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Seeking Things Above


If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1)

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2008-06-16

Why high gas prices?

high gas pricesWhile many environmental enthusiast may be quite happy with the current gas crises, because it forces Americans to think more about gas and oil usage, I don't think our economy can survive letting oil prices get out of control. What we are accomplishing, is increasing our dependency on other countries that want to see our downfall. I'm not a political expert, but common sense tells me this is a bad idea.

What's my Christian perspective on this issue? My concern is that our environmental policies are aimed at glorifying the environment over God. Does God want us to take care of our environment? Absolutely. Does he want us to do it at the expense of ignoring real human suffering and real human needs? Out of control oil prices mean people will lose their jobs. This winter people probably will die because they will not be able to afford heating for their homes.

We can't solve this oil crisis by burning food instead of oil. We can't solve this oil crises by ignoring the need for oil. Yes, we should be looking for alternative energy resources, and yes we should all be doing our individual part to conserve energy and protect the environment. However, let's not sacrifice our country and our people today for the sake of an unproven hope in the future. By unproven hope, I mean that nobody has laid out a realistic plan to protect our environment without devastating our economy. When the economy collapses, it won't be the rich that suffer alone, if the rich suffer at all.


My faith is my secure hope in Jesus Christ.


Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

If our political policies are void of this same hope then we have no hope as a country. To the far right you have big Oil and big Money that want to make as much money as they can. Maybe that has gotten us to where we are in some measure. However, on the far left, you have big government and social activism where the cause is the god and real people are forgotten.


Romans 1:25 (ESV)
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

As this article below points out, the social left has just as much responsibility to bear on our current crisis as the the oil companies themselves.

The information below was passed to me by a friend. I mention this because this may be posted elsewhere and I don't want to pass it off as my own original post. However, I agree with the premise below that we have over-legislated environmental concerns to the point of crippling our country. Feel free to comment and dispute anything mentioned in this post, however please provide links to articles that support any counter points.

.... Email Text Below ....

Please take a close look at this map. Then print it out and place it on your fridge where you will see it every day. This November on election day, take a long hard look at it before you go vote!

Gas at $4.00 a gallon. Who's to blame?

Thanks to the environmentalist lobby and its influence on Democratic legislators in Congress, the U.S. has, for decades, been prohibited from drilling for oil in places that we know contain billions of barrels of proven reserves.

Check out this map:

[no+zone.jpg]

All of the 'NO' zones are places where the U.S. , thanks to the Democratic Party, is prohibited from drilling for oil.

[gas+prices.jpg]

But wait . it gets better.

***

China, Cuba, Canada and others continue to drill off our shores where US companies are not allowed to drill because of Democratic policies!


[china drilling]

Yes, that's right . China and Cuba are actively exploring oil fields 50 miles from Key West, Florida while U.S. companies are barred from working in this area because of U.S. policy . So, instead of allowing the most environmentally responsible companies to operate there and increase our domestic supply, China, who has a dismal environmental record, is preparing to suck our close, lucrative oil reserves dry.

Unbelievable.

Investor's Business Daily recently explained how irresponsible the Democrats have been on the energy crisis. They lay into what they consider to be the worst Congress ever for ...

  • Failing to allow drilling in ANWR. We have, as President Bush noted, estimated capacity of a million barrels of oil a day from this source alone -- enough for 27 million gallons of gas and diesel. But Congress won't touch it, fearful of the clout of the environmental lobby. As a result, you pay through the nose at the pump so your representative can raise campaign cash.

  • Refusing to build new refineries. The U.S. hasn't built one since 1976, yet the EPA requires at least 15 unique 'boutique' fuel blends that can be sold in different areas around the nation. This means that U.S. refinery capacity is stretched so tight that even the slightest problem at a refinery causes enormous supply problems and price spikes. Congress has done nothing about this.

  • Turning its back on nuclear power. It's safe and, with advances in nuclear reprocessing technology, waste problems have been minimized. Still, we have just 104 nuclear plants -- the same as a decade ago -- producing just 19% of our total energy. (Many European nations produce 40% or more of their power with nuclear.) Granted, nuclear power plants are expensive -- about $3 billion each. But they produce energy at $1.72/kilowatt-hour vs. $2.37 for coal and $6.35 for natural gas.

  • Raising taxes on energy producers. This is where a basic understanding of economics would help: Higher taxes and needless regulation lead to less production of a commodity. So by proposing 'windfall' and other taxes on energy companies plus tough new rules, Congress only makes our energy situation worse.


These are just a few of Congress' sins of omission -- all while India , China , Eastern Europe and the Middle East are adding more than a million barrels of new demand each and every year. New Energy Department forecasts see world oil demand growing 40% by 2030, including a 28% increase in the U.S.


Americans who are worried about the direction of their country, including runaway energy and food prices, should keep in mind the upcoming election isn't just about choosing a new president. We'll also pick a new Congress.


If you agree with the need to let the American people know who's REALLY responsible for the sky-high gasoline prices we're seeing today, please forward this e-mail to everyone you know.


If we elect a liberal Democrat as president in the Fall and keep the same Democrat-controlled Congress, nothing will change; except gasoline prices, which will keep going up.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

these are all places where our kids can breathe and play without growing third arms from machinery and waste that drilling oil would bring. we should be thanking the democrats for trying to preserve our beautiful country, not condemning them.

Tony said...

I think everyone agrees that we need cleaner energy. However, is it the wise action to sell our souls to foreign countries for our oil needs since we don't yet have a good clean, economic energy source? There are tight environmental controls for US companies when they drill. The Chinese are not going to be following any of these controls as they drill off our shores. It is as if we are biting off our own nose to spite our face.

Anonymous said...

Who cares who’s is to blame. What are we going to do about it. From my viewpoint, there are 2 or 3 options. Sell your car, buy a bike and take mass transit. Drive less or buy an electric car or a car powered by hydrogen. And option 3 is buy a pair of comfortable Nike’s and get ready for some walking. Since all of these options are out of the question for me, I decided to try and do something about it. While looking around, I stumbled across GasBankUSA, located at http://www.gasbankusa.com. The site talks about fixed price gasoline and locking in at a fixed price. An interesting concept and a little better than my magic 8 ball which continually tells me “try again later” everytime I ask it where are gas prices going OR will gas prices continue to rise. Looking through this site, it looks like a way to take control over something we had no control over in the past.

Tony said...

Interesting concept on you website. Thanks for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

according from a study, higher gas prices has something to do with refining capacity. Even if oil were super cheap, we would still have a problem converting that oil into gasoline that fuels our economy which would keep gas prices high. Anybody can tell on how to save gas aside from hypermiling techniques?
..

Tony said...

No doubt better and more efficient refining methods would help. A full-blown recession seems to have lowered the prices for the time being as well. However, I have no confidence that it won't sky-rocket on us again soon and be worse than before.

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