Matthew Goldseth

Crude Reality: Big Oil's Purposely Restricting Supply

The author would be wise to start publishing articles everywhere possible to ensure that a Google search of his name doesn't pull this piece at the top of the search results.

You may want to wait for your final exam results in "economics 101" before teaching the rest of us...and if I hear the "Bush, Cheney and Big Oil" nonsense one more time I may have to send Halliburton to your house to refresh your memory on the no-bid contract they won when BILL CLINTON was in office.

These nanny-poo environmental alarmists seem to breed every generation....200 years ago we burned wood and coal for cooking, transportation and home heating while horses pissed and pooped in the street. THAT was pollution...as the technology became more efficient and affordable, we transitioned from those fuels and we will do the same again.

The transition from oil should be a slow transition dictated by the markets and entrepreneurs developing and demanding them...not the politicians and environmental nincompoops whose good intentions have already created the ethanol debacle resulting in massive food inflation, my excessive grocery bill and the starving of a few hundred thousand in 3rd world countries.

Please...go volunteer at a food kitchen, ride a bike to work, turn off your AC and leave the markets to develop alternative energy.
In the meantime, I like my F150 and dont mind paying a bit more for the oil.

Solution to the Global Petroleum Crisis

One more example of the Visions of the Anointed. Tax, tax, tax...We've seen this knee-jerk method of market interference a million times before...child-like punishment to change behavior (while confiscating the wealth of citizens)...good intentions, consequences be damned....as if the profit-motivated mind won't find another loophole or way to pass on this tax.

The ugly truth here is that high prices have been a blessing in disguise for many who constantly lament our dependence on fossil fuels. Whether from an environmental standpoint, a technological innovation standpoint or a foreign policy standpoint.....high prices have done far more to influence behavior and create alternatives than government taxation and "regulation" has ever done.

For the first time ever, Im watching people drive slower on I-95....people are car-pooling to work, inflating their tires, passing up the "Sunday Drive"....people are buying smaller, more fuel efficient cars. It will take time, but these effects will, over time, reduce the overall demand for petroleum in the US.

Contrary to the hand-wringing and the projection of one hobgoblin after another to scare us into bowing to their benevolence....we are and will continue to develop alternative energy sources that slowly, but surely, wean us off oil. Solar, nuclear, wind, hybrid, coal-to-gas, natural gas, and on and on.

200 years ago NYC was a filthy wretched mess with smoke, soot, horse piss&poop, dirty water, disease, etc. We relied almost completely on burning coal and wood for heat, cooking, power...
We've come a long way haven't we?

As the advance of technology makes these alternatives efficient and affordable and as our demand decelerates, the next generation or 2 may look back on us as a hysterical group of cry-babies overreacting to a short term challenge.

In the meantime, there's plenty of fossil fuels in this country which have been put off limits by regulatory obstacles. Americans are starting to hedge their well-intentioned environmental zeal with some practical compromise...and are moving in support of tapping those natural resources we've been so blessed with.

By the way...my darn grocery bill is more of a shock than my gas bill. And most of that inflationary shock is a direct result of this ethanol boondoggle...exactly the type of alternative energy good intentions which have created disastrous consequences for the world's food supply while putting further pressure on land, water and fertilizer resources.

I'd love to see some of the zealots back off and let technology and economics run their course to solve a problem. Stop tossing your monkey wrenches in there please.

Disclosure:
The only energy related companies I own are Chesapeake Energy and Navios Maritime.