October 2005 - Reaping the Whirlwind

By Anthony J. Lockwood

September 1. On Monday Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans and communities of all sizes along the Gulf of Mexico. Since the almost-as-big Big Flood hit New Orleans in 1927, coastal geologists, environmentalists, engineers, and plain folk have warned that we must prepare because the Big One was a-coming. They were ignored and mocked as tree-hugging, tax-and-spend liberals by most conservative politicians and commentators.

A generation ago, Jimmy Carter, his cardigan sweaters, the solar panels on the White House, his calls for massive research into alternative energy technologies, his challenge to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and his declaration that getting there would be the moral equivalent of war, was mocked mercilessly. Ronald Reagan no sooner became president and those solar panels on the White House roof came a-tumbling down. The dork in the Mr. Rodgers’s sweater was gone.

Here’s the scene today. I pray it’s better by October when you read this. The Feds say that Katrina halted about 95% of crude oil production and 88% of natural gas output in the Gulf—25% of our total output. Some 735 oil and gas rigs and platforms are abandoned, 20 oil rigs are AWOL, a gas pipeline burns, at least five huge refineries are flooded, and oil workers and their families evacuated from their homes.

Our oil-based economy wobbles on the edge of big-time trouble: $3—$4 a gallon gas, 300 barges of midwestern food exports trapped above New Orleans at harvest time, manufacturing imports and raw materials sit at sea.

We’re also now well into our second Persian Gulf war, where oil plays a star role. Protesters threaten to disrupt oil exports from Nigeria—the ninth largest oil producer. Venezuela, our fourth largest oil dealer, is in a war of words with the White House. And we’re shocked at the devastation, death, and governmental ineptitude. We should not be. Nature is bigger than us, and we elected these guys. We ignored warnings that the Gulf communities were in danger as well as wasted a generation indulging our oil habit and cutting taxes for the wealthiest, as the Feds—the GAO—admit.

Shocked? No. Ashamed? Yes.

Think: Before 9/11, FEMA classified a hurricane striking New Orleans as one of the top three disasters facing the US. Yet we said Coastal 2050, a project to fortify flood barriers in and around New Orleans, was too expensive at $14 billion (over 40 years)—less than three months’ the tab for the Iraq war. Last spring, the House cut the budget of the New Orleans area Army Corps of Engineers for the fourth year in a row—money for levee building.

It did not have to be this bad. We knew better. Now we get to pay more to rebuild than we would have paid for a pound of prevention. The cost of everything—coffee, ink, gas, insurance, electricity, you name it—will rise. Can you and your job handle the inflation?

Luckily, we can tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), our oil emergency fund. It may be key to stabilizing oil markets and thus the economy until things normalize. Funny thing about the SPR. It was set up by that liberal, tree-hugging dork Carter.

Thanks, Pal. —Lockwood 

Note: Well, I messed up my history in that last sentence, and a few alert readers pointed it out. Thanks for noticing me and taking the time to write, especially those of you who were polite about it.

To those of you who noticed and took a swing at me, your reliance on incivility to express your displeaure and disagreement is a big part of what’s terribly wrong with America these days. But thanks anyway, Pal. Thanks for caring enough about American to swing at someone who also cares, just not in the way you think all free people should.

Anyhow, to set the record straight: President Ford got the SPR going when he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act on December 22,  1975. On August 4, 1977, President Carter signed the Department of Energy Organization Act. This consolidated some 30 Federal energy organizations,  including the SPR, into one cabinet department. President Carter also exhorted us to expand the SPR and fill it to one billion barrels, a facility size and storage capacity we have yet to attain.

The main website for the SPR is available here.

In my opinion, you can find some more interesting stuff on the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy website. Start here.

Thanks, Pal. Again, sorry for the error. — Lockwood