Peak Oil or Cap & Trade and Security of United States

You may be asking yourself what peak oil has to do with cap and trade bills and the security of the United States. As we all know the military uses large amounts of fossil fuels to operate all the vehicles they have at their disposal and other branches of government also use fossil fuels for the protection of the United States. The bill H.R. 2454 American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 mentions security in its title and many times in this bill, but addresses very little of what the implications of energy independence are to United States security. Even the security of the economy depends somewhat on fossil fuels to some extent in relation to the rest of the world and the different economies around us.

If fossil fuels were to become very expensive to United States companies, would they continue to purchase crude oil from other countries or would they be able to bid on contracts with foreign nations against government run oil companies. Would they keep United States interest before the interest of their companies own bottom line, for example China’s National Petroleum Corporation has contracts with Iraq in joint bid with BP. Will this contract bring oil into the United States or to China and will any oil that is shipped to U.S. from this contract bring more profit to China? I mention China for the reason they are in a better economical position than the United States and also can out bid other private interests on contracts for the reason they are government run and backed. They can look at the price and may not bid, but if they really want the oil they may out bid others just to control the oil in a region.

Many other countries are selling their oil to countries besides the United States, like Iran to Pakistan and India, Japan and China or Russia and China. In fact China seems to be obtaining contracts within many nations including Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, and Cuba for example. One of the things you may want to remember is the United States has not wanted to drill off the gulf coast due to environmental concerns. Will Cuba or China be as concerned about the environment or be held to the same standards as companies drilling in U.S. waters? The price of the drilling in deep water may have been another reason the U.S. has not wanted to drill here and may be influenced by corporate interest. When private companies decide that oil is to expensive to drill for and care little about the security of the U.S., but a nation like China who owns all the oil companies in their country has the security of that nation at a very high interest as well as their own economy. Even the United States government has reports concerning China’s energy security and quest for commodities, which makes me think some people in our government are starting to realize they have allowed the U.S. to be placed in a very dangerous position.

Now back to why I think cap and trade bills has plenty to do with peak oil and very little to do with curbing emissions from Americans. If the H.R. 2454 was to be passed it would have not only create an unfair tax it would also make many start to use less electricity, fuel and other items. This would greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and pass along the cost of investing in new energy sources squarely on American consumer’s backs. Between our government and corporate America they have done very little to invest in other energy sources for over 40 years due to the fact that oil has always been cheap. Now that oil will become more expensive in the future many U.S. companies are turning away from oil and looking at alternative sources. Profit to these companies I am sure is playing a major role in these decisions to turn away from foreign oil and to other sources.

Many people think that peak oil is a ploy by the oil and energy industry to raise the price of fuel and energy costs, but keep this in mind these same industries support cap and trade bills. If you have been listening to what is going on around us you will understand that the representatives in Washington are controlled by corporations. Now if cap and trade bills would greatly affect the sales of fuel and energy shouldn’t they be against these bills and not for them. This is more of a reason I think that peak oil (oil will be more expensive in future version and no I don’t think we will suddenly run out as many people misrepresent the definition of peak oil as) is more of a reality than the U.S. government is revealing to we the people.

Here is more information why I think peak oil has more to do with cap and trade bills than emissions reductions. Production of oil in the U.S. has been dropping since 1971 as figures show on this Department of Energy website. Stripper wells or marginal wells are about 85% of the total number of U.S. oil wells and produce 915,000 barrels of oil per day, as they produce less oil the cost to retrieve more oil from that well is not economically viable and the well is abandoned. From 1994 to 2006, approximately 177,000 marginal wells were plugged and abandoned, representing a number equal to 42 percent of all U.S. operating wells in 2006. They do have projects to save stripper wells but only if they are not already abandoned and the surface infrastructure is not removed due to the expensive cost of replacing it. Other countries like China and India have growing economies and populations, both of them will have a severe impact on the price and consumption of foreign oil. Also if you look at where they are geographically located they are nearer to most of the world’s major oil supplies and have direct overland connections to this oil, these facts alone will mean they can purchase oil cheaper than the United States.

Neither China nor India and many other countries have plans to curb the emissions from industries or citizens within their borders and U.S. industries will look to move to places like this to avoid cap and trade limits. Now if our representatives know this will cause jobs to move to other countries why would they enact this cap and trade bill? When average citizens of the United States care more about the economical damage that cap and trade will do than the Congress, the Senate or even the President there has to be another motive. Only history can or will decide where peak oil relates to all the current and future events happening in our society.

Thank You,

Average Citizen