As a Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering student I see the effects of the oil industry and the potential prosperity it holds for the future daily. Many look at the oil companies as the evil that plagues society, because of financial burdens gas prices have placed on all of us. Yes, oil, or the availability of it, has a large bearing on the rising prices of gas. However, in the tristate area (around WV) the price of gas would decrease by atleast $1 if taxes were witheld or decreased at minimum. That's not something that quickly comes to mind when consumers want somebody to blame for rising gas prices. Who we vote for can have as much an impact on our budjets as does OPEC, oil companies, natural disasters, and the simple fact that supply and demand has become a concept not only applicable to the United States anylonger. Many other countries are pulling from the oil supply that just 10 years ago weren't.
Hybrids are a nice idea, but the financial savings aren't seen from owning one until the owner fills out their taxes requesting the tax relief for their purchase. The production of vehicles that will run on the proposed corn based fuel is a nice idea as well, but the production of this fuel too will inevitably be refined by the oil industry, because of the nature of the beast. I mean that the oil companies already have the refining capabilities, so that puts them in the forefront to produce this fuel as well. Few people understand that Petroleum Engineers aren't just in the business of meeting present standards and the location, production, and refinement of petroleum products. Petroleum Engineers are trained to look towards the future and anticipate standards that are going to be needed to be met, ways of developing cleaner/more efficient burning fuel and many other goals that are geared not only to the present, but also largely set to encompass the future. If we only focused on today's standards and not tried to project our economic base's needs of the petroleum companies and the world in the future one, petroleum companies would rapidly decline in not only efficiency, but also longevity; two, we would be doing a great dis-service to the industrialized world.
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