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Oil prices have fallen to $37 a barrel today, dropping 27 percent since last week. The low prices reflected at the pump are a welcome relief to car drivers across the country but few are paying attention to the global and domestic implications of those prices. According to author Michael T. Klare, low prices mean that oil producing countries are losing revenues, leading to cuts in their social services and public unrest. Low oil prices may also put research and development of alternative energy sources on hold. Which of course ensures that oil remains the dominant energy source for even longer. And, because of high surpluses as a result of a sudden drop in consumption from last year’s high prices, new oil projects are also being postponed. This means that when the world economy does begin to recover and consumption rises, oil demand will eclipse the lowered capacity leading to rising, and then skyrocketing oil prices, which in turn will lead to further financial and political instability worldwide. Indeed, whether we know it or not, most of the world’s problems, according to Klare, are at least in part, related to our addiction to oil.

GUEST: Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, and his latest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Oil:

Read Michael T. Klare’s article here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175018/michael_t_klare_the_problem_with_cheap_oil