Oil Storm

I thought the Oil Storm TV flick was a little far-fetched when I saw it. It depended on a lot of specific circumstances and the gas prices shot sky-high.

Then Katrina hit. Prices around here are $3.28/gallon, jumping 50 cents overnight. An oil pipeline along the east coast has been shut down. Experts are predicting the average price will top $4/gallon soon.

And here I am about to embark on a road trip. And massaging two job leads that are each sixty miles away. It’s going to be pain at the pump for me. My engine may as well run on blood.

Back to Oil Storm. It started with a hurricane, right around this time. It missed the massive devastation to New Orleans and other cities, but it got the damaged oil rigs and port devastation right. Their hurricane was right around the same time, too.

In the flick, gas went as high as $7.00/gallon as a result of terrorist attacks against Middle Eastern refineries and a tanker ship collision and explosion in Texas due to the clogged canal traffic, both following the hurricane. I really hope the flick doesn’t get that part right. They also featured a bidding war between China and the US over Russian petroleum.

The main message of the flick is our “addiction” to oil. Kinda hard to refute that now, isn’t it? Out here in the boonies, we don’t have much choice but to use gas. There’s no public transportation; at least, none that can get you where you need to be unless you can do everything in one specific city. Not happening.

I think if either of these job leads come through, I’ll give serious thought to moving into the given city proper. That way I can walk and/or bike as weather permits. I squandered an opportunity like that once; it won’t happen again.