Dear PA Cat,
Your #297 refers to a leaked story that, coming at this late date, reeks of fabrication. More likely planted than leaked.
Please!?! A Secret Plan to prepare for contingencies in case we attack Iran??????From the president who soiled his diapers for two weeks while a handful of teenage pirates terrorized a major U.S. commercial vessel and its crew? You seriously expect me to believe that piece of limp pork fat has been secretly seeking ways to ATTACK Iran while publicly licking at the hands of Achmadinejad like some whimpering puppy?????
Sorry, but if he actually believes his assertion, Mr. Wayne Madsen – who guest-posted that piece at ZeroHedge.com – has his cranium wedged in an unlikely orifice. Because, in any case, the U.S. has PLENTY of oil in much more easily accessible locations. The problem is NOT that we lack oil.
The problem is that we have allowed the doctrinaire anti-capitalist, and certifiably insane eco-fanatics to hobble our country’s entire oil industry.
The United States government (federal nor state) have not licensed the construction of a new refinery in the continental U.S. since 1976. Okay, that doesn’t mean previously existing facilities have not been modernized or enlarged. But the fact remains that we do not have enough refining capacity to manufacture the gasoline we use – we have to import REFINED GASOLINE because we do NOT have the refining capacity to supply domestic demand.
Look, even if we suddenly find a miraculous way to convert every single vehicle on the roads to full-electric, and a break-through in photovoltaic cell manufacturing technology allows us to make every single home fully able to use sunlight to heat and cool itself… How do we make the hundreds of millions of tires for all the vehicles we drive?
What are the raw materials for fertilizers to grow the corn to make into ethanol?
What are the raw materials for the fibers we wear- Nylon, Orlon, Aramid, Kevlar, Acrylic wools,
Hmmmm… What sticky dark substance do we get from the ground that provides raw materials for lubricants, waxes, pharmaceuticals, food wrappings, packaging, mylar films, drinks bottles, bin liners, Naugahyde fabrics, Formica surfaces – polyvinyl chloride, melamines, phenolic resins, polyethylene, polystyrene, butyl rubber, polycarbonate shatterproof windows????
Think about all the products that are made from petroleum – that is, from high-molecular-weight long-chain polymers.
Truck & auto tyres & hoses
electrical wire insulation
pill bottles, water bottles, cookware, teflon coatings
refrigerators & freezers, coolers, ice chests
computer parts
padded dashboards
inflating safety airbags
breathable cold-weather fabrics
syringes, laboratory flasks, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs
protective gloves
firefighter protective gear
aircraft parts
gears that don’t need lubricating
non-conductive posts for electric fences
Insulated doors & windows for homes
teething rings, absorbent diapers, cribs, strollers
nursing bottles & nipples
replacement parts for human hearts
Osmotic filter material for artificial kidneys and salt water desalinization
combs, hair brushes, tooth brushes, doggie chew toys
Try to imagine what our world would be like if we had to make all those things by carving tortoise shells and elephant tusk ivory again.
Cripple the oil industry, and there’s a lot more that will have to change than just cutting down on your discretionary jaunts to the movie theater and burger drive-through.
