The Dirty Hands that Milk the Oil

The oil market has been hijacked by a powerful, very wealthy entity called the Hedge Fund. The actual humans who participate in such funds are correctly assumed to be wealthy as the typical buy in to a large hedge is $1 million plus.

Certain individuals or small groups have tried to corner a market in the past. The Hunts got caught pressuring the silver market. George Soros and his fund was actually able to put enough dollar pressure on the pound sterling to burst a bubble and send the exchange rate tumbling in their direction.

Remember what was going on when oil prices began to spike? Yes, it was during George's War in Iraq. The energy president picks a fight in the volatile center of the oil rich Middle East. Just a coincidence!?!

Commodity markets are supposed to be influenced by the macroeconomics of supply and demand. The energy pundits still try to explain the astronomical rise in the price of crude oil in these terms. It is a simple falsification. Even OPEC the world's largest supplier of oil has said, "We have nothing to do with this," and for once they are telling the truth, though they do benefit from the inflated price. The energy infrastructure, availability and over all demand has not changed that much over the last five years.

The market is artificially inflated do to the outlandish buying pressure wielded by a handful of extremely wealthy funds. The American public has always been bullied by big money. The only way to turn the tide is through old fashioned ingenuity and efficiency. Scrap the SUV, invest in organic fuels, insulate your home, find cheaper heat, hybridize, flex fuel with ethanol & alcohol, plan your movements, don't be a wastrel or a spendthrift and be sure to tell the filthy rich that we are on to their game and to leave the market be. The technology is there and available today but will the world's largest energy user and it's Saudi friendly government make the move?

For the price of a few months of unnecessary war and the push of farsighted leadership we could be a long way down the road to solving the energy crisis.

As of today, March 25,2008 the price of a barrel stands at over $100.

Of this dollar amount I suspect speculative pressure is responsible for 40% and actual demand pressure maybe 10%. This puts the actual fair market value of a barrel of oil at around $60.00.

We Americans must realize that affluence does not absolve the citizen from his obligation to conservation and frugality. We are born as the only thinking animals on the face of the earth, this gift and privilege carries with it the responsibility for stewardship of the planet. The larger world is our home just as is the smaller house in which we reside. We are expected to maintain appearances, mow the lawn, paint the structure, keep care of the children, husband the animals and protect the ecology and status of our allotted properties. As a person, a nation, a living human being we also must elicit the same concern and care for the world at large.

Last month I was passed on the highway by a SUV blasting along at about 90 m.p.h. To add insult to injury this bozo let fly with a bag of Burger King waste as he flew by. My only thought at the time was, "I wonder if that guy voted for Bush?"

Two weeks ago I saw an arrogant Californian on T.V. being interviewed at a gas station. As he filled his Mercedes he said, "I'll start worrying when gas hits five dollars a gallon."

Last week I ran into some neighbors and friends that were on a weekend nature outing. Five couples, two kids in a total of four SUV's and one large truck when gas was selling for about $3.20 a gallon. They were traveling a combined total of around 1400 miles. Could these bodies have coordinated and fit in two vehicles and saved 52 gallons of fuel and $166.00?

Will we ever see a tipping point where conservation and frugality becomes as attractive as largess, arrogance, waste and convenience? "The Joneses down the street have a plug in hybrid and are carpooling all the neighbor kids to school. I'm so envious."

If every suburban family traded their SUV in on a station wagon, the beast of burden of the 60's, 70's and most of the 80's, petroleum consumption would drop 10% in an instant.

If the American public would take an interest and make an investment in alternative energy sources petroleum consumption would drop another 10%. Did you know that your vehicle as it stands at the moment can use a fuel composed up to 85% ethanol and alcohol. In town delivery vehicles can operate on propane. Over the road rigs can burn biodiesel. Operators that make these fuels available and the people that use them are both entitled to a tax credit. Why is it that I know of only one public fueling station in my city that sells flex fuel and biodiesel?

America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Coal's cheap, modernized plants can burn it cleanly. Why are so many power stations converting to natural gas? Why does the densely populated N.E. U.S. still use dirty old high sulfur fuel oil as the major residential heating source. Because fuel oil is cheap to refine from less expensive, high sulfur, low grade crude and the refineries make a better profit margin. Every home in New York and Boston could be retrofitted with an efficient emissions system and reconvert to coal as fuel orbetter yet our coal reserves could undergo gasification to produce a fuel just as clean as natural gas. Just these two cities could reduce crude oil consumption by 10% but as of today only one coal gasification plant exists in the U.S.A. .

Americans are concerned about the high prices at the pump. They are quick to point the finger of blame but slow to admit ingrained extravagances and habitual over consumption. Think it through knuckleheads, get mean, go green!