The real cost of oil

Everyday we awaken to a new day and start it as every other day going on not paying serious attention to the one issue that so ties so many other issues into itself that it becomes so complex we do not fully understand the cost incurred. The present use of fossil fuels and oil in particular as the issue, needs to be discussed and forcefully debated to insure America's economic and military power into the new century. The new super charged economies of China and India will continue to increase the pressure for more oil when all geologists agree we are close to the pinnacle of known proven reserves and the ability to tap them. Oil is after all a finite resource that will soon begin its slow decent of production resulting in even higher cost.
The United States is now ending a war in Iraq that had it would never had been in for not be it the west's vast consumption and need for oil from the middle east we quite simply would never had gone to the middle east to start a war with a third world nation. The more competition there is for oil the more resources both military and economic are wasted in trying to secure our availability of oil. The largest oil companies in the world advertise their quest for new energy resources, this is simply not true, and they want to exploit the proven reserves that twenty years ago were more difficult to gain access to, not fund research for new energy sources. So we must assume they have no interest in doing so. Oil is so ingrained in our daily lives that if we fail to develop alternative fuels thousands of products from car parts to food containers and all plastic products we use will continue to spiral up in price with the cost of oil. All of the consumer products will need to be manufactured from new resources. It takes years of intensive research to develop new safe materials that will replace those in use in society today. Without a real national energy plan that recognizes the need for the United States to first reduce the thirst for oil in manufactured products, while developing an alternative to oil as fuel for industry and automobiles we will continue to be reactive instead of proactive in understanding the true cost. The cost of can only be measured not in the cost per barrel but in the cost in economic and military expenditure in lives lost or ruined, countries destroyed to maintain our access to oil the life blood of our economy.
United States government expenditures on the war in Iraq has already cost seven hundred billion dollars, a conservative estimate . It has now been reported the ultimate price of the Iraq war could top two trillion dollars inclusive of all lifelong treatment and payouts for injuries sustained. Trillions of dollars invested by the United States in new energy resources and energy independence would have gone a long way in the research and development of Hydrogen as the fuel of choice, that much seed money into a new and viable source of energy would have a positively tremendous effect on the economy. One may argue that oil has brought great wealth to many impoverished nations and that is true but at a political price.
Of all the major countries producing oil there are no democracies in the Middle East producers the only democracy in the Middle East is Israel and only time will tell in Iraq. Here in lies our hypocrisy as we support both militarily and economically the rich oil kingdoms were no democracy is present. Many of the oil rich Middle East countries use monies earned through their oil resources to sponsor terrorism either through training or harboring terrorist as well as suicide bombers. Terrorism is now part of the world as we know it and we will be fighting religious fundamentalists for eternity in their quest, Saudi Arabia is the biggest culprit as they allow the teaching of the Wahabbinism the most radical sect of Islam in their country who enjoys great financial backing from many prominent Saudi nationals. Syria, Iran and Pakistan are all complicit in one way or another in providing support for terror.
It all comes back to oil, they have it, we need it and we must really consider the real price of oil now and how much are we willing to sacrifice in economic terms military terms lives lost and countries destroyed in the future and when we arise and realize we have I misdirected energy policy and institute change to free America from a group of people from a region in the world that have clearly demonstrated they do not wish to engage people of the world with a pluralistic view.
Oil by its nature is the single largest contributor to pollution on the planet from the moment it comes from the well through its processing, oil spills from pumping, spills from tankers and the emissions from combustion contributes to more ecological disasters, pollution and cancers than any other fossil fuel on earth. These financial costs are so vast they are hard to measure but are surely into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The elected government officials do not protect their citizens against big oil and big business, pittance fines for oil spills and environmental miscues, heath problems resulting from pollution that lead to fatal diseases that are offered financial settlement is not protection. Money after your dead is not protection. The closer our policy is examined the more ridiculous it becomes, our elected government officials grant tax breaks to the industry that is the single largest contributor to ecological and health problems in the industrialized world. An industry whose access to oil in the Middle East requires forces the United States Government to act militarily to support that access and profits derived there from. Some of the profits are used against the United States by terrorists. Terror protection is not green, red, or amber warning on potential attacks, it is far more than that, it starts with being oil money being made and used against us by countries that pretend to be our friends. Our elected officials swear to uphold the constitution, they are responsible for the defense and economic welfare of the nation, and they are failing on the energy question miserably in doing so forcing a military hand to support the flawed policy.
Leadership is the only answer to the energy question with the failure of all big oil, the automobile industry and the American people unable or unwilling to quench their thirst for oil. Only visionary leadership willing to build the national coalition of government and private investment will America emerge with an energy policy that will provide one of the great economic leaps in the manufacturing and technological age. Visionary leaders are not influenced by lobbyist nor are they afraid to tell the truth, ask for sacrifice and engage the people to
succeed through the next American Century. Americans have been challenged several times in their short history and have always responded coming up big, done the right thing and been the envy of the world. The only question is, will we summon the leadership, devotion to cause and make the sacrifice to change the world one more time. That time has come as we forge ahead into the uncharted future with expectations and hope that we can succeed where others have failed, making the United States the envy of the world and not its scapegoat for their own social ills. In closing the true cost of oil is thousands of dollars per barrel not the market price we read in the Wall Street Journal in the commodities listings.
Thomas McMahonMillis Ma.tommic856@verizon.net