Over an oil barrel
Posted 35 weeks 1 day ago byInvestor's Business Daily has a perfectly sensible editorial today on why $100 a barrel oil is not the end of the world, but certainly the result of "stupid policy." The editors write: "America's real energy problem is not our dependence on foreign oil, but the fact that we've declared our independence from domestic oil in favor of solutions that don't work." Chief among those failed solutions might be the greatest boondoggle since the Works Progress Administration: federally subsidized ethanol.
Thoughts
Well, I watch West WIng...
Submitted on January 4th, 2008 by Joel... and I'm with you on ethanol! Thank God for Alan Alda's tell-it-like-it-is ways.
But seriously: What's interesting about the Investor's Business Daily editorial is that it takes for granted the idea that we're going to need to keep needing more and more oil to live our lives and grow our economy.
I'm not sure that's true. At least, I'm not sure that it has to be true. And even if it has to be true, there's only so much oil in the world: It's a non-renewable resource. The day will come when we're forced to find some other energy sources, or to conserve or (and this is my guess) do both.
Since we know that day is coming, why not start preparing for it -- seriously preparing for it -- now?
I've already promoted Jared Diamond's op-ed piece in the NYT elsewhere on the site, but there's one paragraph in there that's striking:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinio...
"For example, per capita oil consumption in Western Europe is about half of ours, yet Western Europe’s standard of living is higher by any reasonable criterion, including life expectancy, health, infant mortality, access to medical care, financial security after retirement, vacation time, quality of public schools and support for the arts. Ask yourself whether Americans’ wasteful use of gasoline contributes positively to any of those measures."