Illicit Energy, Dependence on Energy Beyond Self-reliance

Illicit Energy, Slavery and Foreign Oil

“Should abuses creep into one part, they are reformed by those that remain sound.”

Hamilton quoting Montesquieu in Federalist #9

Federal support for slavery was broken because of economic conflict between free-labor and slave labor states in the western expansion. The path to the Civil War was long and vivid. Many actions could have preempted or mitigated that long path to bloody domestic conflict. But the economic lust for Illicit Energy, for energy outside self-reliance overpowered all reason and civility.

The Illicit Energy path to the Civil War is being repeated today by Federal policies that unconstitutionally mortgaging the liberty and labor of children to buy foreign oil.

Oil-wars have been mandated by Federal policies since 1991. Wider wars should be expected as the Joint Forces Command warned all US military commands in 2010:

"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day."

"A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest."

"Energy production and distribution infrastructure must see significant new investment if energy demand is to be satisfied at a cost compatible with economic growth and prosperity."

"The discovery rate for new petroleum and gas fields over the past two decades (with the possible exception of Brazil) provides little reason for optimism that future efforts will find major new fields."

Forward by General James N Mattis

With their blood, our soldiers bought time for America to end foreign oil for the past 25 years.

Doing nothing to end America’s addiction to foreign oil for 25 years is a disgrace to West Point, the US military, the Federal government, and the nation as a whole. Continuing to do nothing to end foreign oil is both a disgrace and meets the Constitution’s definition of treason.

To honor the sacrifice of soldiers the following protocol is offered to end dependence on foreign oil:

The US military defund terrorist and sponsors of terrorism by ending use of foreign oil in 2015, immediately cut oil use by 2015.
The Federal government honor soldier sacrifice by ending use of foreign oil by 2018.
Starting July 4, 2016, each year for the next 10 years increase the tax on each barrel of imported oil by 33% of its price.

Every American plant a Victory Garden. Energy self-reliance starts with the self.

As eight Presidents state clearly, gradual efforts to end addition to foreign oil will fail. We recommend reading reading The Fiery Trial by on how the gradual efforts to end Federally supported slavery failed.

The true choice for ending slavery were:

Immediate emancipation.
Long blood domestic war followed by immediate emancipation.

The true choice for ending dependence on foreign oil are:

Aggressively end dependence on foreign oil by 2020 with punitive tax increases for failure to act quickly.
Long bloody domestic war as debt collapses access to foreign oil.

In a nearly identical slavery, we face a choice in

broken by economic conflict between “free-labor” and “slave-labor” state economies in the western expansion of the United States. Illicit

Federal support of dependence on foreign oil is

Illicit Energy, dependence on energy outside self-reliance slave energy, was not broken by moral outrage at the vile defects of institutionalized slavery.

Federal subordinating the liberty and survival of America to foreign oil requires economic conflict to be broken.

to mortgaging the liberty and labor of children to support its oil-powered highway monopoly must be broken by similar economic economic conflict.

in America because of moral outrage at its vile nature. Slavery was resolved by economic conflict between free-labor and state labor economies in the western expansion; the abuse of one part was reformed by those that remain sound, defended the Declaration’s ethical commitment to “all men are created equal.”

The Constitution's’ accommodation of slavery at its signing was a violation of America's founding principle as stated in the Declaration of Independence The Civil War was a consequence of the long and easily seen path to war. Illicit Energy, depriving slaves of the value of their labor for the economic advantage of the master was incompatible with an nation founded on liberty.

The defect of Illicit Energy is being repeated by Federal violation of the Constitution’s Divided Sovereignty, specifically the “post Roads” restriction. The Federal highway monopoly mortgages the liberty and labor of children to fund oil-wars and purchases of foreign oil with the consent of children.

Illicit Energy is energy outside self-reliance. Illicit Energy is a proven path to war:

The illicit dependence on slave energy required most of a century to cascade into the long and bloody domestic Civil War.
The 50% dependence on foreign oil paid for by borrowing $18 trillion against the future labor of children repeats the defect of Illicit Energy. Oil-wars since 1990 and the petro-dollar funded Al Qaeda’s terror attacks illustrate this cascade.

Joint Force Command’s 2010 Joint Operating Environment warned all US military commands that the current local wars should be expected to cascade into general war later this decade.:

By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day.

A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest.

Energy production and distribution infrastructure must see significant new investment if energy demand is to be satisfied at a cost compatible with economic growth and prosperity.

The discovery rate for new petroleum and gas fields over the past two decades (with the possible exception of Brazil) provides little reason for optimism that future efforts will find major new fields.

Forward by General James N Mattis

Wars, like earthquakes are very predictable. Social structures, like tectonic plates, slowly build forces over time. Stresses build in theses social structures to form the path to war. With sufficient stress, the pent up forces snap to surprise us with an earthquake or war. The specific triggers, such as the assassination of an Archduke, or someone flying planes into building, are uncertain, but the forces they unleash are easily seen. With sufficient will to act, the forces which create the path to war can be mitigated. In the case of Illicit Energy, the action required is the self-discipline to be energy self-reliant.

The Problem, Illicit Energy

War is always a threat to liberty. Even the most well meaning of the Governing temporarily extend police powers, sacrificing liberty to mitigate risks they perceive. Incrementally liberty is lost.

During the 20th Century, police powers over the economy have been incrementally increased and standardized by Federal action. To protect that centrally planned economy America has been in perpetual undeclared oil-wars since 1990 and is militarizing civil police forces with hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition. The diverse State of economies, amplifying local resources as envisioned in Federalist #9 and #10, have been consolidated as Federal power and transportation infrastructure standards force compliance. States with viable solar powered economies were standardized into colonies of Detroit and Houston. A nation of producers was turned into a nation of consumers dependent on foreign oil for survival.

Five salient steps:

Shift from Liberty to Tyranny of the Majority: The year 1913 was a bad year for liberty and peace as the compound republican safeguards were removed. The 17th Amendment (popular election of Senators) shifted the power to set national choices from States to those whose money could influence Senate elections, the special interests of unions, corporations and bureaucracies. The 16th Amendment (Income tax) empowered Federal authorities to harness the labor of Americans. The Federal Reserve (a private bank) was created so Federal officials could borrow against the labor of Americans and debase the value of labor by inflating the dollar. The ability to wage wars with borrowed or printed money, without declarations, was set.
Government monopolies: In World War I President Wilson monopolized/socialized communications, power and transportation infrastructures as “natural monopolies.”
Distributed versus Centralized Electricity: In 1935 Rural Electrification Administration wiped out the 600,000 windmills and distributed energy industry as it subsidized the coal powered central grid.
Food Liberty and Self-reliance: In 1941 with the “Wickard v Filburn” decision the Supreme Court sanctioned economic central planning and deprived individual Americans of liberty to choose what food to grow even for personal use. This has morphed into communities banning home gardens and nearly uniform dependence on food via grocery stores. A nation of consumers instead of producers.
Highway Monopoly: The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 caused the loss of thousands of miles of railroads, institutionalized oil as the lifeblood of America’s economy and stifled alternative transportation networks.

Life and liberty require energy. Fundamental access to energy has been structured by Federal politicians. These politicians selected that the lives of Americans should depend on oil and coal. The result of centralized infrastructure is that Americans are not economically competitive if they spend time growing their own food, are disconnected from the central grid, or do not buy cars and oil.

When the costs of the Federal infrastructure monopoly has become more than markets could support, Federal officials used the Federal Reserve to print the money and borrow $16 trillion. When domestic resources could not meet the energy needs of the Federal monopoly, undeclared wars were waged.

Posterity, the liberty and future labor of children, have been burdened without consent with debts of $53,000 each. This illicit dependence on oil energy by burdening the labor of children is Taxation without Representation by the Governing and Tyranny of the Majority by parents.

Oil and coal are finite and depleting, so the liberty and Posterity of Americans are terminal. To sustain control, after oil was imported with excess costs and wars socialized into $16 trillion in national debt.(US Peak Oil in 1970)

This illicit dependence on foreign oil is similar to the illicit dependence on energy from importing slaves at the time the Constitution was written. In both cases, a majority exercising power through Congress to extend that dependence until wars resulted:

Black Americans were liberated from slavery by 830,000 dead and wounded soldiers. Like most documents of liberty, the 14th Amendment was coerced at the point of a sword.
Children born in America since 1990 have seen perpetual war. As noted by General Mattis the 50% dependence on foreign oil will likely cascade into World War scale resources wars in zero to 10 years. The path to war is unfolding as the slow pace of geology. US Peak Oil was in 1970. Since 1990 oil costs increased 494%. Wars have been required since 1990. Oil dependence has become a target and petro-dollars fund terrorist attack.

Solution:

Self-reliance is the foundation for liberty. It can start with Victory Gardens. Growing food for personal consumption is essential expression of economic liberty, self-reliance and can prevent oil supply shocks from cascading into famine.

Declarations of War

America is a nation ruled by the people through written instructions to the Governing, not the whims of the Governing interpreting their instructions. The Declaration of Independence establishes that American wars must be declared, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them.” Not military commanders, such as General MacArthur in Korea, nor Congress as in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan can legitimately commit American soldiers to war without the rigors of a formal declaration that informs the People.

Military philosopher Von Clausewitz noted “Power is the will and ability to win applied to achieving an objective.” Without an objective, soldiers are sacrificed in stalemates. No sacrifice by soldiers and their families, not bravery nor competence in battle can compensate for no objective.

Written Instructions to the Governing

The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution require the consent of the governed. The Framers understood the imperfections of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Article 5 of the Constitution provides a rigorous and public process for us to fix what they could not and to change the documents to meet changing needs.

The Constitution is the written instructions to the Governing of the maximum powers granted to “provide” defense to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. Federal powers are limited to only “promote” welfare, sovereignty for welfare being retained by the States and People as emphasized in Amendments 9 and 10 of the Bill of Rights and Madison in Federalist #45:

Bill of Rights:

Amendment 9: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Amendment 10: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Federalist #45: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

The People, via their Ratifying Conventions, documented this understanding in recommended Amendments:

Massachusetts:

“First. That it be explicitly declared, that all powers not expressly delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are reserved to the several states, to be by them exercised.”
Fourthly. That Congress do not lay direct taxes, but when the moneys arising from the impost and excise are insufficient for the public exigencies, nor then, until Congress shall have first made a requisition upon the states, to assess, levy, and pay their respective proportion of such requisitions, agreeably to the census fixed in the said Constitution, in such way and manner as the legislatures of the states shall think best, and, in such case, if any state shall neglect or refuse to pay its proportion, pursuant to such requisition, then Congress may assess and levy such state’s proportion, together with interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent, per annum, from the time of payment prescribed in such requisition.
Fifthly. That Congress erect no company with exclusive advantages of commerce.

Virginia:

1st. That each state in the union shall respectively retain every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this constitution delegated to the Congress of the United States, or to the departments of the Federal Government.
3d. When Congress shall lay direct taxes or excises, they shall immediately inform the executive power of each state, of the quota of such state according to the census herein directed, which is proposed to be thereby raised; and if the legislature of any state shall pass a law which shall be effectual for raising such quota at the time required by Congress, the taxes and excises laid by Congress, shall not be collected in such state.
7th. That no commercial treaty shall be ratified without the concurrence of two thirds of the whole number of the members of the Senate; and no treaty, ceding, contracting, or restraining or suspending the territorial rights or claims of the United States, or any of them, or their, or any of their rights or claims to fishing in the American seas, or navigating the American rivers, shall be made, but in cases of the most urgent and extreme necessity, nor shall any such treaty be ratified without the concurrence of three fourths of the whole number of the members of both houses respectively.
8th. That no navigation law or law regulating commerce shall be passed without the consent of two thirds of the members present, in both houses.

New York:

That the Powers of Government may be reassumed by the People, whensoever it shall become necessary to their Happiness; that every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the Government thereof, remains to the People of the several States, or to their respective State Governments to whom they may have granted the same; And that those Clauses in the said Constitution, which declare, that Congress shall not have or exercise certain Powers, do not imply that Congress is entitled to any Powers not given by the said Constitution; but such Clauses are to be construed either as exceptions to certain specified Powers, or as inserted merely for greater Caution.
That the Congress do not grant Monopolies or erect any Company with exclusive Advantages of Commerce.
That no Money be borrowed on the Credit of the United States without the Assent of two—thirds of the Senators and Representatives present in each House.
That the Congress shall not declare War Without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators and Representatives present in each House.

Commerce Clause

To prevent commerce from causing wars, the Constitution grants Congress power; “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” As with unlimited taxing, “the means ought to be proportioned to the end.” The means to affect commerce were limited to “post Roads.”

Royal transportation monopolies were well understood. Monopolies harm that caused the Revolution. On Sept 14, 1787, in the Convention, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison proposed a power to tax and fund building highways and canals. The proposal was rejected (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, ay, 3; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, no, 8. Madison Notes of Debate).

President Madison emphasized this understanding when vetoing transportation funding on March 3, 1817, noting:

Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled 'An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,' and which sets apart and pledges funds 'for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses' . . . I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives. The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers.

Similarly, in 1830 President Jackson vetoing Federal funding of the Maysville Road stated, “consolidation {word for Federal violation of Divided Sovereignty use by the Anti-Federalists during the Ratification} and destruction of states rights… would be destructive to the liberty of the people of your country.”

Jacksons statement has proved correct. Federal highways have since:

Subordinated the liberty of Americans to a 50% dependence on foreign oil.
Borrowed $18 trillion against the liberty and future labor of children to power that infrastructure. This repeats the path to war of Taxation without Representation. Debt is the tax on future labor, the labor of children that cannot vote. The oil-debt equates to a $53,000 tax on the future labor of every child without their consent.
Socialized pollution costs while tilting the balance of nature into Climate Change.
Created a Tyranny of the Majority where a majority of Americans will vote for politicians that give them lower gasoline prices despite the costs to their Posterity.

To the authors, the only moral difference between selling a man into slavery for $53,000 and mortgaging the liberty and future labor of a child for $53,000 is the use of the Federal government and time to delay and confuse accountability.

Consequence

Illicit energy, the need for foreign oil to power 50% of the Federal highway monopoly made commerce the cause of nearly perpetual undeclared wars since 1950. The cost to American is indicated by $7.7 trillion, or about $100,000 per American family, spend on defense since the collapse of the Soviet threat in 1990. The ineffectiveness of this defense was paid for by the public on 9/11 and by soldiers in undeclared wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Deploying the Internet required about 36 years. Shifting a major infrastructure normally requires 40 to 200 years. Logistics has mass, momentum and a tail. The current momentum of oil logistics looks indicates crisis will occur in far shorter time than infrastructure can be re-tooled. If the scale of Oil Famine is similar to the Irish Potato Famine’s 20% population loss, the cost will be about 60 million Americans.

Infrastructure Liberty

In 1982 liberty to choose communications networks was restored to the people by the court breakup of the AT&T monopoly. Long-dormant innovations such as the Internet (1969) and radio telephones (1946) commercialized. A century of centrally planned rotary telephones was displaced as millions of jobs were created deploying vast innovations, with better service at lower costs.

Similar to the Internet, there are free market alternatives in transportation networks.

Freight railroads average 480 ton-miles per gallon, at over 100 times greater efficiency than highways move a person.
The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) network built in Morgantown, WV as a solution to the 1973 Oil Embargo has delivered 110 million oil-free, injury-free passenger-miles. In the same period that PRT has been injury-free, 1.6 million Americans have died on the highway monopoly.

The barrier to deployment was noted in Congressional Office of Technology Assessment study PB-244854 published in 1975 on how PRT can make America cities independent of foreign oil. US DOT “neglected near-term ... simpler approaches to correct transit problems. Finally, institutional failures may have hindered implementation.”

When free markets are restored to power and transportation it will be possible to achieve what Thomas Edison observed in 1910:

Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy.

Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.

There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen....

“Whatever letter he wrote this in”, 1910

I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

“Whatever letter he wrote this in”, 1931

Summary

“Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity” is the objective of the Federal government. War, debt, and pollution are the consequences of Federal actions to exceed the specific limitation of “post Road”. Economic liberty is essential to adapt to increasing oil risks. Currently, the Federal monopoly blocks liberty from allowing alternative solutions to the government monopolies.