Poor Oil Industry...Will it Ever Survive? Gimme a Break!

For the first time in three years, gas prices are where they should be -- below $2 a gallon -- and hopefully falling further.

But, for some reason, analysts and reporters are bemoaning this as a bad thing for the economy. In this article, which ran in today's Wall Street Journal, writer Ann Davis (not Alice from the Brady Bunch) writes a great, thought-provoking story on the fall in oil and gas prices and its impact on the oil industry -- but I feel it is a little short-sighted.

Here's the paragraph that caught my attention -- speaking of the negative impact of falling oil prices: "Energy-driven economies - in areas from Texas and Alaska to Venezuela and Russia - can face huge busts, with job losses affecting employment for engineers and roughnecks on rigs as well as the accountants, hotels and restaurants that support them."

I'm guessing this is true, but how can the fortunes of one industry outweigh all of the industries and segments of the economy that were negatively impacted by oil's meteoric price rise since 2005?

Over the past three years, our economy has gone in the toilet, and I think the high cost of oil has a lot to do with that. Here are just a few ways our whole country has been hampered:

• The cost of diesel fuel skyrocketed. This has led to thousands of truckers losing their jobs, and has forced those who own their own rigs to park them the past 18 months because it costs them more to ship their cargo than they receive for making the shipment.
  
• The high cost of shipping has raised prices for all manufactured products and food across the country because it costs more to ship it -- taking discretionary money out of the pockets of consumers.
  
• Prices for dairy, meat have increased dramatically because instead of feeding livestock with corn, it is being used to develop ethanol gas.
  
• With people paying more than three times what they are used to for gas and heating oil, consumers' discretionary money again decreased substantially, and what is more, money for necessities (like buying groceries and paying car payments and mortgages) have been hit hard. The balloon mortgages are mostly to blame for the housing crisis, but I'm guessing the high cost of energy has a hand in that as well.
  
• With gasoline prices so high, nobody is buying boats right now, in fact, sales have dropped almost 70 percent the last two years, causing major layoffs in the boating industry.
  
• And, don't forget the auto makers, who are now asking for a $34 billion bailout from the government, who haven't been able to move minivans and SUVs for two years -- again causing major layoffs across the industry, leading to the closure of hundreds of auto dealerships (i.e. the loss of even more jobs) and almost total bankruptcy.

So, forgive me if I don't shed a tear for the oil industry due to the low cost of gas right now. I'm quite enjoying paying around $27 to fill the tank on my Grand Caravan, instead of the $65 I was paying in July.

Companies in the oil and energy industries were making tons of money before 2005, and they will continue to. And, now, maybe the rest of the country can start to climb back from the brink.

Besides, can't these oil bastards live off the billions of dollars they have basically stolen from the American public the last three years, and help the organizations that have helped them rake in this record amount of money?

Exxon and other oil companies reported record earnings results the past year -- and not personal organizational records -- the highest profit ever drawn by any organization in the history of the world. It's time for them to take a hit, and I, for one, say that it's much deserved and long overdue.

RoadRage