I love learning new things and try very hard to not just buy the line that the media and political machine try to feed me. Sometimes, I just don’t have the knowledge to reject the propaganda and therefore, I tend to ignore it as I am pretty confident they aren’t telling me the whole truth or even a part of it sometimes. 

This post is about oil.  Not the kind you cook with, although that might be an interesting topic.  I have always been anti-more drilling especially up in Alaska where the land is untouched and should stay that way.  I also wish we would take the money that it costs to drill a well (50-100 million bucks each) and invest in alternative energy sources and technology.  But we are a country controlled by money and by big oil so we continue to plug along “in love” with big oil. 

I have never understood the whole “lets gets more oil here in the U.S. and not have to be dependent on foreign oil.”  I knew this was not how it worked, but I never really understood the complexities of the industry and this global economy.  Well, I am now enlightened.  Not completely enlightened, but more so than I was before.  I was listening to talk radio the other day and they were talking about the oil industry and how it really works.  I was fascinated as I had no real idea about it at all. 

Drilling for more oil in the U.S. will in no way lessen our dependence on foreign oil.  Why not you ask?  Good question.  Oil is sold on a global market which means that oil pumped from the U.S. doesn’t ensure sale to the U.S.  Because oil isn’t a government operation here in the U.S. like in other countries (Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq) we don’t keep it for ourselves it goes onto the global market and then the U.S. buys oils from this market at a price decided on by the traders who determine the price.  I think that this is so interesting and really cements for me the amount of propaganda the comes out of the GOP.  More oil in America does not mean more oil for America.  This reinforces my disgust for big oil and my desire to own one of Honda’s new hydrogen cars.  If only I still lived in California. 

We need to educate ourselves as consumers and make sure we understand the economy and how it works the best we can so that we can make informed decisions about whom and what we support.