Oil and Gas: the Public is to Broke to Pay Attention

The first time I was thinking of this title, I thought it was just a clever title. I was most happy with myself like others are when they come up with something clever. But after investigating what I had written I wasn't happy. I was and still am in shock. First off, I would like to express, I am a capitalist. I wake up every day and like to do my best to make money. I like to hear that others are making money. But, after hearing how some of the methods that the Oil and Gas Companies were doing in order to make money, I was beyond shocked, I was offended. It was not an issue with the companies making money I found hard to accept, it was the fact that there were others purposely making money off of hurting others and destroying the environment in the end that shocked me. So once again, I say "Oil and Gas: The public is too broke to pay attention". I just hope it does not fall upon deaf ears, much like the blindness that has encompassed us all.

"Drill, baby, drill!" when those words rang out at the 2008 Republican national convention, the conventioneers that were there because of their own belief on conservative political values were chanting it back to Sarah Palin as a way of connecting to her. The conventioneers were failing that this message was being put down from the top of the G.O.P. to her, and in then to the thousands if not millions who follow the code of modern Republican values. However, who is the higher influence of the G.O.P.? the G.O.P. (Grand Old Party, otherwise known as the Republican Party) is ran by the higher ups of the higher ups of Wall street. Now, when I say higher ups of the higher ups, I mean the people who actually have the status that they can push Wall Street around. Before anyone gets the wrong impression, this isn't a chance for a conspiracy theory. Nor is it the opportunity to "expose and report". Because there is no exposure, the G.O.P. takes its cue from the higher ups of the business community, so much that we would just ad nausea if we went over the details. But what or who is the highest form of power at dictating terms to the G.O.P.? If you want the answer, just live your life here in the 21^st Century, because there is no way of getting around it, the Oil and Gas Companies make money off of you, no matter how you live your life in this day and age.

Let us take John or Joan Q. citizen, they wake up, reach over and shut off the alarm. The power is supplied by the power company, and chances are it is supplied to them through natural gas and or coal, which happens to be controlled by the Oil Companies, and their investors. They go to the kitchen,

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cook breakfast, take a hot shower, and get dressed. All courtesy of Oil, and chances are, some of the clothing is in fact an oil, by-product. Now of course they have to go to work, so they either get in a car or a bus that uses gasoline and goes to work. Now even if they stay at home, chances are they would be using oil or a by-product. You cannot go through your own home and find one room that is not their because of oil directly or its by-products. From plastics to even that low to non calorie sweeteners such as organopolysiloxane or aspartame are still manufactured with the use of oil by-products. You can be born through plastics, live your life, and remember when you are in a box in the ground it too, can be made from components there were derived from oil. Just because you live by the oil company, that's not how they make their money off of you however, they go through some tricks to insure you hand your money over.

One of the most recent events in history that drove up the cost of gasoline was not what most people thought. We considered the recent war in Iraq and Afghanistan to be the main price pusher for gasoline. It made sense to a lot of us, with war always be a resource drain on any economy. But a lot of us failed to ask the questions of these companies who that when the rest of us were struggling to make our house mortgage payments because we were now being charged almost double at the grocery store and almost four to five times as much to drive around, and the oil companies were making historical, bank building record profits. We just said things like "that's the job I want." Instead of asking them, "How are you doing this when the economy is so poor and there supposedly not enough gas to go around?" some people have tried to use Oil speculation as the culprit. That would be great if the typical demand for oil has only increased by 1.7% a year since 1994[i]. No, the problem actually started back in 1990, when the government did something for good. We told the Oil companies to stop destroying our air. And they have not forgiven us the public by allowing the government to do that since.

In 1990 we opened up the Clean air Act from 1970 and made some amendments. One of these amendments was to enforce Oil refineries they must produce oil for no more than 16 hours per day. What we failed to realize is, that by not putting a stipulation that they must try to refine oil into gasoline for that time, they could have a refinery operate at 8 hours per day, and even skip days here and there and it would just drive the cost up as to what it takes to produce gas. And more importantly, by only taking half of the oil, then refining it for half the time, you will only have half the gas available for society to use. It is a bit like business basics, only pay half, and in this case they were not only able to double the profits by drive them up by almost five times as much. It's is to barrow a metaphor from drug pushers, "We got them addicted to the crack, now we can charge them whatever we want." Well the addiction has been going for years as seen by using the example of the average daily life of a person here in this

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country. So we know they got that part covered, the problem is, and somehow I think crack would be cheaper for the public.

Even though we have managed to have gotten rid of useless companies bent on ripping off people such as Enron, (Did I fail to mention that Enron traded energy futures?) there still has to be something done in order to get the Oil companies in check with ethics. Which speaking of Enron, the company and its' employees gave over one million dollars to George W. Bush 2000 campaign[ii], very impressive for a company that went bankrupt less than two years later. Of course, then again we are speaking about a company that had solid ties to the bush family over the years, and of course Dick Cheney, the former vice-President (Leopold, 2006). Ironically, if you were to look at the "who's who" of the G.O.P. , you would see a lot of people who either had direct ties with Enron, or if you used the whole six degrees of separation, then you in most cases not even make it one degree, let alone six.

Though the idea of a government ran business is usually veered off as communism in today's society. The idea of regulating the Oil Companies, to a non-profit status seems like the complete logical choice. With the government regulating and no chance of the companies trying to appease their shareholders, there would be a greater decline in oil prices, and a far more stable economy. There would be no price increases on the food and goods due to a fuel cost. We as the public would be able to ward off the "crack dealers" and live a life where not only did we spend less money for the food and goods we wish to purchase, but would be able to even help out the environment as well.

In conclusion, I know it sounds hard to possibly accept. I mean after all we are speaking about companies that are "very high up on the food chain." And I can accept if you don't want to accept that a corporate structure would actually exist with no care about the public's best interest. But then again, are we not all in this to garner some form of money? Just to provide for their families? But I guess for some just having a home, and making sure your children have shoes and what they want within reason isn't good for all of us. Because if it was, then people who are the CEOs of these corporate empires would not be taking home four hundred billion in bonuses, and the public would be making up the money for it by losing their homes and paying more to eat. I ask that you the reader do not open your wallet, but your mind. Open your mind and pay attention.

[i] U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual report (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html)

[ii]Enron: The Bush Administration's First Scandal By Jason Leopold

(http://www.truthout.org/article/jason-leopold-enron-the-bush-administrations-first-scandal)