This is originally from the boston.com big picture series but was posted on reddit with the caption; "What now BP?". It is a good question. Our mastery of technology on a grand scale means when it goes wrong it can do drastic damage to the world around us. Through knowledge of nuclear science we can destroy the world multiple times over; however, because we are a moral species we have not done that.

This isn't the first large oil spill, but since it was in the US, with its ability to bring mass and micro media to bear and then broadcast it around the world it is one of the more prominent. Because of this spill we discovered that there are other instances like this around the world, and that during the Soviet era when the Russians encountered this problem they sealed the drill holes with nukes. Which makes you shudder at the brutal nature of Soviet engineering.

What now BP is a good question. Our demand for oil isn't changing. New technologies in batteries are promising but the problem the Hybrid has solved is traffic lights, stop signs and give way signs. It hasn't changed the nature of car propulsion. Batteries are still an expensive and weak technology which at least throws power generation back into centralized plants. Not that transportation is the largest user of oil anyway.

This is a heat map of gasoline costs as a percentage of income. The hardest hit areas are around the 10% of income mark.

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This is a blame the government and oil companies type of op-ed, however it has some interesting figures in it.

In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year.

In 2003 I payed $1.50 USD a gallon now I am paying $3.50 a gallon. The price increase was both was sudden and constant. It was blamed on a number of issues, Katrina, Iraq, China, India, tornadoes, vacation driving, you name it. However it appears that refineries in the US have twice as much in reserve each month than they did a year ago and ethanol, while putting pressure on food prices, is alleviating demand. This isn't being seen at the petrol pump. (more)

It appears that the Russian demand for Ukraine to pay the market price of gas has destabilised the relatively new government - as was probably intended. (more)

The cheapest oil on the planet is in Indonesia. The government subsidies it heavily, to the tune of about 3% Indonesia GDP, and approximately 30% of the Indonesia government budget. By comparison, Australia spends about 2% GDP on its military. This is a pretty massive and expensive subsidy for the Indonesia government. They have tried to remove it in the past, Suharto tried so in 1999 at the IMF's urging, but coupled with contagion, this contributed toward the Indonesian's throwing Suharto out. President Yudhoyono is going to remove the subsidy, Indonesians can expect to see petrol price rises of nearly 90%. (more)

Hartcher writes about the current pressures on oil prices around the globe in an article titled; "The pain of oil addiction hits home" . However he contradicts himself late in the article, and exposes the conundrum of oil and petrol energy, its current high prices will only make it more plentiful on the world market. We cannot use capitalism to escape oil dependency as; one, capitalism makes scarcity abundant; and two, we currently have no other option. (more)

Tuesday, Fuel excise to increase petrol price burden . From the Liberal party room in Canberra was heard a loud OMFG WTF? Wednesday, Govt scraps fuel tax plan . Who says populism isn't alive and well. (more)

This is a PDF paper from B.W. Robinson, B.J. Fleay and S.C. Mayo called, The Impact Of Oil Depletion On Australia [pdf]. It is from the "Sustainable Transport Coalition". I am not mocking them. I am sure they have good intentions, but their solutions wont be politically acceptable, wont be socially acceptable, wont be culturally acceptable and will just end up penalising those who are the most fiscally vulnerable. (more)