by R.A. Scott

Created on: June 06, 2008

A number of years ago Saddam Hussein (remember him?) suggested that oil at $30.00 a barrel was simply ripping off the supplying countries. Hussein thought that oil should be at $100.00 a barrel or maybe even $200.00 a barrel. It seems he got his wish, albeit after his death.
Oil is moving ever upward and the question is, "Why?" Why has the price of oil gone through the roof?

There are a couple of reasons and not the least of which is the war. The war has caused those so-called insurgents to blow up oil rigs and various oil pipelines throughout the mid-east.

Those attacks have lowered the amount of oil coming from some of the producing countries. Lesser amounts of oil quite simply means the price goes up. I suppose Mr. bin Laden is probably loving the situation that is happening in the west. That could hurt the economies of the western nations as much or more than what 9/11 did. So bin Laden just needs to sit back and watch the price of oil rise and laugh and have a great time.

At the same time there is yet another cause of rising oil prices. The rise of nations like India and those of the Asian continent are beginning a renaissance, if you will. These developing nations are demanding more and more oil so that their economies and lifestyles can not only grow but they want to reach the heights (if that's what you want to call it) that have been reached by the Western world.

The competition for oil has never been so fierce. The combined populations of India, China and the other developing Asian countries are simply massive. Given this struggle between the West and its desire to maintain an economic structure and the Asian countries that are wanting that economy and lifestyle, the world ends up with growing oil prices.

This is more serious for Western nations because our economies were built on the back of cheap oil. On the other hand, Oriental countries have never known cheap oil prices so what we perceive as a higher cost is just a normal price to Eastern countries.

Solving this oil issue is not only serious but difficult to say the least. Some are hoping Bio-fuels will save the day. Not so fast there Speedy, the problem with bio-fuels is that it raises food prices around the globe. We all need to eat cereal grains so bio-fuels are truly a waste of time, unless you want to pay more for bread and the like.

What we need is a revolution! "You say you want a revolution, Well, you know,
We all want to change the world." Thanks to John Lennon. This revolution would not involve a governmental take over; although if there was ever a government that needed a revolution it is the George Bush administration! However, his desire to destroy the world is coming to an end as is his political term so it's a wee bit too late to revolt. And far be it from me to advocate revolution.

The revolution needs to involve finding a replace to the internal combustion engine. That is the only real way to reduce our need for oil from the mid-east. It's a tough call but there must be someone out there capable of doing something new. There just has to be someone, there has to be. Please, someone . . . anyone.

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