By Logan Scisco
Extempers receiving questions on the price of oil and its relationship to the United States economy just keep coming. In fact, I can hardly remember a tournament that I attended in high school that didn’t have a single question on the price of oil, OPEC, and/or what the United States could do to reduce its dependency on foreign oil. Why do extempers get asked these questions a lot? The answer boils down to a combination of question writers needing to think of questions that most people can answer and most judges will have some knowledge about and also the fact that high oil prices (which lead to higher gas prices) affect the vast majority of Americans in some way, shape, or form.
High oil prices are one of those unique issues that tends not to divide along partisan lines. Sure, the GOP accused the Clinton administration of never having a real energy policy for the country, but the same was said of George W. Bush’s administration until this year when an energy policy was finally crafted. Americans may differ in their views about abortion, gun control, gay marriage, etc. but when more and more of their income is going to gasoline then they become quite angry.
However, in light of how high oil prices tend not to be a partisan issue they due spark controversy over energy policy. Conflicts emerge between the poor, who are most affected by a price increase of gasoline, and the rich, who for the most part can still afford to drive their cars or fly their fancy jets although they may have to cut back on it. Conflicts also emerge between environmentalists who want cleaner, renewable sources of energy that will benefit America in the future and businessmen who want more supplies of oil on the market that will benefit America in the present.
This brief is an attempt to briefly show why the price of oil has risen, the economic impact of high prices, what can be done to combat the influence of OPEC (a topic that never seems to want to go away), and a brief explanation of some types of renewable energy sources.