Petroleum may well be the single most important substance in our modern, comfortable, technological lifestyle. A yellow-black mixture of various chemicals, mostly hydrocarbons, petroleum comes from the anaerobic (without oxygen) decay of things like planktons and algae. Over time, the chemical bonds originally contained in those organisms are transformed into the liquid gold on which we depend now for almost everything.
Climate scolds and various other unhinged shouters want us to do away with petroleum. "Stop the drilling!" they shout, with little or no idea what a cessation in petroleum extractions and refining would do to our lives. That's predictable; they say an empty vessel makes the most noise, and the climate scolds and their ideological fellow travelers often sound like 10,000 dirty native witch-doctors pounding wooden clubs against the sides of an empty, beached oil tanker.
Here's what they don't understand. Petroleum - oil - is used in almost everything. The scolds tend to think of it only in terms of gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, and the like, but the fact is that oil is everywhere.
For starters, there are huge and hugely important product categories derived from crude oil such as plastics, petrochemicals, lubricants, synthetic rubber, fertilizers (urea, ammonia, UAN, etc.), pesticides, asphalt, waxes, pharmaceuticals, paints, and cosmetics. The resins derived from one such category alone—plastics-- go into the making of a staggering array of goods and products ranging from packaging/storing materials to auto components (dashboards and bumpers, anyone?). Resins are indispensable to both the construction industry—here, think roofing materials, insulation, and piping—and the furniture industry (particle board), and are essential to the electronics industry and in the production of various and sundry medical devices. Why? Because in comparison to traditional materials, especially metals, they are lightweight, durable, water-resistant, easy to process and customize, and cheap.
Next time a climate scold nags you about oil and our penchant for "drill, baby, drill," ask him, her, xir, qir, or flippityflopptyfloop about the cellular phone they are holding, and how they propose to replace the plastics in that phone alone. The reaction? Blank-out. Bet on it.
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And there are far more uses than as a feedstock for various plastics.
In 2024, journalist-energy consultant Ron Stein pointed out that over 6000 products widely used today are based in full or in considerable part on crude oil and natural gas (another fossil fuel). The range of products he mentions merely for illustrative purposes—replicated below—is simply staggering:
“tooth brush, safety goggles, lipstick, airplane, contact lenses, smart phone, laptop computer, rubber gloves, crayons, helmet, washing machine, ski jacket, wind turbine, dentures, fitness tracker, yoga outfit, shampoo, headphones, garden hose, syringe, running shoes, carbon-fiber bicycle, toy blocks, electric piano, kayak, saran wrap, cotton towels, pills, chemical fertilizer and electric car.”
A lot of those items have plastics as a major part of their structure, but there are so many more items, from ammonia to shoe polish. Ammonia in particular is important for its role in agriculture, as the cessation of ammonia supplies would cause a crash in yields. The same people who shout about climate change are also liable to be shouting about hunger, but they clearly don't understand the role oil plays in growing crops, and not just in the diesel fuel used to transport those crops to the cities where, to be honest, most of the scolds live.
Do you have a parent or grandparent with modern dentures? Oil.
Do you have any polyester or other synthetic/synthetic blend clothing? Oil.
Do you use toothpaste? Oil.
Do you have a laptop, tablet or cellular phone? Oil.
Do you use shampoo? Oil.
Do you wear contact lenses? Oil.
None of these things, none of many, many more things than those, simply would not be available without oil. And without them, our lives would be greatly diminished. And it doesn't just stop with things that are useful, cheap, and convenient.
As some of you familiar with my work may know, I spent 30 years in medical devices and biotech. In the medical business, everything from petroleum jelly to MRI machines is dependent on byproducts of the oil refining process. Medical devices, from MRI machines to ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes, rely heavily on plastics in their production. Some pharmaceutical precursors are derived from oil. Many disposable items, from IV bags to surgical gloves to blood transfusion kits, are mostly plastic - derived from oil - and the advent of pre-sterilized, disposable sets for any product having a blood-contact surface has greatly decreased the risk of infection over the older, reusable, glass and metal versions that required sterilization between uses.
We simply can't do without petroleum. Not without dialing everything in our lives back a century, from medicine to transportation, to communications, to how we conduct business. The internet would be gone. Modern medicine would be severely set back. Our lives would be shorter, less healthy, less convenient, and less safe.
This is why the scolds must be ignored. "Drill, baby, drill," is the order of the day, now, and there are, as you see above, literally thousands of reasons as to why this must be so. And we should be glad that after too many years of Washington appeasing the scolds, we now have an administration that realizes the irreplaceable role oil plays in everything we do.
