[Vision2020] Well I mean!

[Pat Kraut]

I copied this from the 'right-mind' web site which I found very interesting.
I would like to clarify the post that uses my comments on this site about
oil prices. If we switch to a home grown product it would change the dynamic
of the OPEC controlling our lives and give us back our freedom. I personally
would be happy drilling in ANWAR to break their hold on our lives. I am well
aware that it would be a messy situation early on however, as we made the
change and all those oil people put their money into the NEW thing it may
well become just like the old thing BUT we would be able to control it
better because it would be grown right here! Whew! You didn't think I could
do it did you?! And as we have more of the fuel and get more refining places
built the price will come down. Its the way it works.
PK
I am very delighted that oil prices are going high and I hope they go even
higher. I hate the control the OPEC group has on our lives. I am well aware
that there are alternative fuels that we could control even right here in
Latah county. The PSES dept of the UI can make a great fuel from canola that
is grown in Latah county.

Donovan Arnold follows up:

I think that we should have the prices go way up so we can switch to another
form of energy. But not for OPEC reasons, for environmental reasons. Let us
see a $5 a gallon oil price in the next year.

There's a lot to untangle here. First, OPEC has for years controlled oil
prices so that they would be below the price to make alternative fuels
(solar, wind, etc) economical.

Pat argues that by raising oil prices, alternative fuels become competitive
and we're better off with alternative fuels.

The fallacy here is obvious -- fuel costs are still higher in the end, which
makes us worse off in the end.

No, Pat. Higher fuel prices are not a good thing. Raising expenses is a bad
thing -- in the short-run and in the long-run.





"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long
at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
Helen Keller