“In Defense of Oil”–coming to a campus near you
Every day, Americans use about 3 gallons of oil a day. That’s almost one billion gallons total.
It’s hard to find anyone who thinks this is a good thing. Indeed, the overwhelming view heard in our culture is that our use of oil is an “addiction”. This term was popularized by former President–and oilman–George W. Bush in his 2006 speech.
Barack Obama is even more opposed to oil: “the age of oil must end in our time,” he has declared unequivocally. And: “the country that faced down the tyranny of fascism and communism is now called to challenge the tyranny of oil.” (Note: our President is comparing our use of oil to movements that killed a combined 100 million people.)

I have found learning the history of oil to be invaluable when looking at today’s controversies. For example, when watching Congress haul oil executives to Washington over gasoline prices that are “too high,” and calling for “investigations”—it is instructive to know that this practice has been going on since the 1920s. Or, when reading references to the oil embargo of the 1970s, along with the idea that it proves the necessity of “energy independence,” it is crucial to know what really happened and what America’s real mistake was.

Most people have become acclimated to an extremely slow rate of energy progress. While, say, our computers and electronics will rapidly decrease in price while increasing in quality, our energy bills look to be going nowhere but up. This despite the fact that today, as in the past several decades, government “energy planners” promise us an energy paradise of solar, wind, or whatever other technology they happen to favor.
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