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Dear Friend and Reader:
On the occasion of the Capricorn Full Moon — that is, the annual lunation in the sign Capricorn — I want to say that I am sick of hearing people say they can’t afford gasoline to get to work. I concede that we are an energy hungry nation, and that men the likes of Robert Moses ripped us off during the 20th century, tearing up light rail tracks and putting in superhighways.
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US Rep. Maurice Hinchey. |
I scoff at the pigs driving pickup trucks weighing 5,000 pounds with just the driver and nothing in the bed, an American phenomenon that is a relic of the days when we believed that there were no limits; certainly not where personal trucks are concerned.
This is not Europe, where even though a gallon of petrol costs about $12, people can get by on public transportation or cities where it is possible to walk from one end to the other in a relatively pleasant style. Cars are far smaller, more people ride scooters, and there are buses and light rail systems in every single city. Every other vehicle is not an SUV getting 10 miles to the gallon.
Yet we are in truth a rural nation. Many people travel 50 miles to work not to live in a four bedroom house, but rather to work at all.
How exactly has it happened that the price of a gallon of gas has nearly doubled in a year — the last year of the Cheney/Bush administration? Futures traders, by some accounts, are pushing up the price through rampant speculation, which I am sure they would laugh at — all the way to their Swiss bank. Does it matter that the main leaders of our nation, the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, are all from the oil industry?
Yesterday, Maurice Hinchey, our local congressman, held a news conference at the cafe across the street from my studio to deepen the public’s knowledge of what is happening, and what we might do about it. I found this really interesting, and you might too. This is quoted from the local daily paper, the Daily Freeman.
Hinchey said fuel purchases by the U.S. military have been a driving force behind increased market prices.
“The military spent $8.2 billion on energy for 2004 … and $12.891 billion in 2007,” he said. “That’s for all the energy, gas, natural gas and other related energies.”
Hinchey said information the most recent report on military fuel use was not immediately available.
“In 2004 the military used 144 million barrels of oil, 400,000 a day, the same amount that was used by the country of Greece, the entire country of Greece,” he said.
Isn’t that just something special?
Think of all the fuel being used to wage illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, against nonexistent enemies (ostensibly Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden). Yet once we decided that the “war on terror” was really the “war for cheap oil,” we could then figure out we were getting ripped off when it costs $50 to fill the tank of a little Toyota. Many people cannot fill the tank and buy their fuel a gallon or two at a time. Because of the price of oil, everything else is more expensive.
While everyone from cattlemen to McDonalds to the local pizzeria are feeling this particular pinch and many others, raising the price of oil is a way to rip off the poor more than anyone; that is, people living on subsistence budgets. They have less money to spend and they spend more of it on things directly hooked to the price of oil. It may be annoying for a wealthy person to heat their house at the current price of diesel; for many people it will be impossible, and they will be squeezed terribly along the way.
Genevieve, who helps with this blog, told me today it was going to cost her$5,000 to heat the small farm house she rents with her boyfriend. I am sure the house sold for that much at one point. They plan to run the thermostat at 65 degree, and she is knitting some warm clothes to help out.
What is interesting is how people are complaining and borrowing money from one another to put a few gallons in the tank, but nobody seems to have a clue what to do. There is not anger, but rather a sense of helplessness. I think that deep in the American psyche there is the sense that to rebel against corporate crime is to invoke the belief in socialism, but it’s corporate welfare that is slowly bleeding the nation dry of its wealth.
This is adding to the paranoia that has a lot of people on edge, wondering about the future, wondering to do with all their fear, their debt and what they perceive as the lack of opportunity.
There has to be a better way.
The full story from the Freeman is posted below.
Hinchey bashes Bush on gas prices
By William J. Kemble, The Daily Freeman
KINGSTON – U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (Democrat representing upstate New York) on Monday said high gas prices and risky environmental solutions are examples of what happens when Congress is unable to hold an oil industry insider accountable for actions as president of the United States.
President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling.
Hinchey said during a press conference in Dominick’s CafГ© that efforts to make serious changes in energy laws under a congressional Democratic majority have been thwarted by veto threats.
“A lot of them have passed the House of Representatives but haven’t passed the Senate because the president has threatened to veto them … (and) it would take two-thirds of the Congress to override that,” he said.
Hinchey said the coming fall election campaigns should focus on promoting ideas that will use non-fossil fuels and offer tax breaks for consumers who purchase fuel efficient vehicles.
“What you do is have cars that people can buy, manufactured here in the United States,” he said.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is put another energy tax incentive involved in the purchase of cars that get good mileage,” Hinchey said. “It’s a piece of legislation that says if you’re going to go out and buy a car, think about a car that’s going to get good gas mileage so you will be able to buy lower amounts of fuel.”
Hinchey said it will also be necessary to increase limits on programs that provide assistance for low- and moderate-income property owners.
“We’re hoping that before Congress adjourns, which will be probably the first week in October, that we’ll be able to get this kind of thing passed,” he said.
“This is another thing that we’re pressing hard for in Washington and another thing that the president says he’s going to veto,” Hinchey said. “Low-income energy assistance is essential for poor people, particularly poor older people, low-income elderly people who are living only on Social Security.”
Hinchey contends the Bush administration has continued to manipulate information to keep U.S. forces in Iraq to benefit oil companies. He said meetings conducted early in the Bush presidency between Vice President Dick Cheney and oil industries executives continue to dictate policies leading to current high prices.
“That is why this administration let Osama bin Laden (in Afghanistan) go because they wanted to justify attacking Iraq,” he said.
Hinchey said fuel purchases by the U.S. military have been a driving force behind increased market prices.
“The military spent $8.2 billion on energy for 2004 … and $12.891 billion in 2007,” he said. “That’s for all the energy, gas, natural gas and other related energies.”
Hinchey said information on the most recent report on military fuel use was not immediately available.
“In 2004 the military used 144 million barrels of oil, 400,000 a day, the same amount that was used by the country of Greece, the entire country of Greece,” he said.
Hinchey said the Bush administration should not have lifted a ban on offshore drilling because oil companies have not thoroughly explored existing locations for new wells.
“Sixty-eight million acres (are available) and 80 percent of federal oil and gas reserves are already open and leased for development, but big oil has decided it’s not worth the money to drill there,” he said.
Wednesday 16 July 2008
Mercury (8+ Cancer) square Arachne (8+ Libra)
Sun (23+ Cancer) square 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Atlantis (17+ Libra) sextile Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (9+ Cancer) trine Pandora (9+ Scorpio)
Mars (8+ Virgo) sesquiquadrate 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Atlantis (17+ Libra) semisquare Hylonome (2+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (4+ Leo) quintile Pallas (22+ Taurus)
Hidalgo stations direct (6+ Scorpio)
Hidalgo (6+ Scorpio) septile Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius) – Near Miss Only
Venus (4+ Leo) semisquare Logos (19+ Virgo)
Mercury (10+ Cancer) semisquare Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Eros (2+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Today’s Oracle takes us to Dec 13, 2001 – Virgo – Weekly
In order to get out of the sense that the rug is being pulled from under your feet, just keep telling yourself that the past is over. In the potent words of the Course In Miracles, you might use the prayer, “The past is gone. It cannot touch me.” Be thankful for this; what you thought gave you security back then turned out to do nothing of the kind. But you have other options now — so choose well.