Elizabethtown, KY---May 28, 2008

We must, as voters and as citizens, put the absolute most pressure we can on our lawmakers and leaders to do everything possible to create energy independence in the United States. And we can never stop until energy independence is a reality for our country. 

If we fail to do so, we will always be vulnerable and subject to those who manipulate the world to squeeze the most they can out of our economy and our wallets, in order to put it in their own.

 I first published this article April 22, 2006.  I am re-publishing it again today because it is as timely now as ever.

Who's To Blame For High Gasoline Prices?

Most Americans blame the Middle East for our high gasoline prices.  As many blame the big oil companies. While each may be true to a degree, we are missing the biggest culprit of all:  ourselves.

Thirty-three years ago this coming October OPEC, in response to Nixon sending arms to Israel to fight a war against Egypt and Syria, enacted an oil embargo against the United States.

Suddenly, fuel prices quadrupled.  People stood in long lines for limited amounts of fuel.  President Nixon announced "Project Independence" to make the United States self-reliant in energy.    When the Iranian revolution came along prices doubled again. 

Then what happened?  Very little. We mandated higher gas mileage automobiles, and we bought them for a while.  We talked energy conservation for awhile.   We created a Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  

Then when supplies and prices settled down we forgot it all. We now import nearly 60% of our oil needs compared to 40% in 1973. We gorged ourselves with SUVs. We have allowed mergers and acquisitions to occur that have concentrated the control of oil in 5 companies. We have ignored their collusion to control the supply of refined oil in order to produce record oil company profits.  We have allowed, maybe even promoted, just the conditions that have put us in the shape we are today.

And who is to blame?  I am afraid that the answer is in the mirror. Oh yes, we can blame the government. But we are the government. Did we insist?  Did we protest in the streets?  Did we write our congressmen and senators? Did we sustain our demands for change?  No.  We relaxed, unlike the oil lobby.  We fell into the same old comfort zone.  

Today we consume over three times the oil per day than either of the closest two nations, China and Japan. China is consuming more and more and may eventually surpass us.  India's consumption will certainly grow rapidly. The world is being increasingly more developed and will grow in its consumption. This means we now have major competitors for the oil that is available.

The worst part is that we can never be self-sufficient in oil.  We simply can not produce enough. As long as oil is our chief energy source we are under its control.

So, what is the answer?  This nation must develop United States produced replacements for oil.  We must become self-reliant, not only in pronouncement, but in reality. 

This will only happen if We the People insist upon it;  unwaveringly, loudly, consistently, even if the current prices of fuel ease.  We must remember that the oil interests do not want this.  They will do all they can to prevent it.  They will try to keep the prices just low enough to prevent alternatives from being profitable enough for business to pursue.

That is why it may be necessary for the government to do this.  If ever the country needed defending, it needs defending in the area of energy.  If we can spend billions and billions to defend the sources of oil, we can spend billions and billions to free us from the grasp of oil.

We created the atom bomb to end World War II. We went to the moon.  We can do this.  But until now, it has never truly been a priority of this country.  That means you and me. Right now many of us are probably hoping that gas prices will ease and things will return to normal.  Normal will kill us when it comes to placing any reliance on oil for our long-term energy needs.

Freedom has never been more threatened.  In order for this country to be truly free, it must find a way to give up foreign oil by replacing it with American fuel.  We must use our technology, our genius, and our determination.  We must not relent.  We must not forget.  We must insist upon a focused and financed national energy independence effort. 

We must succeed to survive.

Elizabethtown, KY--March 05, 2007

Many have suspected and still suspect that George Bush intended to take down Saddam Hussein long before 9/11.

9/11--and all of the false evidence Bush and Cheney drummed up--gave Bush the nationalistic emotions he needed to drag the U.S. into the Iraq war.

Was Vice-President Dick Cheney's secretive meeting with top oil officials on Valentine's day, February 14, 2001 (which occurred almost seven months to the day before September 11, 2001), a meeting to discuss how to deal with the possible interruption of oil supplies when we invaded Iraq; knowing the invasion would result in the soaring price increases and historically enormous windfall profits enjoyed by Big Oil since then?

Did that sweetheart deal include plans to rake even more billions from the Iraqi oil fields after the war?

If not, then it is just mightily coincidental that Vice-President Cheney refuses to share with the American public just who the participants were, and what was discussed at that meeting.  One has to ask why. 

It is also mightily coincidental that, with American military control of Iraq increasingly losing favor with the American public, there is sudden urgency for the Iraqi government to hammer out an oil agreement.

As currently drawn, that agreement will  give the lion's share of the immense profits from Iraqi oil production for the foreseeable future to--and pay the Iraqi oil infrastructure construction costs of--major U.S., British, and international oil companies.

As reported here on January 30, oil prices averaged an inflation-adjusted average of $32.26 a barrel in 2000.  The price fell even lower until Bush invaded Iraq.

Friday, March 2, 2007, the price of oil stood at $61.64 per barrel--almost twice the price before Bush invaded Iraq-- partly due to the continued oil production disruption in Iraq, and partly due to international concerns over possible U.S. military action against Iran.

The Middle East has the oil.  The rest of the world needs and wants it. 

How many wars--despite whatever justifications are offered to send American soldiers into battle--will be fought over the enormous sums both oil and fears about the interruption of oil--put into the pockets of oil barons and the politicians they own?

Elizabethtown, KY--February 5, 2006

In the year 64 A.D., ten of the fourteen Augustan regions of Rome burned while--as popular legend has it-- Roman Emperor Nero fiddled.

Today the United States, China and other nations fiddle while the Earth faces the prospect of runaway global warming.

 Forty-six nations agreed to support the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  But not the largest contributors to global warming--the United States, China, Russia, and India.

These large countries burn enormous amounts of fossil fuel.  The burning of fossil fuels creates greenhouse gases that trap the heat of the sun, instead of the sun's heat being reflected back to space, as would normally happen.

What  are the consequences of trapping the sun's heat instead of  reflecting it back to space? According to an analysis of the IPCC report by (Phillipine newspaper) Inquirer editorial consultant Amando Doronila, they include "melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, heat waves, worsening droughts, heavy rainfall in some regions, and stronger hurricanes and storms."

Doronila listed the "Highlights of the Report" as follows:

* "Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, [which] have increased markedly as a result of human activity, exceed pre-industrial values."

*The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration "are due primarily to fossil fuel (mainly oil, coal, and gas) and land-use change."

*"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observation of increases in global average and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising mean sea level."

*Eleven of the last 12 years (1996-2006) rank among the 12 warmest years in the record of global surface temperature (since 1850).

*The Earth's surface temperatures were predicted to rise between 1.8 and 4.0 Celsius and sea levels by 7.1 inches to 23.3 inches by 2100.

*Numerous long-term climate changes have been observed at continental, regional and ocean basin scales.

*Significantly increased precipitation has been observed in eastern parts of North and South America,  northern Europe and northern central Asia.  Drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia.

*More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since 1970, particularly in  the tropics (where the Philippines is located) and sub-tropics.  Increased drying linked with higher temperatures and decreased precipitation have contributed to changes in droughts.

*Widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over the past 50 years.  Cold days, cold nights and frost have become less frequent, while hot days, hot nights and heat waves have become more frequent.

*There has been an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic since about 1970 as well as in some other regions. "It is very likely that hot extremes, hot nights and heat waves have become more frequent", says the summary.

Doronila goes on to say, "Far from being alarmist, the report is couched in careful scientific language that is criticized by some quarters as too conservative and an understatement of the panel's case."

A similar report was issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002, but President George W. Bush dismissed his own EPA's advice as a "report put out by the bureaucracy."

It is alarming, but not surprising--that an administration as in bed with the oil and gas industry as the Bush administration is-- continues to fiddle, despite the wealth of scientific evidence indicating the current level of burning fossil fuels is disastrous to the world.

The Bush administration has also refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which was opened for signature in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.  The protocol is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. It was entered into force on February 15, 2005. 

The United States has signed the protocol, but not ratified it, which means it is not enforceable in the United States.  

China, the world's second largest contributor to greenhouse gases-- second only behind the United States--has also resisted the requirements of Kyoto.  It is predicted that China will pass the United States as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in a few years.

 Because India is still classified as a developing country, it has been exempted from the requirements, though India did sign and ratify it. But India is a significant and growing contributor to global warming.

Russia did sign and ratify Kyoto, but has so far not supported the new IPCC report.

Another large contributor to greenhouse gases is Australia.  But Australia, like the United States, has signed Kyoto but refuses to ratify it.

The European Union supports the IPCC report, and has signed and ratified Kyoto.  In total, 169 countries and other governmental entities had signed the Kyoto protocol as of December, 2006.

As the world burns, the United States, China and others continue to bury their head in the sand; primarily out of fear of losing industrial competitiveness to countries who have not ratified Kyoto, or who are not otherwise limited by the protocol.

It is a sad situation when lining the pockets of industrial barons today--whether here, or in China, Russia, India, Australia or anywhere--is valued above saving the Earth for future generations. 

You would think that people who are supposedly intelligent enough to lead their nations could hear the loud and clear message from the scientific world, which says:  "Our planet is burning, and you are lighting the fires."

But then, the fiddles are playing loudly in the palaces of the powerful, both here and around the globe.

January 25, 2007--Elizabethtown, KY

This past Tuesday night we were treated to another State of the Union address by President George W. Bush.  What follows is this citizen's response to some of the remarks made by the President.

GWB:  The economy is on the move, and our job is to keep it that way, not with more government, but with more enterprise. 

Citizen:  Right. It seems that the enterprise your government has been about is to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on an unnecessary war, which you are financing by borrowing money from countries like communist China.

 At the same time you refuse to tax the wealthy to help pay for your war. The jobs being created are low-paying service jobs taking the place of the thousands and thousands of higher-paying manufacturing jobs we are losing to China, India, and much of the third world.

And your aren't even willing to grant our most poorly-paid workers a raise in the minimum-wage without giving another tax-break to businessmen.

Less government? You and your Republican Congress haven't missed an opportunity to spend money, deal out pork, fund your K-Street lobbyists' corporations' programs, or plunge our country into deeper and deeper debt.

I will, however, give you credit for shrinking government to the size of a pea when it comes to dealing with Katrina-ravished New Orleans.  Never has so little been done for so many.

GWB:  What we need to do is impose spending discipline in Washington, D.C.

Citizen:  It took you six years to realize this?  Or is it just that now that you have a Democratic-controlled Congress, you think its finally possible?

GWB:  Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound.

Citizen: Yes, and so far your ideas have included robbing the Social Security System of funds by promoting a risky stock-based alternative, and creating a massively expensive and confusing senior prescription program with its huge Medicare Part-D donut-hole.

GWB:  Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act . . .

Citizen:  Which you left greatly underfunded.  Like your "Border Fence" legislation, it was another example of treating us like morons.  You promote politically pleasing programs and then don't provide the money for them.  How cynical can you get (Sorry, rhetorical question)?

GWB:  A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available health care.

Citizen:  Yes, and that is called Universal Health Care.  Every other major developed country has it.  We don't need the complicated, tricky tax deduction/tax jeopardy idea you offered. 

 Why don't you admit it: Your main goal is to protect those who get filthy rich from providing health care at the expense of the rest of us, namely:  health-care providers, health-care corporations, and health-care insurers. Same for your idea about limiting malpractice law suits.

GWB:  It's in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply--the way forward is through technology.

Citizen:  Couldn't agree, more Mr. President.  But trusting you with this vital issue is like trusting the fox to guard the hen house. 

I can't believe you will do anything actually meaningful about reducing our consumption of oil.  You and your buddies are too invested in Big Oil. 

GWB:  A future of hope and opportunity requires a fair, impartial system of justice.

Citizen:  Once again, Mr. President, I couldn't agree more.  But your requirement that candidates for the judiciary first pass the Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson litmus test is not consistent with fair and impartial justice.

Neither does it serve the purpose of justice for you, your Justice Department, and your Attorney General to violate the very tenets of our Constitution through constant violations of our basic civil liberties, or through your intimidation of our free press.

GWB:  We went into this [Iraq] largely united, in our assumptions and our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure.

Citizen:  We went into Iraq blinded by the events of 9/11 and misled by your intentional misrepresentations to the Congress and the American public. Many members of Congress voted for it then because of your calculated and deliberate dishonesty.

Today, we have the benefit of knowledge many did not have at that time.  Little did we know that you and your war staff were so incompetent.  Little did we know then that you had lied about Iraq, WMD, and uranium from Nigeria.  When we voted for you again in 2004, little did some know they were voting for failure-- for the second time.

You are lucky you haven't been impeached for your dishonesty.  Why should we believe you now?  You have lost the trust and confidence of the people and the Congress.  If we had a Parliamentary form of government, you wouldn't be President now.

GWB:  And I ask you to support our troops in the field, and those on the way.

Citizen:  Mr. President, we always have--and always will--support our troops.  But we do not support you or your policies regarding Iraq.

Finally, Mr. President, when the annals of history are written, it will be recorded that you were and are a liar, and that you willfully manipulated the United States of America into a war--an invasion--of another country.

  It will be recorded that you single-handedly created turmoil in the Middle East that erupted into a fight between religious sects which could spill into a major regional conflict; not because of Iran, or Syria, or Hamas, or Hezbollah, but because of you, Sir, and your tragic mistakes.

It will be further recorded that you did nothing serious to help heal the differences between Israel and the Palestinians, which is at the root of all Middle East problems.

And if Sir, you attack Iran, it will be at your will and part of your record of malfeasance;  if not on your conscience.

Our people have been betrayed by you and your dogged pursuit of war.  History may reveal that you were a madman, who like other maniacal leaders of the past, used the fears of his nation to lead it and the world down the path of destruction.

We can only pray that we survive your bad judgments and your misdeeds.

Good night, Sir.  God Bless America. God help America.

Nothing is as vital as eliminating our country's dependence on foreign oil. 

 As long as we are dependent on often hostile countries and profit-driven companies intent on wringing every last dollar possible out of the American consumer's pocket, our independence and well-being are at risk.

For their part, the oil producing countries believe that we will show no more resolve or creativeness ...   more »

Elizabethtown, KY--November 1, 2006

The national media, always hungry for a new story to exploit, is spending an inordinate amount of time on a botched joke by Sen. John Kerry.  That is not what this election is about.

Kerry intended to say that if Bush had studied harder and learned his lessons, then Bush would not have gotten our country ...   more »

Do you really know Ron Lewis?  He's not what he pretends to be.

Ron Lewis voted AGAINST cracking down on oil and gas price-gouging.  But Lewis voted FOR giving billions to the oil and gas industries. And big oil and gas have given Ron Lewis $56,150.

Big drug companies have given Ron Lewis $28,333 over his career.  Lewis voted AGAINST allowing ...   more »