guess what? The price of shipping has risen in lock-step with the price of oil. We're seeing companies shifting production from China to Mexico for products intended for US/Canadian markets. In addition, as Chinese workers begin to demand higher wages, the wage-scale gap between China and the US begins to narrow more and more. At some point, it will be so narrow that the price of shipping will nullify its benefit. Already, steel produced in China and shipped to Pennsylvania costs as much as steel would cost if it were produced in Pennsylvania. We are going to see a trend emerging where companies will build products closer to their markets because the cost of shipping makes it too costly to do otherwise. That's why Toyota is building more of its Prius cars for US consumption right here in the good ol' USA. This is just the beginning of a counter trend that will affect the large, heavy products, first.