Let's stop paying for oil: let's go!

Oil shares more money with more people across more continents. And the sheiks who run these empires have a tremendous say in the all the economies of the world - you can have such power also if the product you produce is the raw material needed for EVERYTHING that runs the modern world. Any increase in oil prices trickle a chain of events that affect financial markets and eventually affects the small consumer. A one cent increase in oil markets over the period of a year can raise pump prices by as much as $1b in America (Source: CNBC).


We have new technology: electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, nuclear energy but why aren't we seeing more charging stations, more policies to get people to switch (maybe a cash for clunkers program...cash for guzzlers?) and more action by giant conglomerates to take more serious action? My feel is that that financial grip by the oil companies is too tight. Oil money is too tightly integrated into the world and it's profits shared by too many powerful individuals and organizations. Whoever owns the money, owns the country: even governments could face a political backlash if it pumps more money into, say, nuclear plants and electric vehicles - an action that could lead to large profit losses for the biggest companies in the world. Will this be an isolated implosion? Hard to say. Lehman Brothers opened a can of worms that crawled all over the world, eating away entire economies. Imagine Shell, Chevron and BP going bankrupt. Then imagine the Arabs going bankrupt. At the same time.


The logical thing to do now is to help these industrial giants spearhead businesses in renewable energy and diversify into different technologies so that their money can be made while the world weans off it's addiction to oil. Until then, we won't expect any real action from governments all over the world to encourage alternative energy.


Oil volatility is nothing new - but I am hoping it's mood swings will trigger a consumer's "middle east revolution": to start voting with their dollar and demanding non-oil energy.