I worked in so-called "alternative/renewable energy" for ten years. Wind energy, to be exact. Manufacturing of small wind turbines. I hate to break this to everyone, but guess what? There is NO alternative energy. Wind energy doesn't work small-scale and doesn't "translate" to the grid large-scale. Solar is impractical large-scale and panels require fossil fuels to manufacture. You all saw what happened in Japan. See, one bad nuclear reactor accident is worse than a nuclear weapon explosion. Back to wind energy, it's a farce and a field inhabited by hucksters fattening themselves on government grants to produce a wind turbine that will never produce the energy that went into building it. I saw this from the ground up in the industry. So, guess what, folks? There is NO drop-in replacement for fossil fuels. Sorry. Not unless you want to run the risk of a nuclear accident every ten years or so. Don't forget, radiation interferes with human DNA and reproduction.
Now, in the U.S., we act all surprised and shocked by high gas prices. And maybe people in their 20s are. But those of us with a few decades can remember the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo which is what gave fuel-efficient Japanese cars their first real popularity in the U.S. Because the U.S was building these 9 MPG gas-guzzling land yachts and couldn't adapt. Yes, the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo should have been a wake-up call for the U.S. But it wasn't. We built a house of cards and were determined to keep living in it. Well, then came the 1979 Gas Crisis, spraked by the Iran Hostage Crisis. For those too young to remember this charming interlude in American history, we had "Even-Odd Days" where on one day, those with license plate numbers ending with an even number could buy gas, and then the next day, only those with odd numbers could buy gas. This was another funny American affectation of refusing to call something what it is (rationing)because it doesn't sound nice or sounds scary. There were also days when a green flag meant the gas station had gas and red flags meant they had none. And the national speed limit on the interstates was 55 MPH. Now, considering this was six years after the 1973 Embargo, you would think a nation with the alleged "Yankee ingenuity" of the U.S. would have had a great fuel-efficient car by that time. But, no, what we did was roll out clunkers like the AMC Pacer and the Gremlin or deathtraps like the Ford Pinto which should have been named the Ford Napalm Canister. But after the 1979 Oil Crisis went away, people developed collective amnesia.
Now, you would think that after two oil crises in a decade, the U.S. would have thought, "Hmmm.... we import a lot of our oil from a very volatile region. Perhaps we better start thinking about public transportation, improving our railroads, and not 'Next-Day-Airing' everything instead of stocking parts rooms. Perhaps we better start thinking of more fuel-efficient cars." But, no, instead we started building SUVs the size of a Sherman tank and hauling around trailers the size of a Blue Whale. Yep, that's really roughing it, let me tell ya----go camping in a trailer with a waterbed. Suddenly, I'm seeing people driving Humvees. WTF??? I was in the army when the last of the jeeps went away. Jeeps were a great vehicle. They could go anywhere on a four-banger engine. The Humvee is a POS. Sorry. But now, every civilian needed a Humvee. What for?? And I'd see them all cherried out and chrmoed and SUVs lowered to the ground. All getting 9 MPG; maybe 12 MPG. People driving pickup trucks bigger than the panzers the Wehrmacht conquered most of Europe with. All getting 10 MPG. And for what? To look cool? Shiny pickups that never saw a bale of hay in the back or a speck of mud on the tires.
We've had several decades to get up to speed and we squandered it. The writing was always there on the wall since 1973. But no one wanted to listen. No one wanted to heed the warning. No one wanted to face reality. Everyone wanted to live like the bill would never arrive. Now we hear all this malarky about "vast American oil reserves". Well, there aren't. They're talking about oil shale. No one has figured out a way to extract the oil from shale. And even if there were reserves, are we going to use it wisely to wean ourselves off oil? No, of course not. We'd just fill up more 9 MPG trucks with tires the size of a John Deere tractor and, once again, act like the bill will never come.
So, these oil prices should come as no shock to anyone. They've always been there. They come every decade. And you haven't heard the punchline yet. See, because we have spent zero real effort into getting ourselves off oil, when it starts running out, we'll see the first of famines the likes of which the world has never seen. That's because our agriculture runs on oil. Transport of food, growing food, tilling the soil----all fossil fuel reliant. As I said, there is NO "secret technology" just waiting in the wings. They say that to keep the masses pacified that everything will be all right, just keep spending. But everything won't be all right. It'll be "have and have nots" on a scale most people in this time period cannot even imagine. Nearly all of human life on the planet---our whole civilization and everything in it---is built on the house of cards of oil. And it is going to run out. Soon. And there is nothing to replace it.
Soon, you will look back on $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon gasoline with fond nostalgia of "the good ol' days".
