Why the greed of the oil companies is a good thing
There was recently a protest against the price of gas in the hopes that the price would drop and I was known to make some cynical comments about it. Now the thing is, I hate the oil industry. I hate that they get a huge subsidy from the US government while pulling in record profits from price fixing. I hate that they intentionally lock out competting technologies by buying up applicable patents and blocking development, and by lobbying politicians to give them an undeserved market edge. I would love to see some french revolution style justice delivered upon them. I did not make the cynical comments about the boycott because I was unsympathetic.
That said, as much as I hate the oil companies, I think ultimately the current gas prices are a good thing. Fossil fuel is bad. It is environmentally bad and it has created a horrible socio-political climate throughout the world. High gas prices will cause people to seek alternitives. It will cause companies to produce more effecient engines and to seek different means of producing energy. Social responsibility will never motivate a civilization to set aside fossil fuels, nor will fear of rising tides or unstable weather associated with global warming, but no force on earth has more power to motivate people than greed. People don't like spending $3.50 a gallon. People want to spend $1.50 or less a gallon. They will seek other means if necessary to achieve a comparable price.
It isn't just individuals though. Fuel costs of that magnitude affect other industries. Other industries also don't want to experience forceful sodomy from the oil companies (even if the oil companies have a surpluss of petroleum jelly for use in the act), and so other industries are pushing for alternitives.
Thus we have Toyota announcing that by 2020 they will not have a single vehicle in their lineup that utilizes traditional combustion. At the very least they will all be hybrids, which right now are not actually better for the environment (that whole exsive quantity of heavy metal batteries being at least as bad as burning some carbon) but with the advent of capbats (lightweigh, solid state capacitors using carbon nano-tubes that hold more charge per cubic inch than any competting battery technology, and recharge nearly instantly) that will change. We have the American car companies pouring billions into hydrogen fuel source research (most notably GM and Chrysler) to break the reliance on oil. We have the german car companies pushing more and more for high efficiency biodiesal (still carbon based, but they produce less carbon emissions per mile than traditional vehicles).
Then we have industry, who is interested in reducing overall energy costs as well. In Dubai a sky scrapper is being built that requires absolutely no external energy source (well, it converts external wind and solar energy, but it doesn't have power lines running to it). Both the Google and Microsoft campuses in california are being outfitted with their own solar arrays. In general wind, solar, and tidal power are becoming more and more viable, and companies are more than happy to promote them.
Finally, politicians, who do so love the oil industry, love being re-elected more, and are starting to realize their constituents don't like politicians seen as big oil friendly. High oil prices will eventually cause a shift in the US policy in general, based simply on the greed of the politicians.
So, the short term greed of the oil industry is going to meet the long term greed of everyone else, and if momentum keeps building, it is going to cause a society wide shift from reliance on oil. It isn't a short term change, it isn't going to happen over night, but one thing I can always be optimistic about is the motivating effects of greed. The greed of society will change the society. Lets hear it for $5 a gallon!
That said, as much as I hate the oil companies, I think ultimately the current gas prices are a good thing. Fossil fuel is bad. It is environmentally bad and it has created a horrible socio-political climate throughout the world. High gas prices will cause people to seek alternitives. It will cause companies to produce more effecient engines and to seek different means of producing energy. Social responsibility will never motivate a civilization to set aside fossil fuels, nor will fear of rising tides or unstable weather associated with global warming, but no force on earth has more power to motivate people than greed. People don't like spending $3.50 a gallon. People want to spend $1.50 or less a gallon. They will seek other means if necessary to achieve a comparable price.
It isn't just individuals though. Fuel costs of that magnitude affect other industries. Other industries also don't want to experience forceful sodomy from the oil companies (even if the oil companies have a surpluss of petroleum jelly for use in the act), and so other industries are pushing for alternitives.
Thus we have Toyota announcing that by 2020 they will not have a single vehicle in their lineup that utilizes traditional combustion. At the very least they will all be hybrids, which right now are not actually better for the environment (that whole exsive quantity of heavy metal batteries being at least as bad as burning some carbon) but with the advent of capbats (lightweigh, solid state capacitors using carbon nano-tubes that hold more charge per cubic inch than any competting battery technology, and recharge nearly instantly) that will change. We have the American car companies pouring billions into hydrogen fuel source research (most notably GM and Chrysler) to break the reliance on oil. We have the german car companies pushing more and more for high efficiency biodiesal (still carbon based, but they produce less carbon emissions per mile than traditional vehicles).
Then we have industry, who is interested in reducing overall energy costs as well. In Dubai a sky scrapper is being built that requires absolutely no external energy source (well, it converts external wind and solar energy, but it doesn't have power lines running to it). Both the Google and Microsoft campuses in california are being outfitted with their own solar arrays. In general wind, solar, and tidal power are becoming more and more viable, and companies are more than happy to promote them.
Finally, politicians, who do so love the oil industry, love being re-elected more, and are starting to realize their constituents don't like politicians seen as big oil friendly. High oil prices will eventually cause a shift in the US policy in general, based simply on the greed of the politicians.
So, the short term greed of the oil industry is going to meet the long term greed of everyone else, and if momentum keeps building, it is going to cause a society wide shift from reliance on oil. It isn't a short term change, it isn't going to happen over night, but one thing I can always be optimistic about is the motivating effects of greed. The greed of society will change the society. Lets hear it for $5 a gallon!