I can't help talking about the oil crisis in this country and in the world. Well I guess I could ignore it, but it just aggravates me so much that I can't leave it alone. We do not have a shortage of oil in the world and the reserves that are in things like Canadian Tar Sands are huge and could keep us going for another hundred years. The real problem is that we are being attacked by people using a coordinated attack plan. They are not only making sure that oil prices go up, but they are also making sure that the other forms of alternate energy such as natural gas and propane rise sky high as well. When you heat your home with oil, as I do, you begin to look at the alternatives.You realize that there really aren't any unless you have the money to covert to solar energy or wind power. If you have the money to convert and try and use wind power, there may be ordnances in your area against putting up towers or high poles and such, which will stop you from installing some of these alternatives. Solar power can be used, but it is more efficient in areas that have a lot of sunshine, so if you have long winters, it may not work as well. We are in a trap and living in certain parts of this country make it even tougher and unfortunately for us and fortunately for the big fuel companies, that is were most people live.

It is beginning to look like there will be no end to the increase in oil prices. People used to think that the oil companies and their pals wouldn't be happy until the prices for oil and gasoline here, reached the same prices as Europe. Well they were wrong, the prices in Europe are going up too. We are quickly being turned into a pre-twentieth century society in this country. What I mean by that, is people are being forced to drive less and less and ultimately this can only lead to losing automobiles for all those that aren't in the richest percentage of people in this country, because they can not afford the fuel. The only people that may be driving in the future might be all those that made a fortune on the oil to start with. Even now, some people are starting to get the mind set, that it might not be worth the gas to drive to a particular store or location. This has effected other things also, such as visiting relatives and friends that live a distance away. To travel upstate New York to Middletown from places like Long Island might cost someone with an average car about $60 dollars or more for the round trip when the tolls are added in. Some people really have to consider this cost before they hop into their car.

The effect on our economy has become a disaster. The high cost of fuel is having it's effect on everything we buy and forcing some business to lay people off to make up for the increasing price of things they buy and their costs for heating and maintaining their businesses. There is something even more insidious at work here and that is greed and jealousy. Other business want to make the same type of profit that the big oil companies are making. They see the money rolling in and they think, "hey why can't we fleece the public and become hugely rich too". Just take a look at what is going on around us. The food industry has begun to really increase prices. I saw a study that stated that world food prices have risen 40% in the last 9 months and food reserves have sunk to a 30 year low. Unless something is done about this, food, fuel, medicine and most if not all of our essentials will be priced so high, that many people will not be able to afford them. The government certainly doesn't care, this is heaven for our legislators, every lobbyist in Washington is on the great giveaway plan. Even President Bush is pushing for using food crops for ethanol, which greatly contributes to the food shortage, since the farmers see that more money can be made this way than by growing crops for food. Why did he do this, was this just another one of his dumb moves, or was it planned to give a helping hand to the big corporate farming industry?

When we look at things, we start to realize that the entire world is now at the mercy of large corporations. They are the ones that are draining our cash, polluting our earth and setting policies. What do you do when the companies doing this are multinational? The US used to have an ace in the hole, because it was the biggest importer of oil, it could have demanded lower prices or refused to open certain areas for drilling. Today that is not an option, because if we don't take the foreign oil, places like China will be glad to do that.

I remember sitting back and watching as the medical insurance industry kept raising their prices and paying out less. I saw a certain company win the contract for medical insurance in one of the states and after they got it, they immediately raised their rates saying their low bid was a mistake and no one did anything about it. I remember how they started to deny treatment to people for certain procedures that were the only hope for these dying patients, saying that the procedures were experimental and too expensive. I even remember how a representative from that industry had the gall to testify before the US Congress and brag how she saved her company millions of dollars by denying certain life saving procedures. When she was asked what happened to a particular person by a Senator, she unashamedly stated that he had died. This is the kind of thing that we are heading into with other industries. They don't care if you are freezing because you can't afford the oil to heat your home. They don't care if you have to quit your job because the only way you can get there is by car and it is costing so much that you just can't afford it and have to look for work closer to home. They don't care if you are reduced to eating canned potatoes instead of a balanced diet. They just don't care.

The only way to prevent this type of thing, is to somehow clamp down on these companies. It used to be a national problem, but now it has become a world problem. That means that a world agency is needed and that has to be the United Nations. An ineffective agency that has really not been able to accomplish much over the years and it's entirely dependent on a few large countries for the bulk of it's funding. The largest contributor being the US. Trying to get the world to agree on anything is almost impossible. So what do you do to put pressure on the big companies? What ever you do, they control the source, the oil and they can always use this to leverage against you. What you really have to do is develop alternate sources of energy, but the government is so busy getting handouts from oil lobbyists, that this type of progress is slow, very slow.

One of the things that is aggravating is the fact that every once in a while, a government representative comes out and preaches the alternate energy plan. That is fine and good, but that is all that happens. They preach the plan and then do absolutely nothing to further it. An example of this happened while I was writing this article. The Secretary of Energy came out and said that we have to push alternate energy. Blah, blah, blah, that is all it ever is. To make matters worse, the G8 organization of industrialized nations said the same thing and they really don't mean it either. At the meeting the US blamed countries that subsidize their oil prices for what is happening. Other countries blamed us for having such a weak dollar. The old blame game was played to the hilt. It is done for our benefit because the government thinks we are so stupid that we buy everything that they say. What amazes me is that all the emerging countries are going on the oil standard. Here is a chance for a country that has almost no industrial infrastructure to start from scratch and use some alternate type of energy and then they wouldn't have to compete for the world's oil. If they would just build one of those new Maglev wind generating plants that can be scaled to any size, they could easily power an industrial plant and have a lot of power left over. This would also put them in an advantageous position, since they wouldn't need oil for fuel. Each plant that would be oil independent would not only be non dependent on the oil and it rising prices, but it would be able to run cheaper after offsetting the initial cost of the generating station.

Here is a question for you, why aren't new plants that are being built right here, all using alternate energy? Some are, but certainly not enough. Another sticky point is the fact that the electrical generation plants are using more and more coal to generate electricity, instead of renewable energy sources. This certainly is not the solution to anything. Besides being dirty, the fuel barons might just use the coal the way they used the oil. There is certainly no guarantee that coal will remain at about the same price. Not only that, it will run out sometime in the future. Sure we may have a couple of hundred years worth right now, but as use increases, the reserve decreases. We should no longer be using fuels that can not be replaced, we are only hurting future generations. We have the technology to use renewable energy resources, we have to use them and break the strangle hold the energy companies have on us.

They know that someday oil will no longer be pertinent and they are trying to drain as much cash from us as they can, so that they will be able to control even the alternate energy sources someday. If we let this happen, we could be paying as much for wind generated electricity as we are paying for oil today.

One final word, if we were to build renewable fuel generating stations for our factories, the price of our goods might become so low, that we could outsell our competitors and become the world's supplier of industrial goods again.