BCT Editorial – 7/20/08

This page was last updated on July 21, 2008.

Cold turkey; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 20, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “United States must break its addiction to oil and credit.”

Did you note what’s missing from the editorial? The Times “forgot” to tell us how it is going “cold turkey” and immediately switching from petroleum-based fuels.

In any case, going cold turkey away from oil would be the height of stupidity. As expensive as oil is right now, it is still far less expensive than all other alternative energy sources except perhaps for coal. Let’s say the U.S. immediately passed legislation that banned oil imports. After the riots, our economy would collapse for a few reasons. First, there’s nothing that can be poured into gasoline, heating fuel, diesel fuel, jet fuel, et cetera tanks that can take the place of these fuels. (Please, don’t give me the ethanol or other bio-fuel BS.) This would kill most activities requiring these fuels by a combination of lack of supply and astronomical prices. Second, even if we had oil substitutes, their price would be far more expensive than that of true oil products used by the rest of the world. (Remember, we’d be cutting worldwide oil demand by more than 13 MMBPD, causing the price outside the U.S. to plummet.) The energy price differential between the U.S. and the rest of the world would drive business out of the U.S. If you liked the Great Depression, you would absolutely love the aftermath of going cold turkey regarding oil consumption.

As far as the credit portion of the editorial, how many Times editorials have you read advocating government spending cuts? Remember, the average family eventually turns over nearly 33% of its income to all levels of government. This is near the all time high of 34% in 2000.