DeeDoo’s Digital Scrapbooking Blog

I haven’t been out in the car for several days, and all you hear on the news lately is campaign-related. So my heart almost skipped a beat when I saw the gasoline prices posted at the corner 7-11 convenience store. Considering that the prices had gradually surpassed $4 a gallon over a period of a year, to see them fall to almost half that much in about three months is staggering. It’s a drop like I would hope to experience with gastric bypass surgery. Keeping it down (or off) will be the challenge.

Oil was the lifeblood of the economy in Oklahoma for years and years. Most of my family supported themselves in work related to the oil industry: petroleum engineers, geologists, landmen, oil accountants, oilfield equipment supply, land secretaries, and more. To be against big oil in any way was literally biting the hand that fed us. Indeed, some family members became and remain quite wealthy as a result of oil and gas activities, both here and outside the state.

Much of the ‘big oil’ business moved out of Oklahoma more than a decade ago. Oklahoma is home now to marginal oil and gas wells, and the big oil companies are looking for greener pastures. Pastures these days are under water and ice offshore, and in our great state of Alaska. The steady rise in oil prices over the past few years has sparked a renewal of drilling within our state, pursued by independent oilmen who have the time and desire to manage small properties. Nowadays those small properties can be very, very lucrative, and both royalty owner and oilman are enjoying the new ‘boom.’ What is good for them is good for the state. Word is that Oklahoma has been somewhat insulated from the economic downturn because of the mini oil boom and the influx of money that trickles down to the various support industries.

Nevertheless, many of us are no longer enamored with all things oil and gas. Many, many of us would like to see alternate sources of energy researched, and measures implemented to foster and support those alternatives that are eco-friendly and economically feasible. We are tired, and frankly, fearful as we see so many American dollars, our country’s wealth, being spent on foreign oil when it is unnecessary and foolhardy. T. Boone Pickens has shown courage in his turnaround from oil and gas to becoming a proponent of wind power as an alternate source of energy that would relieve some of the demand for foreign supplies. He has put his money where his mouth is to advance the cause. Times have changed. We should adapt and change too.