1. As the price of oil increases, manufacturers are going to adapt new ways of production. Of course there are deposits of crude sitting off the shores of Florida and on the North American Continental Shelf from the degradation of the Appalachians in the geologic past and the subsequent algal blooms that would have fed off nutrient rich sediments and been deposited from overwhelming bed loads. However, tar sands have become another reality in production. Canada already produces crude from tar sands. These same deposits can be found in the Dakotas. If we were to just tap the fairly obvious and expand on our domestic refining capability, our place on the foreign demand market would decrease, as would the strain on our wallets.

2. Big oil has large profits but average profit margins. They are in the biggest business in the world, it is no wonder why they are going to have such high profits. However, their ratio of earnings is comparable to smaller businesses. It should not be the business of the US government to punish privately held businesses for being in the most profitable industry in the world. Taxing big oil would only strain consumers at the pump more. Socialist ideals will not extricate us from this current crisis.

3. We lost our largest bargaining chip when we invaded Iraq and subsequently captured Sadam Hussein (Trav- you may have heard this argument on WNIS this morning). It is true though. We had much more sway in that region when we were the ones holding Sadam at bay and keeping him from invading his neighbors (Saudi Arabia and Iran). We did a job too well because now our influence is diminished and a general outcry of dissent among the American people (which I believe is healthy and what this country was established to protect) convinces nations that military clout is off the table for US options.

My personal solution? Conversion to engines that are compliant with ethanol, butanol, gasoline, and methanol. We have the ability to make our waste our fuel. It is only a matter of changing some hardware in engines to a more suitable plastic, Brazil did it. Why not move forward and grow and/or scoop up our fuel instead of importing from a region that is currently involved in an economic fatwa against us?

The argument for energy independence never cites history’s lessons that the world should have learned about dealing with Middle Eastern potentates. Nations, including ours, have long been paying ransoms to Islamic tribesmen; first for the guarantee of safe passage through the Med. Sea (Jefferson administration) and now for petroleum. The goods and services rendered have changed, the ideology remains. It will not change. It is as ingrained in their sense of morality as ours is on the Golden Rule. Our only chance is to remove ourselves from dependence on their product. This will certainly require an increase in production but, more importantly, an increase in refining capability. Imagine trying to put out a fire with a garden hose. It doesn’t matter if you have 10,000 gals. of water at your disposal or 1,000,000 gallons. If you try to deliver the water thru a garden hose, your house will burn down before you get enough water delivered. My fear is that “Big Oil ” will find it more profitable to build this refining capability in the foreign countries where the well-heads are and ship finished product to us. If the tax plans designed to punish oil companies currently being touted by at least 1 Presidential candidate are implemented, I fear several members of “Big Oil” will opt to leave only gas pumps on our shores
luvdad