Fried not in our very own oil

Oil prices breached $73 a barrel yesterday in the world market setting a new record high amid concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and declining U.S. gasoline stocks. Iran is said to have gathered heavy supplies of Uranium to, as alleged by the US, build its own nuclear arsenal. Britain and the United States have threatened to use force to force Iran to abandon its covert activities.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, said oil prices would reach $100 a barrel should concern over Iran's nuclear weapons capability lead to another invasion in that Middle Eastern nation. Venezuela by the way is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is among the major source of oil imports of the US and rest of the world.

Another bad news is that Nigeria, one of the biggest sources of oil suffered another major attack by militants late Wednesday by exploding a car bomb inside a military base. According to reports, the group has been cutting more than 20 percent of Nigeria's daily oil exports of 2.5 million barrels.

Analysts believe these oil price spikes will be here to stay for two reasons. One mainly because of the tension that's happening in the oil-producing regions second is the growing demand that's virtually happening every part of the globe.

I remember more than two years ago the International Monetary Fund Research Department and the International Energy Agency came up with a research on the impact of oil prices to different economies.

The research says that although the vulnerability of countries to high prices vary but generally, oil-dependent economies lose about 0.4% of their Gross Domestic Product for the year when oil prices go up at least $10 per barrel within the year. Another negative resultant to high oil prices is that inflation would rise by half a percentage point while unemployment would also increase and exacerbate budget-deficit problems.

I wasn't able to see the whole video produced by CNN but the title is very compelling: "We were told." The special report spoke of how we became hostages to this oil rush when we could have saved ourselves a long time ago if we have listened well enough about alternative energy.

But it is never too late to make the big switch. And we have to make that switch NOW!

In addition, to shield us from the aggravating impact of oil prices we must also start to unload our dependency. We have to first dampen the demand for oil by conserving. This will at least force oil producers to bring down prices. But the government cannot do this alone. Besides, it is never its responsibility to force people to conserve because this is supposed to be a self-imposed discipline. I should say that conserving this very limited resource should be considered a patriotic act.

The impact can be so great when we learn to act individually. Everyone must choose sacrifice between comfort by turning on the fan instead of the air conditioning. Learn to do some walking or take the public transport than arrive with style with those gas-guzzling vanity cars.

Now comes the responsibility of the government - which is to set the tone for investments in alternative fuel sources. Have you heard of any investor in this area? I still do not know if that story about the coco fuel really flew or simply smoldered in the kitchen.

We have vast tract of lands owned by the government for oil sources such as coconut, palm, corn, canola and other oil bearing crops why not encourage it and invest part of our national budget to help configure our vehicles and power generation systems to run on these natural resources?

Let's take pride in our very own oil than being fried by another that isn't even our own.

Send emails to [email protected]