Oil Crisis - Have We Missed The Boat?

Geez Ron, Maybe we should all start eating rice cakes to make sure we have enough food. No more steaks for you!
P.s. I own a Suburban…
P.S 2 Don’t forget to enter you spam word when commenting. Otherwise the blade will make you type it all over again…..

We always have to bail out big companies, because they’re “too big to let fail”.

Besides, I’m sure that if I’m out of a job and about ready to have my house repossessed, the government will make GM, Ford, Chrysler, Delta Airlines, and Bear Stearns come save my skin……oh wait!

I hear ya loud and clear but having chosen a rural lifestyle which includes the need to haul horses and 6 to 8 thousand pound loads of hay - well, a Civic ain’t gonna do it! My Ford 350 and Tundra 6.7 liter monsters aren’t a luxury, they are an absolute necessity for us. I did, however (seeing the typing on the screen), sell my very nice Ford Ranger and purchased an ‘08 Mazda3 which pulls down about 28 to 32 mpg and eases our pain a little. The big trucks are now only fired up to go to work, but get rid of them? Can’t do it until the horses die….

This is not an oil “crisis”. It’s a sea change. We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the grip of big oil.

At least three of the answers are already here Ron. Folks just need to get informed and do the math.

1. 100 MPG Electric plug-in hybrids are available today … the modded Prius is a reality, not a pipe dream.

2. High-MPG clean diesels have begun to arrive here in the States. Look for a white Jetta TDI with green leaf flames at your local VW dealer. I’ve driven a bunch of Euro diesels and they ROCK.

3. CNG conversions are hot hot hot in certain geographic locations within the USA where natural gas is cheap. T.Boone Pickens is spreading the gospel.

Covering these developments is what I do …

http://www.lockergnome.com/technobabble/ and
http://mpgomatic.com

Thanks for all of the comments.

Bruce - you are a real user and need a V-8 to haul stuff. What I am talking about are people like my neighbors. One has a Silverado V-8 that the only thing that has been ever hauled in the bed were a few sheets of plywood. Another that never hauls anything. A third who uses it to haul a boat. Since March the boat and truck haven’t moved.

Dan - I’ve read your stuff.

Goose - what word bounced you out? email me.

Oil is very important for much more than just gasoline and Diesel fuel. We manufacture millions of other things with it. But even if we go very efficient with out autos ( which we should ) the rest of the World is going to use up the reserves of oil being produced. This means that our “do nothing” Congress with a 9% approval rating will have to approve more drilling in the USA, Offshore, Shale, and Alaska.

It wasn’t right to bail out Chrysler, and won’t be right to bail out GM or Ford either. That doesn’t make for a strong market or economy. When you interfere and try to control the Natural way of things, you screw it up-Think Liberal.

If Obama is elected and does what he has promised, things will get so bad that we will wish for the good old days of George Bush.

‘we will wish for the good old days of George Bush’

I must of missed those days.

Sell your gas guzzler now. If you wait until you think you must sell, evryone will be selling at the same time.

Living in a recreational area where people think it is their god-given right to own as big a truck/boat/jet ski as they believe their credit will allow…I’m looking for their expression when gas hits $5.00 or above.

With me driving a used mid-90’s Hyundai that I paid cash for & filled up for $27 last time…I feel sorry for all of them…NOT! Have expected this to happen for years & planned accordingly. If you can’t pay the piper for your stupidity…don’t bother telling me about it or expect my sympathy. What part of greed & short-sidedness of businesses & government don’t these people understand?

I believe a lot of us expected this to happen. It happened fast didn’t it. Wait for my next article.

Wake up America.

Here in the UK we looked on with wry amusement when you complained about gas at $1 per gallon when we paid four times as much.

Now I see you are up in arms at $4 per gallon and looking forward with horror to maybe $5, even (unthinkable) $6?

The cheapest I can get today in the UK is equivalent to $9 per US gallon. I drive a 1.6 MPV (needed for big family), average 42 mpg, and the last fill-up cost me £63 ($125).

It’s coming your way (and more), count on it.

People get spoiled by their luxury. Do you realize that “most people” in America live within 2 or 3 miles of where they work? An easy commute on a bicycle, or even on foot. But, in our high-cholesterol, saturated fat-fed society, you won’t see “most people” walk 2 or 3 BLOCKS to buy a candy bar!

Herein lies the problem… People think of their cars as their “second legs”. And, of course, they MUST have that 6000 pound SUV, just in case they get where they’re going, and discover that they need to drive their kids’ football team 2 or 3 blocks to the store to buy candy bars!

Hi Jeremy,
I hear you. I think we haven’t even felt the pain yet.

Hi E2001,
Two-Thumbs up!

>>We just went on our merry way thinking that oil would be abundant forever.

Who the heck is “we?” I haven’t driven a V-8 since the 70’s; remember the oil embargo?

_______Driving a . Gas Guzzler . is another way of . Saying

___________I’M . PROUD . TO . BE . AN . AMERICAN !!!

Who the heck is “we?”

Charlie in Pioneer, California

Heh Den,
Should I dump my KIA for a Chevy? LOL

That’s right Denny……..There’s plenty of oil. Our idiotic government is the problem. The next thing you know the BLADE will be complaining about health care. I guess no more cheeseburgers for us. It drives up healthcare costs. These people that complain about V8 engines should also be selling their 30 mpg vehicles for something better…..

The price of oil is complicated and there is no one reason it is so high at this moment.

HOWEVER: Bush has managed to spend this country into bankrupcy so the Dollar is 40% of its value against other countries compared to when Bush became president. If the dollar was at its year 2000 value oil would be $80 per barrel, and gas would be $2.00

Goose,
That’s why there is a high tax on cigarettes. It does drive up health care costs.

That’s what I’m talkin about. Where do you draw the line. Tax cheeseburgers next? What about V8’s? When there are 50mpg vehicles available, then why not get those people that get 30 mpg to trade those in too? I don’t know of anyone other that God who knows where to draw this line. (including the BLADE)…..

……………….Geeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz ,, Gooose

_______Now There Gunna Start Taxin . cheeseburgers

Not ALL cheeseburgers. Just the Whopper!

Just because gas is heading to $5 a gallon and 343,000 people got thrown out of their homes in the past 6 months, remember that it is all in your mind!

Bruce, there’s a major difference between you and me who have load haulers that actually get dirty doing real work and my next door neighbor who owns a Ford F250 SWB (single white butt) hauler. Hauling hay, lumber, gravel doing dump runs for your neighbors, these are necessary. The day I find that my neighbor has actually put a sack of cement in the back of his truck and joined the rest of us great unwashed working people, I’ll figure that I need to go looking for the pod people. It’s his chosen lifestyle, but I don’t need to listen to any whining over the cost of fuel to haul his 250 lbs. of body mass around the planet.

Geeeeez again Ron,
Of course there are alot of people hurting. But don’t blame the gas guzzlers. Blame your government. Especially the demos.
You liberals are goin nowhere. Can’t say much for anybody though. If you want alternatives then don’t bad mouth wind power. Sometimes the sun doesn’t shine either…..
Anyway, I think Nancy Pelosi actully might have accomplished something lately……she upgraded the cafeteria menu!

Oil is spiking or so it would seem. US consumption has been decreasing. If it’s like the embargo of ‘73, as alternatives become reasonable the price of oil may drop. But it’s not like ‘73, the Chinese subsidize oil for their folk so they can continue to grow at 10%/year. That’s so we can buy their stuff at Walmart.

The reason oil is so expensive is because of Walmart!

We will move towards alternatives and the more expensive oil will get produced. There is plenty of hard-to-get-out-thick oil it just costs more.

So why is the payback for a solar array for my house 20+ years (even with the current breaks). Get serious about encouraging use of personal solar plants. If Germany with it’s lousy days can do it, why can’t we?

A couple months ago Glenn Beck put together a clever video montage of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush lamenting our increasing dependence on foreign oil and need to have alternative fuels and higher mpg’s. This has been going on since the 70’s.
Nancy Pelosi promised a change in gas prices on April 26, 2006 if she were re-elected … and they have changed in 2 years. (Mormon) Harry Ried was quoted last week that he might possible consider off-shore drilling and legislating (physics), but that hasn’t happened. Savior Obama said that gas prices are not too high, they just raised too quickly. As heartless as the Democrats are, the Republicans are spineless whimps and I could quote them too. Government is NOT the solution — it is quite often the problem!
There is some great technology coming in the next few years with MYT or Cyclone engines, carbon-neutral algae-biofuels, carbon-based catalysts rather than platinum, new energy storage devices including better lithium batteries and so much more JUST in the area of transportation — not even considering all the other cool stuff that is being developed in so many other areas. All we have to do is survive the crackpot leaders here, the terrorists abroad and domestic, and a few other squabbles.
Will there be lifestyle changes? Yes. Unless you’re Amish, you aren’t living like your grandparents did at your age (and if you are, you aren’t reading this!). We need to take good care of our environment without letting it become a god as some people have. We also need the leftist media to quit lauding excess and praise modesty and genuine conservation. We need politicians who quit flying around in private jets to scare and scam us, demanding WE use less while they use more. Yes. We will experience a “sea change”. But will it be a frightening singularity thrust upon us by draconian mandates, or a consensus of authentic good folk who really want life to be better for themselves and others?

The problem is OUT-OF-CONTROL SPECULATION. Go to youtube and search for a video by MSNBC called “Enron Loophole” and also search Greenberger. Michael Greenberger was the CFTC Director from 1997-99 and tells it like it is….and how to fix this!

The CFTC could straighten it out by tommorow afternoon if they wanted with no new bills or legislation required. Did you know that all Energy commodities (Oil, Natural Gas) have traded outside of US regulation & oversight since Dec 2000? It is the ONLY group of commodities that does and is the result of the Enron Loophole.

“Stop Oil Speculation Now” Coalition Calls For Action to Stop
Record Energy Price Increases
 snipurl.com

ACTIVISM
S.O.S NOW
 stopoilspeculationnow.com

Close the Enron Loophole
 capwiz.com

Ron,

Back in the 90’s it would annoy me to no end the number of 5′2″, 110lb. blond women with 2 preschool children driving Ford Excursions on the 118 freeway in Los Angeles .

I’m a total believer in free market capitalism. But all of these folks who bought and drove these “land barges” , and didn’t actually need them, brought this on themselves and (unfortunately) the rest of us.

And the Hollywood “liberal elite” are partially culpable as well. I remember back in the early 90’s when shows like “Access Hollywood” would showcase the latest celeb trend…… trading their Mercedes, BMW’s, limos and the like for big, customized SUV’s. Get yours now!!!! Be popular!!!! And the sheep lined up!