My Take: There are geopolitical ramifications of world oil
Up to this point, my seemingly feckless meanderings in favor of the jump to a better, more sustainable future have centered on the ecological damage/destruction burning fossil fuels entails. That may have been rather myopic, to be sure! Oil should be a four-letter word. Can we add a silent "e" to it? Like shoppe? Hey, the English language is full of crazy spellings already. One more won’t be a stretch.
My current read is by Ron Chernow. Ron is a magnificent author. His Hamilton book hooked me. My read by RC now is Titan. John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil fame/infamy? Let’s focus on the infamy of oil and the greed and damage it has done throughout world and U.S. history, shall we? Even though our story with John D. takes place in the 1870s, a lot of the problems associated with it have not faded away. Indeed, the seeds he and his ilk planted plague us even more today.
Keen automotive historians will be quick to point out that Karl Benz in Deutschland is considered by most to be the father of the automobile and that didn’t happen until 1885 or so. So very true. Kerosene was the predecessor of gasoline and it was used for lamps. It was cheaper and cleaner than whale oil or coal oil. Rockefeller saw a market and ran with it.
He was not alone. As with any new idea that promises quick riches many joined the scrum. Our hero (?), however, saw that this intensely fragmented market was not profitable. John D. wanted to bring some order to the market. His idea? Why a cartel, of course. Buy out competitors and with the economies of scale make it impossible for others to compete. Even better he colluded with the railroads, remember no trucks back then, to give his Standard Oil large rebates when it came time to ship the goo! Brilliant. For him, but for those who wanted the kerosene? Not so good.
Thank goodness back then we had Teddy Roosevelt and Taft who, unlike our oil patch brethren today, saw that trusts were bad for the consumer and punched back. Unfortunately, old John had lots of cash that he was able to give to lawyers and politicos who aided him in his market-cornering quest. Standard Oil was broken up, in theory, but remained under old Rocky’s greedy thumb.
Our pals at OPEC (not mine) studied some American economic history. Once oil was discovered under their sandy landscapes the U.S. and the developed world was hooked. We were addicted. The Saudis and other Arab countries decided there was, once again, just too much disorganization in the market and a cartel was in order. No dummies, them. In 1973, after the Israelis had shellacked the Arabs in another war, 1967 was first, they decided they would show their displeasure through the oil spigot, or hypodermic needle? It let to odd/even gas days and quickly rising prices. Ah yes, I remember it well!
Now we have Exxon/Mobile, one of the largest corporations in the world. Our pal Trump even put the head of this behemoth in charge of our Department of State. Now we have Exxon/Mobile buying another large oil producer in the Permian Basin. Hess Oil, another large oil producer has been bought out by an even bigger piranha. I am sure this is all in the name of market efficiency and will undoubtedly aid the American/Canadian consumer ... said no one.
Just say no to their political and economic skullduggery. May I heartily recommend a rather old George Clooney film, "Syriana." It illustrates, quite well, the geopolitical ramifications of world oil. Break the addiction. It is so very possible and would also make a whale of a difference in your family bottom line, not even taking into account the good kicking this addiction would mean to our kids’ futures ecologically!
— Jeff Raywood is a resident of Holland.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: There are geopolitical ramifications of world oil
