$100 Oil Prices and The White House

Is anyone else even a little dismayed by the current administration in The White House? In case you missed it yesterday, oil prices hit the long-awaited $100 per barrel mark. It’s the highest dollar value the commodity has ever traded at. Granted, if you compare it to the oil crisis of the 1980’s economists say the $100 mark is still a dollar below the 80’s crisis point if it’s adjusted for inflation. There was a lot of speculation by economists last night that the only reason the oil hit that high was because a few lone investors really wanted to see it trade that high. After all, we’ve been awaiting this most glorious milestone for months now!

Well, it seems at first glance those lone few on the trading floors yesterday got to see their fairytale price point. But the implications of it are going to be more far-flung than just rounding another base. Already the economy is feeling pinched. While final numbers from the holiday shopping season aren’t out yet, retailers apparently had a dismal season. That’s no surprise really because it seemed like the writing was on the wall well before Black Friday ads were being leaked to the internet. Now retailers are slashing and dashing, trying to get people into their stores during a time of the year when people are just plain tapped out. It’s been reported that major U.S. restaurant chains are freaking out about the first financial quarter of the year. They’ve already seen huge decreases in the amount of people dining in their restaurants all because of a steadily rising cost for gas, energy used at home and a waning economy.

To trump all economic concerns with the oil climb, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino talked about how in order to stave off high gas prices, the U.S. needs to start more domestic oil exploration and production. It seems Perino really has been given a heavy dose of the Bush/Cheney crack infiltrating every Capitol Hill office! Do our oil producers really need to be given the green light to tromp around already protected areas of wilderness looking for more oil, especially when most experts say it wouldn’t be online for production for another 10 years? With the Dems in control in Congress it more than likely won’t happen. But the Democrats also want the government to start dipping into the strategic oil reserves to bring prices back down. I think that’s another incredibly bad decision when we’re already at the mercy of foreign, oil producing countries.

This is the time for our government to do something good. Quit giving the tax breaks to big oil. Quit giving higher fuel-economy and environmental standards the pussyfoot approach. With our presidential elections just months away, this is a great time for candidates to show what they’re made of in the face of an impending oil and financial crisis. In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to make myself knowledgeable and able to live in a time where oil isn’t always available or worth the cost. I just got the book Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash by Aric McBay. It shows you how to plan for the future, surviving and thriving when the food, transport and energy industries sputter out after consuming their last drops of fuel. I also just stumbled on Cody Lundin’s book, When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes. I’ll let you know how the books are and maybe discuss them as I go along.