Washington running on empty

Walter F. Johnson Albemarle County
Published: May 1, 2008

We are currently diving headlong toward the most devastating depression ever experienced. Commodity prices, including oil, are skyrocketing at an accelerated rate, without any improvements anticipated in the foreseeable future. Yet, Washington, both the executive and legislative powers, continues to fiddle a la Nero.

To a limited extent, the increase in prices can be attributed to a short supply relative to an increasing demand. But, historically, private operations have been able to provide effective corrections. This time, we are more at the mercy of the politicians, as they fiddle.

The supply of fuel is short, but primarily because of Washington’s tax-and-control structure. We have sufficient fossil supplies, within our areas of influence, to supply us for at least 200 years.

We need to obtain these raw products and develop refining and use processes that will be acceptable to our environment. With appropriate freedom of operations, this can be accomplished in a matter of a few years.

The Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, took less than four years from almost scratch. Currently, there are no identified projects that have a potential of substantially reducing our energy problems within the next 20 years, if then.

The elevated prices of oil and commodities are directly related to the low value of our dollar, resulting from fiscal irresponsibilities in Washington. The current high prices for food are the direct result of diverting farmland from wheat and other grains to corn for ethanol. Ethanol, from corn, will never reduce our requirement for energy supplies.

Tell Washington to lead or get out of the way.