Pump It, not the song by the Black Eyed Peas, but oil. When I was looking at this photo that song was running through my mind, though. oil closed above $40 a barrel yesterday for the first time in 2016, extending the rally since the low of $26.21 per barrel on February 11, 2016. There have been massive layoffs across the industry over the last year and they're continuing this year. The industry has lost more US jobs over the last year than there are total Auto workers in the US. We had to save the Auto workers. Apparently we don't care about the oil workers. I'm not saying the industry doesn't have very real negatives, particularly on the environment, but it's somewhat sobering to think that all the alternatives we look at, solar, wind, water, hybrid cars, electric cars, are only possible because their components are made out of oil. Want a Prius? Guess what the car's made from, guess what encloses the batteries. Same for a Tesla. Even if we were able to stop using oil as a fuel we still have a long way to go to find alternative materials to replace petrochemicals.
A long time exposure of a nodding donkey oil pump at High Island, Texas, shows the mechanics in motion.
