Sometimes we feel like the little boy on the beach. He dips water out of the hole only to have it fill up again. Seems he'll never empty the ocean at that rate. We empathize. We wonder if we're changing even one person's mind on how important our looming energy crisis is and how we should best try to stave off its consequences.

But, just as the boy keeps trying to reach his goal, we will, too.

We'll keep using this forum to tell Americans (and anyone else who comes across our message) that using oil to power our world's economy is a recipe for collapse. That day's coming sooner than many realize.

A stark illustration of the increasingly dire situation comes from simply looking at the price of a barrel of oil. In 2003, $25 was the price. Two years later, $60. This past week, oil briefly inched past $90 a barrel.

Reality reminds us of fiction. A television program a couple years ago speculated on the future of oil prices. The storyline included oil rising to $100 a barrel. The premise didn't sound unrealistic then, and we've seen that it's not now. The program suggested that economies and lifestyles would change only when circumstances forced them to.

Even though we've watched prices at the pump rise steadily over the past few years, how many of us have really changed our habits? How many of us have gotten rid of our sport utility vehicles and replaced them with more energy efficient models? How many of us have taken steps to use alternative fuels at home or done more to use energy more efficiently?

The answer: not enough of us.

Moving from our oil-based economy to something different is a two-fold problem.

First, for many Americans, modifying energy use or upgrading efficiencies isn't an option financially.

For the millions and millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, there's barely enough for food and shelter, let alone a new, more expensive vehicle that gets better mileage. That's where governments step in. Our local, state and federal governments must emphasize energy conservation and efficiency and put our money where our mouth is.

We must have research and development funds, and we must offer tax advantages to individuals and companies who make wise energy choices and offer and use energy-saving products.

Second, we must revolutionize our energy sources.

Oil pumped from fields in the Middle East is too expensive for us in the short and long term. Not only is demand pricing us out of the market for the oil itself, American monies are fueling our real enemies. We're funding both sides of our ongoing campaign against terrorists, and we can't continue to do that.

We must develop other energy sources, and we believe that renewable energy is the way to go. Wind and solar power and biofuels are avenues we should pursue vigorously.

We look toward the Delta and believe that we should put the next generation of American farmers to work growing crops for fuels use. Opponents of such a plan contend that biofuels require energy investments that render the resulting products doubly inefficient and expensive. They miss the point.

A farmer in East Arkansas raises soybeans, planting this year's crop with diesel made from oil. He turns the crop into soy diesel. Next spring when he plants, he uses strictly soy diesel, reducing by two-thirds the amount of Middle East oil-based diesel he uses. If farmers around the country do the same thing, not only does the price of biofuels come down, our dependence on foreign oil does, too.

We believe that biofuels would become much more affordable over time, and we'd rather spend our money on U.S.-made fuels than fuels made from foreign oil.

Those investments turn over real dollars in our economy, not economies in today's oil-producing countries.

User Comments:

Mark Vaught -- 12:14 Monday, Oct. 22, 2007
Here's an idea...(or two):

Get rid of the ridiculous bureaucracy that keeps us from a) harvesting oil on our own North American continent (read ANWR), b) keeps oil companies from building additional refining capacity, and c) makes in impossible to build nuclear power generation plants.

I'm all for the use of solar, wind, and other natural means of energy generation, and I do realize that more oil production and refining "over here" is a short-term solution to the problem. But, without a short-term solution, we may not get to the long-term.

Your statistics of crude oil prices bear out an immutable, yet rarely considered fact about the crowing of the oil companies' "it's all about supply and demand" mantra. According to the quoted statistics, crude prices have increased exponentially (360% over the last four years), while the global demand for oil has only increased linearly. The proof of this is the unimaginable profit margins the oil companies have reaped in this amount of time.

In the current market, biodiesel and ethanol made from crops that could otherwise be used for food for humans or animals has had the reverse of the intended effect: the price of fuel has not dropped, but the price of food has increased. As long as it continues its unmitigated quest for the stars, the price of oil will continue to raise the price of pretty much every good and service produced in our economy today.

I'm not one for encouraging governmental oversight of pretty much anything at all, but in this case we need the government to "encourage" the oil companies to reinvest some of these profits into alternative energy research and development. Increased taxes will not work. Price fixing will not work. Just delcaring "we must develop other energy sources" will not work. However, legislation that requires energy companies to come up with new methods of moving us around the country WILL work to reduce our dependency on oil. Energy companies are uniquely position with both the technology AND the money to lead this effort, but they have no incentive to do it as long as they can get all the "free" energy they need to make these unchecked insane profits by simply poking holes in the ground.

I believe that rather than taxing the "winfall profits" of oil companies (we know the government will just waste the increased tax revenue), the government should do something that makes it profitable for the oil companies to reinvest that money into their own R&D departments AND makes it good for the country (and the world) in developing alternative energy sources. This, coupled with a healthy reserve of oil from our own homeland to get us through the short-term necessity is the best plan for moving us into the future with little dependency on the volatile foreign markets.

and i kept the truck...