Oil and Joseph of Egypt

My goal in this post is to try out some new ideas to make my paper sticky. I am going to write things out just for the exercise of going through it and let anyone who reads comment on its effectiveness.

My basic argument is very simple. If America wants to be truly independent and prepared for the future of the energy market then it needs to stop drilling its oil and save it. If we are worried about running out of oil in the future and being left with nothing to provide energy then we should save the billions of barrels of oil stored beneath American lands.

My core is that true oil independence comes when we have plenty of it stored for when an energy crisis does come. This is akin to the story of Joseph who was sold into Egypt (but not his coat of many colors). Joseph interpreted one of the dreams of pharaoh to mean that Egypt would have seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. Instead of having seven years of very competitive business, Joseph led Egypt in saving vast amounts of food for the upcoming famine. When the famine came and the rest of the world was crippled by starvation, Egypt was strong and prosperous. Their food stores not only gave them stability but an incredibly strong economic and political upper hand with all of their neighbors. With ever-shrinking estimates of how long the world’s oil reserves will last, America will be the strongest if it would save this resource for the coming oil famine.

There is always an outcry among the American population, the press, and politicians who claim that America is too dependent on foreign sources of oil. They believe that by allowing our oil to be imported that we are subject to the whims of foreign oil exporters. What they forget is that foreign oil exporters need and want business. It is true that they might be able to withhold oil for a while but in the end they cannot function without us. They need business and there is no place in the world like America for oil consumption.

Another worry about buying oil from foreign markets is that market prices are too unstable and expensive. A basic economics explanation clarifies the absurdity of this worry. A higher demand for a product will lead to a more expensive price. If demand continues to rise then the price will also rise. If demand falls, so will the price. In effect, we, the consumers, actually control the market prices. If an oil supplier sets their prices too high then people will not buy as much and prices will have to fall for the producer to make profit.

Here are some attempts at stick analogies/stories that might help:

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, oil currently supplies 40% of our total energy needs and 99% of the energy we use in our cars and trucks. In essence, every boat, car, truck, plane that you have ever seen would be nothing more than a useless hunk of metal without oil.

Exhausting America’s oil supplies is like forcing us to hand over our driver’s license and car keys. Without this oil, we cannot function.

True dependence on foreign oil is not having our own reserves to fall back on. It is like hoping to one day retire but without having ever saved any money.

Benedict Arnold and how we are betraying ourselves.