Eco-mmunity to End Fossil Fuel
High Oil Prices: Bubble or Not?
Oil prices have been rising since 2001 for a variety of reasons: a weakening dollar, increased American and international demand and stagnant supply (not helped by OPEC). With the current price at an all time record high for most of America, some groups posit that there is effectively an oil 'price bubble' that is destined to pop, not unlike the Tech Bubble in 2001 or the recent Housing Bubble. Others claim that any 'bubble' in oil prices could only be caused by hoarding of supply or a miscalculation of supply vs. demand, both of which are not possible on the long time scales that we are seeing prices climb.
This blogger feels that the evidence seems to support the latter argument, and high oil prices will remain a part of daily life as long as America continues to consume 25% of the world's oil, while only constituting 5% of its population.
There's a great summary article showing both sides of the argument today on Wired.
Either way, the real answer that is so often overlooked is investment in efforts to reduce our national dependence on fossil fuel energy sources. Solar, wind and biomass electricity sources to power plug-in hybrids, or even fully electric vehicles, anyone?
4 Comments
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Comment by ningcreator on May 14, 2008 at 8:49pm - Oh, poor little earth. Didn't realize space had that kind of viscosity.
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Comment by Mark Gagner on May 15, 2008 at 4:49pm -
There are a few other reasons why oil prices are increasing at unprecedented rates:
1. In many places on our planet, it is getting more and more costly to drill for the remaining oil.
2. Political actions in many of the nations that control huge oil reserves (ie Venezuala, Russia, etc) are putting upward pressure on prices.
Neither of these factors would indicate that lower prices are coming anytime soon
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Comment by J McKinley on May 16, 2008 at 1:32pm - For the 2nd time in a year, Bush has failed to convince OPEC to increase production. Even though OPEC is often the whipping boy for US gas prices, a supply increase would do very little to abate the current pricing crisis.
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Comment by J McKinley on May 29, 2008 at 8:31am
- Good lord, I paid $4.36 a gallon last night! All this while the price of oil is dropping slightly. Where are the alternatives?
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