I had considered posting this a couple of days ago but didn't since I considered it off topic. In light of Rob G's latest blog I've decided to put it out there.

Here's the news you already know.  Our gas prices are soaring at rates that reach far beyond our own budgets.  While blaming Oil companies has become the easy cliche approach there are less obvious culprits that we must overcome if we are to lasso this issue.

The biggest issue is, THE WORLD WILL EVENTUALLY RUN OUT OF OIL.  I know, that sounds like a doomsday/sky is falling senario but it's actually true.  Here's a quick test.  Can you name what country is currently the number one supplier of oil to the US?  The answer may surprise you.  It's Canada.  Coming in a close second is Mexico.  Saudi Arabia comes in at number 3.  'What's the difference you say?  It's simple.  Our number one and two suppliers of Oil are US friendly countries. 

     Now for the scary part.  In 2004 a report suggested that Mexico's Cantarell Oil Field (the 2nd largest in the world) was nearing it's peak.  As of 2006 that field had reached it's peak and was actually starting to decline.  Some have suggested the field could be dried by 2011 based on present demands with even more radical predictions killing the field by 2009.  Now think for a second.  40% of Mexico's National economy is based on their Oil exports.  If that portion af their market were to begin to collapse, their whole structure would suffer causing an economic meltdown that would send record amounts of people accross the boarder.  Part two of that problem is that the US would then be forced to pursue that oil from countries that might not be quite as US friendly.   Eventually this would cause prices to skyrocket closer to the near $10.50 a gallon that London sees. 

Issue number two.  The US has become held hostage by environmentallist radicals that have managed to guilt us into policies that restrain our true capitalist foundation.  Let's look at the irony.  The US has banned exploratory drilling on nearly all our coastlines and Alaska.   Why? Fear.  Look at the other countries that are drilling for their oil and prospering.  China & Russia are two countries that are having great economic recoveries based on their domestic policies.  Norway, perhaps the biggest tree-hugging country in the world is drilling off their coasts.  The US has allowed itself to be 'guilted' into being the moral fiber of the world while other countries sneak about for profit (think Oil for food trade). There are OTHER countries drilling directly off the coast of Florida where we refuse. 

Issue number three-COAL TO FUEL.  The United States is the Saudi Arabia of Coal.  Not even China has the coal resources the US has, in fact they're running out.  The United States must pursue building coal to oil factories.  Our ability to use coal to fuel technology would give us a large enough domestic supply that we could begin to satisfy our own oil inventories.  Doing things like this would allow us to almost completely sever our ties with the unstable middle east.  Understand this soloution is NOT A PERMANENT FIX but it would buy us enough time to develop something that would be.  Which brings me to point number

FOUR-ALTERNATIVE ENERGY.  This is where good intentions go bad.  Folks like Al Gore foolishly suggested we have mandatory national conversions to alternative energy.  The US economy isn't able to change on a dime like that.  How many of you can afford to go out tomorrow and replace all your vehicles with hybrid cars?  Hell, plenty of those vehicles batteries have been deemed more dangerous to the environment than the vehicles they replaced.  Environmentallists blindly champion this technology while riding a wave of hypocracy to prevent the development of our most overlooked technology.  NUCLEAR POWER.  Think nuclear power and you might likely think of Homer Simpson driving his car past a lake with some three-eyed fish.  This is the stereotype but not the reality.  In US history there ahs been but one Nuclear accident (three mile Island).  This situation was so overblown that it's almost hilarious.  A failing reactor cooling system alerted authorities of the potential break down in the reactor.  Per the NRC (Nuclear Reglatory Commision) report "the average dose to about 2 million people in the area was about 1 millirem.  To put this into context, exposure from a full set of chest xrays is about 6 millirem.   Stil, we've ben baited into believing that this technology is dangerous when in fact it is some of the safest energy resources we have.  Even France is building record amounts of Nuclear Reactors.

So the solutions are there but not likely to be pursued.  Miles of red tape have surrounded our countries policies to prevent us from becoming self-reliant.  Eventually someone will come along and develop a synthetic fuel or biocarbon alternative but we are on the brink of crisis.  Alterntative fuels have been developed in the past and OPEC has managed to drop their prices to the point that they killed those competitors off.  Our very addiction to oil could some day lead us to full economic dependence on countries that would prefer to see us fail.  Rather than treating our oil companies like villians, it's time to allow them to take on the role of the hero.