Oil Trap. Caps?

I want to change the subject here because I’m tired of giving the self ordained Pat Robertson (didn’t Napoleon ordain himself also?) more coverage than what he deserves. Instead, I want to turn some attention towards someone who I often times find myself in agreement with and something that right now is affecting us all. Fareed Zakaria is one of my favorite political commentators/authors. I’m sure some who read this site will label him a liberal PhD., but he’s anything but. Nonetheless, Zakaria’s latest Newsweek column outlines a serious problem facing not only our foreign policy but also every American consumer and taxpayer: our dependence on foreign oil.

It’s hard to talk oil dependency in Washington these days. Big Oil does indeed control the White House and the federal government at nearly every level. Oil is also something that the president’s family makes millions from, and so do many others in the administration. So it’s no coincidence that Bush’s recently passed energy bill gives Big Oil the largest tax breaks in the history of this country. In sum, the bill provides huge tax breaks for the wealthiest of the wealthy while the little guy pays the bills. I’m not sure how providing mammoth tax breaks to an industry that will generate 30% higher profits than the last fiscal year will do anything to curb our dependence on foreign oil, much less ease gas prices. This is a form of corporate welfare, so why shouldn’t the poor receive the same?

Certainly one thing the American people have yet to realize is the backdoor business that oil revenues bring to support terrorism. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, a country that is making an EXTRA $300 million a day from rising gas prices. If it’s not in our national interest to ensure that a terrorist sponsoring state such as Saudi Arabia does not profit at our expense, and 9/11 was a steep price to pay, then nothing is. There is a direct link between oil rich countries and Islamic extremism. There is also a direct link between American rich Big Oil companies and those same terrorist sponsoring countries. Our dependence on foreign oil is definitely a foreign policy issue as well as domestic, but one that is largely ignored by the current administration and the public.

“Saudi Arabia will probably have a budget surplus of more than $26 billion this year because the price of oil is so much higher than anticipated,” notes Zakaria. “That means it can keep the old ways going, bribing the Wahhabi imams, funding the Army and National Guard, spending freely on patronage programs. (And that would still leave plenty to fund dozens of new palaces and yachts.) Ditto for other corrupt, quasi-feudal oil states.”

The reverse is true in America. The huge profits Big Oil will make this year will not funnel down to easing our dependence on oil or federal regulations on automobile gas mileage, but instead to increasing our consumption and to fund political campaigns to politicians that will guarantee more and bigger tax breaks in the future. The cycle keeps going. Terrorist sponsoring states are dependant upon American big oil to protect them from regime change. The status quo remains. September 11th has taught us nothing.

Americans are the most mobile people on Earth. Never has any group of people mobilized so quickly and so frequently than America. Just try and put limits on us and see what happens. Even high gas prices have not changed our driving habits. Since colonial times, we have always said, “Do not close us in.” No other nation on this planet can understand our ability, or hold dearly as we do our right to go anywhere we want at anytime. Not even Canada can travel like we do; and when they do, they do it in America. We hate limits like we hate taxes, but our mobility should not come at the expense of terrorism on our soil, or to prop up terrorist regimes.

One thing that state lawmakers are looking at to help with gas prices is placing caps on them. On September 1st, Hawaii will be the first state to implement gas caps. This is a controversial move that has both the federal government and Big Oil firmly against it. It’s not clear whether placing caps on gas prices will do anything to bring the prices at the pumps down; in fact it might just do the opposite. As long as the federal government is doing nothing to ease our burden then caps on gasoline at the state level seems to be an appropriate step that may at the very least catch someone’s attention. Zakaria says it best: “We don't need a Manhattan Project to find our way out of our current energy trap. The technologies already exist. But what we're searching for is perhaps even harder—political leadership and vision.”