Some say that the 2006 doubling of prices was set in motion four years prior with the 2002 strike by Venezuelan oil workers, which reduced that country's output by about 1 million barrels per day (bpd). The U.S. invasion of Iraq is blamed for another 1 million bpd reduction to an average 2 million. Reportedly, in 2004, China increased its consumption by nearly 1 million bpd to 7.4 million, while unrest in Nigeria took 500,000 bpd off the market. Then hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked about 700,000 bpd off-line.

However, with all of that decrease in production, there was always plenty of oil to go around. There are 7-8 billion barrels of oil tied up worldwide in industry and government stocks (inventories) at any given time and only around 10 percent of this vast stockpile is typically available to the industry. So why the price increase? Prices at the pump rise and fall based on current comodities market pricing. Oil that is in the tank at the filling station was purchased and delivered well before the daily price was set. So what drives the price?

We like to blame the oil companies for the price increases, or that there are some covert dealings with politicians and oil companies to drive the price up. Some of that is true, but mostly, the key word in the first line of this discussion tells the entire story: "Threat".

The price of oil is comodities market driven. Oil companies, politicians, and third world nations have little control over price. Dictators can rattle sabres all day, but if the comodities market continues downward, then the price goes down. Oil is priced by fear of supply shortages, not by actual shortages. Speculators buy and sell oil on the comodities market at a daily price, and that daily price goes directly to the pump before one drop of the oil purchased that day goes to a refinery. How sad is that? Oil companies can create shortages by reducing production levels, but all that does is fuel the threats of shortage and influences the markets. Influence is not control, and no matter what tactics the oil comapnies use, the ultimate force on price is how afraid we really get. It is a fear based market and the more substantial fear they can actually create, the more the markets will react.

So we know the problem, what is the solution?

Take oil off the comodities market and have oil producing countries bid for annual contracts at fixed prices.

How would that work?

An annual bid process would be initiated by the Federal Government and open to all oil producing countries. Countries would submit sealed bids to the U.S. Government and the lowest bidder would win the annual contract. Prices would be reduced overall, as countries would compete with one another for the exclusive annual contract with the U.S.

The lowest price bidder gets the contract for the year, with a condition; Produce and deliver a certain amount or be fined for not meeting quota. Fine monies would be held in trust / reserve, so a country would not be able to back out and not pay fines. Interest bearing accounts would be acceptable, so money tied up in reserve could still give the oil producing country some return on the money held. Secondary contracts with the next lowest bidder country and other countries who agree to that same price, would be held pending, in the case of non-production from primary contracts. Fine money would be used to offset the cost of the secondary contracted price.

How do we get this to happen?

Two things have to happen:

1. Copy this and forward it via e-mail to people you know. We spend a lot of time and effort sending urban legend e-mails about fingers found in food, and money that will be supposedly given away by Microsoft. This is no urban legend and no hoax. It is however, a document with a viable suggestion on how to better our country.

2. Write your Congressional representitive via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Congressional Representitives have e-mail addresses but no one ever reads most of the e-mail. Especially if it is sent by someone outside their district. If you send a letter by USPS, there is a better chance that someone will read it. If enough people send the suggestion, we have a better chance that the suggestion will come to someone who is willing to make it happen.

So what about Natural Gas...why don't we want to use it?

The oil and gas industry is pushing really hard right now to get people to buy into the idea that natural gas is the "best thing since sliced bread". Television commercial after television commercial talks about the benefits of a cleaner burning, more abundant fuel source that does not get purchased from terrorist sponsoring countries, and creates a lot of jobs here in America. That sounds really good...right? Well, if you think about it, not really.

First, ask yourself "WHO" is pushing this agenda? The OIL and GAS industry. The exact same oil and gas industry most of the nation does not trust. They are trying to get the nation addicted to yet another of their fossil fuels, keeping them in charge of our energy resources, and keeping America dependent on them for as long as possible.

The plan now, pushed by one of the biggest oil men ever, who also owns a great deal of the natural gas industry as well, T. Boone Pickens, is to pass the "Natural Gas Act" through Congress.

What exactly "IS" the "Natural Gas Act"? This act is proposed legislation designed to give tax incentives and tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and vehicle manufacturers to help pay for setting up the infrastructure to power motor vehicles (Cars, trucks, SUV's) on natural gas. The oil and gas industry wants the Government who is already extremely deep in debt, to have YOU pay for the transition to another fossil fuel addiction that keeps the oil and gas industry in control of the national fuel resources. That means, they want YOU, the tax payer, to pay to make auto manufacturers more natural gas friendly when they make motor vehicles, and they also want YOU to pay to create the necessary natural gas fueling stations and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry is throwing around millions of dollars on all kinds of things, to include this massive media push to promote this new natural gas addiction. The hard sell is on!

Okay, so they want us to pay for it all, even though we are already deep in debt and politicians are talking about raising, not lowering taxes, and eliminating, not creating more tax breaks and subsidies. Still...why is all of that so bad? Isn't a little sacrifice good for us, since we will create a natural gas infrastructure for the future? No. It is probably one of the worst things we can possibly do to create that natural gas future.

The promise made by gas companies now is that it will create a lot more new jobs. A natural gas transition will not create all the jobs that are promised in the quantities they like to claim. Unlike oil, it does not have to be refined to a great detail and at great expense. It also does not have to be transported like gasoline does either in trucks. It can be piped directly to any home or business. This reduces the number of jobs overall, not increases them, and any new jobs are temporary. Oil drillers would just drill for gas as they always have for oil, so that just keeps the same drilling people in the same basic jobs they have now. The net end result is actually fewer jobs over all.

Don't we all want to stop using foreign oil and sponsoring terrorism?

If anyone actually thinks terrorism is going to go away because we stopped buying oil from any given country, they are sadly mistaken. Besides, we already addressed the problem of foreign oil by taking oil off the commodites markets as explained earlier. If they will be fighting over each other to provide us the lowest price (Until we can find a viable renewable fuel source), there will not be nearly as much profit in the oil sales for them to use elsewhere.

Okay, with that said, still none of this is a deal breaker by any means. What else do we have to worry about? (I am glad you asked...)

Natural gas is one of the most widely used fuels across America already for home heating in the Winter. Every Winter, use goes way up so demand goes way up. In the Winter of 2009, when the natural gas companies said that their natural gas was then cheaper and more abundant than ever before, the price went up. So now we are being asked to use the exact same fuel for home heating AND vehicle fuel. How does that make any sense? We already know that there is a demand increase during winter, so we already know to expect a price increase when demand goes way up. So logically, what can we expect to happen every Winter when the demand goes way up for home heating fuel, and we are addicted to natural gas for vehicle fuel as well? We can expect fuel demand based economic hardships every single Winter. The more brutal the Winter, the more we use fuel to heat our homes, and the higher the price will go to heat our homes and power our vehicles at the same time.

Do we REALLY want to put ourselves in a situation where we already know that there will be weather related supply and demand issues?

Usually when home heating costs go up, we may be able to offset that somewhere else. Family budgets can often be worked a little to make up for excesses in one area or another. But it is often harder to deal with two excesses at the same time. If our home heat and vehicle fuel sources are the same, we are just going to have to pay more for both at the same time. That could cripple a family budget every year at the same time, at the worst possible time, near the Winter holiday season. Being a time when people spend more on retail shopping, this could have a dramatic impact on the whole national economy.

So what we have discussed so far is extremely bad, but here is the part that makes it a deal breaker: It is not like I can go shopping around for a better deal for the natural gas that gets piped into my home for heat. I can only get it from one source. There is no competition, and I am pretty well stuck with who ever delivers the natural gas to my home. So when demand goes way up, driving prices way up, especially in those extreme brutal winters, I am going to have to pay what ever the natural gas company says I have to pay. I am going to be at the mercy of one of the industries that has the worst track record for compassion for their customers in history. I really do not want to be at the financial mercy of the oil and gas industry any more than I am now.

So what else is there to know about a possible future natural gas addiction that makes it completely undesireable?

A major "selling point" for the conversion to natural gas is that you can set up a convenient "refueling station" in your home so you can refuel your natural gas powered vehicles right there. Again, this means less competition for vehicle fuel since you will be set up to refuel at home, and probably get only one bill. Most likely, you will not know what is used for home heat and what is used for vehicle fuel. It also creates an extra undue physical hazard of refueling in an enclosed space, even if you open the garage door for ventilation. There is a lot higher potential for refueling accidents in your home, which will probably additionally drive up homeowners insurance costs as fire risks increase.

Another in the many large series of "selling points" for the conversion to natural gas is that it is only "temporary", until we find some other alternative fuel source to use that is cheaper, cleaner and renewable. This is probably the biggest gas push hoax that is being perpetrated on the general public. Once we go this route and become totally emersed into natural gas, there will be no turning back. Once that expensive natural gas infrastructure is in place, and we have the vehicle manufacturers all tooled up to create natural gas powered vehicles, and we are deeper in debt as a nation because we had to increase our national debt to pay for all of this, we are, at that point, 100% committed to use natural gas for a very long time. There is nothing temporary about an addiction, especially one that takes such a huge initial expense to get started.

So in this scenario, if we think it through; Every Winter, we would watch as the gas price goes up for home heat and vehicle fuel together, because it is the exact same fuel for both. Our personal and national economies would be hit hard every year and our choices would become more and more limited. Soon, we would be fed up with the oil and gas industry again, and even if we actually have developed a new renewable fuel source that is cheaper and even more abundant because it is renewable, we would not be able to use it. There would become these major problems to moving on to something else; we have already exchanged from a few billion gallons of gasoline per year for this new natural gas addiction, invested billions of dollars in tax payer money, we are more in debt than ever before, and we simply can not afford to make any other huge infrastructure changes. We have in essence, painted ourselves into this very permanent natural gas corner and it will be extremely difficult to get away from that addiction, just as it has been to get away from crude oil. Probably worse so because our finances would be that much tighter, and our national economy much more fuel and weather dependent.

So why aren't we hearing about ANY of this from the people pushing the natural gas transition and the natural gas act? Because the people pushing for this are the ones who will profit from it with very little corporate investment, and they are not going to tell you the bad parts, or the down sides. They are going to paint as rosy a picture as possible, and make you think that natural gas is the ONLY choice for the future of the nation. They are going to sell you on this because it is in their best interest to do so, not yours.

We can not afford to make this choice. It is time for Americans to think and not be fooled by the oil and gas industry into making the worst possible decision we could make for our energy future.