There is NO energy crisis

I was somewhat surprised to find The Orange County Register’s blog, Orange Punch, worrying about “our reliance on Middle East imports” of oil. This is similar to McCain and Obama coming up with schemes for “energy independence.”

In fact, we don’t “rely” on oil imports from the Middle East or anywhere. We “rely” on the free-market to deliver us the energy we need. The oil business is an old, mature business that is well organized to deliver us petroleum products. The only thing the government should do is get out of the way, including pulling all American forces out of the Middle East.

Nor are we “running out of oil.”  Actually, the world is awash in oil.

But, if you’re still worried about “our reliance on Middle East imports,” here’s a list, from the Department of Energy, of oil imports to the U.S. in May from the top 15 countries (thousands of barrels per day):

Canada           1,840
Saudi Arabia    1,578
Mexico            1,116
Venezuela       1,030
Nigeria              851
Iraq                 583
Angola              464
Algeria              440
Brazil                318
Kuwait              263
Colombia           245
Ecuador            162
Russia               119
Libya                  96
Equat. Guyana     93

Most of the countries aren’t even in the Middle East. The top country is Canada, last I heard friendly to us (even though they did export to us Peter Jennings). Third is Mexico, another friendly neighbor.

The Middle Eastern countries are Saudia Arabia, a close ally since World War II. Their military depends entirely on U.S. aramaments. Iraq: run by a puppet U.S. government. Kuwait: a U.S. dependency since Saddam was kicked out of there in 1991.

That’s it. Libya and Algeria are North African countries, but friendly to the U.S. nowadays. Venezuela is now led by nutty President Chavez. But who cares? He can’t drink the oil. He has to sell it to us. And when an oil crash comes, his people will be starving and kick him from office.

This whole foreign-oil dependency and oil crisis hullabaloo is much ado about the wrong thing.

The real reason energy costs so much is the inflation caused by the U.S. government. This is not an energy crisis, but an inflation crisis. The inflation crisis is caused by us not being on the gold standard since 1971. A secondary cause is U.S. meddling in the Middle East.

Go back on the gold standard and get the U.S. military out of the Middle East and the “crisis” will be over.

But you know what, even this “crisis’ isn’t that big. I started driving back in 1971, just before Nixon stupidly got us off gold. I remember paying 31 cents a gallon. Since then inflation has been more than 1,000%. So gas should cost at least $3.11 per gallon. Yet a gallon of gas even here in Taxifornia is $2.99. So gas actually is cheaper because capitalists have discovered cheaper methods to bring it to me.

Moreover, the car I drive — roughly the equivalent of my father’s car I started driving back in 71, but with a CD player instead of an 8-track — is at least 50% more gas efficient as Pop’s 67 Oldsmobile 98.  So I’m actually paying less to drive every mile.

It’s still amazing that, for about $400 in gas, you can drive across the whole United States in a mid-level sedan with the air conditioning on and your Elvis CDs blasting out your ears.

So where’s the energy crisis?