Monday, May 10, 2004

What About Oil Prices?

In a recent column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman made some painful and obvious statements about oil in our lives. Among other things he said, “Thanks to the mess in Iraq — including a continuing campaign of sabotage against oil pipelines — oil exports have yet to recover to their prewar level, let alone supply the millions of extra barrels each day the optimists imagined. And the fallout from the war has spooked the markets, which now fear terrorist attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia, and are starting to worry about radicalization throughout the Middle East. (It has been interesting to watch people who lauded George Bush's leadership in the war on terror come to the belated realization that Mr. Bush has given Osama bin Laden exactly what he wanted.)”

By the end of this summer we may be paying more per gallon than we should afford. What advice should we be giving to your elected representatives and what sorts of things ought we to be campaigning for to assure us of the life style to which we’ve become accustomed? Krugman asks, “So what should we be doing? Here's a hint: We can neither drill nor conquer our way out of the problem. Whatever we do, oil prices are going up. What we have to do is adapt.”

1 comment:

J Michael said...

One thing is clear, if we "can neither drill nor conquer our way out of the problem," then we need new leadership. These fellows know only digging and fighting.