Thursday - April 27, 2006

Full Circle

How many of you remember the last time OPEC had us over a barrel? I remember it all too well. At the time, I was working as a field electronics technician for Altec and my territory covered Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and half of Kentucky. I was on 24/7 emergency call and had to do a lot of driving to respond to emergencies with electronic equipment in hospitals, theatres, schools and government offices. I remember all too well the long lines, service stations closed and even a good deal of price gouging (that was later punished). Life was hell if you had to drive anywhere. I had no choice.

What have we (and our politicians) learned in the 33 years since then? Not a damn thing, it seems. We’ve come full circle. Our vehicles get no better gas mileage even though engines are more efficient because of all the anti-pollution devices snaking their way under the hood. Have we opened up new drilling in the US? Not a chance. Have we built new refineries? Nope. Have we built more nuclear power plants to reduce dependence on oil? Not on your life. No, the environmental freaks have silently managed to keep us in the same position we were in back in those evil days - over a barrel.

Our politicians aren’t helping one danged bit either. The Democrats want to raise taxes on the oil companies and the Republicans want to send all of us a $100 rebate check. Who do they think they’re kidding? This is an election year and they want our vote. If we have the technology to send men to the moon and roving scientific gizmos to Mars, why can’t we come up with a viable alternative to gasoline? At least drill for more oil in Alaska or wherever so we can ride this out while we do develop the technology that will enable us to thumb our noses at the Arabs and the Hugo Chavez’ of the world.

If we don’t do something we’ll just keep going in circles, round and round, lurching from one oil crisis to another at the whim of madmen. Just remember - people who drive around in circles never get anywhere other than back where they started from. That’s not pro-gress. It’s con-gress ...

The 1973 Oil Crisis

The 1973 oil crisis began in earnest on October 17, 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC, consisting of the Arab members of OPEC plus Egypt and Syria) announced, as a result of the ongoing Yom Kippur War, that they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt (i.e., to the United States and its allies in Western Europe).

About the same time, OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil in order to quadruple world oil prices, after attempts at negotiation with the “Seven Sisters” earlier in the month failed miserably. Due to the dependence of the industrialized world on OPEC oil, these price increases were dramatically inflationary to the economies of the targeted countries, while at the same time suppressive of economic activity.

At the height of the crisis in the United States, drivers of vehicles with odd numbered license plates were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers with even-numbers were limited to even-numbered days.

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/27/2006 at 09:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Corruption and Greed •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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