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Comments
So whether we buy and use Iraqi oil, or Europe buys that oil, decreasing their purchase of North sea oil, which we then buy really doesn't make much difference.
With the amount of money these otherwise poor countries are making selling oil, none of them can afford to stop drilling and selling.
The thing that is driving the price of oil and gasoline higher is the willingness of an increasing number of people to pay the going-rate.
Where is that long promised energy policy promise?
I actually would like to take transit instead of driving, but for me it's a no-no for work route in terms only having the Metra train, the cost (pass, parking, time) and location. I car-pool as much as possible, get into work early and leave late to avoid as much traffic and hyper-mile (actually just doing the speed limit). And I can take multiple routes if one backs up to avoid the jam-ups.
The producers and the oil companies and the refiners are doing what's best for their shareholders and employees by keeping the prices as high as possible by limiting supply to match demand. We are not doing our part as a general rule. Certain like yourself are taking action. Most, meaning a majority, either can't react to the higher prices or they don't care or they are just hoping the nightmare ends and the 90's return again.
I don't see this as being Congress' problem or the oil producer's/marketer's problem or anyone's problem except ours. When we decide to buy less then the prices will come down.
Congrats on making a small difference.
All business investment from the kid making lemonade, to the person opening a restaurant next month, to buying real estate, to stock and commodity trading is "betting on the future". It's unavoidable to most people. We need people who take risks.
Sounds a lot like those who thought real estate values would keep going up up up!
And they have historically and will. They just don't go up evenly year after year.
I think you are lumping illegal economics with perfectly legal actions of people to make money, when you use the "corrupt" examples. Wanting to make a lot of money on business transactions is not corrupt.
Sorry Gary this is just an error in economics. There is a very real reason why fuel is $115 per bbl. Simply put, we are willing to pay that price. We haven't said "STOP, that's enough!!" It doesn't matter what the level of price is, as long as we are willing to pay it then it's the right price. There's a seller and there's a buyer.
The world is in perfect balance. If the producers said 'Hey we've decided that the price of oil should be $130 /bbl." If we pay it then that too is the fair market price.
There are a huge numbers of fuel users who just don't care what the price is. These users have certain wants / needs and they aren't willing to change anything, the price of fuel is of little concern and is not going to force them to change.
BTW there is no right of the buying public to purchase vehicles at less than MSRP or by using discounted rates or rebates. It's only a supply imbalance that has caused this. If the auto companies were smart enough they too would limit the supply to match demand and raise prices. But they have other issues which must be addressed first.
The steel companies are currently in exactly the same position as the oil companies. With the growth of China and India there is too much demand chasing a limited supply. Wholesale prices have jumped 50-100%.
No, but manipulating the markets so you're guaranteed to make a lot of money on business transactions is corrupt. In some situations, it's also illegal.
If in turn this control/matching drives up prices for a while, well then that's our decision to buy the product at those prices or not. You're viewing this from the perspective that you must have fuel. But that's not a given. None of us 'need' fuel. We 'want' fuel. That's a huge difference. We've come to expect that fuel is readily available at almost no cost.
That paradigm has changed. It may become a luxury.
Which means it's entirely possible that there is collaboration going on regarding keeping the supply low. Which is illegal (check the statutes on monopolism and abuse).
You'd have to give some examples. Would it be corrupt for me to buy 200 foreclosed condos in an area, rent them for 3 years, and sell them for 3X as much? Is it corrupt that 1 Euro used to = $0.90, and traders now have it at 1 Euro = $1.59? Or that people are making a lot of money buying and selling all sorts of goods, real estate and services?
However the price of oil is set by the producers and their mostly state-owned marketing arms. These are not US companies so they can do whatever they want and it's not illegal. It's perfectly good capitalism, i.e. the one(s) with the power exert it over the one(s) without the power.
US monopoly laws do not apply to non-US companies doing business outside the US.
BTW, just because we don't know they're discussing it doesn't mean they're not doing it...and laughing all the way to the bank.
Yeah.... this is corrupt in two ways... first, that I had not thought of it first, or did not have the guts to take the gamble, and second, that I insist on living in that area, and am pissed off at the asking price. :P
Actually, there IS collaboration going on to control the supply of oil.... You may have heard of an organization called OPEC? They are a cartel (fancy word for monopoly) of oil producing countries which meet from time to time to determine how much oil they are going to supply.
The thing is, what they are doing isn't "illegal" since they aren't governed by the laws of the United States of America. You see, the laws of the USA only apply within the borders of the USA, despite what Bush might have let you to believe.
Buy yourself a Honda Civic GX (dedicated cng) and find any public cng refueling station near your house and USE cng!!! If no public cng station, then buy yourself a Fuelmaker cng compressor that connects to normal natural gas line that supplies your home furnace with natural gas!!!
CNG is the SOLUTION to transportation needs of USA . . if only Pres Bush, EPA, DOE, and car makers would promote cng!! Current "Oil Crisis" is what I call Enronizing the price of crude oil to help all of Pres Bush BigOil cronies in TX, Halliburton buddies of VP Cheney, etc. Throw all those scheisters out!!
That's still in the "give us a license" phase. Build-out would be complete in 2018. Journal of Commerce
The Honda Civic GX has many incentives to purchase including HOV in CA. Problem is it is only a commuter type vehicle. When you get 180 miles from home you will not be able to find anyone to fill your CNG tank. Add to that the very small trunk because of the large CNG tank.
If you want or need a REAL truck Honda has no option. If they ever offer a diesel Pilot I may consider Honda a viable car company. Not before. Nothing they have is practical for me.
PS
Friends that own the Odyssey do not get more than about 16 MPG in mixed driving. I can get that in my Sequoia and not worry about getting stuck in a sandy wash.
I'll tell ya what's really incredible, is how much cigarettes have gone up! A pack of Marlboro Medium is now something like $5.59! They were running a sale on menthol, but the guy at the liquor store didn't recommend getting those for someone who's not used to them. I ended up getting him some Parliament, which was running a sale of 2 for $5.99.
It wouldn't surprise me to find out my roommate's cigarette habit costs more per year than my fuel bill!
Oh, as for the gas? 93 octane at the local Shell came out to $3.679 per gallon.
I think highly of Honda products. Whether it's a lawnmower, generator, motorcycle, outboard motor, personal watercraft, and cars.
If you think about it, Honda 225HP outboard will get a max 4mpg pushing a boat. Since many offshore boats have two handing on the back, make that 2mpg. Regardless, I love boating and am just throwing this out there. Honda does make so called gas hogs.
Besides, honda needs someone to build a vehicle that can tow the boats they put their outboards on. BTW, a 225HP Honda outboard costs more than a Civic. Not going to tow a Honda PWC with a CNG Civic.
Besides, it doesn't bother me to fill up my Suburban, so I'll keep driving it.
Is CNG really that great to power our cars. My NG bill in the winters are high enough. No free lunch.
That's not an option where I live; and probably for many people. The gas company lines stop about 40 miles east only serving a few cities. The main fuel used here in homes is oil, followed by propane, and then wood.
A lot of the natural gas that is available here in New England is brought in liquified on tankers. Needless to say not many communities want to harbor this process due to the tanks and the danger. Security is very high when these tankers come in, so that someone doesn't do a "Cole-type" attack and create a mile-wide fireball. In Boston they even close a major bridge while a tanker passes underneath.
And as far as those 36" delivery pipes go, how do you protect thousands of miles of those if terrorists decide to one day knock those out (for a week or so), and thus bring the transport in the nation to a stop?
"Natural gas production in the United States peaked in 1971. Since then Canada has increasing supplied the United States to 15 percent of its needs in 2002. However, in 2002 Canadian gas production declined. That trend continued in 2003. Currently, 80 percent of all wells are drilled for gas not oil, but in spite of this increased effort the production decline has not been reversed. The amount of gas found per foot drilled has also declined 50 percent in the past decade indicating that the easy-to-find large fields have already been discovered. New gas wells are showing decline rates as high as 80 percent the first year."
-Originally published in Natural Resources Research
Here is another good article, including the follow-up questions and answers...
How the coming home heating crisis could threaten the grid
I'll continue to drive my Honda
and laugh every time I drive by a fuel/gas station
Except for the fact that neither agency has anything what so ever to do with the vehicles the manufactures choose to make or what citizens choose to purchase. It is actually the publics demand that decides what manufactures build. No one buys any SUVs? Then they stop making them. Demand for econo-cars skyrockets? They step up production of those models and put more R&D into that category (remember there is a 3 to 5 year lead time on what rolls off the assembly line).
If certain models sat on dealer lots and didn't sell, you can be they would make less of them. But when everyone that walks in buys a V8 rather than a V6 in a vehicle, or a V6 rather than an inline 4, that is what the manufactures build. Blame your neighbor, not gov. agencies. Supply and demand, remember?
Does anybody really stop at stop signs? (Straightline)
(Dang Andre, beer, cigs and gas. That's three bad "addictions" you have going there. :P)
You forgot the worst - Mopar tanks!
Never seems to help the Chronic Car Buyers though, lol.
The Miata is more fuel efficient than the S2000.
The Sienna is more fuel efficient than the Odyssey.
Prius is more fuel efficient than the Civic Hybrid.
I could go on and on.
Yes, Honda has a high CAFE average but that's mostly because they do not sell big trucks like Toyota does.
Choosing the most fuel efficient vehicles that meets your needs makes sense.
Boycotting a Miata, which is more fuel efficient than an S2000, just because of the manufacturer's badge, makes no sense at all. It is ridiculous.
No one wants to pull the stop signs down?
Yes, by a whole 2 mpg in the real world.
We really need to ignore those and concentrate on getting back to basics - coal-fired steam engines.
I'm shopping for a house now, and I'm looking for one that has a wood/coal stove, as an alternative to oil heat.
The wave of the future. China is leading the surge, building one new coal fired generator plant per week. It is a good alternative for producing diesel.
Congressional Ethics
Luxury Compact
Jumbo Shrimp
and now ...
Clean Coal
That's a definite maybe. :shades:
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Clean Coal
Isn't that ALSO an oxymoron? :P
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-04-18-oil-prices_N.htm
"Oil's gains on Friday were limited by the dollar, which strengthened against the euro, sending oil prices lower earlier in the day. A stronger dollar makes commodities such as oil less attractive to investors as a hedge against inflation, and it makes oil more expensive to investors overseas. Analysts believe the weaker dollar is the primary reason oil has soared well past $100 a barrel this year."
"Ritterbusch estimates that the average difference between what refiners pay for oil and receive for the gasoline they make from it stands somewhere between $13 and $15 a barrel. But in some areas, this difference has actually gone negative at times in recent weeks, meaning that refiners "were losing money on each barrel of gasoline produced," Ritterbusch said."
"May natural gas futures rose 20.4 cents to settle at $10.587 per 1,000 cubic feet."
If the price of natural gas is shooting up too, I'm sure there is no large excess supply.
First off the driving range was only about 50 miles (limited by the number of tanks you could install) vs. 300 plus miles for our regular diesels. This required 3.5 hours of staff time each week just for fueling vs. about 10 minutes for the diesel which only required fueling once per week.
Second, the buses were dangerously underpowered. I once floored an empty bus from a stop and kept my foot to the floor for 3 miles. I got it up to 40mph! Pulling out in heavy traffic was suicide.
Third, the gas engines were unreliable. The buses broke down almost daily. They replaced all the engines in the first few years to no avail. They finally sold them all to some third world country just to get rid of them.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I visit France every 4 years to participate in a big bicycling event (what else?). One thing I like about their road system is that there are a lot less stop signs and a lot more roundabouts than we have here.
I know that converting every intersection that has stop signs over to a roundabout would be very costly and there probably wouldn't be room to do it in many places. However, France seems to have considered the roundabout in the original design of the road. I wonder if the high price of fuel (currently over $8/gal in US dollars) had anything to do with it?
So $4 gas is here. My officemate, who has a 20-mile drive each way in her commute, started participating in a complicated carpool with three coworkers two weeks ago. All of them come from at least that far away; one has a commute of approximately 35 miles each way.
She is now arriving late half the time while they work out the kinks, but she seems fairly happy with it, and says her savings are going to be substantial after the first full month. The sacrifice on her part is that she is limited to the couple of places within walking distance for lunch, on days when she doesn't brown bag it.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)