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Saturday, November 10, 2007

Screw You OPEC and Wall Street!


With the never ending rise in the price of oil comes the never ending desire of Americans to find a better way. Some months ago I wrote a piece on the strangle hold that OPEC has on not just America but the world. In it I mentioned that the last stage coach was probably the best built carriage in the world but the combustion engine eventually put it out of its misery.

American’s can be a funny group of people. We are not well liked around the world for many reasons and one of them is our arrogance or intolerance of anyone saying “It can not be done!” Screw you, or some other creative twist of the English language is usually replied in return. Not in the board rooms of our nations corporations but in the barns, the sheds, the garages of Americans that know that IT can be done!

If you look at all of the papers today, oil is and will break $100 per barrel simply because it can if the market wants to see that number. Joe Six-Pack American aka a mongrel dog of European, Asia, Africa, South America and North America descent is chucking the bird at Wall Street and finding a better and cheaper way to not only run his Chevy but your Ford and Buick as well. What is that old saying about being an American is like baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet? We need to add anti OPEC garage scientist to the list.

Over at the New York Times they have this great piece on yet many possible new fuels for your car or truck, a must read …

The Energy Challenge
Fuel Without the Fossil


DENVER — Mitch Mandich proudly showed off his baby, a 150-foot contraption of tanks, valves, hoppers, augers and fans. It hissed. It gurgled. An incongruous smell wafted through the air, the scent of turpentine.

Mr. Mandich’s machine devours pine chips from Georgia and turns them into an energy-rich gas, a step toward making liquid fuels. His company, Range Fuels, is near the front of the pack in a technology race that could have an impact on the way America powers its automotive fleet, and help ameliorate global warming.

“Somebody’s going to hit a home run here,” Mr. Mandich said. “We want to be first.”
For years, scientists have known that the building blocks in plant matter — not just corn kernels, but also corn stalks, wood chips, straw and even some household garbage — constituted an immense potential resource that could, in theory, help fill the gasoline tanks of America’s cars and trucks.
- New York Times

Leave it up to American’s to screw up a really great deal by the world oil producers. They can finally afford to buy Canada and those nasty pesky American’s pull the rug out from under their futures investments. Sponge Bob and the Krusty Crab have never faced such a more evil plot from Plankton. Foiled again but this is just the beginning of the plot.

I’m not big on conspiracy theories. God only knows there are enough whack jobs out there to tell you any theory for any event that happened in the world. I think that I would have to be a total moron to think that the billions of dollars in quarterly profits from big oil companies will try their very best to squash the back yard and garage inventors trying to find a better fuel. Common sense drives my thoughts on this because billions of quarterly profits are at stake. In the news over the next decade or so will be the reports that one start up company after another with a new alternative fuel will be bought up by xyz oil or energy company. With that sale will be the burial of the technology.

Trillions of dollars are at risk if any of these back yard chemist and geniuses make a go of it. Times come and times go and with the beginning of the end of oil as the only source for energy will come a new wave of American ingenuity that comes from an angle that Wall Street and OPEC thought was a waste of time. Is the 200 MPG carburetor a myth or something that was squashed. I put myself in the shoes of the CEO of XYZ Big Oil Corporation and if my product is at risk from a new fuel then I would do everything in my power or ability to take it off the market. That would be common sense. Tens of billions of dollars in quarterly profits can and will make that possible. You can not spend ten billion dollars in profit at the local corner store so what are they doing with all that money? That is the question that nobody is talking about which worries me.

Associated Press
updated 5:53 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov. 9, 2007

WASHINGTON - When gasoline prices first hit $3 a gallon in 2005, irate lawmakers quickly assembled top oil executives for a public grilling.

Pump prices are again above $3, yet the outcry from Congress is barely a whimper by comparison — even after this week’s warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that oil near $100 a barrel is a serious economic threat.

The change in tone since Nov. 9, 2005 — when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., castigated oil executives for reaping multimillion-dollar bonuses while “working people struggle” — reflects an altered landscape in terms of energy economics and politics, analysts said.
- MSNBC

One of the things that I love about America is that if you put a knife to her throat, thousands of creative minds will find a way to make your blade as dull as hot butter. Screw you OPEC and Wall Street! America has brainiacs that think past your bottom line. Fueling the Chevy is more important than raping your nation for a profit. The price of gas at the pump or the price for filling your heating oil tank is not supply and demand driven, it is greed and gluttony that is setting the price. Meanwhile, Washington is silent. I’m not surprised.

Papamoka

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A Spongebob Squarepants reference? I can tell you have kids. ;)

Actually, one of the good consequences of $100 a barrel oil is that it will certainly stimulate various creative solutions to find alternatives to oil. And I have to say, I think these inventors may do a better job than the government, which I think is too influenced by politics to efficiently come up with solutions.

For example, scientists tell us that ethanol produced from corn isn't very clean, isn't very efficient and isn't enough to replace our oil use. Yet here in Illinois the government is pushing ethanol plants because...well, the best way to put it is take a drive on I-57 south from Chicago and count the number of cornfields you see over the next few hours (though when you get very far south the view improves).

8:28 AM  
Blogger Papamoka said...

Ya I've got five kids Tom... Ergo Papamoka and all girls. Send help! LOL!!!

I was reading another piece online about farmers in Tenn switching from corn to switch grass to make ethanol. The stuff grows wild, doesn't need any fertilizer and grows about ten feet high. From what I was reading the amount of ethanol from switch grass is enormous compared to corn.

Good point Tom on the cost of oil making the research and developement of other alternative energy sources more cost effective. Wind energy is just one such benefactor of the higher price of oil, so is solar power for that matter.

2:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but I'm looking forward to a "recession." Hard times brings out the best in this GREAT nation.

I'm sorry if your used to earning 50 bucks a hour to do a job some got 5 dollars for in India. I'm sorry if your Hummer needs 150 buck to feel up. I cant care about you when my poor friends are freezing this winter.

We have sucked the tit into our adolescence years far to many for me.Its time to leave the nest and brave the dangers out on our own. I’m sorry if you disagree with me but its just time to level the playing filed . Preach brother Papamoka preach.

Sincerely,

CWR

6:33 PM  
Blogger Papamoka said...

CWR,

I engourage you to find your voice and tell the world how you feel about life in America when it comes to your life, your families life and your friends. Encourage all to vote and vote to change the status quo my friend.

I tend to think at the end of the day you and I are not far from one another in thought.

Your comments are always welcom here. Pro or con, that is the begining of democracy and freedom comes with the experience of debate and having the convictions to change someone elses opinion.

I still think OPEC and Wall Street should screw or another expletive that comes to mind.

8:52 PM  

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