The “N” word and big oil
By Peter Ewart
Monday, September 15, 2008 03:45 AM
By Peter Ewart
Once again, like a thunder clap, North America and the world has been rocked with a huge increase in the price of gas and diesel. In the space of one day recently, as noted in Opinion250, the price of gas in northern 
British Columbia shot up 11 cents a litre or about 50 cents a gallon.
British Columbia shot up 11 cents a litre or about 50 cents a gallon. This dramatic spike in price is just one more episode in the record or near record prices for gas, diesel, heating oil and other petroleum products that has been pummeling people across Canada and around the world for the last while, and threatening to hurl the economy into deep recession. Oil profits, on the other hand, are at record levels.
Once again, big oil is laying siege to the world. And the people of the world are suffering.
Of course, big oil has its apologists in the media and government desperately trying to justify the price increases, arguing that these are just the result of “natural” market forces that will eventually “regulate” the market and everyone will be happy.
But no matter how much these apologists try, they are finding it increasingly difficult to hide the fact that a small number of highly monopolized energy companies and cartels, in league with financial speculators, are using their monopoly position to hold everyone else in the world to ransom, whether it be ordinary working people or whole sectors of other industries that depend on oil and gas, such as manufacturing, trucking, air transport, and construction. Indeed, 30 airline companies have gone bankrupt worldwide as a result of soaring fuel costs, and that number is expected to double in the coming months.
In a recent report to the U.S. Congress, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has charged that “excessive speculation in the energy and agricultural commodity markets is driving prices to an all-time high and squeezing the budget of every American family.”
Even Peter Lougheed, former Premier of Alberta and a strong supporter of the original U.S. / Canada Free Trade Agreement, has come out with critical remarks about our foreign, mainly U.S., dominated oil industry, arguing that Alberta is not getting its fair share of royalties, nor is the industry developing enough refinery capacity and jobs in Canada.
And even such a zealous big oil supporter as Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been forced to admit, in the middle of the federal election, that oil companies have been using Hurricane Ike as an excuse to pump up prices and “gouge” consumers. This statement, of course, has to be taken with a very large grain of salt, as it is the very same Prime Minister who is also giving billion dollar plus tax breaks to these same big oil companies.
Political parties in the Canadian parliament are putting forward solutions of various kinds, including the Liberals with their “carbon tax,” the NDP with their call to tax the big oil companies, and the Bloc Quebecois with its proposal to create an “office” to oversee the oil industry.
But so far, none of the parties in the Canadian parliament have used the “N” word, and it might be a time to ask why? We are speaking, of course, of "Nationalization".
For the past several decades, even to mention the word “nationalization” was enough for flocks of economists, big media and industry apologists to swoop down on you in rage and indignation with cries of “social engineering” and “interference in the market economy.”
But nothing is more vital for the functioning of modern economies than control over energy resources. Yet, our politicians and governments have allowed this invaluable resource to be taken over by modern day pirates whose flag is as black as the suits they wear, and who have loyalty to no people, community or country, except their own shareholders.
One of the main arguments that various apologists for the oil industry give against nationalization and government regulation is that “market forces” should rule and that, in the end, these forces will “regulate” the industry in everyone’s interest.
This argument has, in effect, become a dogma and a justification for letting big oil get away with practically anything it wants, whether it be price fixing, the deliberate engineering of shortages, and other monopoly practices, or, in some countries, the flagrant degradation of the environment.
But someone should tell the apologists, politicians and media pundits that the “market forces” dogma is dead, broken up on the hard and unforgiving rocks of economic reality. Indeed, we have to look no further than the U.S. banking and financial services sector for proof.
The U.S. banking sector led the charge in calling for financial deregulation and unbridled rule of “market forces,” and both Republican and Democrat politicians in Congress meekly complied. And we can see the results today in the catastrophe that has hit the American housing market, and the unprecedented banking and credit crisis that has now spread like a virus through the entire world.
The U.S. investment bankers wanted it all, and they got it all. And now the whole world is choking on their bad mortgages, toxic securities and out-of-control speculative adventures.
But the funny thing is that these two sectors, big oil and big banking, which have caused so much havoc, are precisely the ones that politicians are rewarding the most, whether it be the massive U.S. government bailouts of the giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which, interestingly enough, are nothing but bailouts masquerading as a kind of “quasi-nationalization”), or the huge tax breaks, in both Canada and the U.S., to big oil companies.
Indeed, it is quite ironic to witness these same financiers who, for years, sanctimoniously lectured everyone else in the world about “free markets” and the dangers of “government interference in the economy,” are now clamoring the loudest for precisely that kind of interference on the part of the U.S. government.
We will see how all this goes down with the American people, whose patience is being sorely tested by soaring gas prices and a plunging housing market. Here in Canada, however, instead of handing over taxpayer’s money to out-of-control monopolists, why not use it to develop energy and banking policies that favour ordinary people, businesses and communities, as well as the future generations, and give us more control over our resources.
As Peter Lougheed has said in regard to the petroleum resource in Canada, “it’s our oil.” Not the big oil companies. Not the foreign governments. Not anyone else’s but ours.
In regards to that troublesome “N” word, big oil and big banks in North America should take note. If present trends continue, what was once whispered, may soon be roared.
Peter Ewart is a writer and college instructor based in Prince George, British Columbia. He can be reached at: peter.ewart@shaw.ca
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Posted by: metalman on September 15 2008 7:46 AM
If ever there was a time that Nationalization MUST be considered,it is now.
This gouging has gone on for far too long, and the spin we are fed by big oil and our government no longer hides the truth.
It is US who must put the pressure on to those we elected or MAY elect on October 14.
It is crippling our economy and it will only continue to get worse,unless somebody stands up and starts telling it like it is!
No more bulls**t!