Geek Habitat

This began as a response to my brother’s entry entitled Soapbox, but quickly grew long-winded enough that it belonged more as a post here. Apologies for the excessive use of links, but when I hit Wikipedia and other sources so extensively to form a cogent argument, I like to incorporate all those links into the resulting post!

Who is to blame for the increasingly excessive fuel prices we are paying at the pumps?
Big Oil is an easy target, and on the surface a quite viable one, given the profits they’re taking in. The fact remains, they are an EASY target. There are others to blame, and some introspection shows the blame hits very close to home. Further, Big Oil isn’t a strictly American enterprise; here’s the breakdown of the companies usually referred to as “Big Oil”:

1. ExxonMobil (American, based in Dallas, Texas)
2. BP (British Petroleum) (British, based in London, England)
3. Royal Dutch Shell — (British/Dutch, based in The Hague, Netherlands; U.S. subsidiary, Shell Oil Company, is based in Houston, TX)
4. Total (French, based in Paris, France)

San Antonio’s native Valero is a mere drop in the buck…er.. barrel despite being the largest oil refiner in North America, and there are literally scores of other oil companies in the world — the largest, Saudi Aramco, is headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Here are some of its “vitals”:

Needless to say, even if the Big Oil companies of the United States, United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands allied to reduce prices below market levels, they’d be cutting their noses off to spite their faces. They are not even remotely the primary oil producers, yet they are operating in nations that comprise some of the world’s top oil CONSUMERS. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know how and why they could post record profits in that environment, and I don’t think they should be without further scrutiny… but they’re not single-handedly driving the price of oil, either. In other words, Big Oil shares much of its blame with OPEC, the union of 11 developing nations (Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela) whose primary revenue stems from oil exports.

More reading:

• oil pricing & energy crisis (Wikipedia)
• Reducing America’s Energy Dependence (Natural Resources Defense Council)

Now, before things get uncomfortable, we have a few other sources to blame that pretty much everyone can agree on — the U.S. government. It’s difficult to know where to even start, with them. The primary energy policy of the United States of America has always been, with few exceptions (World War II, the Great Depression, the 1973 Energy Crisis), simply this — Use It! And use it, we Americans and our economy, do extremely well:

One major aspect of the U.S. government’s energy policy is to exert our (some say “democratic”) influence on (some say “developing” or “under-developed”) nations like Iraq, and to “protect” oil rich nations like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia when they’re threatened by a local bully (Saddam Hussein). This aspect of our energy policy means the U.S. military must expend significant amounts of energy (oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, etc.) engaged in protracted conflicts in the oil-abundant Persian Gulf region, not to mention enormous amounts of money and a not insignificant number of casualties, as well.

So, we’ve blamed Big Oil, OPEC, and the U.S. Government. Who’s next? Ah, yes, automakers, especially American automakers, for their love affair with manufacturing SUVs, pickups and other vehicles (Hummer, et. al.) that seem to laugh in the face of poor fuel economy.

But wait a minute, the automakers build what they hope CONSUMERS will buy. If anyone is to blame for the prevalence of fuel inefficient SUVs, pickups and other vehicles on the American roadways, it’s all the consumers who bought them… like Justin and I, and the 2001 Ford F-150 Supercrew 4×4 we own. The F-150 has been the best-selling truck in the U.S.A. for 28 years, and the best single-year sales for it were a jaw-dropping 9,395,118 vehicles in 2004 (See vehicle sales records) Nevermind that the 2004 Ford F-150 got, at best, 17mpg city/20mpg highway (Ford F150 Pickup 2WD 6 cyl, 4.2 L, Manual(5)), and more likely just 12mpg city/16mpg highway (Ford F150 Pickup 4WD 8 cyl, 5.4 L, Auto(4). And those fuel economy values, not to mention the suffocating amount of emissions (pollution), have remained largely unchanged all the way to the 2006 model year!
WHY?

• Because consumers honestly don’t care about emissions ratings or fuel economy…
• Because even the early adopters (like Justin and I) only recently realized there were better options available (in our case, the Ford Escape Hybrid) that provide transportation without following the status quo of high emissions paired with low fuel economy.
• Because the F-150 and other high emission/low fuel economy vehicles sell wonderfully at the price point and options packages they’re offered with.
• Because the average consumer won’t value lower emissions or higher fuel economy, until perhaps they realize the number of Smog/Ozone Alert Days in their community is increasing sharply and they’re having to cut back on eating out or other entertainment to keep their gas guzzler fueled… and even then, that’s when the excuses abound:
  • “All this smog is from those Mexican factories! …the coal-fueled power plants on the other side of town! It’s not my fault! My car(s) on the road aren’t causing the problem all by themselves.” {fail to grasp salient point, of course.}
  • “It’s Big Oil! They’re raking in profits and shafting the little guy! It’s all their fault!” No, it can’t possibly be that there’s so much damned DEMAND for oil on this planet that, when coupled with human nature’s short-sightedness — equals higher prices at the gas pump. Nope, can’t be. {bury head in sand} {deny deny deny} {check gas prices} {repeat}

Like it or not, we humans often behave like pack animals, reacting as a pack does — someone in the lead or outer “fringe” goes on the “alert” and most of the pack ignores the warning, surging forward. If the threat is real and dire, a few in the pack are picked off and, just maybe, the pack is a little more cautious, for a time. But we’re really just animals, and so we keep on following the pack/herd, even if it is toward a precipice and we actually do know better than to follow our neighbor off that cliff. I know this sounds alarmist, and will no doubt be written off as such (see “pack mentality”), but I think our rampant fossil fuel energy consumption is that cliff. Where once humanity had the threat of nuclear annihilation (not exactly gone, but more or less forgotten; we have such short-term memories), we now have the threat of a radical change in our economies and societies due to our absolute dependence on oil and other fossil fuels… which happen to in large part be deposited in regions of the world governed by leaders, governments and/or regimes far less “stable” than our own (if ours even qualifies as such.)

There is no band-aid, quick fix solution. Big problems require big solutions, and a word Americans really hate to use (because our politicians use it so often and for such improper purposes) — sacrifice. If we all sacrificed something (time, money, effort, ease/minor convenience), to do our part, in some small way, it would help far more than it would hurt. And if those of us with more to sacrifice did so, it would offset those who have far less to sacrifice (and thus, for whom any small sacrifice is a great hardship). I’m not preaching any single solution to anyone, but the sheer number and variety of solutions makes me a little frustrated to hear all the “Someone needs to fix this!” chatter and so little, “Well, f*** it, I’m going to do this tiny-little-thing because, dammit, I’m a part of this too!”

Some of the many solutions we, as individuals, can do:

• carpool to work/school/church
• drive less
• ride a bicycle to work/school/your mailbox
• buy a hybrid vehicle
• take the metro/bus/subway/taxi
  • … and support the development/funding of same in your city/county/state/nation
• walk more, including to places you might ordinarily drive — like to the Target next door to the Best Buy you parked at
• buy a more fuel efficient new or used vehicle
• write to your representatives and lend your support to increasing fuel economy standards for all vehicles
• keep your older vehicles properly tuned/maintained so they don’t burn oil and fuel even more inefficiently
• educate yourself about environmental issues that interest you, even/especially if you’re highly dubious about the extent of their importance to mankind/America — things like global warming, global dimming, alternative fuels and renewable energy
• don’t take the easy way out and blame others without acknowledging your place in the puzzle (one tiny piece, but a piece nonetheless. One missing or mangled piece can spoil an otherwise beautiful puzzle, no?)
• understand that as much as we think we know there is much we cannot begin to know, so while it’s frustrating that no one can tell us exactly how much OIL reserves our world has, or how much potable WATER is stored in the Edwards Aquifer beneath San Antonio, Texas, and the Hill Country, or how much OZONE our planet needs to sustain life as we know it, the absence of total knowledge and understanding does not negate that these are all FINITE resources.
• … and there’s so much more that can be done!

Pick ONE of the above that suits your physical and financial abilities, lifestyle, needs and goals. Adapt to that, and maybe in time you’ll be ready and able to adopt ANOTHER, and another, and… whoa, suddenly the pack is following behaviors that aren’t quite so debilitating to society, the environment and the economy (because, in case you missed it, being dependent on a limited, non-renewable resource that is largely controlled by foreign powers/entities that you consider “unfriendly” and “unstable” is never a good thing!)

End massive rant which I could have communicated far more succinctly by simply shouting –
WE . ARE . ALL . A . PART . OF . THE . PROBLEM !!!!!