Reuters; Venezuela’s Chavez says oil could reach $300. Sounds like he’s hoping that oil prices go high so his government can continue to be well-financed. Or is he?
Too bad for Chavez that $300/barrel oil will render Venezuela obsolete. In the short term, prices at that level makes Canadian sand oil much more attractive. And to pile it on, ethanol will be competitive, subsidy (~50 cents/gal currently depending on estimates) or no. Biodiesel will come along for the ride, too. And soon afterward various sorts of second-generation biofuels will become competitive, and high energy prices will completely trivialize the problem of financing the necessary capital investments for wind and solar. Of course there still are big uncertainties for our post-oil utopia: hydrogen, the electric car, and nuclear power. It’s a very strange piece of debt consolidation, that our laptops’ and iPhones’ battery lives that fucking suck balls and Mr. Chavez are two sides of the same problem (but it’s only the former that I really care about. A quick rant: why does battery technology have to fucking suck so much trucknutz? Fucknuts. If I could fix one injustice in this world with a wish, it would be the terribleness of battery life. Life is so unfair. Fucking shitty ass-fuck.)
So the right answer is that Hugo Chavez really wishes that oil was trading lower, and indeed he also said that the current high prices are a speculative bubble and its crash could bring prices down to $70. That’s what he really needs, not $300 oil.
Because once $300 oil comes, we won’t be importing oil from Venezuela anymore. We’ll be importing hot Latinas who know how to walk in a dress and heels.
Tags: Hugo Chavez