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Ray Stubblefield

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From the RoundTable blog

On a rare occasion I write about news events or politics. This is one of those times. What follows is really a rant and some out-of-the-box thinking. Who knows how feasible any of my suggestions are, but I feel better for getting them off my chest.

Gas prices were just starting to ease a bit, dropping to $3.39 a gallon, and I was starting to think we were finally getting a break. But thanks to Hurricane Ike, prices jumped by nearly $1 a gallon in one day.

We're all used to seeing the daily fluctuations, but panic buying was setting in, driving prices out of control. The media weren't helping, suggesting that gas could double or even triple in price in the next 24 to 48 hours.

This behavior was crazy in two ways. First off, what are people thinking? So they get to fill up once before prices soar, saving maybe 20 bucks. What happens when that tank runs out? And second, why do the oil companies command so much power? The one bright spot to high oil prices is that they drive innovation for alternative forms of energy.

I have a radical view of oil companies. I think they pretty much own and run the world, along with insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The public has never really noticed or cared when oil was cheap, but their global domination will only become more evident as world supplies shrink and demand soars.

The real solution is to find alternatives to oil, not "drill, baby, drill." But that day is a long way off, so I'm afraid the world is in for one crazy roller-coaster ride in the meantime. And you can bet that every conceivable spot on the planet will be drilled before it's over, regardless of the cost to the consumer or environment. But it doesn't have to be this way.

It got me thinking. How can we stop being held hostage by the oil companies? Public utilities are regulated and controlled by the government, so why aren't oil companies?

Apparently I'm not the first to have this thought. Of all places, I went to "Click and Clack's" Web site -- you know, the "Car Talk" guys? There were some very heated debates going on in their chat room.

The mere suggestion that oil companies should be regulated had people using words like "nationalizing," "communism," "socialism." Regulating oil companies "would threaten the very fabric of our capitalistic society."

What it really does is threaten the economic domination of the oil companies, and they know it. So they are going to use their vast resources to fiercely defend the status quo, and their first line of defense is propaganda.

Let me get this straight. Regulation is a good thing and works when it comes to public utilities, but it would be the ruin of the nation if we tried to regulate oil in the same manner? But it's OK if the oil companies bring the consumer, and ultimately the nation, to their economic knees (and it's only going to get worse) in the name of preserving capitalism and the free-market economy, along with their record profits?

The free-market economy is a myth anyway. Just look at the meltdown in the financial sector. As long as huge profits are to be made, everybody wants the government to keep its hands off. When the bubble bursts, "bailout" dominates the headlines. And who gets stuck with the bill? The same public that's getting held up at the gas pumps.

If you don't like regulation, then let's try a co-op. Someone with far more brains than I've got needs to come up with a plan to make the biggest co-op the planet has ever seen. An oil company owned and operated by the citizens of the United States. Set up as a low-profit organization for the benefit of all the people. Wow, what a crazy, radical, dumb idea. Almost sounds downright un-American doesn't it?

Just how much would it cost to buy out ExxonMobil anyway? I think I read that ExxonMobil is worth a half a trillion. The war in Iraq will cost us $3 trillion and the bailout at least $1 trillion.

It could work, but it won't. The oil companies are too powerful, and too many politicians are in their pocket. Worse still, too many Americans believe the free-market economy myth.

So in the meantime, tighten your seat belts. The ride is going to get even wilder in the months and years to come.

Stubblefield teaches earth science at Franklin County High School and is a Roanoke Times columnist.