From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@invweb.net>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 17:04:25 +0800
To: "Raymond D. Mereniuk" <Raymond@fbn.bc.ca>
Subject: Re: Citizenship silliness.  Re: e$: crypto-expatriatism (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199809092123.OAA17355@leroy.fbn.bc.ca>
Message-ID: <199809092205.SAA07866@domains.invweb.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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In <199809092123.OAA17355@leroy.fbn.bc.ca>, on 09/09/98 
   at 02:09 PM, "Raymond D. Mereniuk" <Raymond@fbn.bc.ca> said:


>William H. Geiger IIIwrote

>> Once an alternative fuel source is discovered that is more economical than
>> oil, the arabs will slip back into obscurity.

>Good point!  Ever wonder why a decreasing commodity non-
>renewable resource is becoming cheaper as the known reserves  become
>smaller?  

>Maybe they want to sell it all before it becomes obsolete and  maximize
>their income from that resource.

>Within the oil business I have heard this mentioned in regards to 
>natural gas.

Most of these countries are economically "one trick ponies" and have
little export revenue outside of oil. Because OPEC <sp?> has been a
failure at enforcing production quotas there is a surplus of oil on the
market thus driving down the cost (supply and demand).

There are also large reserves of oil in Alaska, Siberia and elsewhere that
are going unused along with other reserves that are too expensive to
extract the oil at current market prices. The so called "oil shortage" of
the 70's had more to do with Oil Companies profiteering than it did with
any actual shortage. I have seen estimates in the past of our domestic oil
reserves showing that we have enough oil to last another 100 years at out
current rate of increased consumption if we stopped all imports today.
Simple economics is that it is cheaper for us to import it than it is to
produce it domestically.

As much as the Greens whine and cry about alternative fuels, the simple
fact is that as long as oil is cheap no one is going to switch. 

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