Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

 

 

 

"Okay - maybe not planes. After all, this is not about the movie!"

Two very interesting articles in the paper today. They were not supposed to be related, but I believe they are. The first has to do with the sleepy little burg of Buffalo. It seems the good people of Buffalo are having a heck of time getting to work on time as of late. Why? Trains. Lots and lots of trains coming down from the oil fields in North Dakota. And not only more trains, but longer and longer trains.

The other article was about the "greenies" gathering their forces for the supposed upcoming decision of Keystone XL. They have gotten buffed up on civil disobedience so they can unleash environmental wacko hell on society should POTUS decide to go ahead with the project. Myself, I would be less surprised to see a UFO land on the front lawn of the White House than to see Obama buck his lunatic left and agree to the pipeline.

So where in the world does that leave us? In President Obama nowhere land. Or as Rush calls him on occasion, "President Bystander". Most economists of note have agreed on one simple fact - if the United States, the new Saudi Arabia or oil and gas, decided to aggressively pursue this vast resource, it would send shock waves across the world petro market. In particular, Mother Russia. We can beat Russia back into submission without firing a shot.

However, I don't think he will do it. He is paralyzed by fear. He has been before, and he continues to be now. This job is so different than the one he had in the Illinois Senate. In this job, you can't just vote "present". You have to do things. Sometimes, you need to do things that will rile up your base. Most importantly, sometimes you need to do something FOR THE COUNTRY!

If we used this resource correctly, our gas prices would be under control, our heating bills would fall, and our balance of trade would improve. In addition, thousands upon thousands of jobs would be CREATED by the oil industry in building the proper infrastructure to ship this product. In addition, we also need to build more natural gas liquefaction facilities in order to export more of this gas to Europe. That means even more jobs created. 

The table is set for what the right thing to do is. We have already hurt ourselves by waiting this long - maybe too long. If we had made this decision six years ago, we would have a much different landscape today. The one thing that planes, trains and automobiles do have in common is this - they all need energy to run. And we have the resources to provide it. All we need now is the national will.