Objectivity

Will Interest in Alternatives Continue if Oil Goes Down?

Modern civilisation requires the well functioning electrical grid to survive. If you doubt that you are clearly not modern, civilised, well, or properly functioning.

Adding capacity to the grid from multiple sources like solar and wind is an insurance policy for all of us... and cheap at any price.

U.S. Oil Production Today Same as in 1948

Back in the late 70's I heard repeatedly by "supposedly sensible" people that we could "drill our way out of the oil crisis".

I said "B-S!" to the conventional logic then, the reason being America was an oil pincushion... already stuck with an absurdly high number of "pins'. Compared to the rest of the world the USA was "drilled out".

The best hope we had then was to radically improve our electric grid, add large capacity to the US nuclear power stations (including building new facilities) and working like crazy to conserve... I was part of the "Detroit project" when we doubled car mpg from 13 to 27 in less than 7 years... and the US should have instituted oil price controls, upper and lower... tax floor and subsidy top... with small escalation built in, but every dollar put in an oil trust fund like the SPR... would have been cheap insurance and stabilised behavior.

Instead what did the USA do? Revel in an oil crash, then build an absurd SUV fleet, and throw up McMansions on no money down that suck up 10 megawatt-hours per month...

Oh yeah... they voted for sunshine lies and resource wars too... Reagan twice, Bush I, two Clinton terms, Bush II twice... and passed up on Perot when they had the chance.

So what do our children inherit?

Neocon wars (and the neo's are in both parties)... Bank and real estate crises... Auto companies going under... Hubbert's Peak proven... future disasters by the score... food, water, and power shortages on the way.

Get ready folks. And the next time Larry Krudlow or some wannabe bozo spouts about "drill, drill, drill"... drill 'em. Right in the chops.