So much for avoiding politics…

I am annoyed and dismayed at the political process. What is going on in Congress today is appalling and the media will only report what Congress seems to want to say. Worse… the impotence of our government is because of political maneuvering trying to get one candidate or another elected president.

To steal from a line on gizmodo… more after the jump.

I shall complain about our current energy concerns; At $4+/gal it is hard to not want to at least start there. In the 1970’s the nations of the middle east constrained supply and drove up prices. Republicans said we have to move away from our oil dependence since a region that is openly hostile to us can effect our economy so readily. The democrats said we had to protect the environment. The latter was a fair comment at the time since drilling and even exploring for oil often amounted to simply raping and ravaging the environment. Somewhat rightfully, the left won that argument. In the early ’80s, Iraq invaded Kuwait, again driving up prices. Again the right said we had to move away from dependance… again the left won. In 1992-1995, the republicans again brought up the issue, Clinton, not wanting to let prices go up any further (for fear of hurting potential for reelection) ignored it.

Today we have a very real crisis, although I don’t think the crisis is what America thinks it is. Polls have shown that most of America sees the crisis as a lack of supply (although a fair amount also recognize “speculators” as part of the problem, albeit without ever knowing what a speculator is – hinting at the idea they only listen to the liberal media without caring what information they actually receive). The crisis, in my opinion, is part circumstance and part design. There is obviously a constricted supply. Any idiot could look at the rise in industrialization of India, China, and Europe and realize that we were going to have a problem… 10 years ago (keep that number in mind… because is seems to be a magic number). However, American and Saudi Arabian oil producers can increase output (to almost 4 million barrels a day more than what we currently have). It seems to me, the circumstance is a mere convenience to ultra liberals to push an unknown but transparent agenda.

A couple days ago I heard a US senator say live on the news that she wanted prices to stay high and go higher so that people realize that we have to start using alternatives and employ aggressive conservation techniques. Never mind that people are losing jobs because they can’t afford to drive to and from work. While I realize that one liberal’s opinions don’t speak for the whole, I feel like she showed the hand that the democrats are holding. A lot of American’s are wondering why Congress has failed to do anything about the crisis… the answer in my opinion is that they don’t want to (the majority is currently democratic). The ultra left seems to think that the only course of action that we can take right now is to move to bio fuels, wind and solar energy, and electric cars. Of course not a single spokesman will tell you the costs of change: it takes an average of 10 years to replace the American automotive fleet; research says it would take more than 10 years to rework and build up an electric grid that would support a fleet of electric cars (one that would only replace 15-20% of current American vehicles and of course never mind the rolling blackouts plaguing the west); at current production (ignoring the fact that the central US plains are currently under 10 feet of water) ethanol can only replace 3% of the US gasoline consumption. Of course something has to be done, but lets at least recognize the problems with the left’s “plan”.

I personally love the complaints the democrats are throwing at the republicans’ plan. It is well known that old money is often conservative and there is really no older money in America than big oil. That said, no one should be surprised that they want to go drilling to try and bail us out of the crisis. The problem, say the democrats, is that drilling won’t produce any oil to market for 10 years. I laughed yesterday when Obama cited some erroneous “study” that no oil would be seen until 2030. Realistically… it takes 1-3 years to explore an oil reserve to evaluate its potential and decide where and how to drill. Then, it takes 3-5 years to build the infrastructure for extraction. Then of course we have to worry about refinement… but in my opinion we should use “parallel processing”. So… the 10 year mark really isn’t much of an exaggeration, but the democrats are ignoring a crucial part of current pricing. The $134.62/barrel from last Friday is the futures market. This is number that speculators think oil WILL in be some arbitrary future and are WILLING to pay now. If America is suddenly allowed to more than double our own output (assuming the principals of supply and demand actually still work in the American commodities markets), what will happen to the FUTURES MARKET? I’ll leave that answer to the imagination.

I’ll update with citations as I’m able to find them, but I assure you I’ve not pulled any of the above out of my arse. That said, I’d like to try to provide some sort of opinionated analysis on the above (which I admit I presented with a definite slant).

There seems to be no immediate fix (I’ll explain why I say seems in a minute). Our lawmakers have been playing tennis with the issue for more than 30 years and the damn ball finally got stuck in the net. We’ve had more than enough opportunity to do something, but ultra liberals in Congress and extremist environmentalists have managed to block every potential action to ameliorate the situation. Today, those same groups are still pushing that agenda even to the detriment of the American working class, the American economy, and against popular American opinion. While drilling may not provide immediate material gains, speculation is based on an arbitrary future which can definitely be effected by the promise of more oil in a non-distant future in the immediate. It seems to me that the liberals are working two fronts right now: First, there is their own liberal agenda that has played a major role in the current predicament we find ourselves in; Second, they’re stalling for time trying to make the republicans looks as bad as possible so they can sweep the upcoming elections. While we all know that’s the political game, there has to be a point where we can say fix it now or get out of office.

Two final points I would like to make. First, while McCain is not the greatest of candidates, he recognizes the need to do something now to secure our future later while at the same time working towards every idealistic goal of environmentally friendly energy and energy independence. Meanwhile, Obama is only providing an ethereal and imaginative rhetoric that only says that one day sometime in the future of man kind… “Yes we can.” He has no plan to secure the safety and stability of the American economy (in terms of oil and energy) with a method he knows will work, and for that reason alone he is very dangerous for the United States of America.

Finally, if we try hard enough and look far enough, there is a solution today… here and now… maybe. A new fuel designed by a company named Swift Enterprises called SwiftFuel is potentially the big band aid we need to buy us enough time to come up with something completely clean and independent. This fuel, at 104 octane, was designed to replace leaded gasoline for small engine planes since the FAA will be forcing the discontinuation of said fuels in 2010. If this fuel is real, it provides a bio/synthetic drop-in (meaning no engine or distribution changes) replacement for gasoline that is 15-20% more efficient, 20% less pollutant (with a combined 25% drop in pollutants when considering efficiency), and half the cost at $1.42 wholesale. We can talk about the deficiencies of it since part of the process uses ethanol, however, I think a technology like this is a great start to our energy future.

[Edit] As noted below, there are multiple real alternatives that could very realistically and dramatically help our situation as a nation. The journal entry from a friend of my girlfriend’s links to an article on EcoGeek that talks about a renewable source of gasoline derived directly from algae from a company named Sapphire Energy. The fuel is said to come from an algae can be grown in multiple conditions, yields a 91 octane, and since it is an algae uses much of the CO2 produced by emissions from its combustion is has a very low combine carbon foot print. The company hasn’t provided a lot of information, but like the SwiftFuel linked above, they say it is a drop-in replacement that would require no modifications to engines or distribution infrastructures.

If any of you happen to agree with what I’ve written here… please link it on your site/blog/email/etc. Americans have the responsibility to watch over our government and force change when necessary, but no change can be made unless the voice of the people is heard.

[Edit] For those reading from Xanga, note that the comments are on my private site and not shown here. Follow the comments link just below to read/post.