Energy Expert: $12 and $15 per gallon gas not far away
By SilentPatriot Thursday May 22, 2008 3:10pm
On CNBC's Squawk Box Tuesday, energy analyst Robert Hirsch warned that $4.00 per gallon gasoline will be viewed in the not-so-distant future as "the good old days" because $12 and $15 per gallon is not far away.
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“[T]he prices that we’re paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be ‘the good old days,’ because others who watch this very closely forecast that we’re going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon,” Hirsch said. “And then, after that, when oil – world oil production goes into decline, we’re going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we’re not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.”
I included the analyst that spoke before Hirsch to illustrate an important point. His "solution" to the astronomical rise in energy costs is, of course, to "drill more" -- never mind that drilling in ANWR would reduce oil imports by a whopping 4% and could irreparably damage the environment and surrounding wildlife. He says this is necessary "while we wait" for alternative energy sources. The only thing we're waiting for is a President with a long-term, big picture solution to a problem that impacts everyones lives in nearly every way on a daily basis.
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And once the depression is in full swing we'll be looking back fondly on this "resheshun".
They will continue to choke Americans with these prices until the public cries "uncle" and decides the environment isn't important after all. Then the fu*king drilling will begin everywhere.
the wakeup call was in 1974!!!
chevy is still making suburbans!!!
Congress needs to step in with price controls, pronto. It should be the first priority.
This is bush's final gift to his oil buddies. They will get to drill the hell out of our coasts, national parks and anywhere else they see an oil stain in the water. Notice repubs always say we must wean ourselves off foreign oil. It's hard to find one who just says we must wean ourselves off oil.
John @ 4:
I'll have some of what you're smokin!
Energy analysts crying about peak oil? Anyone reminded of Enron?
.
How many hours does it take to work a minimum wage job to fill a tank of gas per week if that job is 10 miles away?
It may depend on the milage the car get's, but the 40 hour week is over. It will take a second job just to earn enough money to fill a tank of gas.
.
I work for an energy/fossil fuel expert who is also an ecologist by training. Do not believe 99% of what you hear from the MSM or even environmental groups about our energy future. They are all full of it.
Blue Lensman @ 6:
Let me take another drag, and I'll go even further to say that any member of Congress who does not support price controls on gasoline should expect to lose their job next time they're up for reelection.
I thought we had plenty of oil. That's what the experts told us. What did I miss.
Not three weeks ago, there was one of those high falootin' whiz kid anal-ysts on the Sunday news programs talking about how the price of oil was going to go down.
Geeez, Iraq was the number 2 oil producer in the Middle East. Since we took over the oil has dried up. Hmmm...Bush Family...oil...war...reduction in supply due to war in Iraq...increased prices...increased profits for Bush family...hmmm...naaaaah...couldn't be.
NO BRAINS NO HEADACHES
wvguy @ 9:
Meaning what? More details please.
Don't accept this! $15 gallon gas may indeed be our future unless we all (1) overtly protest, (2) demand government investigations, and (3) demand a cheaper alternative fuel/engine. We may become our own victimized spectators of the oil industry profits; and it is not only Exxon-Mobil.
As long as parents demand they take their children to school in a tank that gets 6 MPG, as long as the auto industry makes care that are gas guzzlers, $10.00 per gallon plus prices are not very far off in the future.
The point is the corporate interests on K street have made sure there has been NO progress with any alternative other than oil. Congress has taken their bribe money and done nothing. Our infrastructure has been based on oil and the greedy corporate scumbags have made sure of that, the alternatives are a long way off with the continued resistance from the greedy corporate pigs.
raye @ 7:
I've seen reports (sorry, no links) that say the market price of oil based purely on supply and demand would be in the range of $60-$80 per barrel. The rest is speculators driving up the price. Look at who's profiting from the present mess and then take a guess as to who's gaming the market.
just setting us up for the okie doke.
all speculative aspects and the falling dollar aspects are being ignored and/or smiled away.
they just telling us were fucked as if it's the hand of god.
I really hate these people.
.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
Why aren't we seeking this solution?
Who is stopping this progress?
.
Bullwinkle @ 16:
the falling dollar has a lot to do with this also.
This is bull%$@#! There is no way consumption has risen 40-50% in the last two months. These speculators have got to go as they are making money on the backs of all of us.
I am also an energy analyst and, like Hirsch, predicted two years ago that we would have $4/gallon gas this summer, and that gas will continue to rise about a dollar per gallon per year until it plateaus out at about $16/gallon in 2020 or so. Lately I have been accelerating that prediction.
Which leads to perhaps my only beef about C&L, which is that you do not cover energy issues nearly enough. Keeping track of the latest "he-said/she-said" outrage from the O'rielly and Limbaugh is important, no doubt, but pales to the fact that the health of our economy, and even the very survival of our species, depends directly on how we use our energy in the coming decades.
Please, we need much more focus on this extremely vital issue.
"Peak oil is a scam to create artificial scarcity and drive prices up. Meanwhile, alternative fuel technologies which have been around for decades are intentionally suppressed."
Embittered-Max-Hussein-1 @ 18:
The greedy corporate pigs are stopping progress. The only progress these bastards see is the record profits based purely on speculation.
Plain and Simple:
Where being jerk; by a small group of people who have
a hole lot of power right now and it needs to be taken away.
Oil:
Lindsey Williams - The Energy Non-Crisis - Part 1 of 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbakN7SLdbk
Project for a North American Century
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4021186047214511179&q=peak+oil&...
wvguy @ 9:
Every summer we have these off the wall forecasts about fuel prices. Sure the day may come that the prices are at this level. Anyone that has any sort of leadership skills know that we must think ahead and find alternative energy sources and quit giving big oil the tax incentives that is helping bleed this country dry of federal reserve notes. Tax incentives should be going to those that are actually making progress into renewable energies that don't necessarily need biofuel or electricity even. There are larger ideas out there that are quieted because they will completely bring down the current energy fortress that runs our country. Anybody remember perpetual motion, and the engines that were made to generate their own power as they run. Why don't we hear about these sort of solutions?
I recommend people watch A Crude Awakening. You won't sleep very well after watching it.
"And now to respond to Mr. Hirsch's suggestions, we have a representative from the Polar Bear lobby. Mr. Bear, how do you respon --"
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRWWWRRRRR!!!"
"AIYEE!"
(smash, crash)
OneManComotion @ 20:
If speculators are causing an artificial price spike in oil, won't the bubble burst at some point like internet companies did a few years ago, and housing is doing now?
Whenever I tell friends or family that I think we'll be paying $10 a gallon by the end of the year, their faces get very ashen for some reason... then they say "naw, that can't happen here"... then I just shrug my shoulders.
Although I must admit it seems the high price of gas hasn't turned anyone off from traveling this weekend. I live near a busy stretch of Rte. 15 in PA and its friggin' bumper-to-bumper today - with many RVs...
pissed off patricia @ 5:
You bet they will. The Navy's been spending the last seven years driving dolphins and whales crazy while they've been sonar mapping the coast lines searching for oil deposits.
Pawn @ 25:
Good grief, is this a troll comment? I thought leftie blog readers were supposed to be moderately scientifically literate.
Anywho, given the current Wall Street business model of "make-quick-big-bucks-and-then-GTFO" that seems to be universal in all industries, you can damn well expect everyone at the trough, from the drug producers like OPEC, to the drug traffickers, to the drug pushers out on the street corners like Exxon, to the cops on the take like, well, every single one of those worthless fucks in Congress, to gorge themselves as much as possible right up to and during the oil crash that will inevitably come.
I say make it $20 per gallon.
Maybe then people will stop buying these stupid gas-burning cars, and we can go back to good 'ol fashion electric technology from the 50s.
Actually, the solution to the oil crisis is quite simple. All the US has to do is to guarantee a price of US$100 per bbl for 20 years. There are plenty of alternative energy sources that become viable if the price remains at current levels. Various types of workover to recover remaining unproduced oil, tar sands, oil shales, bitumen deposits, coal to oil conversion etc.
The characteristic of these sources is that they usually are very capital intensive, and while relatively low production costs can be achieved (Canadian tar sands projects are under US$20 per bbl cash operating cost), it is challenging for companies to finance these projects, unless of course an oil major owns the deposit. The problem is that financiers are leery of funding these capital intensive projects due to the high volatility of the oil price. Ten years ago, the POO was $12 per bbl for example.
Financiers need guaranteed revenues over a project life (say 20 years) to be comfortable providing funds. It is easy to do, but has to be done at a Federal government level.
If this does come to pass in the near future, this country will undoubtedly collapse. The economy cannot support such prices. Business sectors will cease to exist and so will life as we've known it.
I remember back in 2003 when we were gearing up to go into Iraq. No, no, it wasn't about oil, oh no. But all the R's wouldn't dare say the C word about gas (conserve, hmmm, why is that?) and that we had to "Maintain the American Way Of Life" of driving gas guzzlers and being the world's greatest consumers. But it's not about Iraqi oil (wink, wink). And all that Iraqi oil will pay for reconstruction, right?
In hindsight, it seems the plan was to cause chaos in the middle east and keep the oil in the ground thus limiting the supply to drive the oil prices up. That must be why for Cheney's secret energy plan in 2001 to have Kennyboy Lay there to show everyone the Eron energy game plan.
From $30 to $130 per barrel of oil. Mission Accomplished indeed.
John @ 10:
Price controls will only increase consumption. Increased consumption means the use of more oil, and will aid in the oil companies argument to drill in AK, or maybe promote a war to occupy Azerbaijan, Iran, or Terkmenistan for their access to the Caspian Sea. The only real solution is not using fossil fuels, period. Price controls would never make it through congress, it would be a waste of time. If you want to talk to your senator and congressman, talk to them about removing the tax breaks given to oil companies and give them over to R&D of renewable energies that are not food based or electric. People forget that electricity requires the use of coal or nuclear power, and biofuels will affect the prices of food globally. If there was mass funding into R&D of what I just stated, we would have an alternative energy source within one year, and have it implemented across the country within 5 years.
Pffft, $10/gallon gas bring it on. I'm gonna get me a temporary tax break on *my* gas this summer - that'll take care of that problem.
ranch111 @ 26:
seriously, what nonsense. the energy expert is full of it too.
there are multiple ways to produce fuels on an industrial scale from plants and i don't mean the plants we use for food. it's already being done in minnesota and in new mexico. i'm sure that all they need is capital investment to build more factories.
oil (and everything else) is expensive because they are actively and rapidly devaluing the dollar.
"...OPEC members are unhappy with surging prices, blaming it on speculators and a weak US dollar."
This doesn't seem that complex:
Increased worldwide demand (particularly China because of their coal shortage)
==> Weakening US dollar
====> Speculative investment
======> Rising prices
There's not a "shortage" so much as a crappy dollar and an unwillingness to change our behaviour. So get used to ever increasing prices, folks - congress can't and won't do shite about it.
raye @ 7:
Peak Oil is quite real. But, the problem we have now is due
to Bush a) sending the economy into the toilet and b) screwing
up the middle east. Without those we would still have to deal
with demand exceeding supply, but the impact would be more
gradual.
As well, today's LA Times has a front page report about how
hybrid car sales are "zooming." That kind of reaction is only
about 20 years too late. We should have began planning for
this long ago. Now, we're going to pay plenty for ignoring all
the people who tried to warn us of what was coming...
There's a documentary that sums all this up quite well. If you
have not seen the End Of Suburbia, I highly recommend it:
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/
If you haven't yet read it yet:
The Long Emergency
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emergency
people...
we have, like, a billion watt generator sitting at Yellowstone National Park...
thermal energy is the most environmentally freindly energy source i am aware of...
consult with Iceland, virtually all of their electricty is thermal...
just saying...
Doubting_Hussein_Terrance @ 35:
Bingo! Cigar time.
Gasoline will reach $10 per gallon and my employers will still be reimbursing travel for only 35 cents per mile -- an amount that was adequate only when gasoline was $1.50 per gallon!!!!!!!
Many of the oil executives say oil should be about $60.00 a barrel. Prices are being drivin up by speculators.
Sum it up, you're getting screwed.
Americans already pay much more for gas than $4.00 per gallon. The military industrial complex is borrowing (stealing from our children) 12 billion from us per month in Iraq to insure access to that oil. That amounts to about 100 bucks every month for us. Next, they will strike Iran for their purposes which includes electing McCain and keeping control of the federal judges and supreme court.
Peter Hollman @ 43:
You start tweeking on that caldera, you do so at all of our peril! ;^)
$12-$15 a gallon? No chance! Our economy will crumble before it reaches that level...And at that point, no one will give a damn!
Pawn @ 36:
Price controls will only increase consumption. Increased consumption means the use of more oil, and will aid in the oil companies argument to drill in AK, or maybe promote a war to occupy Azerbaijan, Iran, or Terkmenistan for their access to the Caspian Sea.
The oil companies are already making the argument that they need to drill in Alaska... (To increase supply and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil). I don't see us just quitting fossil fuels cold turkey. Our current infrastructure is dependent on fossil fuels.
We have tried "supply side" remedies for years-- tax giveaways and incentives to big oil. It's time we got some return on our investment. Congress should limit the price of gasoline, and then leave it up to the oil companies to figure out how to adjust.
The problem with drilling more in the US is the oil companies don't want that.
They'd have to pay American wages and benefits
So it's cheaper to deal with oil rich countries with virtual slave labor.
Additionally, any domestic oil production would go into the international oil market, and the effect will be minimal in terms of supply and costs.
Peter Hollman @ 43:
S'os their underwear.
It's hurting sales at the local Fredericks of Hollywood.
Peter Hollman @ 43:
yellowstone is unstable, as in scary unstable.
yellowstone is too far away from populations centers to be viable as a source of electricity.
there is a long list as to why yellowstone isn't an option. there are a few places in the US were geothermal power generation is viable, maybe like hawaii, but there are all sorts of problems. iceland is a much more stable environment with a political climate that enables that kind of thing to happen.
it's time to line up the bush administration
bush-cheney-and then everyone else...put them in line and then
just stomp the hell out of their balls.
Why do I feel bushco had intended this all along?
The pure tragedy of this is that if we had a president of anything but minimal intellect, empathy for the country he leads and any leadership ability, he would call upon Americans to do things like drive a bit less this Memorial weekend, drive 5 miles per hour slower, etc. Make a call to the people based on patriotism and shared sacrafice. It worked in the 1970's with OPEC left with nothing to do but eat their oil. The price plunged and OPEC was fucked. How much Carter is ridiculed by the fascist right, but how well our country responded before!
Unfortunately our vile, self-indulgent dry-drunk of a president can't feel for his countrymen, lead the country or think for himself.
One Year Wonder @ 31:
One year wonder, why don't you counter it instead of completely going off the handle. The science of perpetual motion is very real if that is what you are challenging. Though no one has been successful, if history has proven anything, the impossible is possible with enough money and research. Perhaps you can be more specific into my scientific illiteracy.
I never said that it's going to be an easy task, but the fact is all the directions we are heading will lead to negative drawbacks. In an earlier comment I stated that electricity will require nuclear or coal energy, and biofuels will require us to invade the world food supply to provide energy.
Whereever the big money is, the snakes and weasels will be right there, that is for sure. After watching some congressional tax debates via an old frontline episode, one thing is for sure, legislators will stab their mom in the back to meet the needs of their friends. So going into the next election, make sure you know who you are voting for, and who their friends are before making your decision. We can't realize our dreams unless we have people who actually care in elected positions. I look forward to your response one year wonder.
I think we probably have the ability to switch to renewable energy tomorrow if we wanted too! The real question for me is how will Big Oil continually crush other forms of safe, cheap, clean energy....? Their freeking crooks and everybody knows it. So what has changed? Bruce Carlsbad Ca...
Well, I have suggested this to just about everyone...tax all commodities including crude spectulators at 95% or more for each trade. It's just a matter of time that action like this will have to happen...it could prevent a bubble and a crash, probably need world cooperation but this is a world economy.
Wait for an alternative solution? There are already plenty of ways to begin. how about all of the sunnier states implementing solar panels on houses, charging electric cars. I mean if some guy can be off the grid in coastal Washington state then WTF? I doubt there will be one panacea for all of this but we have to start now and we can. we need fire under the m-asses.
While oil supplies are guaranteed to decline I, like many, don't believe that is the main cause of the high prices. But unlike those who want the prices lower I would rather have a long term solution being implemented now. So I think the gov should take a hefty portion of those price-gouging oil profiteers and use those billions of dollars to subsidize alternative energy sources (solar panels for home owners, rebates for electric cars, etc..), improved mass transit infrastructure and so forth. (It's a bit like taxes - I'm only against taxes when they don't f"in use them wisely - which is all the time). In case of these newer ways they'll only do that when people get fed up enough to make a stink about it. The unfortunate thing is that they're more likely to find a way to lower oil prices to make people calm down temporarily and the masses are likely to go along with that fix cause they're stupid and self-centered.
A little foresight and we could do so much better with alternative means both environmentally and economically (just think of all those technology jobs..)
That's if we can override that severe dumb streak that runs through our DNA.
What we need is a Manhattan like project for finding alternative energy.
Afterall it's about National Security both internal and external.
Make watts not war!!!
60 Jib
Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, So. California, Nevada could all easily go solar right away.
But they have to come up with some way to power cars, perhaps natural gas, or oat shell based ethanol since we're already throwing that stuff away by the tons.
trevor @ 33:
Venezuela offered their heavy crude at a flat rate of $50 per barrel. The problem is getting the rest of OPEC to go along with it when they are reaping great profits.
Is there a way of getting oil out of hemp?
We'd wouldn't mind exhaust fumes anymore.
I realize that the price of gas is hurting people, and unjustly enriching a small minority at everyone else’s expense, but SHOULD the price of oil be cheaper? Most of us on this site care about the environment, what would happen if the price of oil went down? It would be consumed more, which would pollute the environment more. Oil is also a resource that is finite in amount, so it would make no logical sense that the price would drop as the resource becomes scarcer. The opposite should happen. The other factor is the pricing mechanism in capitalism itself. Market economics cannot capture the costs of industrial activity. When oil is used, we are adding costs to the environment. Should we not include those costs in the prices we pay? We should radically change our economy, go the local, stop energy subsidies for big agro business and leave some energy sources for future generations. Capitalism has not done the planet well, it has just done the minority of the world, the developed world, well at the expense of the environment and everyone else.
The biggest issue isn’t the price of oil, although it may feel that way sometimes. The issue is the fact that there are corporations and individuals profiting off of the price increases unjustly. We should, but won’t at least in the near future, nationalize the oil industry. We need money to fund social services, hopefully for things like universal healthcare. Socializing the benefits, since we already socialize the costs, would do that. Poorer countries, especially those like Bolivia and Venezuela who have progressive governments, usually get negatively harmed by rich countries like ours lowering the price of natural resources far bellow what they’re really worth. It is, in essence, a transfer of wealth from then to us. They don’t benefit from a resource that is extremely valuable so, in essence, we can have various luxuries that result in us having cheaper gas. This is just one of the many ways that the poor countries stay poor.
OPEC is the last issue, as far as I’m concerned. Raw material cartels are not a bad idea for poorer countries. OPEC could be used to raise the price of the raw materials to where they should be. OPEC currently though is dominated by non-democracies, basically authoritarian governments and monarchies. It was originally created by the Third World project to raise the price of oil, for the above mentioned reasons, and the funds were to be used to fund development in the developing countries. That has happened (thanks in large part to the US and Europe), OPEC is ruled by elites and they give a small fraction of their earnings to their countrymen. We should, but won’t, pressure the OPEC countries to use far more of their funds for development. The IMF and World Bank sure as hell don’t have logical polices that benefit the poor, so we could lobby to restructure OPEC. That would require however us going after the Saudis, and that isn’t likely. The left should be thinking about these issues outside of the narrow spectrum of low prices, and we would do ourselves a favor by ignoring what the damn corporate media has to say about the issue. They are no better or different than Pravda in any way.
ysbaddaden -
I can't find the link but there was an article on electric cars charged at home thru solar panels - albeit not the best solution for huge roadtrips but totally functional for most commuters etc..
I think it was via the Sierra club. There are people already doing this..it is already viable.
We're crazy - most of the drivers in the western states could be doing this.
If anyone thinks there is NOT a conspiracy by big oil then why is big oil fighting and lobbying against solar and wind energy in Congress?
John @ 49:
The oil companies are already making the argument that they need to drill in Alaska... (To increase supply and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil). I don't see us just quitting fossil fuels cold turkey. Our current infrastructure is dependent on fossil fuels.
We have tried "supply side" remedies for years-- tax giveaways and incentives to big oil. It's time we got some return on our investment. Congress should limit the price of gasoline, and then leave it up to the oil companies to figure out how to adjust.
Leave it up to the oil companies, and we will all be in a mad max universe chasing a gasoline trailer. The people of America should wait for no one to adjust from our current state of affairs. Capping the gas price may help our pocketbooks now, but in the long run, we will still be pushing off a solution to the big picture for our children and grandchildren's children.
Doesn't anyone find it odd that they keep harping on the scarcity of crude oil, yet we drink water from individualized plastic bottles, and the straws at Wendy's are each wrapped in plastic? You could never tell there was a petroleum shortage based on all the packaging...
All the oil and energy companies will be achieve by hiking prices that high is their own extinction. Even at current prices, alternatives are cheaper. and the best thing about all emerging trends and technologies is that they are breaking the monopolies of centralization, and are doing it without causing environmental burdens or degradation. I suspect that the closer truth is that we'll collectively look back at these times as the last effort that a lot of greedy, amoral and self-serving scumbags used what power they had to take the world to the cleaners one last time.
ysbaddaden @ 64:
Yes, in fact there is. Anybody can do it.
"$12 and $15 gas not far away"
you could have knocked me off my chair with a feather.
it's not really surprising though, when one stops and thinks. i mean, i was laughing pretty hard when all the chatter was "oh, no, oil will never go over $100/barrel."
but if anyone out there thinks they have a clue what inflation is, they're going to be in for a horrible surprise -- everything you buy just to eat, sleep and go to work is affected by the price of oil. i am self-employed and am already considering an energy surcharge on all my invoices -- and i "just" type legal transcripts! if someone had suggested even six months ago that i would be thinking about doing such a thing, i would have said they were nuts. but i have just paid $311 for my last winter-month gas bill after having kept my thermostat at 64 degrees for the entire winter (i spent a lot of time either in bed under five blankets or sitting in my office chair, working, three feet from a space heater.
i used half as much actual natural gas to heat my house but my heating costs for this past winter almost tripled.
when i bought my car in july 2001 (it's a long story) it cost $15 to fill it up. today it costs me $40 and going up at a rapid rate. (i'm now really sorry i didn't "top off the tank" after my trip up to boston two weeks ago, the last time i used the car, as it will cost me at least $5 more than when i was last at the gas station.
thanks for this post. i prefer to be aware of the inevitable more than five minutes ahead of it actually occurring. thanks, c&l, for being a source of valuable information on a regular basis!
speaking of valuable information ...
there is an interesting post over at "down with tyranny" (http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/) titled "GASOLINE PRICE INCREASES ARE NOT A COINCIDENCE-- THEY ARE PART OF THE BUSH ECONOMIC MIRACLE" that others may find enlightening.
henry wallace @ 67:
Is the issue, in the end, the fact that we don't really have a functioning democracy? The idiots in government don't consult us on policy, we have no direct power, they and the lobbyists get together and create policies that most of us, across the political spectrum, disagree with and largely are in their on not our interest. To me it would make sense to try to organize to get more direct power. One way Venezuelans have far more direct power is the ability to have things like national referendums when a law is created that the public doesn't want. If we had that we could stop every damn corporate dominated law that's created and send it back to be negotiated again. Why, in years past, did the car companies buy up the public trolley and transportation systems only to immediately dismantle them? Why were they allowed to do that, especially if it wasn't in the country's best interest? Because we have no functioning democracy and the economic system itself is the exact opposite of democracy. Money trumps, and controls, democracy, not the other way around.
cg @ 69:
Ahh, the great refreshment of what many people don't realize, plastics are created from oil. Just another way that America and the world must change their consumption habits.
Lets Pull Down Our Pants A Little Lower
This $12, $14 gas per gallon prediction is a speculation setup. It is design to make us accept the current gas prices with a sense that we are donging a much worse situation. Just be quite and don't make the oil giants mad. After all, they are doing us a big favor by selling their gas at $4 per gallon.
The minute we come up with a alternative fuel solution the oil companies will be trying to give their product away. I suspect they own many solutions to this problem and have it locked away in a safe place where the masses can't see it. This may be an urban legend, but I heard that the oil companies bought the rights to a fuel efficient carburetor in the 1960s that would bring about 60 miles per gallon with little trade off in performance. So where is it? We have the technology now to end this speculation nightmare.
Are we going to sit by and let $14 per gallon gas ruin our country's way of living? I say we need to start the conversation that would lead to nationalizing the oil companies. Our way of living depends on it. It is a national security issue. At this point, the oil companies have all the money they can spend in 3 or 4 rich lifetimes.
We cannot be subject to this kind of speculation without putting it in a bigger picture. We are already at an outrageous price to be paying for gas. How dare they come to us and say soon we will be saying these prices our a bargain. We are being conditioned to a price acceptance , and if we don't watch out, we will be the next third world country.
Joseph
(_(_) @ 55:
Bush and his maladministration may have inadvertantly started an alternative fuel drive like no piece of legislation during more normal times ever could have. We may look back and be thankful for W some day . . now I've gone too far.
Pawn @ 74:
When was the last time you saw a can of soda at the convenience store? Plenty of plastic bottles - no cans or glass bottles though...
sweet. I wonder if my next COLA on my SS Disability will reflect that bullshit. 'Cause I know the last one didn't (2.4% for 2008)
Thanks motherfuckerGeorge.
Joseph @ 75: