The price of oil has gone down dramatically in the last few weeks, resulting in gasoline prices approaching and in some cases reaching below 3 dollars a gallon.

I have been wondering when this would happen.  The realities of rising renewable energy production with rising supply of domestic oil because of fracking, combined with slowing demand due to  conservation efforts, result in lower oil prices.

Simple law of supply and demand; more supply and lower demand, equal lower prices.

Here are the big questions; how long will this last and will this drop in the price of oil kill renewable energy in this country?

Q1; How long will low prices last? That is tough to say, we are destroying our water supply to remove every last drop of oil we can pull out of the ground. How long can you do that before the water supply dries up?

Q2;Will it kill renewable’s? No one knows, yet, history shows as recently as the 1980’s, during the Arab oil embargo, renewable energy flourished. Once cheap, abundant oil returned, renewable energy nearly vanished.

Here is the fun part; fracking makes it appear as though we have plenty of reliable domestic oil. In reality, it is a desperate backup plan to flush out the remaining drops of oil stuck in the cracks and crevices of rocks, deep within the earth. A backup plan hatched because demand for energy is rising, yet all the easy to find, cheap oil is gone. Once those wells dry up,  very little oil is left in the US and there is no backup plan. Our country would be left with a  depleted water supply, a large bill to clean up the ground pollution and no energy to power our economy.

What about natural gas? Most of the power plants in the US have been switching to natural gas. Due to rising demand, fracking is being used to ferret out every last cubic inch of gas they can find. Meeting the rising demand for natural gas means rising prices and supplies dwindling more quickly.

Oh, but wait, we have Saudi Arabia! Not really, they are going to keep supplying the world while their wells slowly dry up and demand keeps rising. Going back to relying nearly exclusively on the Saudi’s at a time when demand is higher and supply is lower, will result in a price spike way beyond what our economy can handle.

Coal! We can use coal! Uhm, no, do you like to breathe?  China tried powering their country on coal, it didn’t work out so well. Today coal use in China is falling for the first time in their history and renewable energy is rising. Think about that, the second largest economy in the world is moving away from coal.

What about nuclear? Which do you prefer; a nuclear power plant in your back yard or a wind or solar farm?

What is needed right now is a backbone, from people who know that renewable energy is the only way forward for long term energy and economic security. People who understand that energy security is not developed by destroying our water supply. Leaders who can see that fracking is not a long term solution but merely a vehicle to short term gains fading into long term economic hardship and instability.

New info>>>saw a report today that stated Saudi Arabia may get together with their OPEC friends and cut oil production to drive oil prices back up .