Foreign Oil: Our Only Hope

According to Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill anyway:

“Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any time period relevant to our discussion today,” Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill said, referring to what he called the “misperception” that the United States can achieve energy independence.

Achieving energy independence may prove a difficult task, but methinks Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill may be laboring under a different “misperception”: That fossil fuels are not a finite resource and that burning them and releasing toxins into the air isn’t a problemo.

Reuters mentions a counter argument:

Many in the United States believe America should wean itself off oil imports from the Middle East, fearing it makes the country dangerously dependent on an unstable region.

And if you wanted to present possibly the weakest argument for energy independence, then yes. There’s that— and, of course, concerns that fossil fuels are a finite resource and that burning them and releasing toxins into the air is a problemo. And that’s not to mention the concerns of those among us don’t feel comfortable disregarding what nearly every climate scientist tells us about the causes of global warming. [Hint: it has to do with releasing carbon— which is a byproduct of the fossil fuel burning process —into the air.]

…hoping to end foreign oil imports is not only a bad idea, but also impossible.

“Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap,” McGill said. “No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term.”

If this is true, then the magnitude of our energy consumption is immoral.

If Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Stuart McGill wants to talk about the economics of energy consumption, and people are going to buy what he’s selling, then now is the time for a frank discussion of what the true cost of a barrel of oil is; and, (Your Montag dares say,) start taxing oil consumption at that rate. [Hint: include the costs of strategic military skirmishes in the Mid East, clean-up of environmental catastrophes, and healthcare for those affected by air pollution in your cost analysis. All of these costs have been ‘externalized’ by the oil industry.]

But, hey, don’t take Your Humble Montag’s word for it. Take the word of the Senior Vice President of the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, that recently turned in the highest ever year end profit in US history. Take it from a grubber who probably eats cash sandwiches off plates made out of money for lunch each day, while sitting on your back.

Believe what you want to believe, Kind Reader. There are so many choices today because everything’s “theories” now. You have the freedom to choose what theories you put stock in. You’re free to opt for articles of faith instead, even.

Continued…

Enough With Our Sissified “Energy Policy!”

You can throw in your lot with the abiotic oil crowd that claims “oil is continuously generated by natural processes in the Earth’s magma” which will be constantly replenished for all time.

You can look at the handful of climate scientists who don’t buy into the global warming hype, and dismiss that canard as ‘unsettled science.’

Fuck, you can even believe that smog is pretty and the asthma epidemic is but a small price to pay for Freedom.

Yeah! Let’s do it. But, let’s quit it with these half measures! I say, don’t just simply continue using fossil fuels as we do today, let’s use the fuck out of them. After all, abiotic oil is infinite, right?

We should lower the fuel efficiency of vehicles. In fact, we should use gasoline for other stuff too, like filling swimming pools, and flushing toilets, and for campfires! (Not for starting campfires, but for campfires.) While we’re at it we should create natural gas fire fountains in our public spaces. The kids will love it! There’s just not enough open fire in our society today. We shouldn’t keep it all bottled up in our internal combustion engines. Fire wants to be free; just like We.

And let’s not leave coal out of it. Coal, we should launch into space to block harmful UV radiation from the sun.

Reuters article: Exxon: America will always rely on foreign oil
The abiotic oil debate and “peak oil”