John McCain and Jed Clampett

I hate to be a Tom Friedman copycat, but in trying to grasp the issues around the current Presidential campaign and the future macroeconomic environment, I need to go back to the classic ’60s TV series, “The Beverly Hillbillies” for guidance.  I can still hear the show’s intro, lyrics and music: “…and then one day he was shooting for some food, and up through the ground came some bubbling crude.  Oil that is.  Texas tea. ” 

Although I’m in danger of crossing the line to pure jingoism, we, indeed, really have become beholden to a cavalcade of “Jed Clampetts” in the Middle East and elsewhere.  In reality, I fully understand the need for more hydrocarbon-based fuels – particularly oil — to fuel our economies.  But I was struck by the juxtaposition of Obama and McCain last week.  One (Obama) was hosting a summit of top economic thinkers to debate the wealth of issues we face socially and economically.  Meanwhile, the other (McCain) was hosting a press conference in front of a Texas oil derrick, technology that’s been around literally for a century.  McCain, of course, was pushing for more offshore drilling and opening up new parts of Alaska to oil exploration. 

By no means am I a naturalist, nature lover, tree hugger, et al.  Candidly, oil-slicked birds never have had an emotional impact on me.  But nature’s not the biggest issue here.  I simply don’t understand a need to focus on exploiting a fuel that’s been our economic foundation for the past 100 years.  It’s simply going to foster reliance on a fuel that’s nearing the end of its economic usefulness and environmental compatibility (more emissions). 

When we were on the cusp of the automobile era, some fought that inevitability with a push to get more horse-and-buggies on the road.  And to quote Friedman, when the computer era was dawning, an alternative solution wasn’t add’l investment in electric typewriters or basic word processors. 

I fully realize we all feel a bit better in developing “our own” natural resources.  But, based on Columbia B School studies I’ve read, opening up the U.S. continental shelf and other parts of the U.S. to more oil drilling isn’t going to put a dent in our quest for a long-term solution.   Let gas prices go where the market takes them.  Already, the trend is having an impact on our driving habits, accelerating commercialization efforts for alternatives, and generating new ideas on conservation (e.g., building codes on energy consumption, four-day work weeks). 

McCain in front of an oil derrick only reminds me of a scene in “There will be Blood,” which chronicled the start of the oil era at the turn of the century.  Is a solution really a proliferation of more U.S.-based derricks?  I’d prefer to focus on efforts to wean ourselves and future generations off the stuff — and kick the increasingly autocratic “Jed Clampetts” in overseas hot spots back to the woods.