Car That Can Park Itself Put on Sale by Toyota

It is just cheaper to buy their "sweet crude" than it is to process our domestic coal tar (which we -do- export a considerable amount of).

If you cook with electricity and the power goes out maybe knowing that it went out because a driver hit a pole versus an unknown problem is more comforting, but it's still OUT. A shortage is a shortage.

Of course Phillip, who draws a pension from a company that depends on petroleum, is never likely to admit he would like anything to the contrary.

If you had wireless Internet access during your truck driving years can you imagine how much more "dangerous" you'd be today?

There is plenty of sweet crude available in this country. Not enough to replace the Saudi Oil at the current usage rates, but if we doubled the cost of imported oil, it wouldn't take long for domestic supplies to replace it (asssuming oil shale and coal would be used to make gasoline as well). I don't recommend a sudden increase in taxes on imported oil, just a long slow ramp up over say the next 10 years.

Ed

Including the immeadiate memebers of my family - over a dozen - '86 VW Jetta, '78 Ford Fiesta, '92 Ford F150, '97 Ford Expedition, '86 Mercury Sable, '91 VW Passat, '71 Dodge D600, '83 Mazda 626, '86 Ford Ranger, '92 Ford Ranger, '82 Ford Country Squire, '72 Ford Pinto...there are others but my memory is not so good. It would be faster to name the failures - '73 Ford Pinto (fluid never changes, bands never adjusted, lost reverse at around 90,000 miles), '74 Jensen-Healy (mainshaft nut unscrewed at around 40,000 miles), '86 VW Jetta (fluid never checked, leaked out, ate fifth gear at around 135,000), '67 Ford Fairlane (ran the car into a pond, lost high gear the next day).

Ed White

Nah. I don't want to contribute more tax money to wasteful government spending.

AS the price of diesel rises, so does everything you buy because ... everything you buy got to you by truck. The primary reason diesel trucks get the emissions slack they have is that commercial trucks contribute mightily to every modern economy. Such cannot be said of automobiles. Cars cannot pull up to a dock with a million dollars worth of computer stuff

I retired in 1998. I started carrying a laptop around in the truck in '97. Truckstops were just starting to offer phone plug-ins at restaurant tables about then too. You would be amazed how many truckers carry laptops and PDA's now. Truckers are electronic gadget collectors ... trust me! LOL "Dangerous?" Me? Harmless little fuzzball.

I guess you are right, it is better to give it to the Saudis so they can fund terrorist.

Ed

Trains could, and they don't destroy the road that car owners fund with the gasoline tax they pay.

Ed

Even the current Administration has decided that no user of Diesel fuel will continue to get emissions slack. High time, too.

Nevertheless if you are a US citizen you will help pay for my 2004 Prius :_>

Well if I'm helping pay for it...I'd like a ride sometime

Scott in Florida

Obviously, you are quite illiterate, so I'll try to make it plain for you:

There was the assertion that all shortages in fuel will be manmade.

There was a response that the Arizona shortage was not manmade.

I showed that it was manmade.

You came in with a non-sequitur that it was a shortage.

Just so you know, no one here ever stated or implied that there wasn't a shortage. The only discussion (until you came blindly into the thread) was about whether they would be because actual supply could not meet demand, or because of some human interference, such as purposefully producing less than possible to increase prices or absurd regulations that prevent sale of available gasoline.

Marc For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

Gives us a great opportunity to promote a democracy next door to several dictatorships to say nothing of justifying a miltitary presence. I'm for both. (evil laugh).

Good Grief. HOW do you get goods FROM the train TO the retail store? How do you get finished product TO the train in most cases? Do you have ANY idea how long a frieght train takes to cross the US compaired to a trucker? How do you get motor fuels from the refinery or blending station to the corner gas station? (and a thousand other examples). DUH Furthermore, truckers pay a damn sight more Federal road use taxes (subsidizing car drivers in part) while four wheelers pay only state registration and teeny road use tax.

Diesel emissions have been under treatment for years so, what you say is silly. The slack has been at the refinery level to make MUCH more low low sulfur fuel. Refiners have to get the sulfur out which they have been doing regionally.

Not all "US citizens" are taxpayers. Taxpayers are the ones subsidizing your purchase by way of IRS rules allowing you to skate on some vehicle taxes normally due.