Our Dependence on Oil

In 1973, during the war between Egypt and Israel, OPEC decided to raise the price of oil to the U.S. in one of its strongest positions against the U.S. This action was to persuade the United State's foreign policies towards a more pro-Arab position by threatening to cut off exports of Arab oil

The effects were numerous starting from a spike in the gas prices to an unstable economy to even a ban on Christmas in the state of Oregon ! Because of this a national maximum speed limit of 55 mph was imposed and the development of a strategic petroleum reserve began. The country as a whole prompted an effort to conserve energy using the tag line « Don't be Fuelish ». The automakers responded by stopping the full-size luxury cars and tried to implement a more efficient ront engine. The energy crisis of 1973 caused a greater interest in renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

Today is July 16, 2010 and it seems that the United States has not learned one single lesson from the past. More than 35 years have passed and the same problems persist and nothing pertinent has been accomplished. If you look at any newspaper or magazine you will find an article that deals with how can we stop relying on oil and how to invest in renewable energy.

The problem is that the US is no longer a government that sustains itself. The US is owned and operated by large companies. The companies' interest became the interest of the government and that is the sad truth. If you look at the Supreme Court you will see that they recently passed a decision that removed any limit to the corporate funding of independent political candidates. That means any company can basically fund any candidate they like and attack any candidate they do not like without any limits !

All the countries in the world have cars that are more efficient than the US and cars that will never make in the US because the oil companies do not want cars that are efficient. Even when the US bailed GM and asked them to make cars that are more efficient they responded by the abismal Chevy Volt. A new electric car that they have been talking about for years and when finally started to produce it they decided to make ONLY 10,000 of them !!! Do you know how ridiculous that is ? Ten thousand cars are nothing in this economy. It is such a miniscule number that advertisment for it is not even needed. But it only gets better. They will make 30,000 by the year 2012 ! To put things into perspective for you, let me tell you an interesting fact. Between 1928 and 1931, almost a hundred years ago, Ford sold more than 4 million vehicles of their Model A car. And chevy in 2010 can only build ten thousand ? What a joke.

They are proving again and again that they should have just bankrupted because clearly they don't know what the hell they are doing. Let me tell you why. When everyone is screaming for efficient cars and green energy and all that, they come out with the volt and produce just 10,000 vehicles ! I mean come on, you can do those on a weekend. Not only that but the car is not even all electric and it will cost more than $40,000 which is not exactly a cheap car. However, the Nissan Leaf which is coming out soon as well will be at $32,000. That is at least 8 thousand less than the volt on an all electric car which means even more savings because you will not pay for gas. So which car do you think people will buy more ? The Leaf of course. But that is not simply my opinion. Reviews after reviews prefer the Leaf than the Volt so yet another failure for american automakers.

But why is this happening ? Oil companies once again. They do not want oil efficient cars and so they put pressure on automakers and government and they will fight until the end. But let me tell you, we are not guilt free either. We like our Hummers Escalades, the mammoth vehicles that has no purpose none whatsoever but just to show others that we are rich and big !

Here is my conclusion : we are way too dependent on oil which is caused by the control of the companies on our government. We, as a nation are too lax to let other people control us like mindless sheep and sometimes it seems like we like it when they do. People need to wake up and see that there is a better world out there. Yes, America is a democracy but right now it is a failing democracy because it is no longer the voice of the people that control things. It it the voice of the money.