I hope you’re enjoying the cheap gas (I am!), because it is probably coming to an end. Chakib Khelil, the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has told the world that the members of his organization have consensus on a significant output cut at their meeting next week. OPEC, of course, is the international cartel that controls the majority of the world’s oil production. Many of its member nations are avowed enemies of the United States, Israel, and civilization in general.
With a decrease in production will come an increase in prices—simple economics—which certainly won’t help our economy or anybody else’s economy. OPEC, however, isn’t the type of organization to care. If they operated within the United States, they’d be shut down for illegal collusion under the Sherman Antitrust Act . . . but as an international cartel, they are not directly subject to our laws. Oil is one of those things that people have to use, and so long as it doesn’t spike too high people will continue to use it just as much as they always have. I have to drive to work the same distance every day whether gas is $1.02/gal or $5.02/gal.
And what are my alternatives? There is not a single practical alternative fuel vehicle available for my purchase. Perhaps, instead of giving 15 billion dollars to the ‘big three’ U.S. auto manufacturers, we should give the same amount of money to Tesla Motors—an electric car manufacturer based in California—so they can complete development and production of lower-priced, more affordable models beyond their slick $100,000 electric roadster.
It seems to me that companies like Tesla are more likely to save American auto manufacturing than G.M., Ford, or Chrysler are . . . and help get us off foreign oil and help us get away from indirectly funding terrorism. If we’re going to spend billions of tax dollars on private businesses, that might be a more prudent way to do it.