Petrofraud and the New Depression

Petrofraud is a word I coined to describe the the great con job that
is the Bush administration?s policy ? that policy is the only policy
they have or have ever had, with respect to energy, foreign affairs,
war and our economy. All of it has been about oil. And the present
speculative bubble is the crowning achievement of the scheme.

They are laughing all the way to their banks in Dubai, Switzerland,
and, no doubt, Paraguay. A superb assessment of the pathology of this
sociopathic bunch can be found in Charley Reese?s chilling column,
America is the Rogue Nation, which details the lengths to which they
are going ? in our name ? to achieve their nefarious goals. We are
being robbed into bankruptcy to enrich a relatively small oligarchy,
within which an even smaller group are retaining unimaginable wealth.

Once these statements would have sounded outlandish; the ravings of an
extremist. Now, however, we all know it to be true. Even those who
still fancy themselves ?conservative? know what?s happening, though
many of them retain their allegiance to the Republicans as a form of
faith.

What is it about faith that makes it so devastatingly ruinous? It is
simply this: it is the belief in something or someone just because?
Because one wants to believe it, or because one was raised to believe
it (even if further education proved it wrong), or because one voted
one way and doesn?t want or can?t process the idea that it was so
dreadfully wrong. So they become more fiercely adamant in their
wrong-headed convictions. But heads are coming out of the sand.

As the zeitgeist has shifted, thanks to the indefatigable efforts of
Al Gore and countless others, the public has awakened to the need to
reduce our energy usage and shift to renewable, non-polluting
resources. Auto manufacturers have slammed shut whole plants and
discontinued models of large trucks and SUVs as gasoline flirts with
$5/gallon. The interesting part about $5/gallon gasoline is that it is
the point at which people significantly change their habits; for some,
it becomes their only non-sustaining expenditure (outside food, home,
and utilities). The person who had only $200/month after basics can no
longer buy clothes. Hell, they can barely afford to dry clean the ones
they have. That extra $200/ month is going to fuel tank and increased
home utilities bill. The oilmen in the West Wing are squeezing the
last dime out of the public for their cronies in Houston. In a
Depression, there?s no spare change.

Ironically, Bush?s legacy may well be that it was through his
ill-gotten and mismanaged stewardship that the American public became
serious about conservation and self-sustenance. The same could have
been achieved by a president who understood the good that government
can do (rather than how much he could steal from it) by placing high
taxes on gasoline when it was still $1/gallon as Bush took office. Had
a $4/gallon tax been levied at that time, the oil companies would have
still been profitable, but the hundreds of billions of dollars they
have raked in over the past 7 years would have been going to maintain
a domestic infrastructure that is now the disgrace of the developed
world. Had we been paying high prices for gasoline due to a tax, the
change in the public mindset would have occurred just the same. That
infrastructure improvement would have, included electric-charging,
biofuel, and hydrogen stations, as well as modern rail service. The
oil bubble could never have occurred, because by this time usage would
be flat or reduced, and the meme about shortages wouldn?t have been
applicable. Either way, the change in mindset has been achieved.

Every day, more gas-guzzling vehicles are retired and replaced by cars
that get twice the mileage, airlines are cutting flights and cramming
more passengers into fewer planes, and people are using their
air-conditioners more judiciously. In the end, changing the driving
habits of Americans will be spun as Bush?s greatest achievement. Of
course it came as a way to benefit his cronies from Riyadh to Houston,
but it there it is.

The major difference is in who?s angry. If a large tax had driven up
the price, and in return for it the United States had initiated a
massive infrastructure project ? adding modern train lines, additional
subway lines, and substitute fuels ? the conservative anti-tax crowd
would be furious. As it is, the only people who are happy are those
getting larger dividend checks from their oils stocks, and those who
have speculated successfully in oil futures, although I suspect most
of them grouse at the pump just the same anyone else. My guess is that
both of those investments have rather worn out their welcome.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure that wasn?t maintained with those same
hundreds of billions of dollars has decayed. The other achievement
from these policies will be losing the entire Mississippi River basin
and all its tributaries for the Republicans: from the levees in New
Orleans, to the Bridge in Minnesota, through the levees and farmland
in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, the breadbasket knows where the blame
lays.

What to do Now
So it is incumbent upon all of us to further cut our consumption now,
as one should during wartime anyway. The sacrifice of this war should
be against those who are really waging it at our expense (the oil
companies and crude speculators). Petrofraud has brought us here, and
minimizing our use of what has become as basic as food will be our
out. Ride share; plan your trip to minimize your mileage; retire your
car and replace it with a more efficient model as soon as possible
(and if you can select an American car with high mileage, you will be
sending a vote to Detroit saying you want more of these models, and
saving a domestic manufacturing job); and buy locally grown produce
(this is a step that will improve your diet and save thousands of
gallons of diesel).

As there?s no doubt that gasoline prices will plummet after Labor Day
(banking on short memories in November): Don?t be fooled. It?s the end
of the con.

Michael Fox
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