Walter Patterson Herald Columnist“Oil Feeds My Family.”  Do you remember when it was fashionable to place this bumper sticker on the family car?
It really hasn’t been that many years ago when these particular bumper stickers could be seen almost everywhere.  My dad worked for Sohio Petroleum Company in Tinsley, so I had more than a casual understanding of the importance of oil.  
It literally fed our family.  I can still remember making rounds with dad as he checked every well and made sure that everything was working properly.  I can still hear him talking about “production” and how important it was to pump a certain quantity of oil during a 24-hour period.  If a well shut down or if a pump malfunctioned, he was not a happy camper.
I vividly remember the summer day my brother and I decided to climb to the top of a derrick.  Now these things are tall, perhaps 120-feet high, and almost every week we would see the professionals come to service a well.  These guys made it look so easy to climb to the very top of the oil derrick and hook up all of the equipment.  If they could do it, Buddy and I could do it.  
Early one morning, we began our climb.  The ladder that leads to the top hangs welded to the outside of the derrick.  
This was fun, and we were making extremely good time.  I could see the pulleys at the top of the derrick plainly.  I did not realize how large they were.  The problem I was having at this juncture was figuring out where exactly I was going to stand once I reached the end of the ladder.
I glanced over my shoulder, and the scenery was absolutely beautiful.  I could see fields of freshly planted corn, and the rows from this height looked so straight.  I could see 10-miles in every direction.  Highway 3 was so close, it seemed, that I could hit it with a baseball.
Then I looked to the west.  All I could see was a red pick-up truck speeding down the narrow road that led to this particular well.
It was dad.  I watched as the truck came closer and closer.  Finally, it stopped right in front of Brumfield Number 3.  He exited the vehicle, looked up at his two deranged sons and said, “I want you two to come down right now.  Take your time, and watch your step, but come down.”
When we finally reached the ground, instead of pulling off his belt and thrashing us, he calmly pointed out that what we had done was very dangerous.  
If we had fallen, there was a 100 percent chance that we would die. This thought had never occurred to us. We were just having fun.
The memory of this incident just reminds me that oil is such a wonderful product. My dad spent a lifetime bringing it out of the ground. He thought his work was important because it guaranteed energy to Americans, and it guaranteed that food would be on our table.  
Without oil, we would simply be a 16th century country instead of the highly advanced modern society that we are.
A favorite theme that the modern leftists use, including Mr. Obama, is that we Americans represent 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, yet we consume 20 percent of the world’s supply of oil.  Now every leftist in America wants you to feel guilty for using this amount of energy. But this is a total misrepresentation of the truth.
When I was in high school, I read a report that stated that the United States had at best a 35-year supply of oil.  I think the report meant well, but it was wrong, grossly wrong.  
Today, the United States has at least a 300 year supply of oil, perhaps more.  We have more than the Saudi’s and more than all of the oil in the Middle East. There is absolutely no chance of running out of oil in our lifetimes, your children’s lifetimes, or their children’s lifetimes.
Barack Obama and the Democrats are in deep trouble.  They have failed to live up to their responsibilities and ensure that Americans have access to oil and its derivatives at a reasonable price.  
There is no substitute for oil. None. We can’t build enough windmills, or biofuel plants to even come close to doing what oil does. Regardless of what Obama says, pond algae simply will not replace oil.  He can write all of the memos he wants, but alternative energy is a long way off.
Unless someone comes up with a simple way to turn water into gasoline, we are stuck with oil. It’s efficient, it’s abundant, and it will not damage the planet.  
We just need more of it. Instead of using 20 percent of the world’s oil, I think we should be using even more, perhaps 40 percent.  We’ve got it, and we can do more, much more, with it than any other country in the world.  Drill, baby, drill.