40 Years of Energy Panic

-Rianna Das

According the an article published in the Wall Street Journal entitled "40 Years of Energy Panic," the United States imports about 60% of its oil. Last November, before the infamous BP oil spill, a Shell executive, Marvin Odum, stood before Congress and deemed this large importation of oil. He stated that "We should not be satisfied with having other nations produce their energy for our use..." However, in this article, Holman Jenkins, an author of the Wall Street Journal, argues that relying on imports for oil is not necessarily a bad situation. He says that countries that rely more heavily on oil imports than the United States, such as India, China, and much of western Europe are experiencing tremendous growth and built high standards of living (online.wsj.com). He also claims that oil is a political problem maker and demonstrates this with the recent BP oil spill. He blames the Oil Pollution act of 1990 for this disaster. This act capped oil spill liability because of fears of putting the nation's energy in danger (online.wsj.com).

Personally, I found this article very interesting. Due to globalization and its effects, such as outsourcing, many Americans believe that we are losing our jobs to workers overseas. However, Jenkins makes the point that before the recent oil shortages, the United States was in a time of economic boom and we were importing just as much oil then (online.wsj.com). I also found the part about the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 very interesting. First, because it shows that government has a lot of influence over the energy industry and shows how regulation or, in this case, lack of regulation can determine decisions made by companies in the industry. I don't really understand why this act is still in affect, especially since it almost encourages companies to take risks that might hurt the environment because they will only be held responsible to a certain point.

This article discusses two companies that are leaders in the industry, especially in the American economy, BP and Shell. While this article does not mention specific jobs in the industry, in my opinion, the energy industry impacts every other industry. Without energy, it would be impossible to transport goods, work on computers, or produce products. Therefore, if the energy industry energy is not running efficiently, then it is hard for other industries to be successful.

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519813234768920.html?KEYWORDS=energy