$3.00 per gallon gasoline. Why is everyone so panicked?

The reason why the price of gasoline is so high is that the price of oil is high. And oil is used for heating houses. And gasoline and deisel are uesd for delivering goods and food to stores. So the price of oil going up tends to drive up prices. And there are a lot of people who can't afford to pay more for gasoline or food. Like people who are living on a fixed income or have a lot of kids.

So the price of gasoline going up has psychological effects, like when it passes $2 or $3 as well as effects on the greater economy.

Jeff

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Yes, you would think that the sky is falling.

If you want to place blame, start with the ecos that won't let the oil companies build any new refineries, then blame the ecos that won't let us drill for our own oil, then blame the ecos that wouldn't let us build a new nuclear plant since 1986. So you see who to blame now???

PS: I like it when gas is $3, not so much traffic. I kind of wish it was more.

How about Bush and Clinton, who did not do enough to encourage conservation? When you recycle aluminum, you save a bunch of energy. When you insulate a house, you save a lot of energy. When you increase full efficency of cars, you save energy.

The US uses about 1/3 more to twice as much energy per capita than Europeans (depending on European country). Japan uses a lot less energy per capita than the US.

And the Europeans don't have a lower quality of life.

And how about the people in Asia and Eastern Europe? The nerve of them. Wanting to have a higher quality of life. They are using more energy than ever before (but not as much as in the US).

Jeff

Oh gawd, you again. How you fixed for signs?

But you would agree it is NOT the highest, or even close to it, price we've ever seen in the U.S. ??

But aren't those forced by law additives done because of pressure from environmental groups? Since that is the case, shouldn't some of our anger go toward those environmental groups that increased the price to refine the oil and also tacked on certain taxes?

Also, no two cities have the same blend. Environmentalists lobbyed congress hard and go these things passed.

So aren't the to blame for some of this??

Nuclear power is probably the most efficient and clean source of energy man has created yet enviro's have successfully made it into a horror story of death.

And the fact that we cannot explore for oil in Alaska will keep us dependent on those countries which do not care about our poor needing cheap energy.

I think we should put a lot of the gas price/energy price blame where it belongs...Environmentalists and the lobbying they've done for 3 decades.

I think double-digit inflation and unemployment rates is what we'd all call having a lower quality of life.

For a lot of people, it is the highest price they have seen in the US.

It wasn't this high since I was in Middle School and Pres. Carter was living where Bush lives now.

Jeff

What are the alternatives to having the additives? You may want to figure who wanted the gasoline taxes and why. And figure what happens to the money from the gasoline taxes, too.

You might also want to check on this, too. Often, nearby cities have similar blends.

This also tends to drive up the price of fuel and create shortages, too thing that oil companies just hate. ;-)

That forces them to make more money.

Yes, I would definitely blame the environmentalists for cleaner air. Gee, they even got the lead out of the gasoline. And the animals in the Philadelphia Zoo no longer get lead poisoning from the Skulkill freeway, like they used to.

Everything that is wrong with the US, like cleaner air and recycling is the fault of environmentalists.

Jeff

And that is caused by energy conservation?

How? And then, why do some European states have high unemployment rates and others low?

Jeff

Yeah, certainly the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernoble had nothing to do with it. By the way, where is the nuclear waste stored long-term?

The amount of oil that could come from Alaska is, at most, a small fraction of the world's oil supply. It would barely affect the price of oil.

And the oil companies certainly have not lobbied at all for the right to drill in places with very little in the way of royalties.

There are several reasons why oil is so expensive. The bottom line is that the world-wide demand for oil is growing as the third world nations, especially India and China are using more oil.

Jeff

Interesting that we can always blame the "tree huggers" for all of our ills....

Yes... gas mileage hasn't improved over the years.... unfortunately, one cost of clean air is to burn more gas to make sure all the gas is burned. It is an idea that most can't grasp but major centers have experienced improvements in air quality as emissions controls advance. All this in spite of the fact that there are even more vehicles on the road now....

What is just as surprising is our readiness to "blame" the people that might be helping us to save us from ourselves.. Sure, some of the tree hugger rhetoric can be a bit tough to swallow, but I'm sure that we can all agree that you can only shit in your own backyard for so long before you can't go out there any more.

We've been over 3 bucks a gallon for a long time... you'll get over it because life has proven that shit happens.... I might add that I live on top of the stuff gas is made of and I'm getting stroked by big oil just as hard as the next guy. Changing big oil is going to take changing government and changing "accepted business practice".... Not a tree hugger to be blamed.

If it weren't for those with an intense interest in ecology, we all could be facing a world that is no where near as good as it is today. Everyone expects clean air to breath and potable water to drink.... just as long as getting it doesn't change their ways...

I'm not a tree hugger nor do I play one on TV..... But, I do think that, as responsible adults, it is important that we all ensure that we minimize the "footprint" we leave behind. Using lots of petroleum products and having clean air can be two very different things.

Thanks for the non-informative sarcastic remarks.

I guess I was right. You really cannot discuss environmentalism unless you are in complete agreement with all the plans.

I hear and see that "small fraction" quote all the time. Funny thing is, the oil companies have far different data on the supply in Alaska. In fact, don't you think the idea that oil companies desperately want that oil in Alaska might tend to make you think that their is a LOT of oil there?

I've read of 100 year supply estimates from only Alaska. Not just ANWR, I mean all of Alaska.

Also, drilling for oil is so terrible that middle-eastern countries suck oil from the ground anywhere they can find it. Why isn't greenpeace sending people to the middle-east informing them of their doomsday?

You'll notice that the more socialist countries tend to have high inflation and unemployment while the more capitalist nations how low rates of each.

Compare the USA to France for example.

Energy conservation is great as long as it is voluntary and not mandated by some law.

Can you explain why all plant life didn't die-off in the era before the 1960s? Also can you explain why more children in America have asthma than during the smoke-stack 1950s?

Many horrific environmental things happened thousands of years before any White man stepped foot on North America. That is ignored because it's one of those gotcha things. It can't be explained so we might as well ignore it. Do anything to defend a position, lies are ok too.

I'm reminded of how much progress has been made with car emissions when I attend the local antique muscle car show every year. We sometimes forget or perhaps have never experienced what car exhaust used to smell like in the days before catalytic converters and fuel efficient engines. We owe a lot of that progress to the people who weren't afraid to make their voices heard for cleaner air.