For the past 40 plus years, the people of the United States of America have been urging the US Government to invest in non-oil consuming technologies and transportation alernatives.
These warnings and suggestions have been roundly ignored. The US government has invested heavily instead in further reliance of oil and in wars to obtain it. They have subsidized oil companies to drill, bailed out car makers who were bankrupt because of their failure to produce cars which used less gasoline and unreasonably greedy pricing policies and they have allowed the energy companies to bleed the money from the individual person while giving big breaks to corporate gluttons.
At no time have they demanded that the corporate gluttons seek alternative energy.
While they have made a weak effort to have gas efficient automobiles produced, tyhe result is that the cars are now largely constructed of less thn durable aluminum and cast plastics. Plastic is usually a derivative of oil. It is impossible to find anything which does not utilize a large percentage of plastic from household appliances which could use stainless steel or aluminum, they use plastic. Insides of refrigerators are plastic. TV's, telephones, gaming system, CD's, DVD's, lamps, furniture, bathroom fixtures, gears, curtain and shade rods are all made of plastic. Wall coverings are made of plastic. Garden decorations are made of plastic. Drinks are bottled in plastic. Foods are distributed in plastic. Gears for machinery are made of plastic. Why?
It is called "buil-in obsolescence." They expect it will break in a few years and they have a ready made-re-order market. Raincoats are made of plastic. Shoes are made of plastic.
Their wasteful greed is the basis for it. It is partly also the reason for their economic instability. When the re-orders do not come, there is no work as projected. They see an endless market in self-destructing items. The barbage dumps are filled with plastic. Milk is sold in plastic bottles which do not even protect the milk from being tainted by contact with other substances. Many feel the tap water is undrinkable due to additives and pollutants, so they buy dozens upon dozens of plastic water containers. Thermos-type bottles are no longer metal and glass. They are plastic inside plastic. They consume immeasurable amounts of drinking straws, also plastic.
They have failed to invest in solar energy although the technology has long been available.
They fail to adequately subsidize or give worthy tax exemptions those who wish to invest in solar energy, heat pumps, or insulations and even repressed inventors & investors from moving forward. They have failed to change the housing standards to upgrade older housing for better insulation and more energy efficient heat. They have made no provisions for alternative heating access.
In 1970, on a train to New York City, I spoke with an executive from one of the oil companies. He told me then that the oil companies would do everything within their power to prevent the inception of alternative energy and they might consider it if they could find a way to charge each individual user for the use of what is free:solar energy.
There have been a few solar panels installed on some street lights in a neighboring town. Whether these were installed by the town and their energy costs defrayed or by the electric company and the free energy charged for is unknown to me.
They have continued the ways of waste, nearly entirely deleting trains, restricting and centralizing buses and forcing individuals to not only purchase overpriced cars but continually rely on gasoline.
They insist on continuing to go into nuclear energy because it has a centralized generating system which forces everyone to continually pay for generated energy, no matter how dangerous, no matter how outdated, no matter how irresponsible.
They have closed down independent energy generation by smaller towns and forced them to centralize, causing costs to the consumer to triple at the least.
They have failed to do adequate research in climate stabilization. They have failed to reduce the number of cars on the road which generate heat as well as greenhouse gases in addition to consuming massive amounts of oil/gasoline. The "electric" cars still rely on oil generated electricity to charge.
They have failed to restore railroad transportation of goods and rely on oil consuming trucks which not only consume massive quantities of gasoline, but also majorly pollute.
In addition, they have polluted national and international lands and waters and still advocate more of the same, with a shrug that the catastrophes happened, not yet having cleaned up the last disaster, making no provisions to prevent any future disasters, just plan to go ahead and do it again in unspoiled areas which will threaten every part of the world, Canada and Russia primarily.
They have refused to approach South America on the matter, yet South America has very graciously donated, free of charge, oil to US individuals who would have otherwise frozen to death.
They have made wood stove grossly expensive or totally unavailable; fireplaces almost non-existent; fireplaces which are more than decorative and could be used to heat a home are not available.
They have turned apartment rooms into the size of large closets claiming energy savings when in reality it is merely inflation and getting 4 ounces of yogurt where there used to 6 ounces for less money. And yogurt comes in plastic containers. At 4 ounces, more than before are needed to make up for the missing 2 ounces. And they know it. Even containers which themselves are not made of plastic are surrounded by it. Utensils are plastic. Dishware is "disposable", i.e., plastic.
Headboards of beds and dressers and wardrobes are plastic. Clothing hangers are plastic. Drawer dividers are plastic. Storage containers of any kind are plastic. Baby bottles are plastic. Fenes are plastic. Steet lights are plastic. They make fake brickwork out of plastic. "Aluminum siding" is now made of plastic. Flooring is made of plasticized elements.
Picture frames are made of plastic. Jewelry is made of or sold in plastic boxes. There are plastic "candles".
Pens are made disposable, of plastic & packaged in plastic. Toys are all made of plastic, even very expensive dolls. Scooters and Barbie cars and the like are made of plastic. Shelving and garden pots are made of the stuff.
Plastic is a wonderful substance in it's right place. But it's right place is not in everything. But oil to power and mobilize an entire planet? Especially a country which refuses to conserve, refuses to compromise, and is the major waster of the limited resource? IT IS NOT ALLOWABLE.
The only way they will ever bend and comply with reasonableness in oil consumption is when it becomes unobtainable for them.
They have been warned. They have been caurtioned. They have been offered alternatives. They have been begged by their own people to make changes. And yet the government continues to promote polluters and fight wars and despoil countries and lands in their behalf all the while never negating the tax incentives given when oil was a new thing and merely and option.
NO OIL DEALS FOR THE US of A or it's suppliers. Period. End. Amen.
RMH Prinzessin Regine Hohenzoller
writing as a personal prisoner of capitalist warfare in the US of A
These warnings and suggestions have been roundly ignored. The US government has invested heavily instead in further reliance of oil and in wars to obtain it. They have subsidized oil companies to drill, bailed out car makers who were bankrupt because of their failure to produce cars which used less gasoline and unreasonably greedy pricing policies and they have allowed the energy companies to bleed the money from the individual person while giving big breaks to corporate gluttons.
At no time have they demanded that the corporate gluttons seek alternative energy.
While they have made a weak effort to have gas efficient automobiles produced, tyhe result is that the cars are now largely constructed of less thn durable aluminum and cast plastics. Plastic is usually a derivative of oil. It is impossible to find anything which does not utilize a large percentage of plastic from household appliances which could use stainless steel or aluminum, they use plastic. Insides of refrigerators are plastic. TV's, telephones, gaming system, CD's, DVD's, lamps, furniture, bathroom fixtures, gears, curtain and shade rods are all made of plastic. Wall coverings are made of plastic. Garden decorations are made of plastic. Drinks are bottled in plastic. Foods are distributed in plastic. Gears for machinery are made of plastic. Why?
It is called "buil-in obsolescence." They expect it will break in a few years and they have a ready made-re-order market. Raincoats are made of plastic. Shoes are made of plastic.
Their wasteful greed is the basis for it. It is partly also the reason for their economic instability. When the re-orders do not come, there is no work as projected. They see an endless market in self-destructing items. The barbage dumps are filled with plastic. Milk is sold in plastic bottles which do not even protect the milk from being tainted by contact with other substances. Many feel the tap water is undrinkable due to additives and pollutants, so they buy dozens upon dozens of plastic water containers. Thermos-type bottles are no longer metal and glass. They are plastic inside plastic. They consume immeasurable amounts of drinking straws, also plastic.
They have failed to invest in solar energy although the technology has long been available.
They fail to adequately subsidize or give worthy tax exemptions those who wish to invest in solar energy, heat pumps, or insulations and even repressed inventors & investors from moving forward. They have failed to change the housing standards to upgrade older housing for better insulation and more energy efficient heat. They have made no provisions for alternative heating access.
In 1970, on a train to New York City, I spoke with an executive from one of the oil companies. He told me then that the oil companies would do everything within their power to prevent the inception of alternative energy and they might consider it if they could find a way to charge each individual user for the use of what is free:solar energy.
There have been a few solar panels installed on some street lights in a neighboring town. Whether these were installed by the town and their energy costs defrayed or by the electric company and the free energy charged for is unknown to me.
They have continued the ways of waste, nearly entirely deleting trains, restricting and centralizing buses and forcing individuals to not only purchase overpriced cars but continually rely on gasoline.
They insist on continuing to go into nuclear energy because it has a centralized generating system which forces everyone to continually pay for generated energy, no matter how dangerous, no matter how outdated, no matter how irresponsible.
They have closed down independent energy generation by smaller towns and forced them to centralize, causing costs to the consumer to triple at the least.
They have failed to do adequate research in climate stabilization. They have failed to reduce the number of cars on the road which generate heat as well as greenhouse gases in addition to consuming massive amounts of oil/gasoline. The "electric" cars still rely on oil generated electricity to charge.
They have failed to restore railroad transportation of goods and rely on oil consuming trucks which not only consume massive quantities of gasoline, but also majorly pollute.
In addition, they have polluted national and international lands and waters and still advocate more of the same, with a shrug that the catastrophes happened, not yet having cleaned up the last disaster, making no provisions to prevent any future disasters, just plan to go ahead and do it again in unspoiled areas which will threaten every part of the world, Canada and Russia primarily.
They have refused to approach South America on the matter, yet South America has very graciously donated, free of charge, oil to US individuals who would have otherwise frozen to death.
They have made wood stove grossly expensive or totally unavailable; fireplaces almost non-existent; fireplaces which are more than decorative and could be used to heat a home are not available.
They have turned apartment rooms into the size of large closets claiming energy savings when in reality it is merely inflation and getting 4 ounces of yogurt where there used to 6 ounces for less money. And yogurt comes in plastic containers. At 4 ounces, more than before are needed to make up for the missing 2 ounces. And they know it. Even containers which themselves are not made of plastic are surrounded by it. Utensils are plastic. Dishware is "disposable", i.e., plastic.
Headboards of beds and dressers and wardrobes are plastic. Clothing hangers are plastic. Drawer dividers are plastic. Storage containers of any kind are plastic. Baby bottles are plastic. Fenes are plastic. Steet lights are plastic. They make fake brickwork out of plastic. "Aluminum siding" is now made of plastic. Flooring is made of plasticized elements.
Picture frames are made of plastic. Jewelry is made of or sold in plastic boxes. There are plastic "candles".
Pens are made disposable, of plastic & packaged in plastic. Toys are all made of plastic, even very expensive dolls. Scooters and Barbie cars and the like are made of plastic. Shelving and garden pots are made of the stuff.
Plastic is a wonderful substance in it's right place. But it's right place is not in everything. But oil to power and mobilize an entire planet? Especially a country which refuses to conserve, refuses to compromise, and is the major waster of the limited resource? IT IS NOT ALLOWABLE.
The only way they will ever bend and comply with reasonableness in oil consumption is when it becomes unobtainable for them.
They have been warned. They have been caurtioned. They have been offered alternatives. They have been begged by their own people to make changes. And yet the government continues to promote polluters and fight wars and despoil countries and lands in their behalf all the while never negating the tax incentives given when oil was a new thing and merely and option.
NO OIL DEALS FOR THE US of A or it's suppliers. Period. End. Amen.
RMH Prinzessin Regine Hohenzoller
writing as a personal prisoner of capitalist warfare in the US of A
