Gas prices are NEVER going down

There's a ton of it in Mexico. What is going on behind the scenes that is prohibiting the export of oil from next door? Why not create a flush economy there instead of allowing China to suck us dry? God forbid Fox actually creates a job market that stems the tide of illegal invaders into our country.

People bitch and moan about prices, but I see the same traffic flow around here. We could knock out a major percentage of gas useage by jamming cell phone signals inside SUV's. Then all those women I see every day driving in circles just to yak to their buddies (probably driving down the next street) would actually have to stop to talk on the phone. Less gas useage, less collisions.

Although I don't drive enough for this gas hike to traumatize me, I have made adjustments to my lifestyle to yank profits out of the oil companies and back into my wallet. Being single, I had developed a habit of going out to fetch food twice a day, leaving the fridge mostly empty except for liquid refreshments. Now, I go to the market once a week and stock up for myself and the meowsers. Not only have I drastically reduced superfluous mileage, but I'm saving mo' money eating market food instead of the quick stuff.

The moral here is that there are undoubtably ways that each of us can trim enough wastage out of our habits to offset most or all of what the gas bill is doing to us. And I agree that people should ride bikes. The 80's saw the first wave of laziness, and bike sales plummeted. This resulted in an American institution known as Schwinn to be sold to, you guessed it, a China-based manufacturer named Pacific in the early 90's. Now, all mass-produced bikes are made there, with only small amounts of custom cycles being produced by the U.S.A.

This pattern will repeat in other categories. I have NO doubt that we will be playing Underdog to China in a relatively short time, and that the people running our country will continue to milk the system for all they can before they bail out and retire elsewhere.

Reply to
CobraJet
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you are absolutely right!!!! During the drought in Calif. a few years ago, a neighboring town called for its citizens to reduce water consumption. This they did big time, and their reward was that the city raised the price on water significantly to make up for their tax shortfall because the people conserved! Once water usage went up again after the drought year, did the taxes get cut with increased usage? HECK NO!

Imagine if californians somehow cut their usage to the bone and the price of gas plummeted--the freakin' liberals in sacramento would raise gas taxes in response to even things out!

Reply to
vince garcia

Once the price hits a certain level, the Canadian tar sands will really open up and thats 1.2 trillion barrels. We will not run out.

Reply to
rander3127

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news:bO-dnYCIqIkhbu snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Michael, I see your point, but I think there's a line between making a good profit and price fixing/gouging. IMO, the oil companies are guilty of the latter.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

I think the oil companies have a captive market to some extent so they should be more sensitive to profit levels. However I don't believe severely regulating them is the answer. If anything I think the government should develop not only a strategic oil reserve but also a domestic reserve. This would help to prevent price spikes but would also lessen the price drops. It wouldn't hurt to have the oil giants increase domestic refining capacity so we're not always on the ragged edge of supply problems due to low inventory. Also, national standards for gasoline would also help areas like California where their special boutique mixtures further raise the price.

Plus, IMO, the government could do much more in promoting energy conservation and efficiency. It's sad that Republicans and Democrats are too busy pi$$ing on each other to develop a good energy policy. It's just another example of politicians looking out for their own good instead of what's good for the country.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Agreed. One of these days people might realize this and do something about it. The current political machine in this country is ridiculous.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

No energy policy is needed.

  1. Oil is not running out. What needs building is more capacity to refine.
  2. IF oil ran out, croplands would be converted overnight to corn and alcohol would become our fuel.
  3. Nuclear power (not for cars!) is still very viable. France gets
80% of it's power from it the U.S. about 10%.. New reactors would appear and SHOULD be built now.

There is no point in worrying about running out of oil, there are alternatives. Pie in the sky energy policies based on undeveloped, underperforming technologies like wind, solar power, hydrogen is a SURE way to kill the U.S. as viable economy.

Reply to
rander3127

It really isn't a "shortage" of OIL, it is a SHORTAGE of cracking plants capable of converting the oil into REFINED gas, plus, (if you live in the USA) there seems to be 1,345,455 types of gasoline, depending on where you live, and what time of the year. Each time the cracking plants switch from producing one type of gas, to another type of gas, the tanks, pipes etc need to be purged and cleaned, taking valuble time. There hasn't been a new cracking plant built in the USA in over 20 years, and still the world uses more gas (china for one, they are emerging after a LONG period of isolationism). You can pump all the oil out of the ground you want, but unless you have the capacity to convert it to gas, it doesn't do any good. Realistically there isn't any reason to have more than two types of unleaded gas.

87 octane, and 92 octane (for engines requiring it). The myth of burning higher octane gas for "improved performance" doesn't wash anymore like it use to. Any modern car, uses a computer to control gas, air, etc. These computers are factory programmed to burn 87 octane, since that is what they are tested on for EPA and other requirements. There are very few passenger cars (corvettes, vipers, cobras, etc) that require a higher octane. If they produced two types of unleaded gas, there would be more, plus, if there is an excess of inventory of "gas type b" lets say, that is used on the east coast, and a lack of "gas type a" on the east coast, the distributor cannot ship the excess to the are of the country that needs it, do to "EPA" and clean air requirements.

I for one, will be glad when the price reaches the point where alternative (hydrogen) will be common place. But, at that point, you run into another problem. The current distribution system (piplines, tank farms) have been built over decades. If everything switches to hydrogen, nuclear, water, mud or whatever, they will have to build an infrastructure to move the product from where it is produced, to "a gas station near you", which I'm sure will take years. Unless they come up with a way to put tap water in the tank and have a converter on board to convert it to hydrogen and release the O2. LOL, sadly, if that day comes, I'm sure there will be some sort of exorbitant (sp) tax on tap water.

Reply to
p51d007

Joe,

At some point, the price of gas would come down because the American public would not want to pay the added tax(es), they'd limit their driving, and our demand would fall. This inturn would cut the World's demand considerably, supply would go up, and prices would fall. It's just that under this tax system, we, the American consumer, wouldn't see the price reduction at the pump. However, those gas taxes, could then be (should be) used to fund something else we don't want to pay for, or pay as much for.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

Reply to
Patrick

The American public will bitch and moan and pay through the nose. We are sheep with no system of recourse, saddled with silly laws against executing people in power who abuse us.

Dreamer.

Do as I do; find a CD entitled "Learn to Speakee Chinese, Round Eye" at Amazon.com and get with the program. We're all gonna need it.

Reply to
CobraJet

That's inflation. Thanks to how our money system works. Does not have much to do with oil. Our dependency on oil will be gone, but it will be too late when that comes. Right now there still is NO alternative that works and is even close to being cost-effective. Only thing I see that would work is a lot more nuclear powerplants and run everything electric. Thank the tree-huggers and a couple of accidents for that. Modern nuclear powerplants are safer than ever.

The speed at which oil prices can rise these days is alarming. It will make alternative sources possible, but it will be too late since there simply are none that are acceptable.

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Reply to
Rein

Reply to
Wound Up

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Patrick) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I just don't think that most Americans will drive less because the price of gas goes up. I really don't think they've got a choice.

It's not like everybody's driving around for fun right now. People are commuting longer and farther, people are sitting in traffic more, and more people are driving instead of flying.

What we might see would be people driving more efficient cars, but there's still something to be said for driving what you want to drive rather than what you have to drive for better mileage.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

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