What Is Making Gasoline Prices Higher..................

[Richard Cranium]

The press was all over the previous President when gas prices spiked a couple of years ago, so where's the national media today?   


(Please note that the "Leader Of The Free World's" name has been redacted from this post, so as not making this about politics, as the rules state. Rather, the article below is about ineptness that we are all paying for.)


March 3rd, 2011

Yesterday, for the first time since September 2008, the price of a barrel of crude oil topped $100 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But while the recent unrest in the Middle East has had some marginal effect on rising prices, the most significant factor has been increased oil demand worldwide. That is why, long before the recent protests even began, analysts were predicting $4 a gallon by this summer and $5 a gallon by 2012. Anyone could have predicted that the recovering world economy, coupled with the continued growth of India and China, was going to push oil prices higher. So if an Administration wanted to keep gas prices down, they could have mitigated increased oil demand by increasing domestic oil production. But that is not what this Administration has done. Instead of increasing domestic oil supplies, this Administration has cut them at every opportunity, and Americans are now suffering because of those choices.

Back in February, when the protests in Egypt were first unfolding, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was asked what the Administration could do to combat rising world oil prices. Chu responded: "The best way America can protect itself against these incidents is to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, in fact to diversify our supply." It is now one month later and the Administration has not updated its talking points. Pressed on gas prices yesterday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We are also, as you have seen over the past two-plus years, very focused on the need precisely to develop other energy sources so that we are not as dependent on foreign oil as we have been in the past." So what are these "other energy sources" the White House has been developing? How does the White House plan to "diversify supply" to reduce gas prices? The answers are corn, wind, sun, and electric cars. And they won't help a bit.

According to Heritage analysts Nick Loris and John Ligon, this Administration's energy policy consists of: increased biofuel production, increased electric vehicle production, and increased renewable power production. These are all terrible public policies. The major source of biomass production, corn-based ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers $4 billion to produce 2 percent of the total gasoline supply, and has dubious environmental effects. The electric cars that this Administration has invested in are prohibitively costly, do not fit the needs of the American consumer, and are also environmentally suspect. The other sources of energy this Administration is subsidizing and promoting—wind and solar—not only make up a minuscule 1 percent of America's electricity generation but are entirely irrelevant to gasoline supply in the transportation sector.

But not only has the President failed to diversify our energy supply in any meaningful way; he has actually proactively moved to cut our own domestic energy supplies:

First, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah in his first month in office. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, there are 800 billion barrels (a moderate estimate) of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation, which goes through Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Then last summer, the President needlessly instituted not one but two outright drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico. The Energy Information Administration estimates that President Obama's offshore drilling ban will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13 percent this year.
Last fall, Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and the Pacific coast will not be developed, effectively banning drilling in those areas for the next seven years. At least 19 billion barrels of easily recoverable oil lie off the currently restricted Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The President has also failed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie beneath a few thousand acres that can be accessed with minimal environmental impact. Those 10 billion barrels are equivalent to 16 years' worth of imports from Saudi Arabia at the current rate.
"This Administration is repeating the mistakes of President Jimmy Carter's failed energy policies, which marred his term and stigmatized the 1970s. They are leading us straight into another national energy disaster," Steve Forbes warned in Politico yesterday. And what would that "energy disaster" cost the American people? According to The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, an increase in the per-barrel price of imported crude oil by $10 in the first quarter of 2011 and by $20 in the second quarter would reduce gross domestic product by $20 billion, drop potential employment by nearly 100,000 jobs, and increase gasoline prices by 18 cents per gallon in 2011 alone.

Yesterday, Carney said that "the president is extremely aware of the impact that a spike in oil prices can have on gasoline prices and therefore on the wallets and pocketbooks of average Americans." If that is true, and if Energy Secretary Chu really has recanted his belief that Americans ought to be paying $8 a gallon for gas, then the President must completely reverse his entire energy policy so far by allowing Americans to develop our own natural resources, issuing permits in a timely manner, and removing regulatory and litigation delays on energy projects.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/03/morning-bell-how-obama-is-making-gas-prices-higher/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

[68X426]

Yeah but we have a Council on Competitiveness. And soon high speed bullet trains to Disneyland and Disneyworld. The Chosen One said this will fix everything.

Nothing political in this response.

[chargerboy69]

Speculators.  That's it.

The Saudi's have picked up more than enough slack left by Libya.  From everything I have heard/read there is no shortage.

Of course we would not have to worry about this if we as a country drilled for our own oil, but nope.

In before the certain lock. 

[oldgold69]

 a gallon of gas will always be one gallon   when i started driving gas was 32 cent for that one gallon  now it is 3.43 for that same gallon  your dollar went from buying  3 gallons of gas  then to buy 3/10 of a gallon now     your dollar is now worth 32 cents there is plenty of oil in the usa like the bracken range  gull island  prudeowe bay and all the oil in the gulf but the government wont let them get it out

[Richard Cranium]

At $3.86 per gallon for diesel, it cost me exacty $100.00 (25.8 gallons) to fill up my wife's car yesterday. 

[stripedelete]

Sure, we have untapped oil reserves, but, not enough to supply 100% of the US demand. Therefore, if we pump more, they will pump less. The price will remain high and we will use up whatever we have left.

We could import ethanol from Brazil at the equivalent pump price of about $2.50 a gallon. Oops, no we can't , the farm lobby wouldn't like it.      

Ok. Now lock it.

[oldgold69]

the braken reserve has 4 time  the oil than saudi arabia   gull island has 4or 5 times the oil in saudi arabia     they say we would not have too import any oil if one of those were tapped

[Brock Samson]

i blame the president,..  but I'm not gonna say which one,..

OK Taft! 

[chargerboy69]

Sure, we have untapped oil reserves, but, not enough to supply 100% of the US demand. Therefore, if we pump more, they will pump less. The price will remain high and we will use up whatever we have left.

Well enough for maybe 100 to 150 years or so.  We have 800 billion barrels in the western US alone.

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/July/NR_07_22_2008.html

Compare that to Saudi Arabia's 267 billion barrels.

[RallyeMike]

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

[Mike DC]

 

We have 800 billion barrels in the western US alone.

The USA is a net oil importer out of sheer geological limitation.  
More domestic drilling would help a little bit and I wouldn't object to the idea.  But it's never gonna come close to getting us off foreign oil.  The USA has tons of oil, but not enough of it is quickly & cheaply producible.   Same with certain other countries too.    


---------------------------------

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

I used to think prices would eventually fly up to double-digits (in 2011 dollars) but I no longer do.  I think the demand is getting destroyed long before then.  We will still feel the limitation of the oil supply but I think it will just come out in other areas of the economy.  We will be using less oil in other areas because of the price issues.  That will cost us money in areas other than the gas pump.  Gas might end up at $5/gallon or more but I doubt it ever goes to $20 or $50. 

[John_Kunkel]

Speculators.  That's it.

That's the whole story in a nutshell but to accept that those with a political agenda (like the OP) would have to face reality. Ain't gonna happen.

[NHCharger]

I'm waiting to see what the oil companies profits are for this quarter.

[Chad L. Magee]

Well, I am working on a solution to this problem.  There is already several devices out there that convert plastic to oil via microwave radiation, a rather simple process to do if you have enough energy.  Check youtube to see what I mean.  What they are missing is two parts to their system to manufacture and sell cheap gasoline in a usable form.  I am in the process of developing those two parts as a side research project (with little funding right now unfortunately, results will bring that up).  If it can be done correctly, oil can go sky high, but gas around here will become cheaper than it is currently.....

[Brock Samson]

Sooner or later the world demand for oil will create friction and financial impacts we can only imagine now. $5/gallon is nothiing - how about $50/gallon? I always wondered if some American think tank has suggested holding off on tapping the available US supplies so that this country has the upper hand come that future.

I have thought the same thing but don't even pretend to be on the same page as the NSA...

Well, I am working on a solution to this problem.  There is already several devices out there that convert plastic to oil via microwave radiation, a rather simple process to do if you have enough energy.  Check youtube to see what I mean.  What they are missing is two parts to their system to manufacture and sell cheap gasoline in a usable form.  I am in the process of developing those two parts as a side research project (with little funding right now unfortunately, results will bring that up).  If it can be done correctly, oil can go sky high, but gas around here will become cheaper than it is currently.....

very interesting, plastic as in recycled plastic?..  

BTW: Gas is $4.19 a Gal. for Reg. at the cheap station here... 

[gasoline_24]

This problem is wholly the blame of lack of regulation in the oil and natural gas markets.  We had to deregulate and this is the result.  Who benefits from deregulation?  Not the citizens, but the oil companies.  Much like most of our laws in this country they are designed for the rich and corporations.  The little man or middle class is only a means for corporations to grow.  Currently the top 1% of the US own 40% of the US.  That number is why there is no longer a middle class.

If you watch the stock market and the oil prices you will see that when the stock market rises so do the oil prices.  This is the result of speculators in the oil market.  Put back into place the regulations and this will go away.  The more interesting fuel question is why is diesel (a by product from the production of gasoline) more expensive than gasoline?

[bull]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110307/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pricing_gas

[greasyspider]

We are running out of oil, thats why.  I guess "running out" is a misuse of the term. More like unable to produce enough to satisfy our insatiable thirst for it.  Saudi Arabia's reserves are greatly overestimated.


"WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabias oil reserves exaggerated
Submitted by Mikael Höök on Thu, 2011-02-10 10:37. Headline news
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."


  Some will argue that this is not true but, how would you explain several middle eastern countries move to offshore drilling?  This is by far the MOST expensive way to produce oil.  If they have so much in the ground, why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars per offshore rig when an onshore rig of the same capacity can be built for under a million? 

  Oil will not suddenly run out, it will just get increasingly more expensive, causing food prices to skyrocket and generally turning the world economy upside down.
Check this site out:     http://www.oilcrisis.com/

[greasyspider]

Every resource in human history followed a bell curve.  From trees on easter island, to wholly mammoths in the last ice age.  It happens all around us.  That is why there are abandoned mines and ghost towns.  Resources are finite!  There may be alot left, but someday it will run out.  

There is something like 7 billion people in the world right now.  I read somewhere that that is more people than has ever existed.  99.9% require oil in one form or another to survive.  

Sure there is shale, tar sands, But those are very expensive ways to produce it.  It is not economically feasible to develop areas like these unless oil reaches at least $120 per barrel.
As far as biofuels go, it is really a joke.  It takes 10 calories of fuel to produce 1 calorie of bio diesel.  

Here is a chart showing global oil production since the 1920's:


[img]http://watd.wuthering-heights.co.uk/MiscImages/olduvai.gif/[img]


Oh and in case you guys think I'm a liberal tree-hugger conspiracy theorist (which I'm not) here is what Dick Cheney himself has said about the issue:


http://www.peakoil.net/Publications/Cheney_PeakOil_FCD.pdfhttp://www.peakoil.net/Publications/Cheney_PeakOil_FCD.pdf

[NHCharger]

This is an interesting video if you have 45 minutes to kill.

http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/videos/LindseyWilliams.html#Title

My Dad had an interesting point. Now that NASA has nothing to do since we are flying no more shuttle missions put NASA in charge of designing a new motor. They put a man on the moon, a rover on Mars, the Hubble Telescope in orbit. Why can't they design an engine that gets 100 MPG.

[KSChrgr68]

we are just saving our oil for the day when all the rest of the worlds is gone, then we will be the cash cow nation...

[elanmars]

it's all about the corporations. citizens are not in their interests, profits are. democrats and republicans are just the puppets...that's why i don't believe in choosing team red or team blue...whoever wins, we lose. that's the reality of it. people can cry out bush imperialist! obama socialist! but it's all nonsense and derailing from what's really happening.

[greasyspider]

we are just saving our oil for the day when all the rest of the worlds is gone, then we will be the cash cow nation...

Man I hope so....

[jar1292]

and what happens when we become the cash cow? how will it help me pay for my blue collar t-shirts. will they still charge the other nations an arm and a leg for it and give it to us for free cuz we already paid our dues?

[KSChrgr68]

  o sigh... oil how we need and hate what you do to the world

[chargermike]

it cost what it costs. when your tank reads E. you will pay the price. oh and i am bitching. dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one. but will just fill up and spend 200 a week for gas. 800 a month for gas. but trucks dont run without fuel. but i have work and will just pass it on to the custermer. bummer for my charger. it will now cost me about 50 bucks everytime i take her out. but dont care. glad i dont drink or have a meth problem just a music and car problem. now watch how many people go buy small cars to save on gas.  and i need a new truck. maybe get a great price now. they will be giving them away.

[chargerboy69]

and i need a new truck. maybe get a great price now. they will be giving them away.

That is what I am hoping for too.  I will be looking for a F-450 or F-350, and if diesel is $5.00-$6.00 a gallon, they will not be as desirable.

[Chad L. Magee]

Brock - Yep, any good ol' plastic source will do.  Plastic is basically a long hydrocarbon (containing carbon and hydrogen atoms) molecule linked together in a chain via covalent bonds.  The main backbone of the chain is composed of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms sticking outside.  The differences in the properties of each type of plastic depends upon their particular order (strait vs branched vs web vs disordered), what functional groups are present (either in the backbone or on a side chain) and their overall chain length.  Most modern plastics are made from crude oil that has been processed to make precursor compounds (plastic building blocks).  If you break the bonds within the chains, the plastic starts to degrade back to what it was made from (and in some cases, even smaller molecules).  Oil is basically hydrocarbons that do not have very long chains like plastics, with the exception of tars.  So, when enough bonds have been broken, plastic really does go back to oil.  The trick is to make it go back to a specific type of hydrocarbon that we can use directly.  Currently, all of the devices that I have heard of reduce the plastics back to crude oil, which must be reprocessed (distilled) to separate the usable fractions, such as gasoline, kerosene, etc.  The process is far from perfect as it uses microwave radiation which costs a bit of energy to do and can be hazardous if the wrong type of materials are thrown in.  Still, the prospect of turning local dumps into fuel is promising, as most plastics don't degrade fast enough either in the ground or at sea....

I think that there is a way to specify what type of hydrocarbon chain length the products can be, but the details will need to be worked out in time in research.  My other interest in this area is in the conversion of plastics into carbon nanotubes as a side product of the above reaction process.  These CNTs materials are stronger than steel, yet lightweight enough that they can be used for many things (think car bodies).....  

[Mike DC]

We are running out of oil, thats why.  I guess "running out" is a misuse of the term. More like unable to produce enough to satisfy our insatiable thirst for it.  Saudi Arabia's reserves are greatly overestimated.


"WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabias oil reserves exaggerated
Submitted by Mikael Höök on Thu, 2011-02-10 10:37. Headline news
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."


 Some will argue that this is not true but, how would you explain several middle eastern countries move to offshore drilling?  This is by far the MOST expensive way to produce oil.  If they have so much in the ground, why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars per offshore rig when an onshore rig of the same capacity can be built for under a million?

 Oil will not suddenly run out, it will just get increasingly more expensive, causing food prices to skyrocket and generally turning the world economy upside down.
Check this site out:     http://www.oilcrisis.com/

It isn't just SA that's been radically overstated.  The problem is OPEC-wide.  

The OPEC system basically lets the countries make more profit in the present if they overstate their remaining reserves.  So, big surprise, all the OPEC countries' reserve figures started increasing as soon as that system was put in place.  


Iraq might be the only middle eastern oil giant that isn't already peaked and struggling to hold onto its past production levels.  The embargo that we put on Saddam for all those years was keeping him from pumping more than a fraction of what he could have done.  So now Iraq still has a lot more cheap good oil left than its neighbors.

 

[CB]

$8.55 / gallon for 95 oct., tomorrow at the pumps...

[John_Kunkel]

Brock - Yep, any good ol' plastic source will do.

Yep, "Doc" took it straight from the trash can to the fuel tank.   

[Brock Samson]

Thanks for the explanation, the use/s of recycled plastic has long fascinated me. 

[greasyspider]

We are running out of oil, thats why.  I guess "running out" is a misuse of the term. More like unable to produce enough to satisfy our insatiable thirst for it.  Saudi Arabia's reserves are greatly overestimated.


"WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabias oil reserves exaggerated
Submitted by Mikael Höök on Thu, 2011-02-10 10:37. Headline news
The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."


 Some will argue that this is not true but, how would you explain several middle eastern countries move to offshore drilling?  This is by far the MOST expensive way to produce oil.  If they have so much in the ground, why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars per offshore rig when an onshore rig of the same capacity can be built for under a million?

 Oil will not suddenly run out, it will just get increasingly more expensive, causing food prices to skyrocket and generally turning the world economy upside down.
Check this site out:     http://www.oilcrisis.com/

It isn't just SA that's been radically overstated.  The problem is OPEC-wide.  

The OPEC system basically lets the countries make more profit in the present if they overstate their remaining reserves.  So, big surprise, all the OPEC countries' reserve figures started increasing as soon as that system was put in place.  


Iraq might be the only middle eastern oil giant that isn't already peaked and struggling to hold onto its past production levels.  The embargo that we put on Saddam for all those years was keeping him from pumping more than a fraction of what he could have done.  So now Iraq still has a lot more cheap good oil left than its neighbors.

 

Agreed.  SA has the largest reserves (supposedly) and is a great bellweather for others. Iraq does have a lot of oil. (hence the war there.)  I truly believe that the peak oil issue was the real reason for the Iraq war. But,  Iraq's reserves will only last so long.  I read somewhere that BP estimates that the world will not have enough oil to satisfy demand by 2025.

[twodko]

Crap, gas just hit $4 for regular in Santa Rosa.

[Brock Samson]

Crap, gas just hit $4 for regular in Santa Rosa.

you know about "cheapgas.com"?..

http://www.sanfrangasprices.com/GasPriceSearch.aspx?typ=adv&fuel=A&srch=1&state=CA&area=Santa+Rosa&site=SanFran,California&tme_limit=36

[bull]

dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one.

The black one and the white one? That is Obama. Funny how he's always referred to as black when he's only half so (as far as we know). If your father was from Kenya and your mother is a white woman from Kansas you're not really black are you?

[twodko]

Yeah, local radio just said a Valero station in SR has reg for $3.89. woohoo

Drill in ANWR - Gulf of Mex - along the coasts!

[Chad L. Magee]

Over on moparts, one of the members listed this on the topic of new fuels:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-besc-scores-isobutanol-cellulose.html

Basically, it is a process to convert cellulose (paper, wood pulp, etc.) into isobutanol.  [Cellulose is basically a series of long-linked sugar chains that humans can not digest, but certain animals can.  It contains carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms in its structure.]  Isobutanol is a burnable alcohol that can be used as a fuel source if needed.  Think about all of the excess vegetation that we have in the fall seasons that could be used to produce fuel supplies, that typically go into the dumps.

But, I can do this one better.  If you used the right catalysts/temperatures, one might be able to make synthetic gasolines out of the isobutanol product (or derivatives).  Whether or not it is economically worth it is the real question.  However, this would put an end to the constant fear that we will not be able to drive our cars if all of the oil is used up (plastic to oil conversions can supply the other part of the equation).  Now I need to get to work on the process that I theorized.....

[Chad L. Magee]

Thanks for the explanation, the use/s of recycled plastic has long fascinated me. 

Brock- Look at polystyrene plastic (Styrofoam is the trademark name) and acetone reactions on the internet search sites.  It should peak your interest some more.  Unfortunately, some of the older polystyrene materials contain CFCs (basically Freon-12s) and can't be used in this reaction.  Foam coffee cups don't typically have the bad CFCs (they have air as the foaming material) so they are safe to work with this process per the information that I have found.  Most of these materials are thrown away and decompose over thousands of years to toxic products (styrenes and substituted benzenes).  I have been working with a group to convert them (non-CFCs) over to recyclable #2 plastics for reusing (for our products)....

[Mike DC]

                                                   

Agreed.  SA has the largest reserves (supposedly) and is a great bellweather for others. Iraq does have a lot of oil. (hence the war there.)  I truly believe that the peak oil issue was the real reason for the Iraq war. But,  Iraq's reserves will only last so long.  I read somewhere that BP estimates that the world will not have enough oil to satisfy demand by 2025.

I think the long term demand for oil is more flexible than we give it credit for IMHO.  We will scream bloody murder and our economy will go to total shit, but we will eventually stop buying it before it goes to several hundred dollars a barrel.  So will the rest of the world.  

I don't think we will ever see gigantic gasoline prices in the USA.  The govt will fight a dozen more wars and tax us 90% if that's what it takes to keep our gasoline cheap by worldwide standards.

[Brock Samson]

dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one.

The black one and the white one? That is Obama. Funny how he's always referred to as black when he's only half so (as far as we know). If your father was from Kenya and your mother is a white woman from Kansas you're not really black are you?

  Nope, Gray. 

[PocketThunder]

dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one.

The black one and the white one? That is Obama. Funny how he's always referred to as black when he's only half so (as far as we know). If your father was from Kenya and your mother is a white woman from Kansas you're not really black are you?

  Nope, Gray. 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_v1nI6iOCT9U/SlvVCP4cD6I/AAAAAAAABjs/8P2OdSqtIsU/s1600-h/obamas44strip1.jpg

[69rtse4spd]

Greedy assholes.

[bull]

dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one.

The black one and the white one? That is Obama. Funny how he's always referred to as black when he's only half so (as far as we know). If your father was from Kenya and your mother is a white woman from Kansas you're not really black are you?

 Nope, Gray.

Or white with a good tan.  

[TK73]

"What Is Making Gasoline Prices Higher.................. "

Either not enough F-in dinosaurs died or god did not make enough oil   

[bull]

"What Is Making Gasoline Prices Higher.................. "

Either not enough F-in dinosaurs died or god did not make enough oil   

Nah, some of those dry wells are filling back up. http://www.rense.com/general63/refil.htm
We're going to make oil out of algae http://www.smartplanet.com/people/video/turning-algae-into-oil-the-nasa-way/334386/

And all your liberal friends are going ride bikes and take the bus so I can get cheap gas.

[Todd Wilson]

it cost what it costs. when your tank reads E. you will pay the price. oh and i am bitching. dont care what worthless piece of shit president we have. the last two have sucked. yes the black one and the white one. but will just fill up and spend 200 a week for gas. 800 a month for gas. but trucks dont run without fuel. but i have work and will just pass it on to the custermer.

Lots of people dont have 800$ a month to spend on gas.  Passing the costs onto the customers will only work for you for a while. Eventually customers will no longer be able to afford your services and your income will drop. I saw this happen with my field mowing side business. I started out at 89cents a gallon diesel  and $1.25 a gallon gas. It got to the point it would cost me 30$ in fuel to do a 50$ job. I raised my prices some and heard a lot of bitching from customers. Most did understand the situation and continued to have me mow. It finally come down to they stopped calling. Some just decided they didnt need the few acres behind their house in the country mowed anymore.


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

Speculators.  That's it.

That pretty much sums it up.   They are not required to take delivery on the oil they buy. They buy it all on paper and can jack the prices in no time at all.   

Theres plenty of oil still in the ground.  Theres just a few oil companys left. They arent competing for your business anymore. They just tell what a little conv. store will charge for gas and call it good.

The government has got things so f'd up with regulations that we couldnt drill and process the oil in our own ground if we wanted too.


The current administration isnt going to do a thing to lower oil prices. They want it high. As high as they can get.



Todd

[Mike DC]

Nah, some of those dry wells are filling back up. http://www.rense.com/general63/refil.html

We might pump out a field at a rate of a 100,000 barrels per day, and then it might start to refill at a rate of a 100,000 barrels per decade or century.  The math doesn't work.  The refilling phenomenon is interesting but it won't solve our oil supply problems. 

[Brock Samson]

http://www.thenation.com/article/159078/will-federal-regulators-crack-down-oil-speculation

Excerpt:
"In the wake of the price explosion in the summer of 2008, a bubble that extended to all kinds of commodities, including copper and wheat, a number of observers from George Soros to Hedge Fund manager Michael Masters to former Commodities Future Trading Commission staffer and derivatives expert Michael Greenberg concluded that the underlying supply-and-demand fundamentals couldn't account for the sharp rise in prices. In the first six months of 2008, US economic output was declining while global supply was increasing. And even if supply and demand were, over the long run, pushing the price of oil up, that alone couldn't explain the massive volatility in the market. Oil cost $65 per barrel in June 2007, $147 a year later, down to $30 in December 2008 and back up to $72 in June 2009.

The culprits, they concluded, were Wall Street speculators".

[Old Moparz]

It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations.

They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.

They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don't want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers.

Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they're coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it.

They'll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fuckin' place. It's a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice.

Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hard-working people: white collar, blue collar, it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest, hard-working people continue — these are people of modest means — continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about them. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all! At all! At all! And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on.

The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth. It's called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

-George Carlin 

[aussiemuscle]

Well enough for maybe 100 to 150 years or so.  We have 800 billion barrels in the western US alone.
Compare that to Saudi Arabia's 267 billion barrels.

wait till saudi's oil runs out before tapping your own. it'll be worth more then too!

australia has vast reserves of oil/gas, but they keep telling us that we need to import it from singapore.

it's all a con anyway, prices are set by OPEC, not by free market.

[Iceyone]

Everyone bitches about the price of gas but most don't even try to do anything about it. I've changed my driving habits to conserve whatever I can, like driving the speed limit and not making any unnecessary trips anywhere I don't need to go. It's to bad everyone can't get together and pick a day when nobody goes to a gas station, that would show those speculators. 

[TK73]

Everyone bitches about the price of gas but most don't even try to do anything about it. I've changed my driving habits to conserve whatever I can, like driving the speed limit and not making any unnecessary trips anywhere I don't need to go. It's to bad everyone can't get together and pick a day when nobody goes to a gas station, that would show those speculators. 

Yep.  I hate hearing somebody bitch about $4/gal gas who drives a 40k SUV.  Get a F-in Civic.

When I lived 25 miles from the office I split the driving with other people as often as possible.  I then moved 3 miles from the office and work a 4-day week. 

Even with 2 V-8 vehicles I halved my fuel consumption... and have yet to bitch about gas prices...

[mikesbbody]

I agree, while I would love to have a V8 as a daily driver I simply can't afford to drive one everyday.
Gas here is 2.15 (NZ Dollars) a Liter! I drive a 1.5 liter Nissan Shitter as a Daily driver I don't drive far,
And that still costs me about 45$ per week.

[gtx6970]

Re: What Is Making Gasoline Prices Higher..................

Fear.



I have a 11 year old truck ( paid for a long time ago)  that gets about 12-13 miles per gallon on a good day. I would love to get something newer that gets better gas mileage. diesel maybe.
Then I'm just paying the bank with a car payment instead of at the gas stations,,, I think with this economy I'll keep what I have for now.

[mikesbbody]

Did anyone here get the FW email Below? I don't know if it's a bunch of crap but worth a try maybe?
The prices are in New Zealand dollars per liter NOT Per Gallon so you don't have it as bad as we do! but I believe some places in Europe have it worse so....

THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' PETROL FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET PETROL BACK DOWN TO $1.00 PER Litre....


This was originally sent by Phillip Hollsworth, a retired Coca Cola executive.
If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this winter, take time to read this, PLEASE.

Phillip offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May!

It is worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

We are going to hit $ 2.50 a litre and it might go higher!! Want petrol prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at last year's action because they knew we would not continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy petrol.  It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.  BUT whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.
Please read on and join with us!

By now, you're probably thinking petrol priced at about $1.99 is cheap.
It is currently $2.09 for regular unleaded.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre of gas is CHEAP at $1.99, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action...

The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their petrol! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying petrol.

But we CAN have an impact on petrol prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from BP
the biggest price-up driver company.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of BP petrol buyers. It's SO simple!
Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions and even BILLIONS of people!!

I am sending this note to 20 people..
If each of you sends it on to at least twenty more that's (20 x 20 = 400) ..
And those 400 send it to at least twenty more (400 x 20 = 8000 ... and so on,
by the time the message reaches the fifth group of people, we will have reached over SIXTY FOUR MILLION consumers!!!!!
20x20 = 400
400x20 = 8,000
8,000x20 = 160,000
160,000x20 = 3,200,000
3,200,000x20 = 64,000,000
64,000,000x20 = 12,800,000,000
That's 12.80 Billion people folks, who will have been contacted!!!!!

Unbelievable?? Do the math and see for yourself!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 20 people.   That's all!
I'll bet you didn't think we had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference..

If this message makes sense to you, then please pass it on.
THEY will LOWER THEIR PRICES TO BELOW THE $1.50 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

It's simple – send the message along to others and choose to not buy petrol from BP.
TWENTY FIVE POINT SIX BILLION people: 

Now THAT's people power.

      LET'S
JUST DO IT ! ! !
More power to you friend.

[Vainglory, Esq.]

 

[mikesbbody]

yeah, to me the REAL Funny part is Nobody has the balls to give it a try  but I doubt it would work
People don't stand up to anything these days...

[Brock Samson]

 I thought there was a supposed worldwide boycott last time ('08?) when prices spiked...
we had a long thread on it, but I ain't gonna try to find it... Knock yourself out.  
My Gasoline usage is 10% or even less of what it was in '06.

[mikesbbody]

I only use BP for the Charger as it has the Higher Octane Rating. But I'm driving the Charger less and less now  I don't know about over there, but here they (BP) are the first to jack up there prices and last to lower them (like that goes on much  ) I won't be giving them my Business anymore laugh all you want at the idea of Boycotting BP, Buyers SHOULD control the Market Place not the sellers but sadly, this is not the case (People "wimp out" as mentioned)
With Supermarkets, The cheaper places do the best business I can't see why it can't for be the same for the Gas Companies 

[Troy]

Did anyone here get the FW email Below? I don't know if it's a bunch of crap but worth a try maybe?
The prices are in New Zealand dollars per liter NOT Per Gallon so you don't have it as bad as we do! but I believe some places in Europe have it worse so....

THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' PETROL FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET PETROL BACK DOWN TO $1.00 PER Litre....


This was originally sent by Phillip Hollsworth, a retired Coca Cola executive.
If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this winter, take time to read this, PLEASE.

Phillip offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May!

It is worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

We are going to hit $ 2.50 a litre and it might go higher!! Want petrol prices to come down?

We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at last year's action because they knew we would not continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy petrol.  It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.  BUT whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.
Please read on and join with us!

By now, you're probably thinking petrol priced at about $1.99 is cheap.
It is currently $2.09 for regular unleaded.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre of gas is CHEAP at $1.99, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action...

The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their petrol! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying petrol.

But we CAN have an impact on petrol prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from BP
the biggest price-up driver company.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of BP petrol buyers. It's SO simple!
Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions and even BILLIONS of people!!

I am sending this note to 20 people..
If each of you sends it on to at least twenty more that's (20 x 20 = 400) ..
And those 400 send it to at least twenty more (400 x 20 = 8000 ... and so on,
by the time the message reaches the fifth group of people, we will have reached over SIXTY FOUR MILLION consumers!!!!!
20x20 = 400
400x20 = 8,000
8,000x20 = 160,000
160,000x20 = 3,200,000
3,200,000x20 = 64,000,000
64,000,000x20 = 12,800,000,000
That's 12.80 Billion people folks, who will have been contacted!!!!!

Unbelievable?? Do the math and see for yourself!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 20 people.   That's all!
I'll bet you didn't think we had that much potential, did you!
Acting together we can make a difference..

If this message makes sense to you, then please pass it on.
THEY will LOWER THEIR PRICES TO BELOW THE $1.50 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

It's simple – send the message along to others and choose to not buy petrol from BP.
TWENTY FIVE POINT SIX BILLION people: 

Now THAT's people power.

      LET'S
JUST DO IT ! ! !
More power to you friend.

That's SPAM. Delete it. Block the person who sent it for being a douchebag. The first clue is the name dropping (Coca-Cola exec, OPEC, BP, etc.).

I explained all this a long time ago but boycotting gas for 1 day or boycotting 1 company without changing your consumption is completely useless. Gas/oil companies buy from each other and most stations are independently owned.

Troy

[Ghoste]

Not to mention that it's very old spam and it's becoming really tiring.

[mikesbbody]

Whatever, I'm still not Buying from BP. And not because of that email. not sure about over there when it comes to Buying from each other but here, BP is the only Company that sells 98 octane if they all sold to each other, they would ALL have 98 which they don't.

[Troy]

Whatever, I'm still not Buying from BP. And not because of that email. not sure about over there when it comes to Buying from each other but here, BP is the only Company that sells 98 octane if they all sold to each other, they would ALL have 98 which they don't.

Again, you're confusing the local station with the worldwide company. BP sells crude oil to other companies. I'm positive they sell refined products (gasoline, diesel, heating oil, etc.) to other companies as well (there aren't that many refineries or refinery owners). Many times the gasoline from the refinery travels across the country on pipelines. It's not cost effective for each company to have their own pipelines so they share. Somewhere later on is a wholesaler who delivers gasoline to the stations. In rural areas in our country you can watch the same tanker truck go from station to station - no matter what the name on the sign is. Many of the "additives" touted by the different brands are added from a bottle and mixed when the main tanks at the station are filled. Different grades (octane) are mixed to get the middle grades - most of the time this happens at the pump.

Cut your fuel usage in half and you'll make the world a better place. Boycott BP and your net effect on the planet will be negligible. I personally don't purchase BP fuel because I have better choices where I live. It's your life and you can do and believe whatever you want.

Troy

[mikesbbody]

Makes sense what you said Troy, my only personal Beef with BP (here in NZ) is they are always first to Raise Their Prices and last to lower them I have heard the Octane Rating is not to be taken as Gospel.
I have heard our 98 could actually be 95 some Guy's with Older American Car's swear Their car's run Better on BP's 98 I can't say for sure when it comes to my Charger maybe I'll look into it (other Companies) and see if there's any difference 

[Troy]

The prices are set by the individual station. There's a BP (but the brand doesn't matter) about 2 miles from my house that I absolutely won't buy anything from. The reason? Whenever there's a bad storm or other disaster they immediately jack up their prices (way beyond expectations too). I can bet that every time the weather report calls for snow this station will be $0.20-0.30 higher than anywhere else around. This is one of those owners who literally engage in "gouging" the consumer. Capitalizing on other's misfortune is about a low as you can get in my opinion. When Katrina hit they were one of the stations charging $5+ within hours. It's uncalled for and you can bet that I tell everyone I know. Maybe one day the owner will realize how much business they're losing by shafting their customers (although I doubt it).

Troy

[mikesbbody]

Yes, any excuse and up the price goes! for us in New Zealand, it's the exchange rate to the US Dollar and any Storm/Disaster. As soon as Katrina hit  this Guy you mentioned put his price's up BEFORE
Knowing the true impact on price at the pumps? he will lose business and with any luck may one day go out of Business. I was thinking about it Today Troy and I recall seeing "Shell" "BP" and maybe some other Gas Tankers on the road. I don't know if that means they just stop at "Shell" or "BP" etc I have no way of knowing that without following them (and that would cost me in Gas  ) but I would be interested to know, over there in the USA, is their one particular Company who seem to raise their prices first? The last time I was in the States was 2006, and the prices varied so much from state to state. Before that, I was there in 96 and it was WAY cheaper! both times we had 3 litre vehicle and did roughly the same distance (8000+ miles or an average of 2000 Miles per week!) in 96, it was easy, but in 2006, it hit us hard in the Pocket. Of course, a 10 year Gap didn't help but wow what a Difference!

[aussiemuscle]

If that campaign actually worked, all you would do is make all the BP franchise owners change to another brand. There are not many BP's in this area, nearest one is two hours away in the capital.

i'm in a small village of 1500 people. the four gas stations all buy their fuel from Caltex.

[mikesbbody]

Of course it's too good to be true maybe the only thing that would get the price down would be long term boycotts? I'll be taking more day's off work if it keeps my gas bill down I still think there must be something that can be done though     

[Mike DC]

        
CAFE standards are long-term gasoline boycotting by another name.  

 

 

[70charginglizard]

Looks like it may be going down finally just in time for summer-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110505/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

[tsmithae]

What if instead of fighting a war in the Middle East we had invested the money in helping Canada tap into their oil fields?  I mean, it's a LOT closer and then we create friends instead of enemies and also a new way to stimulate both economies...  Just a thought I've had. 

[TK73]

[RallyeMike]

What if instead of fighting a war in the Middle East we had invested the money in helping Canada tap into their oil fields?  I mean, it's a LOT closer and then we create friends instead of enemies and also a new way to stimulate both economies...  Just a thought I've had.

F- that. This is America. Next time the Qbeckies try and secede we'll just roll North and take over. You know... to protect the people from genocide and stuff. 

[Mike DC]

We buy oil from whoever will sell it cheapest.  The cheapest seller is whoever can pump it cheapest.  A lot of those cheapest sellers have been in the middle east for a long time.

The last several decades of American military action in the middle east has never really been about cheapening the oil.  It's been about keeping the long term supply stabilized. 

 

[stripedelete]

A+

[derailed]

The same small group of people who control the stock market, price of gold and every other commodity. Its all a big wall street game unfortunately at our expense.