No more oil. We are running out..

The dependence on oil puts everyone in a position much like being at the mercy of oil companies. Everyone needs oil, every industry needs oil, and when energy prices rise, everyone suffers. Food prices go up because of the cost of transport. Long commutes, and sometimes even short commutes, become impossible, forcing people to leave jobs they can't afford to get to. The cost of heating and cooling homes skyrockets. Energy prices are very closely correlated to the economy. Some experts have suggested that the spike in oil prices in 2007 directly contributed to the great recession and economic hardships of the late 2000s. If they are right, then keeping energy prices low is a critical factor in avoiding another economic melt down. And while energy prices have leveled out from the insane swings of the late 2000s, all the experts are expecting energy prices to start going up again soon. The Rising Cost of Energy Like it or not the effect of the market is a real factor in the economy and the price of energy. The market runs on supply and demand. Supply is the amount of oil available. Supply is determined by how much oil is extracted in drilling operations. There is no way to make or reuse oil. What is brought out of the ground is all there is. Demand is how much oil people need or want. If there is more oil than people are willing to buy, the price goes down, if more people are buying than the oil is easily available, the price goes up. Right now, supply and demand are forcing energy prices up. And they are going to keep going up unless something changes.First, supply is dwindling. While it is true that there remain large oil reserves in many parts of the world, Big Oil has extracted all the easily accessible oil deposits. Remember that supply in this case isn't all the oil in the world, supply is what oil extracting companies manage to get out of the ground. That's a problem when most of the remain oil is found in undersea deposits, like those that were being extracted by the Deepwater Horizen platform, deposits that need fracking to access, or extremely deep deposits that need special equipment to find and reach. So while the popular claims of pro-energy groups, that there is enough oil left to supply the Earth for a hundred years or more may be true, what is equally true is that getting that oil is becoming more and more expensive, forcing oil extracting companies to close down facilities that they can't afford to keep open, and at the same time raising the price of the oil they do bring up (because the higher extraction cost gets added to the cost of the oil.) The result is that less oil is bring extracted each year, meaning less oil is available to make into gasoline, diesel and everything else the modern world needs to keep running. Worse, while the supply goes down, the demand keeps going up. Recent pushes in the US for more energy efficient cars have helped reduce the amount of gas individuals use, but more people are driving on the roads every year. More goods are being shipped in trucks and on rails. And it isn't just in the US. China is seeing an economic boom, leading to a huge increase in the number of cars on Chinese roads, and related increase in the amount of oil being bought and used by China. With the steady increase in demand, and gradual drop in supply, energy prices will be going up, and soon. The problem wouldn't be so bad if there were viable alternatives to oil-based technologies, but for now there aren't. Even worse, though, is the way Big Oil is pushing profits over everything else. No matter what, the price of oil can be expected to rise over the next few years, due to supply and demand alone. But the increasing cost of extracting oil is going to be cutting into Big Oil's profits. The Role of Big Oil The Big Oil has been on a record breaking streak for some years now. The five biggest oil companies, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell, had combined profits of over $1 trillion for the first decade of the century. During 2011 they made over $375 million in profits a day. Big Oil companies like to complain that they are misunderstood, that the 'reality' of the oil industry is far different from what most people thing and they are just making a reasonable profit. Most of which they claim goes to shareholds, everyday people with oil companies in their pension plans. And while it is true that some things—like the majority of the worlds oil reserves being held by national corporations, and not Big Oil, tend to get over looked, it's clear when you consider all the facts that aren't as innocent as they like to appear. Forinstance, its all well and good to speak of the public holding shares of Big Oil stock, and the profits going to these shareholders, but what about the way the largest domestic public oil companies spent over 50 percent of their daily profits in 2011 buying back their own stock, taking if out of the hands of public and putting it (and it's profits) in the hands of the board and largest shareholders. Or the fact that the CEOs of the Big five are paid (on average) more in one day than most families make in a year, with a 55 percent pay increase in 2011? That isn't the practice of an ethical company making a reasonable profit on an important commodity. That is the sound of swindlers taking the public for all they can get and laughing their way to the bank. Big Oil gets away with this by playing politics. In 2012 the oil and gas industry spent over $30 million on campaign contributions and another $70 million lobbying Congress. Oil companies aren't only being deceptive about their profits, they are actively working to destroy any possible threats: During the 2012 election cycle the Annenberg Public Policy Centers says, pro-oil interest groups spent nearly $25 millioin on deceptive ads, most related to energy issues. Several ads by pro-energy groups were throughly debunked by fact checkers, some claiming that the stimulus funded overseas jobs, and others using “alarming,” but ridiculous, soundbites to attack clean energy. It is fairly clear what Big Oil's role in all this is. They don't care about individuals, they don't care about the environment, and they certainly don't care about playing fair. The only thing they care about is profit. Inspite of their focus on raking in profits, the drop in gas prices combined with the rise of energy-effiecient vehicles means that many Big Oil companies saw a drop in profits of 2012. The final numbers aren't in for 2013, but the second quarter profits were rising again, so it's safe to say that Big Oil saw the damage to their bottom line, and took steps to fix it. Profits at What Cost Since the 1970s Big Oil has been actively sabotaguing any attempts to establish effective energy alternatives. While the various Big Oil companies do compete against each other in theory, which should keep prices down, the need for oil to keep the world running gives them an opportunity to institute an effective monopoly, as long as they are willing to work together. With supply and demand driving energy prices up to begin with, and the increasing cost of oil extraction cutting into their profits, Big Oil has every reason to drive up prices further. With the effective monopoly the Big Oil companies have, they don't need to worry about the competition that would normally make it impossible to raise prices arbitrarily. With no effective alternate energy methods, Big Oil can raise prices as much as they want, and the world has no choice but to buy what they are selling. Big Oil is making sure that doesn't change. In the last Congress, their lobbying and campaign donations paid off to the tune of over 100 bills past that enriched the gas and oil industry, while at the same time Congress slashed support to alternative energy measures that might one day provide a viable alternative energy source to the oil we currently depend on. This suppression of competition allows Big Oil to continue dominating the energy market—and setting energy prices how they want, which will be high, to pad their profits. However, the focus on maximizing profits at the expense of possible competition and the public is short sighted and dangerous. Dangerous not just to the economy, which will likely suffer if energy prices rise again. Not just to the environment, which already suffers from gasoline pollution and not needs to cope with damage from frakking and undersea driling. It's dangerous to the oil companies themselves. Already oil extraction operations are flagging due to Big Oil not being able to cover the costs of keeping them open. What will happen as costs keep increasing, and demand keeps rising? Eventually,

Soon big oil will not be able to keep up!

Big Oil won't be able to meet the demand. At best, the damage to the economy and function of the modern world will be severe as people race to cut back on oil usage and find alternatives. At worst the world as we know it will be shaken to its roots. And what will happen to Big Oil? When they can't afford to drill and have nothing left to sell, the profits that they put before everything else won't be much. They may be nothing at all. Profit Isn't an Evil Word Everyone wants to make a profit. At the end of the day, people want to make enough money they can put some into savings, and not built up debts. Governments want to have a positive budget with enough extra to cover emergencies. Companies want to make enough of a profit to pay their shareholders and invest in new technologies, new markets, new products. What is dangerous is Big Oil's obsession with as profit as possible, as fast as possible. It's short term, and dangerously short sighted thinking that is going to get a lot of people hurt. If Big Oil was willing to think past immediate profits to long term self-interest, they through themselves into alternative energy research. They would be leading the way to find the next source of energy that will keep the world running. Why? Because running up energy prices now is only going to drive themselves out of business faster. No matter what happens, the cost of extracting oil is going to keep going up, and the amount of oil extracted is going to keep going down. Even if they didn't push short term profit so hard, they will eventually be unable to keep their industry alive. If they were truly capable of thinking in the long term, they'd start developing alternative energies, so that when the day comes that energy prices from oil are so high the market collapses, they would already have other corporate devisions offering other energy products, so that they, and the rest of the world, can keep on running. Unfortunately, 'short sighted' is the defining trait of Big Oil at the moment. The oil companies are barely able to think beyond the next quarter, never mind the next decade. So energy prices will continue to rise, and the economy will suffer for it. A Grassroots Solution If the world isn't going be driven to ruin by Big Oil's short sightedness, something needs to be done to keep energy prices down and the world moving. With Big Oil's deep coffers tying Congress up, the solution is going to need to come from elsewhere. If enough people push for change, change can happen. By coming together, investing in alternative energy sources, supporting grassroots development, it may be possible to develop alternative energy sources before it's too late. Keeping energy prices down will require a complete revamp of how society functions and where energy comes from. Without everyone pulling together, the forecast for the future is very grim. Why? Because running up energy prices now is only going to drive themselves out of business faster. No matter what happens, the cost of extracting oil is going to keep going up, and the amount of oil extracted is going to keep going down. Even if they didn't push short term profit so hard, they will eventually be unable to keep their industry alive. If they were truly capable of thinking in the long term, they'd start developing alternative energies, so that when the day comes that energy prices from oil are so high the market collapses, they would already have other corporate devisions offering other energy products, so that they, and the rest of the world, can keep on running. Unfortunately, 'short sighted' is the defining trait of Big Oil at the moment. The oil companies are barely able to think beyond the next quarter, never mind the next decade. So energy prices will continue to rise, and the economy will suffer for it. A Grassroots Solution If the world isn't going be driven to ruin by Big Oil's short sightedness, something needs to be done to keep energy prices down and the world moving. With Big Oil's deep coffers tying Congress up, the solution is going to need to come from elsewhere. If enough people push for change, change can happen. By coming together, investing in alternative energy sources, supporting grassroots development, it may be possible to develop alternative energy sources before it's too late. Keeping energy prices down will require a complete revamp of how society functions and where energy comes from. Without everyone pulling together, the forecast for the future is very grim.