The price of oil futures fell to negative territory last week and remains anemic at around $17 per barrel today. We have such an oil glut that there is no place to put it any more.

Thanks to fracking, new oil exploration in other parts of the world, and OPEC’s erectile dysfunction, oil is no longer a scarce, expensive energy source. The world has enough oil to last for centuries.

Still, we have farmers planting, growing, and harvesting corn so we can add 10% ethanol to our gasoline. We turn our auto factories upside down and add thousands of dollars to the price of each car and truck to meet stricter EPA minimum gas mileage targets. We subsidize alternative “renewable” energy sources and devices despite having essentially solved carbon-based pollution.

Short-term, the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down the demand for oil. But that is temporary and doesn’t address the bigger issue. Let’s face it, oil is and will continue to be the best energy solution on earth for a long time to come.

So how does it make any sense to suppress the production and use of oil as an energy source? Two answers, the same ones that can be applied to every seemingly irrational political and cultural issue: money, and power.

Our kids still come home from school (when it is actually open) in tears from dire predictions about their world being destroyed by evil, smoke-belching big businesses and mom’s gas-guzzling SUV. Never mind that those end-of-the-world predictions never seems to come true.

Leftist politicians just can’t let go of the “global warming” hoax and the power it gives them over a frightened populace. They know their bubble could burst at any second. They have no choice but to continue promoting subsidies for windmills, solar panels, electric cars and so many other technologies that will NEVER be comparable to the common-sense fuel that God designed and made plentiful for our use: oil.

But back to corn. This week farm lobbyists are asking Congress and the Trump administration for billions of dollars in Coronavirus aid. Some of the request may be legitimate, as the ag sector has been harmed by government decisions such as the COVID-19 shutdown and foreign trade negotiations. But part of their justification is that demand for corn continues to fall because demand for gasoline is down.

Instead of letting the free market determine how our acres of productive land are used, such as growing the foods needed for people and livestock, we are actually considering paying farmers because they have to plant corn which is no longer needed in light of low demand for gasoline. What the hell kind of logic is that?

Let’s tell our leaders that it’s time to end the ethanol requirement, and subsidies that prop up dumb alternative energy industries and the corruption that inevitably goes with them.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

Mobil station where I stand
This old gas pump in my hand
My boss don’t like me, got a face like a weasel
Oil on my hands and the smell of diesel

Fill Her Up – Sting