Hooked on Oil

I've often argued that the environment trumps every other political issue our country faces. The issues we talk about - gay marriage, abortion, even war - come in far behind the environment in importance. Central to my argument about the importance of the environmental issue is this country's dependence, strike that, addiction to oil. I argue in favor of windmill-generated electricity because that means less oil-based power plant pollution. I argued for higher fuel emission standards on our cars because that would mean less airborne particulate pollution - one of the most dangerous types of air pollution.

But this article in Salon.com argues that oil IS the issue. Oil production has reached its peak and that it's going to become more difficult and more expensive to keep our addiction to oil strong. Couple that with a oil-hungry China and this country will have a severe crisis, possibly a catastrophe on our hands, the article says.

See, everything in our society is based on oil. Farms use petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides. Most power plants use oil, coal or some other fossil fuel. Ships, airplanes, cars and most public transportation systems are all based on fossil fuels. I honestly can't think of a single thing our society uses that isn't based on oil, or some other type of fossil fuel use.

Imagine if we ran out of oil without developing alternatives? What would happen to our country? That's right, we'd collapse. Completely.

Six years ago I argued with everyone that electing two former oil industry executives to president and vice president was probably a bad idea mostly because I knew that they'd keep our country from developing solid and realistic alternatives to fossil fuels.

Six years later, the one suggestion they've had for decreasing our dependence on oil is to develop hydrogen-based energy - something that is decades away from being anywhere close to becoming a realistic alternative. The Bush Administration stood in the way of increasing fuel efficiency standards in cars. "It'll hurt the economy," they said. They have not aggressively subsidized corporations who are hoping to improve alternative fuels more realistic than hydrogen. (Remember all the land grants and other subsidies given to the oil tycoons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries?) Instead, the administration has proposed opening up pristine Alaskan wilderness for oil drilling - drilling that won't yield any usable oil for about 10 years.

It's amazing, but hopefully not too late, that people are beginning to talk about the decline of America being directly related to our dependence on oil, not gay marriage, abortion or "family values." Kevin Phillips (lefties like to call him a righty, but he's more of a centrist historian) recently wrote "American Theocracy," which claims that America is on the downfall. He cited oil as one of the primary causes for this downfall.

Oil and the environment are the real issues this country should be focusing on and I am convinced that in the next few years it will. Hopefully it won't be too late.