Petro Power And The Power Of Corruption

By Mark Taliano

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It’s an old theme, one ignored by Macbeth, but one which needs further investigation today.

A crab some of us might normally enjoy eating, smothered in BP oil down on the gulf. And BP is getting away with it!

One of the ugly faces of power today is Petroleum, and boy does it corrupt.  Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman, in his book, Hot, Flat, And Crowded, observes that when the price of petrol is high, it empowers petrol dictators and disempowers democracy.  So, when we see the market for crude oil (often manipulated) rise, democracy diminishes.

On the surface, it sounds ridiculous, but consider that the Middle East, with its Petro Dictators, is far more extreme today than it was in the 50’s, when crude oil prices were much lower. Consider too, that oil-soaked Saudi Arabia grows some of the most virulent forms of extremism. Some of the Saudi wealth finds its way to extremists through religious schools, mosques, dictators and so on.  And let’s not forget that 15 of the 19 perpetrators of the 9/11 massacre were Saudi Arabians.  Despite all of that, US diplomats continue to bite their tongues when dealing with Saudi Arabia.  The same can’t always be said of America’s citizens though.

While I’m embarrassed by inflammatory American rhetoric, there is, nonetheless, more than a kernel of truth to some of their bumper stickers:  “Osama Loves Your SUV”, or “Fill’Er with Dictators”, or “Draft The SUV Drivers First.”  I suppose they’re funny, unless of course your son or daughter is serving overseas.

Unfortunately, this overseas petroleum corruption is fairly ubiquitous.  China, for example, has formed a partnership with the murderous Sudanese dictatorship.  Again, Sudan, like Saudi Arabia, is rich in oil, and that’s what’s of interest to the Chinese, not the human rights issues.

What about Canada, home of the free?  Are we immune from this?  Not likely.  The Tar Sands are profitable now because the price of crude has risen.  And yes, it could be argued that democracy has suffered here too:   Wasn’t parliament prorogued twice already under the federal Conservatives?  And what about the G-20 abuses and the ensuing media manipulations?  Wasn’t that show of power a bit excessive? Is it possible that the government’s arrogance might be partially attributed to the promise of oil wealth?

The solution to these petrol woes has only been partially revealed, and according to Freidman, it lies in a mesh of Internet Technology and Energy Technology.  If, for example, Smart Meters were connected, by internet, to household appliances equipped with computer chips, power adjustments could be made that meshed appliance use with low energy price times of day or night.  Once this is achieved, power brownouts or blackouts on the electrical grids could be eliminated, as well as the need for back-up power generators, which might well be coal–burning power plants.  This scenario, already achieved in test cases, includes additions to households of alternate energy forms (i.e. solar panels), which could add clean electrons to the household, and the selling of excess to the grid.  Such a system, which meshes conservation and clean electron production, is a perfect mesh of IT and ET.

The one key part of the equation, which hasn’t as yet been realized, though, is the mass production of clean electrons.  Freidman’s proposal?  Involve the “free” market to invest heavily in innovative solutions through tax incentives and disincentives.  Guarantee a minimum baseline for crude prices, and encourage investment in clean energy Resource and Development, which is currently abysmally low.  Once the products are there and mass-produced, the technology will become widespread,
and CO2 producing energy sources will be drastically reduced, if not eliminated.  As one observer noted, the Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.

The payoffs are clear: a safer world in terms of fewer global warming catastrophes; a safer world in terms of diminished powers for petro dictators; and a safer world in terms of empowered democracies. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

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