Yes everyone...brace yourself for the dreaded news: BP (British Petroleum) has decided to scrap its alternative energy initiative, and return to producing only oil.

Now hold on- before you all go hysterical - here's what essentially led up to the company's surprise announcement:

BP had been all set to move to alternative energy, such as solar, hydrogen fuel cells, biofuels, and carbon-capture and storage. 

Now before everyone shouts, "Just another greedy big oil company," the oil giant had really given alternatives its best shot. 

In 2005, BP allocated $8 million to create BP Alternative Energy; then another $80 million each year through 2008. 

But they might as well have spent the money refining whale oil, (which was once used to light kerosene lamps). BP was to only discover what all the others found: Nothing's on the horizon that can substitute for petroleum.

With oil's unique molecular structure, no scientist yet has any idea of how to replace or improve upon it.

But the BP story has a deeper, more ominous ring to it: if a huge company like British Petroleum failed at commercializing alternatives, what does that say?

Simple.  No matter how much money/ time / effort etc. is expended, you cannot INVENT new forms of energy. And oil- like it or not- will be around for at least the next hundred years- perhaps longer.

Compare America 's irrational energy policy to that of other oil-aggressive nations (China-India). They’re not going forward with green energy, but expansive, worldwide oil production.

But here we are in the United States, courting an all-out energy disaster:

Currently we are importing 67% of our oil; but each year, U.S. domestic production in the Southwest and the Gulf declines at approximately 2%, meaning by 2020, we will then be importing almost 90% of our oil- NINETY percent!

So now, the "oil clock" is ticking:

As we continue to produce less domestic energy- but import ever-larger amounts of foreign oil - the national debt keeps going up.

As our national debt keeps rising...interest rates go up.

As interest rates go up...our economy goes south.

As our economy goes south, there's less revenue to run government- hence, taxes keep rising.

As taxes keep rising, profits decline...corporations move overseas, or disintegrate altogether.

As corporations disappear, our manufacturing base shrivels; then we've hit the bottom of a risk spiral- the point of greatest vulnerability.

Meanwhile our enemies are on the move:

OPEC gets wealthier (Iran in particular).

The cash-rich Chinese are buying up the Panama Canal in stages- plus oil assets of other countries around the world (Brazil-Mexico-Nigeria)

Now, the oil cataclysm suddenly emerges: 

What if war suddenly erupted in the Ukraine, or in Asian Georgia? Should one of our allies be involved, would we even be able to honor our NATO commitment?

Or how about some flashpoint in the Mideast? What if Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. was completely cut off from Mideast oil? What then?

Meanwhile, with very limited steel production- and a small manufacturing base- how could we properly engage a long conventional war?

Now the Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs dry- what would all the liberals say then? Without oil, our entire military would literally be grounded!

And what about solar-powered tanks, and wind-powered F-18's? How well would we do fighting with those fantasies?

But this is exactly what our enemies are seeing: an idiopathic, ever-weakening USA, ripe for defeat- the ONLY country in the world that has declared its own domestic energy supply virtually off limits.

When the 2nd Iraqi War began in March 2003, only about 2 percent of the Army’s 110,000 Humvees were armored. Our soldiers quickly discovered that roadside bombs could decimate their vehicles, and Congress quickly allocated $400 million for armored Humvee production.

But so depleted was our manufacturing capabilty, it took a full year and a half before enough specialty-steel, armor bolt-on kits could arrive .

And only two companies  O'Gara, (now called Centigon) and Armor Works, were able to supply newly designed "up-armored" Humvees; and at a pitiful rate of 300 vehicles per month,

Our soldiers, meanwhile, had to jerry-rig Humvees with sandbags and steel plates to absorb the blasts, until new vehicles finally arrived. But in the interim, hundreds of our soldiers were killed or maimed unnecessarily, simply because  America lacked the capacity for production.

And since then, we have learned NOTHING. 

So in a future war, would we subcontract Mexico to make our tanks? Or how 'bout the French? America has entered into a new era of national stupidity- pretending there will never be another major war, and that CO2 is the real enemy to conquer.

Meanwhile the Chinese are prepared; the Russians are preparing; and the North Koreans continue to tweak America 's nose.

But what do we do? We strangle our economy with cap 'n trade, promote windmills and sunpower, and keep paying OPEC  for our oil -- enriching our enemies even more.

What was it Karl Marx once said about..."selling us the rope with which we will hang ourselves?" Now  subsitute "OPEC oil" (for rope) and we have all but already accomplished it.

In 1973, during the Yom-Kippur War, the Arabs completely cut off  their oil imports to the US; and you'd better believe, if the opportunity ever arises, they'll do it again.

The old Roman general, Publius Flavius Vegetius, said it best..."Si vis pacem para bellum"-- "IF YOU WANT PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR."

To neglect our abundant oil reserves, in lieu of alternative energy, portends an apocalypse; at best a declining economy; but in a worst-case scenario- a calamitous, military defeat.

America must realize the oil clock is ticking, while we continue to walk a "carbon free" path to alternative energy disaster.

www.keenobserver.blogtownhall.com

But hold the phone here for a minute...there seems to be a slight hitch in the numbers. The United Auto Workers peaked at 1.5 million members in 1969. And today, the United Steelworkers Union represents 850,000 workers in both the U.S. and Canada. So let's just do a little adding up here: Uh, yes; the total number of workers in these established industries appears to only exceed 2 million.

But there's one small detail, mister Barack-O...once you make all these windmills, where the heck do they all go? Would you and your wife Michelle, be okay living within sight of one?

At the Democratic convention, during his Thursday night acceptance speech, Obama is on record as saying, "I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy". So will Obama have the government in the windmill manufacturing business? Or are they just going to give private industries $150 billion and say, "Git goin' boys, and start making all them hi-tech windmills of the future!" And who would be in charge of picking out the recipients of the $150 billion? Gore? The EPA? The U.N.? Who? The more you examine it, the murkier it gets. 

Government make-work programs go back to the 1930's. FDR's New Deal created the CCC, and the WPA,  putting millions back to work building projects, but did nothing to lift the country out of the Great Depression; it only prolonged it. It seems that Obama is making the classic liberal mistake-- government programs create jobs, but create no actual wealth. If there's no actual markets for the skills or jobs you're creating, then all are eventually doomed. Markets create wealth because every dollar invested in something that's actually useful or needed, has an economic-multiplier effect...it generates more and more investment as those markets continue to expand.

So are we to become the Saudi Arabia of windmills or what? Maybe we can export 'em to the far ends of the earth, because no one wants them anywhere near their property back here. 

But although Obama has never said it publicly, he's totally anti-oil. He shuns any more domestic drilling, and desires higher pump prices as a means of forced conservation. And if we don't drill for more domestic supply, that means more reliance on imports.  So in time of sudden emergency in the Middle East, could we depend on OPEC to come through? How reliable would they be?

Remember 1973? Obama was in grade school then. The Arabs cut off our oil supply right after the outbreak of the October Yom Kippur War. So what would happen if Israel and Iran were to get aggressive in 2 or 3 years with Obama as president? Who's side would OPEC take?  What if they cut us off again? Our insufficient domestic resources would jeopardize our military supply of oil in time of a national emergency.  We cannot expect to have a strong military in this century without the assurance of an adequate oil supply. Tanks can't run on electricity, and jet fighters don't run on wind or solar.

Obama is an undeniably brilliant man, but to this day, remains an enigma. Everyone knows ABOUT him, but besides his wife and family, does any one really KNOW him? He's able to talk entensively about almost anything, but is specific about nothing.

The only people who've been close to Obama as an adult are those back in south Chicago, and they're of highly questionable character. He is a brilliant orator, but keeps talking himself in and out of one political brushfire after another. If he only had a cause or purpose other than himself, a man of such brilliance could certainly be capable of truly great achievements.