The Price of Oil

"Oil", the price doesn't seem to be on anyone's mind lately. The world is still thinking about the recession, the loss of jobs, the creation of jobs, trying to survive financially.
But one goes to Chicago and you have to wonder where the recession is. Chicago is all hustle and bustle, especially over the Christmas season. And in Alberta, same thing - all traffic and it seems to be getting worse and it isn't even into the construction season yet. Yes the Oil and gas industry has slowed down, but it is far from dead yet. The Copenhagen conference was suppose to arrive at an agreement to deal with emission targets for global warming, but all it seem to accomplish was making the cash registers jingle from the government issued American Express, Visa and Mastercards. The whole conference was a joke. The David Suzukis and Al Gores of the world certainly did not suffer at all in getting to and from this conference via jet aircraft -so that brings me to my blog point, where will the price of oil be headed in the next few years.

Well it certainly isn't going to back off from the $70.00 US a barrel that it currently hovers around. The price will be going up, albeit slowly, but I will suggest that it will be up around $125.00 a barrel in the next five years. "Unless," there is a variable that kicks in, like Al Gore and the American public, along with the rest of the world parking the internal combustion engine and taking up riding bicycles. Not a chance !
In order for the world's attitude to change in the area of oil consumption, we will need the equivalent of an environmental Pearl Harbor to radically change all our oil consuming habits.

I observe that the world has the cheapest interest rates in history, so countries like India which has approximately 400 million middle class consumers, bought 2 million plus cars last year, and they all consume gasoline. India only produces 6% of it's own oil, so the rest has to be imported.

China is in the same boat as it is up to 8 million plus barrels of a day of consumption and it continues to grow, and China is out shaking the bushes throughout the world looking for a continuity of oil supply. China has included Alberta and the OilSands at Ft. McMurray in that search equation for a supply of oil.....

Alberta - if it wasn't for the Alberta economy, and the continuous oil and gas activity , (ie: cash flow,) the rest of Canada would be in the economic tank.

And then there are those who philosophize about employing Nuclear Power as a substitute for oil, gas, coal etc., - give me a break folks ! There has not been a Nuclear Power plant built in the U.S. in the last 40 years, and any of those that went down that Nuclear Power road have never come in on time or on budget. They have cost the taxpayer and the power consumer a fortune in bailouts.

So my money continues to be on oil unless one of the bright young minds at one of our educational institutions proves me wrong and comes up with a new and cleaner application of technology tp propel my truck down the road through summer and winter, as well as keeping me warm in the winter, and the lights a glowing at night !

I sure hope one of these bright minds comes through !

Will Hi-Speed Internet Come To Dome Creek?

I remember back when Alan Rock was a Cabinet Minister of Whatever, and he promised to tie all of Canada's rural communities together with Hi-Speed Internet (better known as Broadband service.) Well, like all political promises that didn't happen and the ordinary residents of Dome Creek, B.C. still don't have a Hi-Speed Internet Service. Now the federal budget that was brought down yesterday promises $275 million for Broadband service to the residents of Canada that are still without this valuable 21st. Century service. Boy, it certainly would be wonderful if I could set up my computer out at my Dome Creek cabin and pick up a wireless signal.

Many people have asked me what I thought of the budget, anticipating that I would agree that it will pull us out of the depression that we are heading into. Not a chance. The few billion for infrastructure is a drop in the bucket. Construction companies in Alberta and B.C. could eat that up in a few months.

No, I was disappointed as I did not observe it tackling with issues such as permitting investment by the average citizen into power their homes with solar power, via the installation of solar power systems by authorized and trained technicians, whereby a homeowner could get a tax deduction, much the same as a tax deductible contribution to one's RRSP. Rather though it would be a Alternative Electrical Power Generation Tax Receipt.

This is 21st. Century technology with the hundreds of thousands of jobs that such a deduction would create - and think of the benefit to the comunties that have traditionally only done manufacturing oriented towards the Auto industry (a dinasour industry.)

And Ontario would also benefit as Ontario Hydro would not have to invest billions in new electrical generation plants, along with billions for the associated and upgrading grid distribution system.

You could look down at the roof-tops of suburbia and observe the generation capacity by way of hundred's of thousands, let alone millions of Solar Panels installed on the roof tops of suburban homes !

Your a Skeptic eh ! Well travel to Germany and observe the solar panels installed on the roof tops, or travel to Denmark and observe the industry that builds the giant windmills that are installed offshoe and provide the Danes with 40% of their electricity.

No, the budget was the same ole,same ole ! A "boring," budget, written by boring civil servants.

Will it rescue Canada - I doubt it very much ! I think the unemployment picture will continue to grow !

I have not sat down in a long time, and glued myself to the Television, yet last night I did just that and I was rewarded with an historic acceptance speech by President Obama.
The analysts will no doubt pick the campaign, the man, the issues apart until the cows or moose come home, but bottom line, there was a desire for change in the everyday manner in which government conducts it's affairs on behalf of the citizens of the United States of America.
Yet it does not stop there, as the people spoke via the ballot box and were sending a clear message that gave President Obama a mandate to change the way the United States conducts itself with respect to the affairs of the global community.
To-day the United States has a new President ! This is wonderful and I wish him, and his family all the best as he has a monstorous job in conducting and administering the afairs of this nation !

President Obama's Acceptance Speech - Historic

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27546437#27546437

Financial Mess

$700 Billion - thats all the bankers want to save their sorry butts and now we find out that it could go as high as $1 Trillion , yes One Trillion Dollars - this is an insane number -and who is the system going to hold accountable ? People are losing their homes and Washington is bailing out the bankers and investment banks with a potential parachute of a Trillion Dollars.
Perhaps these Washington folks should come out to Dome Creek and get a reality check as to how the real world lives.

I read in the Robson Valley Times (a great little newspaper published in Valemont,B.C.) where the folks in Dunster, B.C. have received a fibre optic line link-up by way of Telus which will bring them high-speed internet. Then I guess the plan is for a private service delivery company to set up a wireless transmission tower and re-sell the hi-speed service by way of a wireless network. Great idea. So when is the valley of Dome Creek going to get such a service. Currently the community hall in Dome Creek has a hi-speed internet connection but I understand that it is through a Hi-speed satellite link by way of a company called Explornet. I would really look forward to the ability to bring out my laptop in my truck and have access in the Dome Creek valley via a wireless hi-speed internet link. Telus certainly won't provide the link as Telus doesn't even provide cell phone service between McBride and Prince George which is a heavily travelled highway corridor (highway 16 also known as the Yellowhead route) of 200km without any cell phone service in this age of wireless communication. The community hall in Dome Creek is a great meeting place and the Library is also there - the folks in Dome Creek who have set up the community hall and run it on an ongoing basis deserve a great deal of thanks for undertaking this service for the community of Dome Creek. C'mon Telus - get some cell phone service out into the community of Dome Creek - build a couple of cell phone towers in the Dome Creek community to help out these deserving folks. I know it isn't the lower mainland of Vancouver as Dome Creek is up in the north eastern part of British Columbia but they deserve some attention by the cell phone industry as represented by Telus !

Good morning from Dome Creek and the wireless age - we come out here to get away from the hustle/pressures of working in the Alberta oil patch - just catching up on the news from the outside world - they want to have a truce in Lebanon - that would be a nice thing - I am sure the women,children would welcome peace for a few hours - ah but the men - what would they do - restock their weapons, eat, burp and go back to cleaning their guns - perhaps those diplomats who are proposing peace would leave their American Express cards at home and lock themselves in a room and don't come out until you have a deal for actual peace - everyone seems to talk the talk but in reality they factions don't walk the walk. Perhaps the women should go and cut a "peace deal" and leave the men home to take care of the babies/kids, gather food, clean water and provide a roof over the heads of the kids/babies.