High fuel prices: It’s good for the world!

For tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we give you updates on the Communist insurgency in Central Visayas. On June 2006 Gov. Gwen F. Garcia declared an all-out war against Communist insurgency. She is the first governor to make such a bold statement, which was followed a couple of weeks later by Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It’s been a year and a half since she made this historic declaration and the so-called blood bath that the mouthpieces of the legal front organizations supporting the Communist said would happen in Cebu fortunately did not materialize. In fact, the insurgency has dropped tremendously not only in Cebu, but in Bohol and most of Central Visayas.

To give us those updates on this war, we have with us Lt. Col. Oscar Lasangue of the Civil Relations Group III of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who will also give us information on the dramatic capture of one of the most wanted persons in Central Visayas, Mr. Ricardo Bellamia who is the Secretary of the Regional White Area Committee, a legal front of the CPP/NPA and has been tagged as the Deputy Secretary of Cebu Island Command and the Front Committee II in Cebu and he is also the Secretary of Kumiting Rehiyon sa Sentral Bisayas. Tonight promises to be an interesting show. Please watch it on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm.

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Last Saturday, the US dollar can be had for only P42.670 which tells you how much it has weakened against the other currencies of the world, especially against the Philippine peso which has now earned a new reputation as one of the strongest currencies in Southeast Asia. An economist friend of mine already told me that by December, the peso would further strengthen to less than P40 to the US dollar. So brace yourself folks for more currency history, although we’re still far from P7 to the dollar.

Talking about historic rises or falls, crude oil is now tottering close to US$100 per barrel. This historic event may happen within the week or even today. Thanks to the very weak US dollar, it has not only strengthened the peso, it has also made the world prices of crude hit historic heights. I have always believed that the days of cheap fuel is over. In the 50s gasoline literally cost only centavos per liter. Today, it’s getting closer to P50 per liter, which tells you that it is time to get rid of that gas guzzler in your garage and start looking for cars that run longer on a per liter of gasoline.

I’m one of the few who like world gasoline prices to go higher, not because we like this punishment on our economy, but rather it would force car companies to build vehicles that no longer use fossil fuels because they are one of the principal contributors to global warming and the reason why Arab states that produce oil have become so filthy rich like Dubai. These Arab states are on a massive construction frenzy building the tallest buildings in the world, creating the Palm Islands and the World on their shores because the world’s thirst for oil have given them so much money, it is going out of their ears!

Way back in the early 1990s I visited the General Motors Company in Detroit. In their research facility in Troy, Michigan they showed us the Fuel Cell car, which doesn’t use any fossil fuel. Unfortunately, GM didn’t use their very advanced high-technology cars to move ahead of the competition. They chose to make gas guzzling SUVs and now they have been beaten by Toyota Motors which is now the world’s biggest car manufacturer.

But due to world record prices of world crude, GM is now fighting back and may even beat the competition in coming up with a Fuel Cell car. GM recently unveiled the Sequel, a crossover utility built on top of a skateboard chassis that includes the fuel storage tanks, batteries, fuel cell stack, its motors and its electronic control systems. This was the technology that we saw in the early 90s that came from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts (ATVC) of GM. Are we seeing the car of the future? Actually, two such cars were tested on the roads last May in the US accompanied by journalists. You can read how it performed in the Internet at the GM website.

So let the world prices of crude hit the roof at more than a hundred US dollars, so that the world shall soon be driving cars that no longer use fuel oil. If GM sells this car to the public within two years, you can bet that it can once more overtake the giant Toyota Motors who still have to come up with their Fuel Cell technology. When this happens, we shall see a brighter future for the generations to come where the world would no longer be depended on Arab oil as cars and other vehicles would now be powered by Fuel Cell technology. We just might reverse global warming. Indeed, the future is just around the corner! Will GM regain its automotive leadership?