We’ve all heard it. That’s the current mantra of the Left, and if there’s anything we have for certain all heard a thousand times, it’s a Leftist mantra.
There are two camps on this issue. In one camp, the people suck it right up, fully accept it, and repeat it any time the discussion comes up.
The other camp is incredulous. “How could anyone be so stupid..” they might ask, “..to believe we can’t drill for more oil, increase the future supply, send a message to the market that lots more oil is on the way, and thereby bring down the price?”
That’s a perfectly sensible question. To say that we can’t drill our way out of an impending oil shortage is of course exactly like saying you can’t eat your way out of hunger, you can’t warm your way out of hypothermia, and you can’t drink your way out of thirst.
It’s just plain incomprehensible that anyone would make such a claim, so why do the Leftists keep saying it? They seem all to understand it, and they all seem to embrace it, so what’s going on?
The problem, as always, is in the use of the language. We are assuming that by “this problem” the Left means, “the combination of high demand and restricted supply that results in a high price”. We’ve been wrong about this the whole time, however. What the Left means by “this problem” is actually, “human success” particularly “American success”. Translated properly into Left-Speak then, the phrase, “We can’t drill our way out of this problem” make perfect sense. It would read something like, “We can’t drill our way out of American success” which is of course perfectly true and obvious. We could drill and pump and drill and pump, and still we’d be a vibrant, successful, creative and productive nation. For the Left, that outcome would of course be insufferable.
Now you understand.
Carry on.
The leftist don’t want to drill because in their fantasy world, we can replace oil. The only reason we haven’t is the evil oil companies won’t let us. This is pretty much bunk. Currently, we really have no replacement for oil.
However, I think there’s something to be said for the Malcom Forbes theory on oil, which is that we ought to keep our own supplies, and pump the damned Arabs dry. Once oil is a scarce and valuable resource, we’re the only ones that have any left. I think we might be getting to the point where it’s scarce and valuable enough that it’s time to turn the taps on.
But I do have to admit that if you look at all the things petroleum does for us, it’s kind of insane that we burn this shit in our cars. The green revolution is powered entirely by petroleum. If we run out of oil, we can’t feed ourselves. Not to mention there’s no good substitute for petroleum to power the jet engines on planes. Asphalt is a by-product of the refining process. That’s not even getting into other petrochemicals like plastics.
If we run out or run the price of oil up to the point where it’s not practical as a transportation fuel, at least with cars you can, especially with battery technology improving as fast as it is, run them off electric power.
The only way I can see the aviation industry being able to use electric power is if someone develops a room temperature superconductor. That’s the only way I can think of to develop an electric motor that can make electromagnetic fields that are powerful enough to turn turbine blades fast enough to propel a large aircraft close to the speed of sound. Otherwise the aviation industry is kind of screwed when oil costs too burn as fuel.
Every time I hear Obama comment that drilling won’t help us out for another 5+ years my only thought is that it is too bad we didn’t start drilling 5+ years ago and that it’s pretty bloody likely I’ll still need gas for my car 5+ years from now. Steven den Beste has an excellent post up concerning the utopian dream of the “alternate fuels” idiocy…I wish Obama would read it. While drilling isn’t a solution for today, it certainly IS a hedge for the future…I guess the problem is that the future in question is outside of his 4 year plan so it only exists in a quantum state of reality.
Saying that drilling today won’t change the price for x years is completely wrong. The market doesn’t work that way. Some are complainging right now about speculators. What do you think the speculators would do if it were announced, today, that ANWR and all the Gulf, and the entire continental shelf, were now open for drilling and exploration? What you YOU do as a speculator? Would you bet your life savings on the idea that the price of oil would continue to climb for 5 years?
As for “alternatives”: We’re told that the oil supply is “finite”. Of course it is. So is everything else. Solar and wind are “finite”. The lives of the sun and of the planet are finite. Your life is finite. That’s not the issue.
We’re talking about liberty. That’s the issue. In a capitalist system there will always be more alternatives than in any other (less free) system. If and when there is a market for one of these alternatives there will be millions of people trying to jump into that business and make a buck off it by supplying it to as many people as possible. There will be alternatives that neither you nor I can imagine right now. That’s the way it works. Bitch, kick, and scream. Stand on the sidelines, point fingers and accuse people, but stay out of the way, keep government out of they way, and people will invent and create and discover things you never expected, no matter how much anyone else hates it.
You cal also bet, as sure as you can bet on the rising and setting of the sun, that if you were to come up with a cheap, clean, readily available alternative to oil tomorrow– something that could sustain our culture as a growing, thriving, affluent society for the forseeable future, the Left would be pissed.
They’d be pissed because they would then be forced to come up with some new excuses for why we should be forced to accept more and more socialism. That’s the game we’re playing with them. Never mind the current rationalizations or the little details.
I think that you guys are willfully ignoring their issues. When people say “drilling won’t get us out of this problem”, they aren’t just talking about the supply and demand problem. They are talking about the larger problems of peak oil and carbon emissions.
Tim; My point is, it’s not about anything they say it’s about. I am trying to teach people how to translate LeftSpeak. Let’s take your last sentence, “They are talking about the larger problems of peak oil and carbon emissions.”
Translated into English, it means, “They are talking about the larger problems of Liberty, freedom, human success and human proliferation.”
The solutions offered for the “problem” are the same, failed ones they’ve always offered. The only thing that ever changes with them is the rationalization, and even there they have a sorry lack of imagination.
I’m going to make a prediction for you. It may take years or even decades, but fuel cell cars are being advertized right now (please do not make the mistake of getting into a discussion of fuel cell technology– that’s not the point here at all). No one in their right mind 40 years ago would have dreamed they could have gotten CO2 classified as a “pollutant”, right? If you were around then, you know I’m right. Now they’ve done it. A gas that is arguably the very foundation of life on this planet, certainly at the foundation of the food chain as we know it– a naturally occurring, critically important plant nutrient, AND a very small factor in the so-called “greenhouse effect” (just stick with me). What is a far larger overall contributor to the greenhouse effect? Water vapor (stay with me, don’t argue, you know it’s all true so far).
Fast forward several years. Now that big, fat, rich asshole next-door to you is burning rubber and getting his jollies in his high performance, fuel cell powered SUV. Those ignorant NASCAR MoFos are tearing up the track, doing 230 MPH in their fuel cell powered stock cars with Autolite, Viagra, and Pennzoil endorsement logos!! NOoooooo!!!! That wasn’t supposed to happen. OH Fuck! We though we’d gotten rid of that shit! God damnit!! (they will think silently to themselves).
Well, if you can get CO2 classified as a “pollutant” why stop there? Water vapor is far more “dangerous”. Think I’m crazy? Just you wait and see. I’ve personally lived through several cycles of this envious, hateful, anti American, socialist, anti human crap already. I know these people.
They view the human race itself as the disease.
Peak oil? Irrelevant. When Gulf and Texaco and all the rest tell you they can’t find another drop, anywhere, maybe I’ll start to listen. Maybe. But right about then, someone else will find another 100 year supply, and by then the loons will have already put legal restrictions on water vapor emissions. A thousand years from now I’ll start worrying about peak oil. Before then though, some capitalist will have come up with something better. Then the intellectual descendants of Algore, forever sitting on the sidelines with scowls on their faces, watching other people create things, producing and prospering, and bitching about it, will have to press into action, finding a way to restrict it, tax it, license it, or shut it down.