Chavez and Bush: Was the $55.00/Barrel Deal Real?

On Clipmarks, my clippers and I discuss many issues. Over the past few days, we have debated the soundness of Bush's rebuff of the offer by Chavez, of Venezuela, to make a contract with a guaranteed price of $55.00 per barrel of oil. While some Clippers don't believe that Chavez could or would honor that contract, other Clippers believe he would and the Americans should have taken the deal.

It is my contention that all this high drama between Chavez and Bush is not where the real choices in government are taking place. So here is part of my response to those Clippers, my good acquaintances, who think the American government made a mistake by not negotiating with Chavez to develop a set barrel price for oil.

Yes, I know what the point is, many people believe that Bush should not have turned down Chavez's offer of lifetime treaty guarantee of $55.00 per barrel, especially when $65.00 barrel oil was the standard price when he made the offer. We can't cry over spilt milk. It seems to me that it was easy for Chavez to make this offer. Because Venezuela nationalized the oil companies, they owned infrastructure that they didn't have to pay for....instant profit.

From his actions and speeches, it seems that Chavez wants to crack the whip on the Americans, but he would REALLY like to crack the whip on the Saudis. They control OPEC, and it seems to me, that he wants to be independent of them or in charge.

As for the Chinese in South America, that may happen, but many of Venezuela's neighboring countries have suffered extensively from many decades of guerrilla incursions by the leftist terrorist group, The Shining Path. Because of China's support for this group, these SA countries have said publicly that they are not comfortable with this latest attention from China.

These leaders put on quite a passion play, very choreographed. Chavez and Bush, the soap opera, is just the shell game for the real behind the scenes action of large corporations' push for the North American Union. They point to Chavez and insist that he is a rogue element, so we must band together for mutual protection. The main show seems to be led by George Schultz.

Like the hero in the song "Poor Man's Heaven", I hope people, especially young people, get really angry about what the Exploitation Culture has done to keep them from the fulfillment of their modern version of the heroes dream, ...a little piece of land, a house with a feather bed for each of us....

I don't know how many people are angry that we, as Americans, didn't stay the path towards energy efficiency started in the 1970's.I hope a critical mass of Americans will get there, but not beg for handouts. We can take advantage of the current energy crisis by implementing a national energy plan with highly focused individual tax breaks here and there to build the alternative energy infrastructure for moving homes and small businesses off the grid.

It is my contention that there will be a negligible effect on current energy producers. It won't even make a jot of difference in the short term price of oil. Relieving the burden on the nation's electrical grid should, over time, keep things from getting worse, and the individual consumer will receive a direct benefit. It would also protect the entire country from the possibility of bringing our infrastructure to its knees in one fell swoop.

Plus, what the media in our country don't tell you is that there is a massive, unknown quantity of oil, in the United States, that was abandoned by the large oil companies. Currently, the small producers are working feverishly to pick up the slack.

The corporations cover all their bases, so, it seems logical that they also will continue to scare Americans by telling that we need new reservoirs of petroleum (and strip mining for coal in the Rockies). They will continue to press for drilling rights in Arctic region of Alaska. The Congress and President may grant permission, even though we know it is not safe to drill there.

I don't know if it really matters what the Americans or Canadians do now, because the Russians already laid claim to the entire Arctic region and will try to drill in the Arctic ocean as soon as possible. The takeover of international waters could be the first major conflict on our Northern Borders.

As always, another major issue is the lack of refining capacity. Alcohol distilleries, for ethanol, are being built all over the United States, but not new oil refineries.