Energy Policies

Anonymous may know alot about intelligence, but when it comes to economics and energy he is does not know very much.

Clearly we need an energy policy, not just in the United States but in the West, that makes us less dependent on oil out of the Gulf.

This is a very popular and oft repeated mantra of economic know-nothings. If we buy the oil from some other place it will have zero effect on the total world demand and the power of OPEC to set prices. Even if we buy from Russia and other countries such as Venezuela, the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East will be targets as somebody will be buying that oil.

The only real alternative is alternative energy sources and these are currently not sufficient to meet current demands, at least not without a huge investment in these alternatives (e.g., covering the Mojave with solar panels). And why should we do this? Because we'll be less dependent on Middle East oil and less vulnerable to price changes? Well the losses we will incur (and probably more) due to price volatility we will incur by switching to alternatives. No matter how you slice this the typical blathering about an energy policy isn't going to do much.

Oh and can we knock off the idea that high-oil-prices-will-trigger-a-global-recession,-but-we-must-switch-to-alternatives-to-oil-and-everything-will-be-perfect? If switching to alternatives made economic sense we'd have done it already.1 The implication is that these alternatives are more expensive than oil (at least right now). Hence if the current high prices or prices a little bit higher are sufficient to trigger a recession, so is switching to the damned alternatives. Let me repeat that somewhat differently. If the high price of oil can trigger a global recession, then swithing to alternatives will also trigger a wolrdwide recession.

This kind of talk is alot like those idiotic gasoline station boycotts that go around in e-mails periodically. You know, the crap like, "Don't buy and gasoline from Exxon gas stations on July 8,9 and 10. We'll teach these guys a lesson."

You want an energy policy that will reduce dependence on oil, here it is in simple terms. Put a tax of $10/gallon on gasoline. There, done. People will start car pooling like mad, nobody will touch an SUV with a 10 foot pole. And our gasoline consumption will drop like a rock. So will our economy, but hey we'll be less dependent on foreign oil. We don't need any of this national debate bullshit the economic idiots blather about. A tax of $10/gallon would do the trick really quickly and nicely. You'll see people lining up to buy hybrid cars, cars will have 4 or 5 people in them during commute times (traffic congestion will disappear). And last, but not least oil consumption will plummet. No more driving the RV 1,000 miles for a vaction. No more recreational driving on the weekends. No more quick runs to the grocery store (unless it is buy foot, bicycle, etc.). Yet, whenever these economic dunces talk about a "national debate on an energy policy" they never come up the obvious answer. You get a lot of dimwitted chatter about alternatives, upping milage standards and other bullshit.