Oil and Ignorance

Every now and then I sense a level of sheer ignorance coming out of this White House that is hard to fathom. The way Bush was talking about oil last night - about ending our addiction to Middle East oil is frighteningly out of touch with reality. That’s like saying we have to stop breathing so much. Could the White House just now be tuning in to the oil situation around the world? Is that possible?
Unless a spaceship lands and gives us an alternative energy source there is nothing out there right now that can save us from big trouble ahead. We’re adding one billion new people every 14 years. China and other parts of the world are starting to want more energy. This is a real crisis, folks, and it’s behind nearly every story you see in international politics. Oil is making countries act like competing organisms under a microscope.
We don’t even know what we’re really up against. Information about the known reserves is not reliable. There have been recent stories about Kuwait’s estimates being way out of line with their true reserves. Some say the Saudi fields have been damaged. The oil that’s left will be more expensive to remove.
If you want to understand the world right now, you’ve got to get serious about oil. It’s ultimately why we can’t afford to go into Iran. If Iran’s oil went offline, that could be enough right there to plunge the world into a depression. It’s that tight, folks.
Last night Bush talked about addiction to oil, like there was a 12-step program to get off it from back in his drinking days. There isn’t a good way off this sauce. I don’t care how much hemp oil or solar batteries, or windmills you can come up with - it won't be enough. Unless you have a whole new energy source, forget about it. That would mean, President Bush has begun to realize the problem, but he still thinks there’s a viable solution. Why else would he threaten the countries our economy is relying on? Could he be that ignorant?
It scares me to think this, but all the signs are there. We might be witnessing our President sticking his head outside the bubble and beginning to realize what’s really going on: We use 25% of the oil supply. The Arabs have a lot of it. Right now, unless somebody comes up with something startlingly great, they have us over a barrel.