The end of cheap gasoline

For me, I want to hear what the experts have to say...not someone who stands to make a huge profit off of a doomsday scenario book... Sounds like there may be a grain of truth to what he's saying, but the question is - how big is that grain? He talks of oil prices being at such an all-time high...I read an article a few weeks back that was talking about how prices today are still lower (when adjusted for inflation) than they were at one point in the

70's or 80's (can't remember exactly when the article said). Not to mention the fact tha we still pay a good bit less that folks in many parts of the world...

Wesley

Yes, but who ARE the "experts?" I think anyone would agree that the guy who wrote the article sounds very well informed. Can't he be one of them? And he's published in Rolling Stone--that gives him some credibility in my book. But point taken, about a profit motive with a doomsday scenario book...but the thing is that it all seems totally plausable, kind of echos the sentiments I've had about the whold matter for a long time. Every writer, every periodical, has their subgect or topic they're generally dedicated to; and as such they're usually well informed and often even passionate about it: whether it be politics or cars or dogs, etc. You ask ten "experts" you'd get ten different answers, probably--and his is just another one. But like I said, I don't see any glaring holes in his assessment of the situation. In fact, quite the opposite.

Incidentally, I would have posted the link directly to that article but wasn't able to do that easily on this webtv setup. I can email it to people but not get it to post onto usenet.

Its not just cheap gas that is going, the lost of oil would mean we would have to revert back to caveman days, Many of today's modern conveniences are made from a barrel of oil. Medicines, plastics, and synthetic clothing are just a few. We all must learn to recycle, reduce and reuse as much as possible.

I not an expert on oil but I bet there is a lot more then what the public is lead to believe. There are areas where the oil reserves have not been touched. There are several areas where engineers have not been able to use modern technology to tap the oil reserves that are there. One such example is the oil sands in Canada. The cost out to refine cost more then the oil is worth. Another example was on discovery channel a while back. That is oil that seeps from the ocean floors into the sea to be disbursed. This occurs naturally at depths we have not attempted to drill for oil yet.

Sarge

That was part of the article--yes, there's still a fair amount of oil left, but it is:

1. Extremely difficult and expensive to extract
2. Of considerably inferior quality
3. In a place where "they hate us."

In other words, way more trouble than it's worth, not going to do us any good, and not even really in the equation. Meanwhile, everybody thinks there's still lots of oil left...there isn't. I'm going to TRY to post the link to that article.

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 11:38:09 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (James Goforth) puked:

The guy has an active imagination. I'm always wary of 'the sky is falling' crowd, so I did a Google search on him and came up with this:

It doesn't appear that he has any formidable credentials and is essentially an editorialist. Perhaps his books have more footnotes to back up his assertions, but he makes a lot of dramatic leaps in the article you posted.

It reminds me of some of the predictions of the 1950's where we are commuting in personal aircraft and living on the moon by 1990...

-- lab~rat >:-) Do you want polite or do you want sincere?

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:01:23 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (James Goforth) puked:

It's been a long time since I've read Rolling Stone. Do they still talk about which celebrity is sleeping with whom and whatnot?

-- lab~rat >:-) Do you want polite or do you want sincere?

The most a refinery can run at is 95%. This is due to limitations in the design and efficiencies. Oil refineries are now running at 95%. The reason the price of gas keeps rising is because demand is outstripping supply. Since there is no 100% in the refinery business, there very well could be a gas shortage.

How often has this happened? I recall 4 times in my lifetime. We haven't run out yet, and there are a couple Exxon Valdez' worth in Alaska...

Sure OPEC isn't just sqeezing for a little more dinero?

LOL! Hunter S. Thomas was published in Rolling Stone!!!

RS should get back to reporting about music and leave politics and speculation to those best suited for it...

Actually I just picked it up and read it at the local library while my son was in there doing some school work. I'm not a regular reader of the mag myself, and yes, there's a lot of celebrity gossip in it, music news, et.al.

End of cheap gas? Still seems DAMNED cheap to me. It costs me less to fill up my caravan right now, than it did 4 years ago, to fill my civic or volvo in the UK.

Stop bitching.

Do you think you could learn to quote a little of the text that you are referring to, so people might know what you're talking about?

See my pervious posting: "Link to 'The End of Oil."

I'm not bitching. On the contrary, I pay absolutely no attention to the price of gasoline. When I need some I pull in to the nearest filling station and fill my tank. I couldn't even tell you to the nearest dime what the current price is. Plus it changes all the time anyway. And I agree, it IS still very cheap in light of the fact that we're (arguably) going to start running out of it, which is the premise upon which this discussion got started--see previous posting with link to "The End of Oil." I'm not crying out that the sky is falling, I just thought it was a provocative article and wanted share/discuss it.

You just don't get it, do you?

Good, take it to some extremist / wacko newsgroup. This is for talking about Dodge cars.

You're joking...right?

I know what you mean, I could count the times on one hand that I've read a Rolling Stone in the past decade. I just gave them credibility in that they're a very large publication, and many of the articles in it are from outside authors, rather than their own staffers--the same as Playboy or any of the other major pubs, that's all. Myself, I read Car & Driver, Time and Newsweek. I suspect the responses to the article would have been different had I not mentioned that it appeared in RS.

Utah, Colorado and Wyoming are full of oil shale folks..........and I mean FULL