Tuesday, April 26, 2005

World's Largest Deposits of Shale Oil In US!

World’s largest deposits of “Shale Oil” in the US!

Bought gas lately? OHWEE! That hurt!

Gasoline prices are soaring at the pump and tempers are flaring as consumers become even more hesitant to drive that extra trip to the mall, or the grocery store, or the Big Box Shopping Center. The price on everything, on all the shelves, in all the stores, of any kind, is going up, and up, and the transportation and delivery service passes their increased “costs of doing business” on to their customers, the stores from which you and I buy. Ultimately, the consumer, that’s you and me, pay the full price of the increased cost on goods we purchase in this country simply because the stores pass that increase on to us.

There is no end in sight. Yet.

The US has known for sometime that this country holds the world’s largest deposits of Shale oil. (Oil, which is a part of the shale rock.) It has been, until now, too expensive to squeeze out and process. Back when oil was selling on the international market for $22.50 a barrel with the occasional spike to $25.00 a barrel, the cost of “squeezing” oil from Shale was at, approximately, $35.00 a barrel. It was just too expensive. Now that oil, on the international market has risen to $55.00 a barrel plus the strong possibility that it will increase even more, shale oil production is looking very good… and much cheaper than oil from OPEC!

I don’t think there is any question the US is being gouged by the international oil bosses. Maybe it’s payback for Afghanistan and Iraq. No matter. It is still something this country struggles with every day.

The sooner the Congress gets off their duffs and clears the way for the wells in the Anwr, in Alaska, and off shore drilling along the entire coast(s) of the US, and clearing the way for Shale oil production, the sooner we can invite the oil merchants in the Middle East, and elsewhere, to drink they own oil.

The American consumer will pay the higher pump price with less grousing if he knows the money is staying here, in the States, and will continue to circulate in our vast economy. American consumers will not like the increase in “at the pump prices” but we will, over time, accept it, and move on. However, if Opec and the other oil merchants continue their gouging, the American consumer is going to turn surly. It has, in fact already begun. A surly American populace is not, believe me, what the oil merchants need… or want. The "Surly American" is even worse than the "Ugly American", and I’d remind those same merchants, the "Surly American" will soon begin to throw his considerable weight around. It could get a bit dicey!

Sooner, or later the US will have an alternative fuel. But not yet, and not for a few more years. But, that time IS coming. When it does, we won’t need their oil, nor, for that matter, their so-called friendship. What goes around… comes around.

Your Obedient Servant,

“Longstreet”

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