Americans live in an idealistic world where, no matter what happens, we’ll still be able to go home at night and switch on the lights or pull into a filling station and gas up the family SUV.
Most folks — including many elected officials — don’t connect the dots. They somehow believe there are no consequences to killing a small biomass project in Vancouver, stopping a wind farm development because it spoils their view, taking a coal-fired plant off line, or opposing a natural gas or electric transmission line.
There’s a smug attitude that we’ve always had all the energy we need, so we always will.
Well, it ain’t so!
For example, the new president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Rostam Ghasemi, head of the Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base, was appointed Iran’s oil minister by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That automatically makes him the new head of OPEC, which has a crucial role in setting world crude oil prices. Ghasemi is currently subject to sanctions by the United States, European Union and Australia, and his assets have been blacklisted by U.S. Treasury and other western powers.