Exxon the Great

Exxon just made the biggest profit of any company in the history of the known universe, something like 31 billion last quarter. I say great. They did their job, they optimized the return for their shareholders. I started buying shares of Exxon ten years ago and they have contributed to my oldest daughter’s college education and will contribute to my youngest daughter education soon. Thank you Exxon. Thank you BP. Thank you, Occidental. I love you.

If Exxon played by the rules and won big, then more power to them. The excessive profits tax is just plain stupid. Popular, but stupid. I refuse to discuss it, its so stupid. One of the few times, I am glad that Jehovah Bush is the reigning King of Macho America.

What is stupid is our total disregard for the FACT that WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF CHEAP ENERGY. Our politicians have no guts for the truth. The only energy supply that is sufficient to keep us going for the next hundred years is Nuclear. Second choice is coal. Third choice is mass transit – go to the moon mass-transit, not lets build another monorail between Baltimore and Washington mass transit. We are out of easy answers, no-effort answers, no-consequence answers. But, even worse, the cost of doing nothing, i.e., the current policy, is a dramatic fall in our living standard as we all fight for declining oil production. China will win that fight. Look at their cash reserves, put a negative sign on it, and it equals our cash reserves. We are stupid and lack vision and leadership. We want easy answers and there are none. We lack the moral fiber to even address the issue honestly.

Oil reserves in Alaska. Stupid. It doesn’t matter. Spit in the air, that’s how much difference it will make if we drill in Alaska in the bigger picture of things. Oil supply is in decline, nothing we can do to change that. The supply is going down and the buyers are increasing – China, India, Asia, South America, Texans.

Hydrogen power. Again, somewhat stupid. Hydrogen is similar to electricity. It is a way of carrying power from point A to point B. But, you have to make the hydrogen using another energy supply. To have hydrogen as the primary focus of our energy policy is just plain stupid, or dishonest. We are all gutless idiots in this debate.

Does it mean things are hopeless. No, only as long as we remain stupid, gutless idiots. When we get some moral fiber behind us, the courage to be honest, the strength to standup for some unpopular choices, then we have prayer. Until then, we are toast, burnt toast.