Let's Remove the Bull's-Eye From 'Big Oil'
by Mark Singlarity
Take most things to a ridiculous conclusion and things get ... ridiculous. But, nonetheless I feel compelled to dive into this metaphoric pool.
We are going to have a new national energy policy, and have it quite soon. What that energy policy looks like depends on who we elect as our next president — Barack Obama or John McCain.
Based on early reports, neither man has a well-developed sense of what is needed to wiggle away from our dependence on foreign oil and the foreigners who sell it to us.
But Obama wants to ease the pain on consumers with a new economic stimulus package from the government, paid for by “big oil.”
Big oil is a term used pejoratively to describe today’s would-be robber barons. The original robber barons, whose wealth was created during the early days of the 19th century’s industrial revolution, are not remembered fondly.
These incredibly wealthy businessmen built their fortunes on the backs of common men. The robber barons weren’t concerned with workers’ rights, workplace safety or anything else that took time or money away from them.
Most of the laws that now protect workers were developed after the abusive behavior of exploitative employers was brought to light. Congress and a succession of presidents worked hard to ensure workers and consumers were protected from harmful, hurtful and now illegal workplace conditions and rules.
Although we can trace most of the good federal legislation to Congress and presidents who had good intentions, there are plenty of mistakes. Most of the mistakes happen when the folks in Washington just get a little carried away.
In 1971, Richard Nixon imposed wage and price freezes to fight inflation. Didn’t work.
There were workarounds. The bank I worked for wanted to raise my salary from $1.85 an hour to $2.10 an hour. I was a really valuable employee.
The tax accountants wouldn’t let the bank enter into such a grievous breach of Nixon’s law, so the bank fired me. The good news is they hired me back the next day at $2.10. The computer systems that scrutinized quarterly payroll reports weren’t so clever in 1971.
Then Jimmy Carter, two presidents after Nixon, proposed a windfall profits tax in 1979 to get a handle on high energy prices and gasoline shortages. Didn’t work.
Big oil companies are not today’s robber barons.
Obama has proposed funding a $1,000-per-family emergency energy stimulus payment — that’s a check — to help pay for next winter’s heating bill.
To fund the $1,000 stimulus check, Obama wants the major oil companies to pay additional income taxes based on windfall profits. He also wants the oil companies to develop alternative energy sources that fit better in our new “green” world.
Don’t draw the wrong conclusion.
I’m as green as a gourd. I support sustainability. I love recycling. I love cycling. I think hybrids are cool (not as cool as motorcycles, but cool). But I also respect Conoco-Phillips, ExxonMobil and Chevron’s right to be oil companies for as long as they want to be oil companies.
The argument is silly, but there is a slippery slope.
What if the president decides insurance companies ought to be developing alternative products that chase away future customers?
What about successful car dealers that are forced to sell rowboats because rowboats are more eco-friendly than just about any other means of transportation? I can’t imagine Ronnie Lamarque getting all fired up and crooning for a rowboat.
My point, silly as it seems, is that oil companies, like automobile dealers, restaurants and coal miners, ought to be able to stay true to their core business plan if they want to.
If the big oil companies want to branch out into cleaner and more alternative energy expeditions, they do so at the behest of their shareholders and directors, not because it’s a more moral endeavor.
If we want to outlaw the exploration for and the production of oil and gas, then let us do it. But as long as it’s legal for big oil companies to look for and develop oilfields, let’s let them do it.
If they choose to spend some of their resources looking for tomorrow’s energy products, that’s all the better for them and us.•
Publisher Mark Singletary can be reached by at 293-9214, by fax at 832-3570 or by e-mail at mark.singletary@nopg.com.
http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/UpToTheMinute.cfm?recID=19108
