Editorials

At the end of the day: Shooting anvils and oil barrels June 18, 2007 - | Editor/Publisher

Just for a second, right near the start of the Fourth of July celebration in “Shane’’, one of the greatest movies of all time, kids shoot an anvil.

Shooting anvils used to be a special occasion favorite past-time for the country folks living in Mount Ida back in the first half of the last century. Those were the days of dirt roads and little traffic, when folks had time on their hands.

How do you shoot an anvil? For the uninitiated, anvils are the solid steel blocks commonly used by blacksmiths. What you did was turn an anvil upside down and fill the cavity with black gunpowder and attach a fuse. Next you lower another anvil slowly on top of the upside down one. Light the fuse and run like heck.

The resulting explosion made a terrific racket echoing off the hills in Montgomery County, and within about 30 minutes, the boys from Norman or Oden answered the call.

The anvils weren’t damaged with the top one going a few feet into the air. Other than a loud noise, shooting anvils accomplished little.

This political talk about requiring automakers to achieve miles per gallon mandates to force conservation and calling for investigations to see if the oil companies are gouging customers is nothing more than shooting anvils - i.e. a lot of noise. Sure it gets our attention in these days of higher and higher gasoline prices. But are the automakers and the oil companies to blame?
Perhaps to some extent they are, but the real culprit is the market place.

The world is producing about 85 million barrels of oil a day. Worldwide demand is 86 million barrels. As we have noted in this space before, the United States uses about 12.2 million barrels a day and China is now importing 3.5 million barrels a day. China is the world’s fastest growing economy and as noted, they have traded in their rickshaws for motorcycles and cars. With a population four times that of the United States, no wonder they are traveling the globe locking up all of the oil they can get.

President George Bush said in his last State of the Union address that the U.S. is addicted to oil. He has that right. Now what do we do about it?

The key is a massive switch to alternative energy sources. The same country that put men on the moon can surely find an answer to our energy needs.

At the end of the day, the political talk is little more than shooting anvils – it makes a nice noise and gets a headline but accomplishes little.

I invite your comments ...

↑ Top