JUST A LITTLE TIME

Our world is getting smaller every day; things that happen on the other side of the planet can affect our lives in just a matter of minutes. Just a few generations ago our world was a far different place. Our parents and grandparents could live their lives almost insulated from the rest of the world. Wars could rage in Europe or Asia and they would not even know about it for a long time, maybe even years later. In our fast paced world, just a little time can have a huge impact upon our lives.

The recent ice storm here in Oklahoma shows how quickly our normal lifestyle can be turned upside down. We Americans take for granted electricity and running water. Even with the ice storm we had some warning from the weathermen that we would be having problems. Within just a short time power was cut off from thousands, the economic impact has cost Oklahomans millions of dollars. If there is anything to be learned from this recent storm it is this, our country had better start heeding the warning concerning our energy needs.

I am a proponent of nuclear power, to build a nuclear or coal fired power plant usually takes 7 to 10 years. If the electricity were to be cut off from our major cities our lifestyle would change over night. We have become too dependent upon foreign oil to fuel our country. More than 81% of the world's discovered and useable oil reserves come from just 10 countries. And 30% of the world's oil is in three of those countries — Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Recently our country has been adding 50,000 barrels a day to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — the nation's emergency oil stockpile — with plans to kick up the pace to 70,000 barrels a day by the end of January. That stockpile is around 695 million barrels of oil — enough to keep the American economy running for just 56 days if imports were suddenly cut off.