My Solution to the Oil Crisis
Right now I'm brain dead, and can't think of anything to write...so I'll just post this.
Hopefully my mind will wake back up...or I'll go see a movie.
Enjoy!
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I remember the first time I filled up my ’02 Chevy Cavalier around the holiday season of 2005. It cost a whopping $1.98 per gallon. Oh, how I wish it could go back to those days.
I remember even further back to when I was too young to drive (but sure had the ambition) and it was really the good life, with gas at 98 cents per gallon. What a difference a few years and a couple of thousand miles make. Now in the Upstate, we could be seeing gas at $3 per gallon for the holiday season, and it gets worse across the country — and the world for that matter
So what is to blame for the absurd prices? Is it the ever-devaluing American dollar, the price gauging of big oil, the corruption of Washington, the War on Terror, or is oil just simply in short supply and in an ever-growing demand?
The ever-increasing gas prices can be given a source: OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). What the organization has done is cut back on oil production, and using the simple concept of supply and demand, put consumers at their mercy. By having such control over a large amount of oil production, OPEC has found that it can do almost whatever it pleases with the oil, because we are willing to pay for it, no matter the cost.
Is it wrong that OPEC is doing so? Not from a business standpoint. Businesses are in the business of making money, turning as large a profit as they can. What is wrong is that they are monopolizing the oil.
Another factor to note is the growth of China and India. Both of these countries have seen an increase in oil use, mostly attributed to the growth of car ownership. It has been predicted that both these countries, at their current rate of growth, will surpass the United States in fuel use.
The news gets worse. As reported by Tom Dogget for CNN in his Nov. 12 story, many economists have theorized that the price for a barrel of oil will hit $100 plus during the holiday season, definitely not a way to bring in holiday cheer to the American consumer.
If there is a silver lining, OPEC held its 146th meeting on Dec. 5, in Abu Dhabi, to discuss oil production, which may give the American consumers’ wallets a breather as there are signs that indicate a production of oil will increase.
Unfortunately, OPEC decided to “keep production unchanged for the time being.” Also to note, the price of oil has gone down considerably the past few days, now down to roughly $88 per barrel as of Dec. 4.
So what can we as Americans do to help stop or just slow down the gas price hike? Not buying gas isn’t an option, at least until we figure out a way to run our automobiles and other things on an alternate energy source.
One option is to put economic sanctions and monitoring on OPEC and force them to increase production, but then that just seems like a bad idea all around, and would be completely against free enterprise.
America has an option, in fact, it is a vast, black gold option. It is reported that both the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska are chockfull of oil. If America drills in its own borders, then our dependency on foreign oil will go down, and we will become a more self sufficient country in regards to the oil crisis plaguing the world today.
Plus, with America becoming a stronger force in the oil market, it will increase competition in the oil business, and loosen OPEC’s monopolizing grip on the oil production and trade, which happens to be another part of free enterprise.
There is a problem with the drilling in America: the environmentalists, who are concerned the effect drilling will have on wildlife, and justly so.
Yet it really is in America’s best interest to drill in Alaska and the Gulf, as long as they do it in a safe, environmentally friendly way. That way, all sides — the environmentalists, the executives, the politicians and most importantly, the American consumer — can have a brighter holiday season.
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