Those of you following the Raven discussion of global energy resources
might be interested in "Pump Dreams," a short readable piece by John
Cassidy in the current issue of The New Yorker (October 11, 2004, pp.
42-47), which puts the growing energy dependence into the context of the
current Presidential race.

A few salient facts: we 290 million Americans are 5% of the global
population, but we consume 25% of world oil supply. And we gripe when gas
at the pump tops $2 a gallon, less than it was in the 1970s when accounting
for inflation, and far below what drivers in other countries have been
paying for decades. The federal tax on gasoline has not gone up since 1993
when Clinton raised it 4 cents a gallon. However, one calculation of the
cost of American military operations in the Middle East is about 10 cents a
gallon, so perhaps that is a form of gas tax.

Since the mid-1980s, when the government began to neglect fuel efficiency
standards -- SUVs are classified light trucks, and there is actually a
perverse tax break for Hummers and other heavy vehicles -- our dependency
on foreign oil has grown rapidly, much of it from the Gulf states. The
Department of Energy estimates that by 2020 only 1/3 of our oil needs will
come from domestic sources.

Neither candidate has offered realistic programs to address the energy
issue. Our economy is based on the dubious assumption of continued cheap
energy sources.

Richard Rice