Oil Prices/Energy Future

The oil industry has it wrong: They are in the energy business.

The days of the oil industry as it has been for a century or more are over. About 20 years ago it should have become the Energy Industry. But to oil people change comes slowly.

Have you ever known someone in the industry? I have. A lot of them. They were well heeled mostly. Big cars frequently changed; almost all large gas guzzlers. Their homes, too, were large and inefficient. I shudder at the thought of their utility bills! They also traveled widely and often, and spent money freely. There was no tomorrow; tomorrow was today! And they enjoyed it.

Those times are changing, however, as they must. Pollution alone is the bell weather that demands we alter our use of fossil fuels. Public health is another bell weather as much as we try to disguise it otherwise. So too are prices of oil in the past years, climbing higher and higher while leaving many in the dust.

Well, oil prices have changed most recently to lower levels unimaginable just a short time ago. And people in the oil industry are very nervous. There is talk of major oil company bankruptcies, turmoil in energy markets, bankrupt oil drilling towns and drilling equipment manufacturers. There are indications that the world oil markets are saturated with product and thus prices have collapsed. There are entire nations (Russia, Libya, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia) who are trembling with the specter of collapsed oil prices; their economies are declining and they fear collapse.

Well they should. They have built empires on oil. They have pyramided oil prices into panics of skyrocketing values. As breathtaking as that is, the drop in prices for them is even more breathtaking.

With outrageous product demand and prices came military conquests of the Middle East. And pipeline skirmishes in Asia, Europe and elsewhere. Remember that America discovered oil and its rich uses. As America created its own oil industry, it shared its technology with the world, beginning with Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East. That’s how that region of the world became so important.

With that importance came power – real and imagined – and power whether well understood and managed or not. Soon power brokers rose up and nations chose allies. With this came culture wars and religions continued their 1000-year jockeying for pre-eminence. And then the Holy Wars began again making the Crusades pale in comparison.

The Middle East became the hot spot of unrest and war and human suffering. All fighting over oil supplies. But not much longer.

The world community knows energy comes from other sources and is counting on developing those resources. This will diversify energy points of origin, ownership, and management. It will soften the long term cost of energy. It will democratize energy. And it will give most of the world’s nations local power over their own energy creation and consumption. There is a real opportunity to lessen international political tension as a result.

What a welcome relief that will be!

With that development the world economy will become more diversified and give nations opportunities to shine in their specialty fields. The world community will thus be strengthened. Once again we will be able to touch other cultures with awe and appreciation for their gifts to the well-being of the community.

I think we need more of that. We need less power brokering and political sword rattling. We need more peace making and collaboration. It is one planet, after all is said and done. And we will make of it what we will. Best if we go into this with open and just minds so all are included.

The world belongs to all of us. It would be helpful and healthy if we acted like it did.

Energy is a much larger issue with many diverse sources. And sciences. It is time we took responsibility for this reality and relegated oil to a minor role in our future.

Here! Here!

January 14, 2016