Wednesday, May 21, 2008

How to Declare War on OPEC (and Win!)

President George Bush went to Saudi Arabia last week to beg for oil. "Please pump more oil for us.  Pretty please, with a cherry on top."  He was laughed out of town.  Our next President, be it Obama, McCain, or Nader, will be put in the same position of begging for oil.  Am I the only one who thinks that this is ridiculous?

Lets face it, the politicians in the United States have failed us.  There is no drive to drill for more domestic oil offshore, inland, or in ANWR.  Producing ethanol has been a disaster.  We need more nuclear power plants to think about electric cars.  We could generate synthetic fuel from coal, but that hasn't been in the news headlines, either.  Our leaders seem content to let us pay more for oil and spout drivel about some future technologies that don't exist at this time.  It's time for us to forget about our self-serving elected officials, grab our pitchforks, and march on OPEC ourselves.

The easiest way to declare war on OPEC and win is to cut gasoline consumption by 50% or more.  The United States uses approximately 21 million barrels of oil a day.  We import 13 million barrels of that, and domestically produce 8 million.  If we can cut our oil consumption, we can decrease the amount of oil we import, especially from those countries who are hostile towards us.  Imagine the side benefits of not sending money to countries who fund terrorism!

Each of us needs to play a roll.  This is a war we can win without firing a single shot.  If we fill up our tanks four times a month, we need to figure out a way to get that number down to two times a month.  This means a more fuel efficient car, less driving, carpooling/ridesharing, utilizing mass transit, working from home, or whatever combination of these things cut our consumption by 50%.

Our politicians aren't going to do this for us.  This war on OPEC has to be fought by each and every one of us as individuals.  We are the Marines here.  Gear up and lets roll!

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