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jesus lordy...what is up with the gas prices?

KNine

Monkey
Jul 18, 2004
330
0
North American For Life
I am paying 2.499 to fill up my Bronco II. It sucks, but if i want to drive i am going to pay it. I may think about it more on long trips I.E. Bellingham,E. Washington ect. But i think if i road trip i will make a weekend of it so i can get my monies worth.
 

JerseyDave

monkey wrestler
Apr 9, 2002
132
0
Stowe, VT
I don't think there is any debate about the idea of peak oil being real or not, it's just an argument about when that actual peak will occure, but this really isn't the point either. The real point, and it will be hard for anyone to refute this, is we have reached the END of cheap oil. Who cares at what point in the bell curve we are at, the reality is we are just now starting to feel the affects of the price of crude almost doubling in the last 5 years in our daily lives. These hikes in the price of crude will only be more and more dramatic. So Narlus, if you need a 5.7 liter engine, buy a desiel and run it on vegatable oil. That's what they were designed for to begin with. Bio-desiel is a bit more expesive right now, but that won't be the case for much longer.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
67,735
14,110
In a van.... down by the river
JerseyDave said:
I don't think there is any debate about the idea of peak oil being real or not, it's just an argument about when that actual peak will occure, but this really isn't the point either. The real point, and it will be hard for anyone to refute this, is we have reached the END of cheap oil.
Is this kind of like the coming of the new Ice Age? :think:
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
65
behind the viewfinder
JD, i don't need a gas sucker. my little jap car runs fine, and i actually left it in the garage today and rode my bike in.

bio-diesel is an interesting topic though...my brother-in-law is head of the physics dept at a local prep school, and one of the projects he and his class was working on involved an electric/bio-diesel hybrid.
 

JerseyDave

monkey wrestler
Apr 9, 2002
132
0
Stowe, VT
One question I've not been able to find an answer to, maybe he can help. How many acres of soy bean would I need to grow to produce enough bio-diesel to drive my car for a year? Maybe he can help. Figure 40 mpg, 20,000 miles a year. 500 gallons. I too drive a sentra. I have a T100 for work stuff and it kills me.
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
In the short term, It doesn't matter if it's not enough refineries, or we've reached the point of diminishing returns in oil exploration, gas is going up for the forseeable future.

As for the long term. the last I read the was we were within 1m barrels a day of the worlds maxium oil production. China is growing, they're trying to buy oil reserves any way they can, even if it means buying an entire American oil company. I don't think prices are going down long term either.



You should read this
 

ridetoofast

scarred, broken and drunk
Mar 31, 2002
2,095
5
crashing at a trail near you...
all the more reason to pursue alternative energies

bio diesel, ethanol, fuel cells

heres a positively shocking idea....

freaking BIKE lanes in all major cities :angry:

my location has been squandering money on study after study on a light rail systemt that either a) will never be built or b) never get used when c) they could've built some FVCKING bike lanes
 

bigshred

Monkey
Feb 6, 2004
177
0
Bellingham
JerseyDave said:
One question I've not been able to find an answer to, maybe he can help. How many acres of soy bean would I need to grow to produce enough bio-diesel to drive my car for a year? Maybe he can help. Figure 40 mpg, 20,000 miles a year. 500 gallons. I too drive a sentra. I have a T100 for work stuff and it kills me.

It takes a lot of acreage. :) I dont remember the figures, but if the US wants to switch all diesel to BD, we can say "good bye" to food thats grown in the US. Do some searching on Algea as a source of BD, quite interesting.
 

jebfour

Turbo Monkey
Jun 19, 2003
2,137
1,514
CLT, NC
80 Miles a day (not including what my wife commutes) is killing me at $2.65 a gallon!!! :mumble:
 

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
Reactor said:
In the short term, It doesn't matter if it's not enough refineries, or we've reached the point of diminishing returns in oil exploration, gas is going up for the forseeable future.

As for the long term. the last I read the was we were within 1m barrels a day of the worlds maxium oil production. China is growing, they're trying to buy oil reserves any way they can, even if it means buying an entire American oil company. I don't think prices are going down long term either.



You should read this
:thumb:
 

black noise

Turbo Monkey
Dec 31, 2004
1,032
0
Santa Cruz
My solution to this is to not get a car. I'm getting my license in a month or two and when I get it I won't drive anyways. I can't pay for a car, and I'm very lucky to live in a town where I can easily bike everywhere.

The US will pay for it's crappy short-sighted urban planning.
 

Knuckleslammer

took the red pill
JerseyDave said:
rant on:
It's called peak oil. We have reached (or are just about at depending on what petrolium expert you ask) at the halfway point in the world's oil supply. Everywhere in the world this is a hot topic, but you don't hear about it in this country. Gas prices will never signifigantly reduce ever again.

The term comes from the line graph showing usage vs. what is going into reserves. That graph has peaked and is now in the decline. Energy is one concern, and I imagine american cities will start looking like europe with scooters and bikes clogging the streets, but what is more alarming to me is how it will affect everything else. Food prices. Fertilizers and pestacides are both petrolium products, not to mention the cost of trucking going thru the roof. Scarry stuff really. The only good side to this energy crisis we all will face in the next 25 years (yes, it is a crisis) is it will localize economies again. Local products will be able to compete in price with products made over seas.

On a side note, this is the first time in the history of man that our main source of energy is almost gone, and there is no clear alternative already in place. Wood to coal. Coal to oil. Oil to ?. For our energy needs in this country we are going back to Coal. We have a 200 year supply of coal stashed away, and the technology to burn it 99 percent clean. But the time of cheap oil is over.


Consider the fact that we have been drilling for about 100 years, and are 50 percent thru what the planet has to offer. Consider the fact that in the last 15 years the US has DOUBLED it's consumption. Consider what China and India, the fastest growing economies in the world, are going to need to fully industialize. It get's bleek pretty fast.

Think this is BS, consider the fact the no big oil company has built a new refinery since the late 70's early 80's. They know it's the end, they just don't want us to know because they are making too much coin off of it. Oil companies were the big winners last year in profit, meanwhile americans keep driving around fat SUVs getting 12 mpg. WAKE UP PEOPLE. Look beyond US mainstream media. Lift the vail and prepare to be shocked.
rant off.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP. I hope all the oil runs out. Empty. I could care less. Nothing gets to me, I'll live in the woods with my large stash of booze and drugs. I could give a ****
Peak oil, terrorism, nuclear war. I'm ready, bring it. Jesus is my savior.

Knuckle
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
65
behind the viewfinder
actually, i went to see a band last night (magnolia electric company)and it got me thinking about JD's comments about the ripple effect on prices...the economy is driven by energy, and as those costs go up, everything else does. so as jason molina's van stops to refuel, and it costs more, and the electricity needed to drive the PA is more $, well, yr ticket price just went up too.

i still got my money's worth last night, though.
 

Slugman

Frankenbike
Apr 29, 2004
4,024
0
Miami, FL
DRB said:
Shell agreed to sell the Bakersfield refinery to Flying J earlier this year.
Interesting... had not seen/heard that.

DRB said:
They don't cite the source of their profit figures. It doesn't even say what type of profit. But those reported by David Hackett, a well known analysist in the petroleum industry, says that number is closer to $14 million after tax net over the last 6 years. Even if you were to double that over half the time, the pay back is not good NOT good at all. Especially when the nature of these refits are going to requires substanial downtime which is going to further drain profits.
But it does state that the facility was one of the most profitable... so why close it? Regardless of the amount of profit - it was more profitable than others then the should shut down one of the LEAST profitable ones.

Regardless - I only got into this thread b/c of your "tinfoil hat" comment. You dismiss people's frustration with gas price gouging with attempts to label them as crazy or conspiracy theorist. However they are right that it is done intentionally.

I understand it's not a conspiracy - it's actually damn good business. Hell if I owned a business and could charge huge fees for my services I would - that's the way capitalism works. Supply demand - since the demand is so large I'll make sure to limit the supply and drive the price through the roof.

People need to understand that cheap fuel/electricity are not a right that we have under the constitution. It's a product that we've become dependant on, but it's still a product.

I wish I was in the oil business... I'd find every way possible to charge as much as I could, and laugh every time a car went by me while I was riding my bicycle. :evil:
 

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,332
0
Chatsworth
fiddy_ryder said:
over $3 in some parts here in so cal..
I saw a gas station yesterday that was $3.01 for 92 octane. So far, the highest I have seen for 87 octane was $2.80. I'm sure it will keep going up...
 

NRSracer

Jamis Slayer
Sep 7, 2001
502
0
Baltimore

chicodude

The Spooninator
Mar 28, 2004
1,054
2
Paradise
Knuckleslammer said:
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP. I hope all the oil runs out. Empty. I could care less. Nothing gets to me, I'll live in the woods with my large stash of booze and drugs. I could give a ****
Peak oil, terrorism, nuclear war. I'm ready, bring it. Jesus is my savior.

Knuckle

Plastic. life is gonna suck without it
 

dhtahoe

I LOVE NORBA!!!!
Feb 4, 2002
1,363
0
Flying Low Living Fast
gigapower said:
just paid 2.43 a gallon in Oklahoma. With this and the new tax breaks, hate to say it but Hybrid here I come.
No you get screwed with a hybrid now too. Beacause you use less gas you pay less taxes on gas. So now the government is making hybrid owners pay more to register their car... ALOT MORE. Either way you get screwed.
 

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
dhtahoe said:
No you get screwed with a hybrid now too. Beacause you use less gas you pay less taxes on gas. So now the government is making hybrid owners pay more to register their car... ALOT MORE. Either way you get screwed.
which government? The states get vehicle registration fees, both states and the feds get a piece of gas sales. It sounds like that's your states' take on it, but it'll be different elseware.
 

mack

Turbo Monkey
Feb 26, 2003
3,674
0
Colorado
Cooter Brown said:
Thank the thieves in high government, thieves, every one of em, f#cking thieves

Yeah, too bad uncle sam only makes 50 cents a gallon regardless of price.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
10 cent jump last night. never thought i'd see 2.50 gas here, but the way things are going, it'll be there by monday.
 

Juvat

Chimp
Nov 23, 2003
21
0
Merkel (Dyess AFB), TX
If you want good info on Peak Oil, check here: Life After the Oil Crash . There are a lot of good links on that site. Granted, some of it may be a little far fetched, but there's a good amount of it that's plausible.

BTW, gas just broke the $2.30 mark here in Abilene. The shocking part was that it was $2.09 at noon at$2.33 at 3:00 p.m.
 

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
Right now across the street at the cheapy gas station from where I live it's $2.73/2.83/2.93 respectively. Last night while driving I saw $2.89/2.99/3.09. It's getting close to toss the 350 v8 pickup and go find one of these inline 4-banger pickups.

Gas prices are a joke. If people boycott buying gas well........what good that does. It has to stop at the pumps. If the gas stations just said F-it, we'll have a national stop day then so be it. I don't drive enough to care what the gas goes up to, but Paying $45 to fill my tank, to $50, to $55, and now probably close to $60 sucks. I dunno why American people can't figure it out that these oil companies over seas are rich, beyond what we in america would call "rich". Someone here in town might have a expensive mercades/BMW/whatever, giant home, toys etc....well they have 10x what you have and still have 100x more $$$ in the bank. The U.S should just send our troops over to hijack the oil fields. Send a message you know? I'm kidding of course but it'd be nice for them to see that they can't do this.

It doesn't help with everything growing as far as demand goes. Electric cars and such seem like such a great idea but there's too many cars out there that are older that alot of america can't afford to trade in or make payments, in reality for myself, being 23, I can afford the payments, I can't afford the insurance. If they told people with cars that guzzle gas to trade their car in and get a decent credit towards a new one that saves gas I'd probably do it. But they don't, and they won't unless gas really soars, then the car companies are going to have to do something if they want to stay afloat and giving people employee discounts isn't going to cut it.

It just makes you think what this world is comming to. Gas prices high, insurance prices high, no health insurance for most of the U.S.A, people get let off for multiple muders after spending less than 7 years in jail, pedifiles galore all over the place, no cure for cancer or aids or anything............WTF is wrong with U.S.A. If we're suspose to be the worlds biggest economy we sure suck at it in some ways. Where does all this tax money we pay go towards? Bush getting his $500+ cowboy boots? New helicopters to ride in? Kobe beef nightly for dinner? I dunno but something isn't right.

Sorry for the rant, but come on, it makes you think what is wrong here. Places can barley afford to keep afloat as is, businesses or just the normal person in their day to day life. So you raise gas, which the world sorta revolves around just like life revolves around money (no matter how much you don't think money is everything, get real, it is) and you expect people to just accept it? Until the general public protests this crap from the goverment it'll contine, past $3 a gallon, past $3.50 a gallon, and probably pushing $4 a gallon while we, the working class become poorer, and the saudi's and whoever else we get our oil from pockets get fatter.
 

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
SkaredShtles said:
Dude. Take your misinformed a$$ over to the PD forum. :rolleyes:
LOL not much of a PD fourm topic, but just trying to stick with the rise of gas prices, atleast here in So.Cal
 

JerseyDave

monkey wrestler
Apr 9, 2002
132
0
Stowe, VT
It's not a question of how much Uncle Sam is making, it's all the companies that the members of our Government work for that are making the money. C'mon, do you really not get the whole "revolving door between the board room and the cabinet" thing. In a nut shell it goes like this. Guy gets elected. Appoints all these former Heads of large Cooperations to high Gov. (non elected) positions. There they deregulate the inidustry they just left (but ussually still own huge stock in), then they leave our government with a lifetime pension for serving. Get appointed to two or three postions over 15-20 years, say for Reagan, Bush1, Bush2, as alot of these guys have, and your looking at a few hundred thousand a year, for life, taxpayer dollars, plus you exercised your stock options you had left over from Haliburton, or Lockhee/Martin, or Shell, or Bechtel...who all just made so much coin off this "war", I mean the poicies they helped shape, that you make a few mill. on that deal. Then you get appointed back on the board of said company with a fat raise. And don't worry, any purgery or obstruction of congress you may have commited while defending your president, you'll get pardoned, and that will gaurentee a payback down the line. Cough...Negroponte and the rest of the Iran contra bunch...cough. wooops, there I go again. Can someone please fix all my typos again.


PS
Mousillini said fascism is the blending of Coorperations and Government.
How is our system different again?
 

ChrisRobin

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
3,403
212
Vancouver
Update from Canada: I remember in 1998, in Monteal, gas was sitting at about .60-something cents per litre. I went to school in Ottawa and saw gas at .50-something cents a litre.

They (news, tv, radio...etc) used to say that one day we'd hit $1.00 per litre and it has in the last year or so. The local Petro-Canada has it for $1.04 per litre now. I thought it was because I'm living Victoria on Vancouver Island where everything is expensive because there are no bridges. EVERYTHING has to get ferried in from the BC mainlaind. I was in Vancouver just 2 weeks ago and yep...pretty much the same gas prices. Because of all the hills around here, I can almost hear and feel my car gulping gas like crazy!

I don't know if the CDN government is in on it (I'm sure they are) but the sad thing is: we can't just say 'no' and stop using gas. Forget it, it's going to keep going up and up and there's no stopping it.

I'm just trying to keep my car is decent shape so it doesn't waste too much gas (tune ups, more air pressure...etc).