--Oh, I forgot, we actually did.

Well it was an oil president who took office, and right away we started having oil crises.

Don't you wish we'd seated the tobacco president and ended up with a tobacco crisis instead?

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King, "Beyond Vietnam"

The so-called Big Oil companies are no longer the powers they were 30 years ago.  Today they control less than 10 percent of global crude oil production.  National Oil Companies control the rest.  Examples: In Russia and Saudi Arabia production is controlled by the state.
Pemex in Mexico is hobbled because the state takes most of the export revenues in the form of taxes.  This has 2 negative effects for Mexico as their oil production has been declining since late 2004.

1. Pemex has too little money for the added drilling programs they need to try to boost production.

2. The federal budget of Mexico is more than 40% dependent upon oil export taxes and exports have declined 12.5%.  Fortunately for Mexico the high world prices have been a boon and they have not yet decreased Mexican government revenues.  But think of the impact on Mexico if, in 5 years or so, exports drop to zero.

Shell Oil is doing a better job than Exxon at being a corporate citizen of the world by admitting the production is likely to decline within the next few years and by investing in alternatives.  But I have doubts about how many oil companies will survive the decline of petroleum as it is rare for a monolithic business to make a successful transition into a new, unfamiliar, field of business.  A transition from being an oil & gas company to coal would be tough for some but to solar or wind or biofuels or battery technologies much, much more difficult.

Exxon is slowly liquidating their company.  They have no access to new places to drill, their technical staff is aging toward retirement, their stockholders want profits per share and oil-reserves-per-share etc. so they are spending to buy back shares and decrease the shareholder base.  This helps make Exxon a Good stock to be in your retirement portfolio but means Exxon won't be of much use to resolve the energy crisis as hydrocarbon production growth rates first go flat and then decline.

Oil prices in the USA are now set in the world market as we import more than 60% of what we burn every day.
If we reach the point (maybe - WHEN we reach the point) where exporters keep their oil at home to keep their own population happy we will be hurting.  Back in the Nixon/Carter years we were about 20% dependent.

Oil parallels Rice

Look at the world situation in Rice.  Some crop failures and some population growth and the three largest exporters of rice have limited, taxed or even blocked exports to keep prices lower in the home country.  The Philippines is now in a tough spot because they are the largest per capita importer of rice.  For them it is not merely expensive they cannot buy all they need.

Saudi Arabia today has a higher per capita oil consumption than the USA.  Indeed most (all?) OPEC members are selling gasoline and diesel at below-market prices.  Iran is in the odd position of lacking enough refineries and is importing refined gasoline at market prices and then selling at lower prices.  This situation leads to 2 bad outcomes.

a. OPEC internal consumption will continue to boom

b. Exports will decline, may even decline even though production is growing.

The USA has done little since the Carter administration to face this and today our vulnerability is much greater.

Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll deplete his food supply.

I have to do a volunteer gig this weekend in Long Island, and I simply cannot afford to go.  But I am signed up for it and we're carpooling.

ugh.

The american public gets ripped off again, and no one does a thing.

Brendan Calling John Mccain