'Oiling' the 'Strategic' wheels of politics...

SPR Debate
As much as I would like to stay out of the oil topics, I keep getting sucked back into the fray. Today, Congress passed a bill to suspend shipments of oil to the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help ease the pain at the pump. Why now and not earlier when prices started jumping above $100?

The most obvious is that there are several seats up for election this year and these congressman (and women) need to appear that they are doing something for their constituents in their home districts. A congressperson appears to be in favor of these high oil and fuel prices would certainly destroy their chances of getting reelected. This is also evident from 2 of the 3 presidential candidates were proposing suspending the federal gas tax for the summer to help ease prices.

What this all amounts to is just another bandage on the open gash that is our addiction to petroleum. I, along with countless others, have said that we will have to fundamentally change the way we live in order to adjust to this new era of 'expensive' oil. Reducing shipments to our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is NOT going to be the fundamental change. The SPR is currently at around ~700 million barrels of oil. This suspension will divert 70,000 bpd back into the oil stream flowing to our refiners. That's about 0.3% of our total petroleum consumption per day (based on 2007 data). Will that help? Doubtful...Its mostly political rhetoric to get elected and maintain the status quo.

So what is there to be optimistic about in these troubled times? For me, its the concept of close knit neighborhoods and a sense of local identities rising again. Since the disappearance of the front porch, which was a result of air conditioning and the invention of the television, the closeness of communities has been falling ever since. We crave interpersonal communications and relationships, why do you think that social networking sites are so popular. But, they still leave a sense of emptiness that makes us crave real interactions with people. Maybe a side result of closer knit communities, brought together because of high energy prices could alleviate some of the social ailments, poverty, crime, and poor education among our nations schools. Grand dreams...probably...optimisitic in a time of dire pessimism...sure. But instead of doing nothing about the current situation, change, adjust and move on. If not, you might just get left behind...