BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS:
- Crude oil has exceeded $125 US per barrel;
- Gasoline prices at the pump in the US are exceeding $4.00 US per gallon;
- The US is leading its G-8 counterparts into a serious recession, while oil companies are reporting their most enormous profits in history...Westernized nations are becoming extraordinarily suspicious of this obvious disparity;
- India has begun enjoying the benefits of Thorium-based atomic energy and has publicly declared itself "Energy Independent" -- every nation in the world is taking notice;
- China, is running low on its own domestic oil reserves, as well as on reserves of the Rare Earth Elements - it is seeking sanctuary inThorium;
- In addition to China, Canada, South Korea, Sweden (albeit amidst some confusion), reliable rumor has it that Germany and the EU nations are quietly but quickly requesting more data regarding the availability of Thorium worldwide, and on its most efficient configuration in reactors;
- Canada and a number of other countries are proposing putting certain restrictions on the ownership, sale and shipment of domestic Thorium for fear of A) domestic depletion through export, and B) market speculation driving the prices wildly upward (not unlike the oil phenomenon). Smart speculators are futurists -- if governments want to limit speculation, you can be certain that the speculators are onto something. Prices rise on the mere anticipation of increasing prices and future price controls. I say thank you to our Northern Neighbors. Eh? You are helping to increase the value of Thorium holdings throughout the world;
- Environmentalists worldwide are becoming less and less enamored of coal, and are coming out against coal, gas and other combustible fuels because of their tremendous output of pollution, greenhouse gases, neurotoxins, carcinogens and of course...their significant contribution to Global Warming. Al Gore, THORIUM ENERGY, INC. is grateful;
- For reasons of Homeland Security and anti-terrorism, fissile quantities of Uranium are now seen as a threat to the safety of the world. Thorium is the only viable, safely transportable alternative to Uranium for utilization in the peaceful production of energy;
- The scientific community throughout the world is coming out with warnings that solar power is far too inefficient at present to be considered a large-scale energy source. Going further, experts are estimating that the technology required to make solar energy viable may be five to ten years away;
- Several G-8 based oil and energy companies have made inquiries into Thorium reactor technology -- my guess (as a bit of a cynic sometimes) is that they would like to get in early to either dominate and exploit it, or to "bury it";
- Searches conducted regarding Thorium on the top 50 ranked search engines have doubled during the course of this past 45-day period.
- Legislation (Reid-Hatch) favoring Thorium ("favoring" means acknowledging its inevitable use by regulating certain aspects of its anticipated use) is picking up legislative and populist momentum. People are being crushed under barrels of oil, and the politicians and legislators are being responsive to their constituents, largely because they A) fear a lynching, and B) they love public service and would be interested in keeping their jobs through re-election;
At THORIUM ENERGY, INC., we are receiving an increasing volume of inquiries regarding our Company's plans (we are not going public), and regarding the possibility of purchasing all or part of the Company or its assets. It is wonderful to be popular.
And now for our featured article:
THORIUM HAS REACHED ITS TIPPING POINT
It has done so far more rapidly than even the most ardent proponents and optimistic commodities speculators would have dared to dream. At lunch today, I overheard a gentleman utter, rather wistfully (I am paraphrasing him here with a chain of his original expletives deleted...you have to also do your best at imagining an extreme New York accent, and the accompanying hand waving and other bodily gesticulations), "I wish they had a Thorium Exchange. Who would ever have thought this could happen? I'm reading the papers, y'know, and it's in the news everywhere. Two, three months ago, I didn't know what the stuff was!"
A confluence of economic, technological and political factors have made the once unthinkable into the most favored. Thorium-fueled reactors have become a practical, demonstrated reality. Mark today's date on your calendars -- it is the day when skeptics had to pay up on their bets, and when the politically astute were switching postures and quitely changing dance partners. But first: an historical perspective.
Typically, the major oil companies, in greedy tandem with OPEC, have always counted on the civilized world's absolute dependence upon fossil fuels to support periodic spikes in the price of oil. It happened in the 1970's, the 1980's and it is happening now. These power players had counted upon the prevalent inelasticity of consumer and industrial demand to allow them to keep raising the bar. The world was (and still is, at least for the time-being), oil-dependent.The suppliers would rejoice at the news that nations were defensively stockpiling oil reserves, and trying to "conserve energy." From the longer-range perspective, this only validated the fact that these consumer nations were entrenched in oil dependency, and weren't looking for an alternative. Ultimately, it just signaled that the demand for oil would continue to climb.
When prices spiked, there would be some angry but theoretical talk about finding "alternatives" and becoming "energy self-sufficient," but as the prices came down after the spike period, all was well again, and it seemed that the public settled in nicely to a new oil price, and lower gasoline prices. Of course, after each spike, the prices "settled" at a point significantly higher than where they had been prior to the spike.
And there was always an "explanation" for the spike: trouble in the Straits Of Hormuz; political instabilities and wars in the middle east; declines in production due to sabotage and rebellion. Untrue, but not easily proven false. No self-respecting oil sheikh ever took methane-powered vehicles, or hybrids seriously. Nor did they pay attention to talks of ethanol additives, hydroelectric power, solar energy and wind power. These folks (both the OPEC Ministers and their Western counterparts) were astute students of human nature. They knew that their customers (their quarry) were still sold on petroleum, and that inertia would keep these other fledgling technologies from flying out of the nest.
Nuclear power always posed more than a bit of a threat, since it actually worked, but many well-intended but seriously misguided persons right here in the consumer camp were terrified of nuclear disasters. And admittedly, there were a few terrible disasters, largely caused by human error. Hence, with protesters picketing the reactors, and with politicians seeking to allay the fears of their constituents, the lube job continued, unabated. And the fear of uranium-powered weapons in the hands of terrorists has been aggressively fostered by the United States security experts. Naturally, this country's traditional allies bought in. Remember Tony Blair? Colin Powell? Yellow Cake? Remember "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION"?
The irony is that the people whom we seem to fear most (the terrorists, and other monsters under the bed) are scaring us away from Uranium power, while their cousins hold us captive with an oil oligopoly. It would seem to be a very profitable family business. Rather reminiscent, I think, of the age-old "protection racket" scheme.
Their only mistakes were in 1) gouging too deeply despite the U.S.' tacit control over more and more oil territory and production in Iraq and elsewhere, and 2) not paying enough attention to Thorium.
"And the truth shall set you free": Thorium reactors work. Thorium is the new oil. Thorium is the key to energy independence.
Thorium's Tipping Point is here. END OF STORIUM*
--THORIUM ENERGY, INC.
*Douglas Castle, author of this article, offers his apologies for the childish "END OF STORIUM" comment.
