How We Got to $4 and Rising, Reason 2, Demand Rising

None of this is rocket science, but it bears repeating and repeating and repeating: Our energy dysfunction goes back decades. Decades. Shall we review?

Demand: Energy demand has been sky rocketing for decades. Not just here in America, but in our voracious world neighbors such as China and India. Their demand, coupled with the rise in energy dependence elsewhere in the world, have contributed to rising prices. This trend will not abate anytime soon. This has nothing to do with you-know-who for those who are even moderately inclined towards sanity. Has energy dependence risen under G. Bush? Yes, as it did under Clinton, Bush and even the indescribable Jimmy Carter......surely we remember those long gas lines under American's worst president.

Speaking of demand, let's look at US demand and how it's been shaping up for the past 20 years. You know, twenty years ago when we should have taken much more sensible and aggressive action---called personal responsibility---for our energy future.

World demand for oil is currently 86 million gallons a day, up from 67 million gallons a day in 1990. This rise is only going to increase.

The United States is the third largest oil producing country in the world, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. We could be producing more, much more, from our known and vast unknown reserves, yet we continue our childlike dependence on foreign sources to the tune of increasing our imports of oil from 42% in 1990 to 60% today. So we're more and more dependent on foreign oil, rather than less.

With this demand in mind, it's safe to say that any unexpected increase in demand will only cause prices to go further through the roof.

The medicine we deserve is the medicine we're getting: sky rocking gas prices. Our energy chickens are coming home to roost.

How do we brillant Americans purport to deal with this megatrend in demand? By advocating we all purchase Priuses and Soviet Union-like looking light bulbs, turning corn into oil reserves and declaring almost ALL our coastal and northern oil reserves, including the sacred cow called ARWR, off limits due to remote possibility there might be an oil spill and some caribou could catch a cold as a result. We've also put a moratorium on building any new nuclear facilities, diss construction of any new coal fire power plants even though they're getting cleaner and cleaner and even protested any new wind facilities with the ever increasing cacophony Not In My Back Yard! (NIMBY) Right, Ted?

Aren't we brilliant? as an even larger spill looms ahead, and I'm not talking about oil. We want our energy cake and eat it too. We want energy independence but don't want to do anything here in American to get it, except to play tiddle-dee-winks.

It's that old black magic called rising demand. It's just doing its job, and there's nothing we can do about it, no matter how much we, led by the environmental terrorists bitch and moan and scream and throw tantrums.

But wait, there's more. Much more. But for now, repeat after me: Demand is rising, demand is rising, demand is rising.