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Opinion Editorial Oil prices show need for alternative power The Saudi oil sheiks announced this past weekend they will increase crude output by 200,000 barrels a day, a move some hoped would moderate America's energy prices. The decision follows by only a few weeks a Saudi rejection of President George W. Bush's request for increased production. Draw what conclusions you will, it is clear that, as the price of regular gasoline tops $4 a gallon in some parts of the United States, the best truths are found in paradoxes. The oil-producing cartel can see that Americans are near their limit of tolerating high energy costs and are making a more serious move than in the past toward alternative and sustainable power sources — wind, solar and biofuels. The more the world invests in these sources, the less dependent it becomes on the oil-rich nations. That would leave the Saudi oil princes in the position of not only losing the revenue to buy diamonds with which to encrust their Rolls-Royces but also losing the power to control and influence the lives of the infidels of America. Of course, once the pressure is off as energy prices retreat, Americans will return to their profligate ways, the demand for fuel will stabilize and the political and technological push for alternatives will abate. The "green" marketing movement will evaporate and things will return to "normal." Those who argue that this country's energy policy — we really don't have one, you know — should include drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and offshore are simply contributing to the problems of energy independence for two reasons. First, those solutions are long-term, with the need to bring infrastructure on line, even if that infrastructure could be made oil-spill-proof. Second, like the oil sheiks, those who advocate the route to more domestic oil production stand to personally benefit from it the most because they own or are allied with the sources of production. The way to find more domestic oil is to use less of it and that means a Manhattan Project-like approach to nonpetroleum energy sources. E-mail
comments about this story Posted: June 26, 2008
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