Addicted to Oil. And Going to Stay That Way... For A While... Unless...

So let's turn back the page a few months to Mr. Speechgiver... I mean Mr. President... saying "We are addicted to oil and we need to break that addiction." He's calling for Americans to break this addiction, right? But what is his administration doing?

The Bush administration allowed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to have a $28 million budget shortfall and lay off 32 employees... Then gave them an extra $5 million when it was publicized that the administration was maybe sending "mixed signals." We can spend $85 Billion and burn massive amounts of fossil fuels each year on an illegal war, but we can only muster up $5 million for renewable energy research? And this is supposed to help us break our oil addiction how exactly??

The Bush administration's energy plan aims to replace 30% of gasoline use with ethanol by 2030. Archer Daniels Midland, the world's largest producer of Ethanol from corn, has donated over $3 million to politicians since 2000. Ethanol has a lower energy density than gasoline so cars get lower gas mileage running on Ethanol. So we're using more fossil fuel energy to produce this new fuel than we get from burning it, and we're using more of it to power our vehicles... According to a recent Cornell University study, the process of growing and then processing corn into ethanol burns 29% more fossil fuel energy than the amount of energy that is produced. We burn more fossil fuel energy to make this new--less effecient--fuel than the energy that burning this new fuel creates. That is called wasting fuel...

Raising fuel economy standards to 40 mpg over the next decade would save about 4 billion barrels of oil by 2012... But shockingly... Fuel economy standards are 5% lower today than they were in the late 80s... And Archer Daniels Midland continues to receive corporate welfare, subsidies, and line its pockets while we sink even deeper into oil addiction. And this is supposed to be progress?

This is not progress, this is collusion. Plain and simple. Archer Daniels Midland is a multi-billion dollar business. They do favors for the government, the government does favors for them, and the people get screwed. (These favors are accomplished by another little secret called central banking. Through the obfuscation that lives within banking regulations that even very well educated people generally are not taught about in school, lies fiat currency that is not backed by any precious metals, a fractional reserve commercial banking system that can multiply the money supply by issuing credit with assets that they do not technically posess, the central bank, the Federal Reserve, that can create new money at will from thin air, and finally the government, which can issue bonds (which are nothing more than government debt) to borrow whatever sum they want from the Fed. Most of the time, they borrow money for war and corporate bailouts.)

In this case, money is being thrown at a problem, but the solution being funded is known by science to be not the best solution. The public is given little capacity to find or understand this science, and those who do don't have anyone to vote for, really... So no, ethanol from corn is anything but progress. It's closer to corruption dressed up in progress' clothes... What would progress be then? Cellulosic Ethanol from switchgrass would be nice. It can be produced now, and with enough investment, production could be ramped up very quickly. A new industry could be created, good jobs along with it... Also, it's possible to make Biodiesel from algae would be nice. How about Biodiesel produced locally in small-medium quantities and used in the communities that it is created in? That would be nice... Plug-in hybrids or straight electric vehicles would be nice. Some more wind and solar farms would be nice. $300 Billion for renewable energy research instead of for making dead Iraqis would be nice.

There are two simple ways we can make progress in eliminating our dependency on oil ourselves, as people. 1) Buy more fuel efficient vehicles. 40mpg and up only!! 2) Walk more, bike more, take public transportation (those of us who have viable options) more, drive less, buy compact flourescents, or just turn the lights off when you leave the room, recycle... It's really that simple...

But it seems Americans can't win for trying... We're told by the president that we have to get off of oil, but his administration is not enacting policies that give any credence to his words!! And Americans don't have very many palatable choices as far as taking things into our own hands is concerned... Public transportation is a joke in most of the country. Finding a good job close to home is very difficult. Let's face it--"breaking the oil addiction" is nothing but lip service. The power-brokers and money-makers who run the world have no interest in energy independence for Americans or any other people. We're in a tough spot...