Will Politicians or $200 Oil Save Planet?

by Barry ORegan | June 7, 2008 at 06:15 am

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Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

Media reports that on Friday crude oil hit $138 US a barrel, up $10.75. That's the biggest spike ever in a single day.

Experts have stated "What do you think it will do for the planet if the trend continues and oil hits $200 a barrel, as many expect?"

Nobody knows for sure. But the economist Jeff Rubin, one of the best, has a pretty good idea: "Two-hundred-dollar oil will do more than 100 Kyoto agreements."

In my Opinion, that is a pretty good assessment, considering SUV's are going the way of the dinosaur. Industry Job losses are rampant, economy taking a down turn when Dow takes a 300 point hit, starvation of third world countries over food prices, when Biofuels are more lucrative than growing it for food.

The good old days are gone, and the planet may live another day, even if third worlds do not.

Will politicians or $200 oil save planet?Green regulations cause a carbon blow-back that pols didn't expectMiro Cernetig, Vancouver SunPublished: Saturday, June 07, 2008
You've probably heard of the butterfly effect, the theory that the flapping of an insect's wings in the Amazon can ripple through the planet's atmosphere in unintended ways and, a hemisphere away, trigger a tornado over Kansas.

Well, the same principle is now playing out with our attempt to stop climate change.

Call it carbon blow-back, and it's causing political havoc. In recent weeks, we've seen those attempts to reduce our carbon footprints -- mostly through new government regulations -- cause all sorts of effects in our political and economic spheres. Some are good, some are bad, depending on your self-interest, but almost all were quite unanticipated by the experts. Or at least they didn't tell us about them.

Tragically what you say is so true EastVan, unfortunately we have been spoiled, and when reality hits, we protest and say WTF? What the hell is going on here? Time will tell if our economy recovers, I think though that Europe, save for Russia do not have oil reserves or oil fields like Canada and the US, so we should have lower oil prices after all our taxes bought and paid for it, Remember Petro Canada? Our tax dollars started it and paid for those oil sands, till Politicians sold it out from under us, Hey were is our cut. Oh and , I do not have to tell you which Federal Government Political Party sold it without our blessing now do I?

Yes, our brilliant governing bodies are actually about as smart as the now extinct Dodo bird. "Oh, let's drop billions of dollars into corn based ethanol! And more in wind!" Yeah, that'll work.

What we need to do in the short run is to open up the oil fields we know we already have but dare not tap into because, well, environmentalists will have a kiniption fit. We should also eliminate the tariffs we have on sugar. This alone prevents us from having sugar-based ethanol like Brazil has. Plus, it would be a boon for African countries that produce a lot of sugar.

Let's get something straight; politicians use the "green" movement for one purpose only: votes. Well, that and money. A couple of weeks ago I covered a story on oilman T. Boone Pickins, which was about how he was building a bunch of wind turbines.

Guess why. He was getting an enormous tax credit! $80,000 an hour for every hour a turbine was running. Would he be doing that without the government? Heck no.

That land and capital would be better utilized doing something else. Like nuclear for example.

As for saving the planet from our bad selves - I do not hold out any hope the government will come up with the answer. Oh sure, a bunch of pie in the sky dreamers like to think that if we have a Manhattan Project for alternative energy we will come up with a solution. But let's be real.

Major changes in our economy do not come about thanks to the diligent "work" of a bunch of bureaucrats. Changes like the combustible engine, airplanes, personal computers, and the such come about thanks to entreprenuerial organizations. The one thing the government could do is to offer a substantial prize to the group who comes up with an alternative form of energy that is proven to be sustainable and workable. That's about all the government can and should do.

Good stuff, as always, Barry.

Thanks BigT, certainly a serious issue we must be aware of if our economy is to ever recover, EastVan a few very interesting points that governments should have thought of, just as your comments should have been no brainer for any government to abide by.

And to think, we are not even being paid to say stuff like this. Dammit, I could use new clubs too. It's not fair.

I think we should do a webpage called the WWW.BigTEastVanArtiste Advisory.Com in which if Governments need sound adyice or even a opinion poll, they could visit our site and after paying us Big Bucks, they would get access to our site for a plethora of info they could use.

First Flagged at 10:46 PM, Jun 7, 2008 by BigT

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Barry ORegan
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

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Will Politicians or $200 Oil Save Planet?

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