In Case You Didn't Notice

Venzuela opened up its oil fields to US oil companies this last week, despite all of President Chavez's previous promises to take back the oil from US domination and his country out of the grips of US power. The reason is not Obama versus Bush. It is a simple matter of economy. Venezuela needs buyers since demand lessened and the price has sunk to decade lows.

Interestingly enough, the Bush administration did all it could to try to change the previous situation using the Republican's single edge diplomacy - the threat of force. Of course, we were not going to use force because we had all our forces tied up in two everlasting wars in the Middle East. But, force was threatened, nonetheless.

It might surprise many Americans that we can actually go out and buy oil from others and not have to invade a country or send the fleet to ensure that we get our triple portion of world output.

This is how it works. Countries that produce more oil than they need, want to sell the oil in order to have capital either to enrich the rulers or improve the lives of their citizens and win the next election; or, it could be both. As long as we have consumers who want to buy oil products, especially gasoline, we have the ability to be one of the buyers. There are other buyers, of course, and they can also purchase oil and that makes for a dynamic market where, in fact, under normal circumstances, all the nations who have consumers willing to pay for oil can buy it and all the nations with more oil than they need for national consumption can make considerable money to improve the life of their citizens, or enrich the ruling class, or a little bit of both. It is a world market, so when one buyer loses acces to one market, anothe buy takes up the slack and the space that buyer had in an alternative market opens up for us to buy the oil they used to buy in that alternative market.

Wars for oil are not necessary. We should not have to lose lives or take lives in order to secure oil for the nation. We can actually just go out and buy it.

So, why are we fighting in Iraq to protect the oil supply. Don't the Iraquis, or the Kurds or whoever ends up controlling the oil have to sell in order to have any benefit from the oil and can't we just buy from them, or if they sell to others, to go where those others were buying oil before and buy that oil? Of course, we can. When our leaders say that they are protecting the oil supply for our economy, it really means that they are taking control of oil resources in other countries so that our oil companies can make more money on selling the oil to us.

Someone will say that Iraq is not about oil, it is about democracy. Forgetting what is the obvious incongruity between democracy and imposing it by military force; the war in Iraq started over the Iraqui attempt to take control of oil fields controled by Kuwait. If Iraq took over those fields, which they believed were really their oil fields, the oil produced would have to be sold on the world market and we could have bought it. So, why are we willing to spend billions in dollars and destroy thousands of our young people by putting them in harms way. Not to be sure that we have cheap oil, but to ensure that our oil companies create great wealth for their executives and share holders.

What about when there are more buyers than sellers? Prices go up and, as a result, production goes up and then there is another cycle. Peaceful world that way, with the price of gas sometimes up and sometimes down...but peaceful.

It would be an even better world if we would invest in the clean and renewable energies, thus producing all the enegy we need from sources that no one controls - sun and wind. Who doesn't benefit from a world in which the majority of power we need to run our cars, our heaters, our industry comes from wind and sun. Who doesn't benefit are the companies trying to make a profit on producing, refining, buyind and selling oil.

In fact, it makes sense for this nation, or any nation that can afford to do it, to have the government build massive wind and sun farms even at break even bottom lines to produce this energy which would free us from any concerns about the control of world markets. It is a no brainer, don't you think. Then why not?

The most common answer is that it is "socialism" to have the state control energy and we are not "socialists." I can only say it is high price to pay - in billions for war and in thousands of lives destroyed - to avoid solving a problem because someone will say it is socialist. That could make it into the list of top ten stupidities along with the notion that it makes sense to threaten countries who decide to make their own money from the oil in their ground by nationalizing the oil fields.

Until we get there - energy sufficiency using clear, renewable sources - in case you didn't notice, Venezuela sells gas, even to us.