He Lied

And then he lied

Today, former President George W. Bush was briefly interviewed on "Good Morning America" about a fundraiser he is supporting to help wounded troops. He was his usual jovial self, cracking a witty joke, that immediately put me at ease (I am reluctant to admit that). He looked great, relaxed; in stark contrast to President Obama who shows the stress of the office.

He was asked one political question, a softball question about gasoline prices. And then, in an instant the good feeling died.

He looked straight into the camera and, as usual, LIED.

The question was what should be done about rising gasoline prices. George W. hesitated, said he didn't what to get political (or something to that effect) and then responded, "The American People have to understand basic supply and demand. If you restrict supply you will affect demand."

I thought immediately there must be someone, or something that is restricting the supply. We couldn't be running out of gas, it is someone, a "you" who is causing America's pain.

And who is "you" I wonder? He could not help himself, he took a shot at the President even though he was in his mountain biking clothes.

He lied. He should have said, "Americans will have to adjust to and conserve the declining oil supply". He should have told the American people the truth, that worldwide demand is fast outstripping the declining supply. The United States has only nine (9) years of oil reserves left! That is NINE (9), not ninety!

The world's known oil reserves will yield increasingly reduced supplies for the next 100 years and then run out. That is 100 years! In the last 100 years the world has burned up the sweet crude oil in two world wars, in spasms of gluttony.

In 100 years it will be all gone, except of course for all those oil sand deposits, and oil shale, and oil miracles that conservatives love to scream the environmentalists are keeping away from us. More lies!

Every wonder why oil exploration is taking place hundreds of miles out in the oceans, in risky gambles, to find oil? Did you ever even ask why there are so many dry oil wells in Pennsylvania, Texas and California?

The "you" who is responsible for this, is US. The United States has approximately 2% of the world's population and consumes 35% of the energy supplies (that includes oil, coal; etc)!

These are the facts, no matter how many times the Exxon President goes on T.V. and tell us, with a sickening smile, that natural gas will power our nation for 100 years due to "technology" advances.

What he is NOT telling you is that your present car must be radically altered to burn natural gas, and the "technology" used to extract the gas locked in rock formations, known as "fracturing" is proving to be very dangerous to the environment and the water supply.

And "fracturing" uses huge amounts of water in areas that are often arid already. I guess we can go without water to get our precious fuel!

The Exxon C.E.O., who is being paid millions, looks straight into the camera and LIES.

The fact is, if you take a minute to THINK, is that natural gas is not a straight substitute for petroleum. I suppose airplanes can fly right now on natural gas? If they could, then why aren't they using natural gas now? They can't; he is lying.

No, this means all new engines, and a host of safety issues that we have not encountered. It won't be cheap. Do not trust his rich C.E.O. smile! And don't trust George W.; we did that more than once remember, with disastrous results!

Why don't both of these men look into the camera and say we need to conserve in the face of dwindling supply. We need to rebuild our public transportation systems, we need to go all in for solar, wind and other alternatives. We need to move freight back to the rails. We need to demand public rail transporation.

Oil will still be part of our future, but we need to adapt to its declining supply. We need to conserve. And, we will need to pay for all this. President Obama keeps telling us we need to re-invest in America. This is what he is talking about! He is not lying! And we hate him for it.

We did this before with Jimmy Carter. President Carter has the fantastic idea that oil was a finite resource, and the OPEC Cartel's embargo was a warning of what blind oil dependency could do to America's economy. We hated him for it, and voted for Reagan, who LIED. Reagan told us there was an ocean of oil, and it would never run out. He rolled back all the conservation efforts Carter had started, even taking the solar panels off the White House.

The Gipper, who lied all the time, mislead the American people, got them to trust him, and set us up for the disaster that is now happening. And who was behind him, rooting the lies on? The oil and gas corporations of course!

America is hopelessly addicted to oil. Our economy is fatally connected to a cheap energy that no longer exists , and we do a rotten job of conservation. In fact, we don't conserve at all! For forty years, since the OPEC embargo, we have driven faster, built bigger cars, and worse, moved nearly all our freight to the highways. We have burned precious oil at a ridiculous rate, as if there is no tomorrow.

Well tomorrrow is here. As long as we continue to be lied to, and worse believe the lies, we are screwed! This time the prices will not come back down. This time the reality of supply and demand, that Geoge W. commented about is here.

He did what he always did before...he LIED.