Panic?
(AP) Oil jumped above $135 briefly. (WaPo) Up "18 percent so far this month and more than one-third so far this year...."
(WSJ) "The world's premier energy monitor is preparing a sharp downward revision of its oil-supply forecast, a shift that reflects deepening pessimism over whether oil companies can keep abreast of booming demand."
(Reuters) "Record high oil prices at $135 a barrel deepened worries about inflation on Thursday...."
(WSJ) "The world's premier energy monitor is preparing a sharp downward revision of its oil-supply forecast, a shift that reflects deepening pessimism over whether oil companies can keep abreast of booming demand."
(Reuters) "Record high oil prices at $135 a barrel deepened worries about inflation on Thursday...."
posted by mikevotes at
7:16 AM
4 Comments:
As a person with a fairly lengthy commute, part of me wishes for the days of $1.50 gasoline. But petroleum is a dead-end resource, the markets are fickle, the supply questionable and manipulatable, and the product unfriendly to the environment.
So, another part of me hopes the whole industry collapses under its own greedy weight. Americans are fools with their low-mpg SUVs and excessive driving habits. Like a spoiled child, we will not move unless we are dragged off the playground by force. Perhaps, for our own good and because of our own irresponsibility, it would be best to have the petroleum markets collapse.
By
-epm, at 10:06 AM
I dunno. It's getting to the point that it's freaking me out. The question is all in the fundamentals, I think, and I don't know enough to really delve into them.
By
mikevotes, at 11:12 AM
If we accept that a petroleum-based energy framework is, for several reasons, in it's waning days of viability. And if we accept that a productive, stable economy (and society) needs a predicable reliable source of energy, then it seems to me we are best served my moving off our oil addiction as soon as possible. Even if there's a fairly sharp initial pain.
The problem is, you can't get off petroleum until you've got a plan to get on to something else... or a mixture of something elses. To the extent that real people are feeling real, long term pain from our dependence on petroleum, well I say that certainly serves to focus our attention. If that's what it takes to cause a swell of American "can do-ism" to support a massive, national, investment in alternative and green(er) energy, then fine. If all we do is piss and moan, and continue to act irresponsibly... welcome to the end of another empire.
We can either plan and execute a transition, or we will collapse under our own inaction and the next generation will have dig their way out.
By
-epm, at 11:44 AM
My two thoughts today are these.
1) How many minimum and lower income people will have to shift jobs to lower their commuting costs?
2) How nice is it that those overcompensating weirdos who bought the hummmers are now all tied up? They can't even sell them.
By
mikevotes, at 1:21 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home