5.089

Recent years had witnessed price of the Crude Oil moving violently all over the board with unprecedented volatility. It produced stress on consumers and corporations alike, and revealed clear evidence of the failed past energy policy. With the new government, a lot of hope has been put in place for a needed change. Yet, has the politics of energy really been altered that much recently?

For decades now, big oil, car manufacturers and steel mills had practically all been in the same business of feeding consumers massive, gas wasting cars and trucks. Cars did not need to show any significant improvement in efficiencies as more oil could always be drilled. Such a happy union was conveniently married by the politicians always hungry for more lobbyist dollars, eager to subsidize offshore drilling and exploration. But such unhealthy status-quo had to come to the end.

Rather than keen foresight of the past administrations that could result in the long term planning, it was a pure fear of oil scarcity that brought everything down. When the Crude Oil surpassed $140 a barrel in June of 2008, the writing on the wall clearly stated that old days are gone resulting in public voting for the change of administration as well as car companies now scrambling to introduce gas saving vehicles.

Yes, the policy to reduce foreign oil dependence has been stated a while ago emphasizing the use of ethanol. However, the country does not have enough arable land to produce sufficient ethanol, so the task of finding true solution came down to the current administration. It turned to scientific circles who have been promoting renewable energy with the use of wind, solar and geothermal power. These projects are now increasingly being funded as the Obama administration is prioritizing research of alternatives and renewable rather than exploitations of limited. That is a drastic contrast to Bus's policy of ignorance and denial.

So the answer is clearly yes – the policy toward energy has changed, irrevocably. It had to. Even if politicians would, the market clearly could not have it any other way.



Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
Germany

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