Real Solutions To High Gas Prices »
Posted by: hurr1 1 month, 3 weeks agoOnce again, we're being held hostage by the big energy companies, and we're paying for it at the pump. Some people think more drilling is going to help, but that sort of flawed thinking is what got us into this mess to begin with. Instead of prolonging our addiction to oil, we need to...
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mivan41 month, 3 weeks ago
No, more drilling didn't get us into this mess. In the 50's we didn't import oil and we had low prices. After Jimmy Carter we drilled allot and went from 60% dependent on foreign oil to 28% dependent. And what happened - prices plummeted. Yes we need alternatives, but the truth is is we really don't have a viable alternative yet and until we do drilling is part of the solution.
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GWHayduke1 month, 3 weeks ago
In the 50s we had far fewer drivers on the road and most families did not own two or three cars.
This is an issue of consumer behavior and their value for petrol. When fuel was cheap and abundant with relatively little tax applied, there was little value. We built giant trucks and enormous SUV's for a single person to commute in because it was affordable as a result of cheap gas.
Its like having a pocket full of pennies, nickles and dimes. They spend like any other type of currency, but if they fall out of your pocket onto the ground...someone else can pick them up.
NOW that gas is $4.50 a gallon, suddenly it has incredible value! Cant afford to fill up that mega vehicle anymore? Better look into a foreign machine capable of something over 20mpg.
Funny how all of those countries with reasonable taxes controlling the value (yes, government regulation) produce the most fuel efficient autos which are...suddenly, in high demand and have much higher value!
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GWHayduke1 month, 3 weeks ago
Drilling will change nothing.
Domestic production in the 50s did not have the global market to deal with.
The Alaska pipeline was subsidized by the US government.
Oil companies trade on a global market.
The market will (is) correct(ing) itself at the expense of those unwilling to change their habits because they like their "nice SUVs".
Its time to pay up.
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mivan41 month, 3 weeks ago
No, more drilling didn't get us into this mess. In the 50's we didn't import oil and we had low prices. After Jimmy Carter we drilled allot and went from 60% dependent on foreign oil to 28% dependent. And what happened - prices plummeted. Yes we need alternatives, but the truth is is we really don't have a viable alternative yet and until we do drilling is part of the solution.
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Wolfie20071 month, 3 weeks ago
Excellent, mivan4, and I get to give you two positives for that intelligent comment. Why can't we do it all, oil,wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, methane, hydrogen and even little microscopic bugs that are supposed to be able to produce oil. So what's the big problem with drilling for oil even if it takes 5 to 10 years to reach the pump? Right now there isn't a good alternative, ethanol is expensive to produce, costs the same as gasoline apparently* and it's difficult to transport.
*We are being told that 10% of the fuel we are buying at the pump is ethanol. Does the price of ethanol increase every time the price of oil goes up?
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chevydog1 month, 3 weeks ago
Wolfie -- Agree that a multiplicity of solutions is necessary. More drilling is just one of the facets.
Ethanol dificult to transport? It's a standard flammable. All sorts of concerns are currently moving huge volumes of it or materials with equivalent physical properties. The company I used to work for was a biiig user of both methanol and butanol, alcohols on either side of ethanol. I've watched E-85 trucks unload at local stations with no special provision except to avoid high-traffic hours.
True, I wouldn't want someone with a cigarette in his mouth to be unloading the stuff. But if one ignores both common sense and safety procedures the whole world is hazardous.
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Wolfie20071 month, 3 weeks ago
chevydog
Ethanol is more difficult and more dangerous to transport than gasoline. Ask the EPA, check your facts, please.
Btw, one of the reason that mileage decreases is ethanol is basically alcohol and alcohol evaporates.
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Wolfie20071 month, 3 weeks ago
coolray
I could go back to horses but algore might be upset over all the methane and poop horses put out. lol
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orfeus1 month, 3 weeks ago
Horses in USA didn't exist before the europeans :)) So go back and walk! Stop destroyng our plannet!
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ligniteman1 month, 3 weeks ago
The person who wrote this blog is an idiot.
If all the green idolators who scream "Stop destroying our planet" from the rolled down windows of the gas guzzling SUVs they are driving down the freeway would just start "practicing what they preach" we wouldn't be in the mess we are in right now.
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nicerice1 month, 3 weeks ago
eyellusion, please read the report of oil demand, because it's growing perfectly normal with 4-6%, it's just some crazy oil capitalist or investor are ripping off our money with creating the illusion of high demand.
Anyway, with our current path of how we depend on oil, we definitely need to rethink of our technology.
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jumpmaster1 month, 3 weeks ago
Real solutions?
Stay home - good idea. The world can come to me.
Trade in your gas guzzler - no brainer.
Move closer to where you work - so very simple. Can you front me the cash differential for the more expensive house?
Walk, or ride a bike - agree
Drive 55, not 75 - the differnce in MPG is insignificant. Plus the additional time would cost me about $20k per year in lost time.
Check the air in your tires - big one. Pump them to max and get about an additional 1mpg
Buy locally grown food - better yet, grow your own.
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Natureboy1 month, 3 weeks ago
"the differnce in MPG is insignificant.
Wrong! you gain roughly 25% in MPG when you slow from 75 mph to 55 mph.
time."http...">http://donoevil.propeller.com/story/2008/07/14/...
"Pump them to max and get about an additional 1mpg"
For every pound you are low in tire pressure, you lose about 0.4% of your mpg. If you are ten pounds low, you are losing 4 percent of your mpg.
If you drive 55 and properly inflate that tire that is now ten pounds low, you are realizing a gain of nearly thirty percent - that's nothing to sneeze at.
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jumpmaster1 month, 3 weeks ago
The real root of the problem is overpopulation. Limit each family to one child, max.
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billion91 month, 3 weeks ago
I think we have to aware on fuel consumption.
Reduce fuel usage by improve alternative transportation is the better way for fuel usage reduction.
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cheif1 month, 3 weeks ago
Drilling in America or offshore won't mean a thing to our gas companies - the cost of gas at the pump won't decrease if they drill. The drilling we do in Alaska - and we got a lot of oil there - all goes to the Asian market. We don't see a drop of it. If we drill and strike billions of barrels of oil here, there is nothing that says the oil companies HAVE to sell the stuff to Americans at a low price. They're going to sell it to the highest bidder, who, at that time, will be Asia. We won't see a dime of it because the oil companies will all be foreign owned at that time. We can't get out of this hole unless we take over the oil companies and run them as a state run utility and that way we can regulate the price of oil we sell to ourselves.
If we don't find a good alternative soon, we can't compete anywhere and the USA won't be around much longer - it'll be divided among foreign energy companies...good luck folks!!!
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Xaos1 month, 3 weeks ago
That would be a much better comparison, the Futures markets I follow all trade liquid fuels in gallons or barrels. Should be an easy number to calculate however.
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Wolfie20071 month, 3 weeks ago
Well, after reading all your remarks this morning I find no one has attempted to answer my question, "why can't we do it all".
Btw,cheif, considering your remarks, you seem to be lacking a lot of knowledge regarding oil production, refining and distributing. Do you want to know why we send the oil from Alaska to Japan? Ask me, I'll catch you up on that.
Maybe you can understand this, it's really simple. If there is more oil available in the world then the price will decrease unless the demand goes higher. It's all about supply and demand, get it?
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Xaos1 month, 3 weeks ago
I would actually expect ethanol to be higher than oil and gasoline due to less supply and increasing demand, however it tends to follow the movement of crude oil and gasoline futures prices. I have been observing this trend in the futures market for the past 3 years now. Natural gas is the same story, increases in crude oil usually also mean increases in natural gas prices. I can see how oil and gasoline future prices would effect ethanol but natural gas is another story. Last couple of years natural gas has experienced the same spring run up in price as crude oil. I find that very odd for a commodity that experiences its lowest consumption in the spring and fall months.
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hurr1
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