Gas!

[Germey]

More news on our uber intelligent politicians who know better for us.

It doesn't take a Ph.D in economics to know that both figures can't be right.

With all due respect, I think it takes several pH D's to even try to estimate it. The straight price of a finished product (barrels bought from the Saudi's) does not equal a barrel produced domestically. There will be billions of dollars invested to get those barrels out of the ground and delivered, so, no, the cost won't be the same. The pertinent question (at least at first) would be "when is the break even for the investment". At that point, the prices might start coming down. Would those oil reserve's at full capacity production, last long enough to reach that break even point? (I make no claim to know an answer).
Then there is the international politics part of this. Suppose we did drill Californina waters and ANWR. Here is what the Saudis would do. They would wait for a critical point in the investment cycle and drop the price of oil so that their "competition" would get clobbered. As I read in a recent Forbes magazine, the Saudis love the instability. Their ideal pricing per barrel looks like
$100, $100, $100, $100, $10, $100...
As long as we keep playing the petroleum game, we are at massive disadvantage. These are the considerations that Presidents are making, not so much "save the Caribou" as the press spins it. The oil companies don't want to drill these areas to save the country, they want to go in and have the government (our money) shield them from that risk, basically guaranteeing them profit in light of the above scenario.
I wonder if, instead of going to war, we said "lets spend a few trillion dollars on technology development and subsidies to completely change our energy options" what would have happened. Probably would have been worse for the mid east than a month of nuclear carpet bombing. Only about as ludicrous as putting a man on the moon at the time.
Oh well.

 

[EdWort]

Wow, really!? That's beyond failing econ 101. That's failing Common F*cking Sense 101. Yeah, douchenozzle, they're gonna lower their prices to avoid higher tax rates.

They'll never just cut back the supply lines. Oh, no, never. :cross:

The stupidity of some people just blows me away.

Here's the douchenozzle Kanjorski in action. The truth about politicians revealed.

 

[EdWort]

With all due respect, I think it takes several pH D's to even try to estimate it.

Perhaps, but the point the writer was trying to make is that Chuckie Schumer was talking out both ends. Which end was BS? Perhaps both?

How can you tell when a politician is lying?

When his lips move. :cross:

 

[Germey]

Perhaps, but the point the writer was trying to make is that Chuckie Schumer was talking out both ends. Which end was BS? Perhaps both?

How can you tell when a politician is lying?

When his lips move. :cross:

Of course, never meant to dispute that! (there is no icon for mix of sarcasm, shame, and disgust if feel for politicians) so I'll just instead.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

As long as we keep playing the petroleum game, we are at massive disadvantage. These are the considerations that Presidents are making, not so much "save the Caribou" as the press spins it. The oil companies don't want to drill these areas to save the country, they want to go in and have the government (our money) shield them from that risk, basically guaranteeing them profit in light of the above scenario.
I wonder if, instead of going to war, we said "lets spend a few trillion dollars on technology development and subsidies to completely change our energy options" what would have happened. Probably would have been worse for the mid east than a month of nuclear carpet bombing. Only about as ludicrous as putting a man on the moon at the time.
Oh well.

Yup!

 

[WeHeavy]

It's been a long time in coming and our goverment and the American people better get things figured out fast or we will be a 3rd world country.

If we can win the big one, put a man on the moon and defeat communism we can do this also.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

In Venezuela they are paying ~$3 a TANK to fill up SUVs.

Very true, and.... that nasty little devil Chavez did the unthinkable by providing many underpriveledge people in MA last winter with free or low cost fuel. So let's just keep pissing him off and see how it turns out.

 

[GreenwoodRover]

I think the consipracy theory people need some info. The oil compaines/refineries are required, because of politics (both national and state level), to make different formulations of thier product to comply with various additive regulations, ie sulphur content, percentage of ethanol, etc.
As of the year 2000 there were 12 varities for each grade, so there are 36 different versions of the "gas formula." Additionally the various state EPA's require the refineries to combat smog by requiring these 12 variants to have a summer blend and a winter blend. The switch over from summer to winter blend usually happens around Memorial Day. At that point the refineries need to decide whether to make 72 versions of gas, or shut down for the switch over. most refineries are taken offline for the switchover No production = higher cost.
Additionally although "Big Oil" has earned trillions of profit, i recall seeing that the the margin is only around 8% ish. In my state the combination of fed and state taxes is $0.58/gal. Of the the $4.29/gal I paid yesterday (based on the 8% profit) the nasty Oil Companies made $0.30/gal, while the state took $0.58/gal. Wow almost double!
What happens to state budgets when we do finally stop using gasoline. Well they'll just have to recoup the lost tax dollars by taxing fuel cells, and electricity.
I don't offer any solutions to the problem. I'm just bi**hing about the bi**hers

 

[bethlehembrewer]

What happens to state budgets when we do finally stop using gasoline. Well they'll just have to recoup the lost tax dollars by taxing fuel cells, and electricity.
I don't offer any solutions to the problem. I'm just bi**hing about the bi**hers

And Porn such as CA is proposing to do!

I do have a question though. You say they shut down some refineries when the switch occurs. Yet the claim by many is there are not enough refineries for production, which brings costs up. Is it just me is there a total disconnect there?

 

[springer]

Fact of the Matter is, Oil will never come down until more refineries are built, The value of the dollar goes up and we drill the oil we have in our country.

refineries have nothing to do with the price of oil. The US has steadily been increasing the sale of petro refined here to Mexico and Europe.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mdiexmx1M.htm

FEb 2008 we sold 1,322,000 barrels of diesel to Mexico. The price of diesel in Baja Mexico is 2.09 -granted the price is subsidized by the Mexican government

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_exp_dc_NUS-Z00_mbblpd_m.htm

so clearly we are producing enough refined petro products to supply the US and sell some overseas. I believe we sell 500,000 gallons a day of diesel to Europe Why?because now its that ULSD crap that the Europeans have been using. The oil companies will sell to whom ever will pay. So even if we drill here it will be sold on the world market at the going rate .

When and if the dollar regains its strength the price will drop. The US dollar is very week now just ask PeteOz a few years ago the AUS Dollar was about 50 cents American now they are just about equal .


And and it cost me 166$ to fill my truck last night $5.199 for diesel . Glad my bike gets 45 MPG

 

[EdWort]

What happens to state budgets when we do finally stop using gasoline.

That's what has happened in California. Loads of people moved to more efficient cars and the gas tax revenue dropped as people consumed less.

What do the wonderful politicians in the Peoples Republic of California want to do now? They want to force drivers to have a GPS tracking device installed in each car and make them pay by the mile. 95% of Californians appose such a solution, but you know, some unelected judge will know better and decide for you (even after you decided anyway).

 

[Reverend JC]

What did we expect would happen when we have not had a new refinery built in the USA for just about 30 years?

Would you say we have more cars on the roads now? Sure. and they are bigger too!

We have the oil, the problem is when it gets this high the people doing the trading stop picking it up waiting to see if it goes down and only then buy it when absolutley possible. So yeah, it is a supply and demand thing, but not with oil persay so much as it is with actual fuel flowing from the refineries.

and whether or not the price was help atificially low or not, i dont care. what i care about is a 300% increase in a basic need for life without the same % increase being reflected in the cost of living wage increases for americans.

And yes, i am truely sorry for all of the other countries having to pay more for gas. you have been for years, and will continue to pay more becuase you have less people and purchase less oil/gas so you cost is more.

Truth of the matter is i would think all in other countries would want our gas to get to a steady price becuase if our economy takes a crap and crumbles, i mean really crumbles, and it will happen if gas goes much more over 4.50 a bbl, you will all suffer along with us. It is a world economy and they are so intertwined anymore that if one goes down we all suffer.

 

[GreenwoodRover]

I do have a question though. You say they shut down some refineries when the switch occurs. Yet the claim by many is there are not enough refineries for production, which brings costs up. Is it just me is there a total disconnect there?

No disconnect. you read it right. We are woefully short on refineries to meet our demands (our politicians havent allowed a new facility to be built in over 20 years). Yet becuse of the required formulations the some refineries actually have to shut down to make the switch.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

That's what has happened in California. Loads of people moved to more efficient cars and the gas tax revenue dropped as people consumed less.

What do the wonderful politicians in the Peoples Republic of California want to do now? They want to force drivers to have a GPS tracking device installed in each car and make them pay by the mile. 95% of Californians appose such a solution, but you know, some unelected judge will know better and decide for you (even after you decided anyway).

Not to argue with you. However, all judges are elected in some way, maybe not directly. An appointed judge is selected by those we the people elect therefor we had a say in who was put on the bench. I geuss what Im trying to say with that is be careful who you elect for offices. Again not to argue, because I do agree with you on the principle of your argument.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

No disconnect. you read it right. We are woefully short on refineries to meet our demands (our politicians havent allowed a new facility to be built in over 20 years). Yet becuse of the required formulations the some refineries actually have to shut down to make the switch.

Well that is news to me. Yet it does not suprise me in this country of sometimes complete inefficiency.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

And and it cost me 166$ to fill my truck last night $5.199 for diesel . Glad my bike gets 45 MPG

Damn Im glad I don't live in Orange Cty anymore!

 

[wildwest450]

A "scam" involves

What I'm really sick of in this country these days is this persistent whining about gas prices breaking $4/gal. It's been like that in most of the world for years. Oh, but we're special! It's a scarce commodity, that is limited...and the fact that we're still driving around in big 10mpg cars is testament to a sad reality: as much as we whine about it, we're not really willing to do anything about it except whine. No, instead, we expect the oil companies to just give their product away for less than people are willing to pay for it. Well, let me ask you this: if you were selling beer, and you charged $10 per six pack, and people were buying it hand over fist at that price, would you just suddenly drop your price to $8 per sixer because some people whined about it?

If your sick of the whining, why don't you climb off your soap box and do something about it?

 

[bethlehembrewer]

If your sick of the whining, why don't you climb off your soap box and do something about it?

Quick grab the women and children, run for cover!

 

[landhoney]

If your sick of the whining, why don't you climb off your soap box and do something about it?

Like what? I don't understand this quote.

BTW Evan!, douchenozzle? Is that an Evan! original? In anycase thank you for constantly expanding my vocabulary.

 

[NitrouStang96]

"Our mythical energy shortage can be dismissed with a few statistics. The U.S. consumes about 71 quads (a 'quad' is one quadrillion BTU's, or 10 to the 15th power British Thermal Units) of energy per year. There is available now in the U.S., excluding solar sources and without oil and gas imports, about 151,000 quads. Consequently, we have sufficient energy resources to keep us functioning at our present rate of consumption for about 2,000 to 3,000 years– without discovering new reserves. Even at higher consumption rates there will be no problem in the next millennium."

This is over an hour long, but day by day it has consistently been the most viewed video at google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147&hl=en

He promotes his book in that video, but you can read the book for free on his website, so don't think it's a sales video. He says everything he's saying for free.

 

[user 574]

BTW Evan!, douchenozzle? Is that an Evan! original? In anycase thank you for constantly expanding my vocabulary.

He actually saw them all over the street corners in France when he was over there.

We need to start looking like Taiwan.

That'd piss off big oil, government taxes etc.

 

[Evan!]

If your sick of the whining, why don't you climb off your soap box and do something about it?

What soap box? And exactly what should I do about it, other than tell/ask people to stop whining, and give them reasons why I think their whining is unjustified? Should I force them to shut up? Sorry, that's not my M.O. Like Landhoney, I don't understand your demand. I value the first amendment, so there's not much else I can do to stop other peoples' whining than ask them to stop and give them reasons why.



Oh, and Seth---I can't lie: it's not mine. But I sure like it.

 

[springer]

Damn Im glad I don't live in Orange Cty anymore!

But that tank will last a long time . I have always used my bike for my main transportation during the warmer months. I even put my gasser 2500 GMC van back on the road for when it's crappy out gets about the same MPG as the diesel but its $1.20 a gallon less for regular.

I really only use the CTD to get stone/ mulch/dirt and to tow the trailer

 

[AnonyBrew]

Gas in Germany:


€ 1.66 / liter * US$ 1.57 / € 1.0 * 3.79 liters / gallon = US $9.88 / gallon

 

[Orfy]

. . . figured it's better to laugh about it than to cry . . .












*sniff* I'm surely going to be paying $5/gal for premium this summer.

Is that a gallon. I'm paying 2.60 (USD) a litre!!!!!!!

OUTRAGED..


MUDDERFOOKERS!!!!!!!!!

And my commuter does 15mpg

 

[FlyingHorse]

OK, Chicago has the most expensive gas in the US, but seriously:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tenth-gas-web-may23,0,5331563.story

Only about 50 motorists who waited in a 1.5-mile line of cars for more than an hour actually made it to the pumps at a Marathon station on Milwaukee Avenue, where for one hour Democratic congressional candidate Dan Seals offered motorists the chance to buy as many as 10 gallons of gas for $1.85 per gallon.

 

[EdWort]

Not to worry folks, the esteemed and uber intelligent Maxine Waters of the Peoples Republick of Kalifornia has the solution to our current gas price woes.

 

[Germey]

Boy, what a debacle! An idiot congresswoman who can't hold her sh!t together in a meeting and an oil executive who replies to a relatively simple question with a thinly veiled threat, all wrapped up and delivered with that special Fox News Flair.

 

[EdWort]

I guess her inner monologue was not working and the truth came out.

 

[user 574]

[youtube]cWbjSnU1OCM[/youtube]