Suddenly, even for people who don't follow oil futures and Saudi production estimates, the lid seems to have blown off energy prices.
For the first time, oil prices barreled past the $135 dollar mark, double those of a year ago and still soaring. Some now predict $200 dollars a barrel. Many Americans remember when it was twenty.
Gas prices keep pumping higher and higher, heading over the four-dollar-a-gallon mark. Some are talking six dollars a gallon.
Congress wants to know why and hauled oil executives in yesterday to explain but didn't get much.
Meanwhile, American families want to know how they're going to deal with the surge while their budgets are reeling.
Listen to an On Point discussion about the oil and gas prices surge and where the story keeps going.
Are you already feeling the pinch? What cutbacks have you made and will make down the road if prices keep going up? Who do you blame? Congress? Oil companies? All of us who haven't reduced our dependence?
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Comments: 47 ( 1 removed by On Point Webmaster )
Since I was always a wise user I don't really have any problems related to the gas prices (yet). Anyone who was around during the gas crisis last time and was stupid enough to purchase a gas guzzler such as an SUV deserves what they're getting IMO.
Some of us learned our lesson a long time ago, we purchased smaller fuel efficient vehicles and found housing close to our employer's so we don't have to worry about it.
I use about one tank every week and 1/2 (used to last me 2 weeks before they started watering it down with ethanol-jerks). It costs me currently about 30 bucks to fill my tank. No biggie.
Why is our destruction of the planet and our natural resources narrowed down to "global warming"?
Personally, I am putting roughly 20 bucks a day into my 10 year old car in gasoline. Thats $ 430.00 per month! My home utility bill is roughly an additional 3 grand a year.
(The home was built in 1980 with every efficiency in energy. The lightbulbs have been replaced with florecents and the heating system upgraded to 90% efficiency. However I have three shower taking adult children living at home) Add to this 3-4% increases in property taxes, insurance and food each year. I feel as though I am heading for trouble.
I am already asking myself when I turn the ignition, "Is this trip necessary?"
Yesterday I had to drive to Champlain, NY to meet a client. (116 miles) I had not been to the boarder crossing for a while. I was asking myself on the way if there would be a wait at the exit as it sometimes gets blocked by car and truck traffic crossing at customs. Yesterday it was a ghost town! The truck terminal on the south side of I-87
was empty. I have never seen that. I talked for a great deal of time to the owner. He is very worried that these fuel prices will put him out of business by fall. (He has been there for 40 years.)
I believe that our real problem is with OPEC. I have read that their oil production has not increased at all in real terms since 1973. Additionally they have been successful in recruiting other oil producers to restrict production as well. I have a sneaky hunch that the saudis are encouraging nut jobs to chuck large cherry bombs into Iraq so that the Iraqi oil stays off the market.
I can't help but notice that the oil dollars are coming back to buy out interests here at home at fire sale prices. Just look to the CITI and Bear Sterns problems and where the money came from to bail them out. If we don't watch it we could be loooking at a depression rather than a recession.
But we can and will change. In Congress there is a bill to require all vehicles sold from this day forward to be flex fuel burining. Everyone is talking ethanol. However Methanol is cheaper to produce. ( A gallon of Methanol has about 60% of the millage per gallon than that of gasoline. However it costs about half has much.) If we could replace the automobile and light truck fleet over the next five years, OIL WOULD DROP!! Removing oil burning utilities from the grid by using a combination of solar, wind, hydro and yes nuclear would knock the legs out from underneath opec and return that money to families here at home.
The Washington-based Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Thursday that home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter compared with last year. The index also fell 1.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, the largest quarterly price drop on record.
So my point here is, bad as gasoline prices are, many americans are being hurt more badly by their home prices. How many people in your state have been foreclosed in 2008? A bunch. Okay, how many people in your state had to sell their homes in order to put gas in the tank? Not many, right?
> americans are being hurt more badly by their home prices.
Whoa ... now hold on here a second. Someone mentions a hot
button topic, oil prices, and then it is open season to bring up every
gripe anyone wants to say they have.
Of all Amerian homeowners, how many people bought their homes
in the last 5 years during the run-up of prices, while we were at
war, while we saw 911 and gas prices climb? How wise was that,
and whose fault was that? And of all those people, how many are
really having a problem making their payments?
Sure, enough to at least temporarily knock prices down for the rest
of us so that if we had to sell our houses in this market it would
hurt, but again, how many people have to sell their houses.
A simple listen to most of the comments on Gather and you can see
most people seem to have a total fantasy vision of the world. They
think they have a right to question the laws of physics or suspend
the laws of economics for them ... but of course let the other guy
hang in the breeze.
Gas prices are bad. They will destroy the economy at some point
if we continue in our denial stage and are not very careful and very
dedicated to what we do. While this was all happening the US has
exported jobs and money overseas and then slapped the overseas
people with pointless obnoxious behavior.
Guess what, this is a recipe for world war, never mind oil prices.
The knot that we have tied for ourselves might not be able to be
undone, particularly by the entrench political interests that set this
up and are still trying to save it, or new people who know something
is wrong but do not have the information to know what to do about
it.
Meanwhile, we have countries overseas agitating and just waiting
the US to trip into recession and will be willing to kick us when we
are down.
Then we let the used car market take care of the remaining lives of all our legacy technology as they lose value and functionality ... after a while we only have new cars that are efficient in fuel and pollution.
The problem is that the US is locked into a radical free-market, free-trade system that can not act strategically in the world, except in terms of military force in places like Iraq. Our system is rigid and will fail catastropically just as our war strategy did in Iraq due to this doctinaire religion of radical capitalism run for the benefit of an ever shrinking but fantastically wealthy and powerful few.
You're also correct Bruck, there are way too many people in the world abd the US must kill many off
End this war now!
Please get a grip on what's really going on. Read the Hirsch Report commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and delivered in February 2005. It is shocking in its implications not just for this country but for global industrial civilization as a whole. It is available on the Internet. Google it. Why haven't you heard more about it? Well, who happens to be the president at the moment?
We are in big, big trouble, not just as a nation but as a world. Thank the shortsighted, visionless leaders of the great western democracies for the chaos that's coming. Oh, and read James Howard Kunstler's "World Made by Hand" to get a good look at your future.
Bruce- I think there is a similarity between the gas price speed bump and the mortgage crisis speed bump. In both cases we made it worse by ignoring the danger facing us. How many SUVs and pickups were sold in the past few months when the writing was already on the wall? How many adjustable mortgages were written by lenders who should have known better for borrowers who were too ignorant or greedy to know better?
Actually, I think the mortgage mess was even more avoidable than the gas mess. We are at the mercy of other nations on gasoline- for the mortgages, we did it 100% to ourselves.
The inadequacy of public transportation networks has contributed to this dependency, and little seems to be in the planning to change it. Amtrak is a disaster; the infrastructure is superannuated and the cost of traveling on it cannot be justified. Not enough has been done to give people a viable alternative to driving, and we pay for this short sightedness both in terms of high gasoline prices and in terms of environmental damage. Can we really afford to continue this no-win path?
This is a simple-minded question but who has the most dollars to invest in the last 30 years? The Arabs/Middle Eastern oil producers, and the Chinese and of course the Japanese. They give us oil and we burn it up like there's no tomorrow, and then they have tons of our money that they have to do something with. So, the invest in the US, meaning that we are paying them interest on this.
So ... how many Americans think that paying taxes is a terrible thing and have spend their every waking moment and all of their energy trying to avoid taxes, while the tax we are paying to our enemies does us abso-f-ing-lutely no good, and is sucking us dry?
So who set up our economy like this? Who paid billions of dollars to lobbying groups in the US to figure out how best to spend their American dollars?
What choice did the average American have to go against this tide of treason in the economy. Most Americans wanted to buy American cars ... but the American car companies are building crap and still are. Most Americans want to buy American and do the right thing ... but it is damn near impossible.
So who do we blame, and how do we turn it around? Simple, it is the finance/investment industry that has set this all up, and owns the government lock, stock and barrel. The finance industry that sent our companies overseas to make their labor costs cheaper, but having no control over any strategic dangers that might incite, or the problem of what do people in America do for jobs.
Who in our country understands this stuff to change it intelligently.
Canada has tar sands that are competitive at this current price, we have plenty of oil here in the US, and Iraq has huge reserves that were found since the war, not to mention Venezuela and Russia.
This is speculation, extortion and stupidity on the part of politicians and regulators that are probably the ones sharing the most in the profits to be made.
Bruce -- Rather than parroting the "cornucopian" talking points, you might want to review the full text of the Hirsch Report.
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/Oil_Peaking_NETL.pdf
Note that the address reads "doe - dot - gov - slash - publications." This was paid for with tax dollars. However, like James Hansen's (NASA) work on climate change, there is no science that the current administration cannot edit or bury.
You are right. This is NOT the peak. I think of it more as the "foothills," a taste of what's coming. It's the "what's coming" that scares the crap out of me.
The Problem -
'OPEC producers insist there is no shortage of oil despite record prices and although plenty of heavy crude is available, refineries are thirsty for light sweet crude which is in shorter supply, analysts say.
"To answer the question, is there a shortage of oil at the moment? We have to ask, a shortage of what oil?" said Bruce Evers, an oil industry analyst at Investec Securities.
Many heavyweight producers such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait and Iran produce large quantities of heavy, sour crude with a high sulphur content.
Others such as Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, Angola and Libya pump a higher quality, light sweet crude, with a lower sulphur content.
"We still have a deficit of refinery capacity that's capable of processing heavy sour crude and we still have an absolute shortage in light sweet crude which is easy to refine," said Societe Generale analyst Deborah White.
Light, sweet, low-sulphur crude is most suitable for refining into petrol, gasoil and heating oil.
Meanwhile supply of heavy, sulphur-rich crude is currently in surplus, according to analysts.
But many refineries are not set up to process such crude because it is more difficult and expensive to refine into products.
Both the London and New York oil prices -- the two international benchmarks -- are for light crudes.
Prices on both markets have reached record high levels this week, smashing through the 50-dollar '
That's from - http://www.energybulletin.net/2341.html
More stuff -
Only a few refineries in the US can use Heavy crude which is $85 or so a barrel all the others need the light sweet crude oil. Holly Corp Navajo Refinery, CONOCO is building a new refinery in Canada that will handle Heavy Crude. Lucloil (Russia) is looking to use that facility Valero uses Heavy Crude I think but they don't make gasoline or diesel.
The plain vanilla fact-of-the-matter is that Venezuela has no other market for the greater part of its oil. Heavy crude is special stuff and is not for the average refinery. The majority of Venezuela's oil can only be processed in the specialist refineries run by Hovensa (a joint venture between US refiners Hess Corp and PdVSA) located in the US Virgin islands, amongst other places.
They should blame the US refineries who cannot refine the crude available, because they're not set up for it. In fact, the crude reserves in the US are higher than they have been in the past, while reserves of gasoline are somewhat lean, hence the higher-than-normal gas prices of late.
Refineries that normally run intermediate sour crude oil could run a small quantity of heavy sour crude if they could blend it with light sweet crude oil, but if light sweet crude oil is in short supply, then that option is not available.
Ultimately, OPEC was the only supplier capable of increasing production adequately to cover for the losses from Venezuelan Heavy Crude, and OPEC members like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq have crude oils similar in quality to the Venezuelan crude oils. But OPEC's Middle Eastern crude oils are 30-40 days away, leaving a regional short-term supply gap in the United States. All that oil must be mixed with Light sweet crude to ne refined in the US and as light sweet crude is in short supply, forget it.
lower gas taxes, let the markets drive energy research instead of stupid Congressional bungling like CAFE dictates and ethanol mandates, let US companies drill for local oil and build refineries to process it.....those things will work if Congress gets out of the way.
Aunt Boni H, revolution? when will you give up your AC and 3 meals a day? Guess you haven't lived in lots of places where they solve problems with blood.....
Taxes should be raised to change the way that we use energy and there should be incentives to build a few refineries that can take in the Heavy Crude to make fuel.
Congress should create a transportation plan that would cover the routes between cities that aren't feasible to fly.
Understand I'm no apologist for oil companies. I'm under no illusions that human nature regarding money, amplified in a corporate atmosphere shouldn't be
under proper environmental and fiduciary scrutiny. That said-----
First, Saudi Oil companies earn more profit than our USA suppliers do. Again, taxing them is impossible.
Second, Domestic oil companies are some of the few US companies who are hiring and growing employees. Employees that pay taxes, buy homes, etc.--THAT's what our economy needs more of! Duh!!!
Third, domestic oil companies do not have very high profit margins--the reason being it's hugely expensive to explore for and extract oil in increasingly difficult political climates, and geographic locations. And will become more expensive as time goes on. In fact, Exxon-Mobil is rated below banking, pharmaceutical companies, high-tech companies. They're listed at about 127th in profit margins. Indeed, analysts say profit margins will be dropping for the above reasons in the future.
Fouth, profit margins will likely be going down due to future even more huge exploration costs, investment in equipment, investment in wind farms, solar, biofuel.
Fifth, our country is doing little to build nuclear plants, encourage non-food crops for biofuel production(The new Cellulosic distillation biofuels technique will have the potential of even turning garbage into fuel), wind farm production, solar. We need a place for nuclear waste long term disposal now, and again, our government has failed to act.
Sixth, Oh and did I mention the ~87% of our continental shelf is off limits to oil drilling? The entire Eastern Seaboard, West Coast--No drilling.
This hoopla reminds me of when our feckless government was going after GM. Sure, every corporation needs to follow regulations, ethical standards and the law, but no one was looking just a few years down the road at the Japanese and European explosion onto the domestic automotive scene. We must do things to make our domestic companies stronger, not weaker. Profits mean the ability to hire more people, and invest in infrastructure, alternative energy sources. Our government needs to regulate taxes so that companies are encouraged to invest in this country. This means taking a long term approach like Japan and China do, for example. Our politicians seem more interested in sound bites and short term fixes that help their re-election bids as we head to a second-rate status in the world economy.
The last time a Windfall Tax was tried, the windfall profits tax backfired badly. It discouraged the expansion of domestic energy supplies and led to increased oil imports. According to a 1990 Congressional Research Service study, the windfall profits tax in place from 1980 to 1988 "reduced domestic oil production from between 3 and 6 percent, and increased oil imports from between 8 and 16 percent."[2] In effect, putting domestic oil producers at a disadvantage had the unintended effect of strengthening OPEC's hand. In the end, the tax hurt consumers more through higher energy prices than it helped them through higher tax revenues, which turned out to be far lower than originally predicted because the tax discouraged production.[2] Salvatore Lazzari, "The Windfall Profit Tax On Crude Oil: Overview Of The Issues," Congressional Research Service, Sept. 12, 1990.
So instead of creating incentives to wean consumers off gas guzzlers like Canada does for example or an innovative overall energy program, Congress simply raises MPG standards, gives a bunch of farmers breaks for raising more corn for corn ethanol and NO incentives to create new refineries, provide incentives to people who use home heating oil to switch to gas or electricity to increase capacity for diesel fuel (diesel engines being MUCH more efficient than gasoline engines) or tax credits to solar property, fuel cell property and installation of wind energy property structuring a tax, such as exempting investments that the oil industry makes in non-fossil-fuel alternatives.---what the hell??? Here's Canada's more rational approach- http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/programs.cfm?attr=0
Meanwhile, China has partnered with Cuba for example are drilling on the shelf around Cuba. 50 miles off Key West. Mexico is drilling on it's shelf too.
What is incredibly sad and pessimistic is none of our current crop of presidential candidates seems to understand any of this. Nope. It's "Tax the Windfall Profits" mantra that will not reduce the price of oil or improve our economy one iota.
I'll let the following articles do most of the talking:
5-19-08 "Oil Producers Mask Decade's Worst S&P 500 Profit Drop" :http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aB50jeKPl7gE
5-10-08-"For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/01oil-web.html?ref=worldbusiness
4-29-08-"It's fashionable to characterize Big Oil as greedy gougers that should have their profits taxed more heavily. Here's why that's foolish thinking."- http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/markets/thebuzz/
Jerry
We are going through chang, and unless you become part of it will be pure agony.
Moggy's rigth and wrong, change the things you are doing and pay for you luxuries. Now is a good time to move closer to where ever you drive most (housing is cheaper), pay down debt and invest in the compnies with the resources (let the increasing prices pay you), and as you repalce things get better value including the cost too operate.
Probably the biggest thing is vote for those who want to get governemnt out of the way.
THe oil is a fixed supply (well there is that in ALaska and off the coast of FLorida but they are too pristine). THey call it inelastic supply, no more supply increasing demand the prices rise like a skyrocket. As prices rise alternatives become economically affortable, don't subsidize. AMtrack is shoddy adn pricey because it doesn't have to complete. Let it die and demand will drive new trains.
For me it is a roof, food, clothing, TV and the library. Oh, and work to pay for it all. NO boat (sold), atvs, SUVs, no casinos, etc.
And no whining, I can't afford the cheese and crackers.
Thank you hosting it.
Who do I blame?
Well, after listening to this broadcast, I'd say the oil companies and speculators. If one quarter, or thirty dollars, of the price per barrel is attributed to speculation sales, then one quarter of the high costs are certainly their fault.
Also, one of the guests commented that our oil companies are not even using one quarter of the oil leases they already currently possess, while at the same time our refining capacity is run well below its possible capacity.
Everything points to how the companies are restricting production in order to drive up prices and increase speculation sales.
It's fascinating, isn't it? That our current actual price is so heavily effected by people buying options on products that haven't been made yet.
How much do you want to bet, that when those future products are finally rolled out and sold, that their actual price will again be inflated in order to cover the costs of these futures. I'm sure the companies will be quite able to show how the money they collected from us now had already been spent on product related costs; such as gold standard salaries with platinum parachutes and hundreds of millions in consulting fees for company friendly firms.
This was a very poignant and inspiring discussion.
Thanks again.
Who is laughing all the way to the bank?? Cheney, bush and the Saudi's...Throw in the Pentagon, and the military contractors.
As for little old me. I don't drive. I've never owned a car. I've raised a family, had several careers, run a business, traveled the world yet have never felt the need to shoulder the burden of a car. It is an albatros around your neck. Besides being the lynchpin in our decaying environment and a main contributor to obesity. Ditch the car and reclaim your life and save the planet at the same time.
Thirty percent of the rise in the per barrel price of oil is a direct result of the decline of the value of the dollar. The percentage of the increase may even be more than 30%, but if you look at the plunge in the value of the dollar rather than the rise in the price of oil, you will see some really startling facts. Less than one year ago the exchange rate was 7.7 Yuan to the dollar, today it is 6.6. For the Euro, today the dollar is worth .63 Euro. A year ago it was .74.
Why is the dollar declining? A trillion dollar war in Iraq is one reason, Federal Budget Deficits is another, and Trade imbalance is a third. Who, or what, is responsible for all three of these factors? The Federal Government, and by extension, the Republican Party.
Using force to take what you want from those who are weaker than you sure sounds like the method of the thug to me.
First, what you are describing is not Darwinian. If it were, then you would have been born with a gun AS a hand (not in your hand) and you would have tank treads for feet, not under your feet.
Secondly, just because someone can't or won't kill you readily, or off-handedly, does not mean that YOU are more evolved than they are.
And third, some of the carnivorous dinosaurs that once walked the Earth were the pinnacle of speed, strength and ferocity, yet they all died out; whereas many of their "prey" still exist today. It's kind of like what happened to the Roman Empire.
Living long is the key to evolution, and living in harmony or balance with everything around has proven to be the best key to long life for every species. The most vicious and abusive are rarely the longest to survive.
I am not sure why we have to fix blame, I don know what good it does.
Though I am am not surprised that you didn't mention any countries in the manipulation of the prices; surely the Suadi's are pumping all they can, we have to exclude the Irainian's they surely aren't involve since they can't even produce enough gas for their own people and they need nuclear power to provide energy, not Venezuela since they gave the fuel oil to the North East last winter, it surley can't be China since the "greenie" felt they didn't need to be covered by the Kyoto accord that could only be because they aren;t consuming enough to matter, and not the US govenrment because we have so much they won;t let these nasty oil compnaies drill in Alaska and off Florida.
Can only guess that since it isn;t a limted supply and growing demand, only a manipulation that you could see government control or even nationalzation. Then we could have a Mecixan version of oil supply, decreasing oil pumped.
Karl Leuba,
As I recall that it was only they armies they were paying for it was everything and they were getting less then adequate value. I don't believe it was a phantom enemy, since they were using their military to control so many countries (wasn't all of eastern Europe occupied by the USSR?). That's another discussion. The defence was against the US and some in NATO because they felt they wouldn't let them invade more countries.
Bill's Spirit,
I must have misunderstood the evolutionary concept. I though it was about the memeber of the species that addapted and dominated. I don;t buy into the harmony part of evolution, otherwise the strongest and most appealling wouldn't be saught out for breeding. It seems in nature it is the biggest and baddest with no holds barred in a fight between the bulls of any herd that lead and get to propogate.
There seems to be one question about the carnivours dinosours all dying out, since we done even see the vegan dinosaurs I presume that all of the dinosaurs died out in one even outside their/evolutions control.
I am not wit Rich Kaye, we have an advantage and that is the means to set some boundaries to break the evoltuionary cycle. They have worked just look at 6billiion people and soon to be 9billlion. There have been those that tried to break that model, Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, Hussein.
I actually believe that the oil and ga prices are going up because we have a limited wupply of oil and the demand for the convience of the oil is growing rapidly. And just like when there is a new modle of anyhting that the public likes the prices goes up faster than the cost of manufacturing.
The advantage is that as the price of the convieince of oil gets this high and higher, other competing energy sources become economically viable (if the governemnt stays out of it).
Duane B. -- I only used the word "blame" because the On-Point moderator phrased their question to us in that way.
As for the issue of "limited supply" we have heard this excuse trotted out by oil companies again and again and again, and it is always issued as a reason for raising the prices. Yes, the supply of oil on our planet is limited, but even at today's consumption rates it will be a couple hundred years before we actually get close to exhausting it. I find this supported by the fact that oil companies are only using one quarter of the drilling leases that they already hold. Limited supply does not clearly seem to be the issue.
I doubt that the Saudis are pumping all that they can. They are continuously swimming in astronomical wealth already, just from pumping and selling at their current level; and prices going up means they are making even more money just off of what they currently pump.
As for evolution, evolution occurs at a species level, not at an individual level. Individual thinking may evolve over time, which helps the individual creature to survive, but actual Darwinian evolution means physical adaptations that occur over time to help a species survive better in its surroundings. Dominance among or over other species does not, necessarily, factor in unless directly related to a species' chance of survival. Many observable evolutionary changes have leaned towards better natural camouflage in order to hide from predators.
As for the bulls, the "strongest survive" is more of an observational phenomena than an evolutionary process. Although you might think that only one bull, the leader of the herd, gets to reproduce, that is inaccurate. Other bulls do get to mate, the dominant just gets to have exclusive favorites. Again, it is necessary to point out that not only the strongest survive. Sometimes the swiftest, best camouflaged or just plain lucky are the ones who survive. Brute strength has never been a guarantee.
I'll admit, using dinosaurs as an example may not have been my best choice.
Rich Kaye -- Dumbest things ever said on the Internet?
Well, at least I've been tops at something. Do I get a trophy?
I chose dinosaurs as my example species because they are historically reputed as having been the mightiest, scariest, most impressive animals ever to walk our Earth, and yet they are all gone now. Which is to point out that their strength and might did not save them.
My statement that "Living long is the key to evolution" means living as long as a creature possibly can, and mostly refers to a species view, not an individual view.
The fact that you've pointed to cockroaches supports my point, however, as cockroaches are not the strongest, most ferocious, nor even the most dominant creatures on our planet; yet they have been around (as you pointed out) for millions of years.
By their Darwinian example, perhaps we humans should be living off of garbage and scuttling for cover whenever something even remotely threatening comes our way. No, I'm not really suggesting that. Darwinism is not something that I would hold up as a guiding principle for humanity's course.
"Id like to know what species you are talking about that are abusive."
Although some individual animals among the various species show traits of abusiveness, it is humanity that holds the highest tendency for being abusive.
We humans don't just kill off individual predators that are threatening us, we attempt to kill off ALL of the predators that threaten us, or are food supplies. Similarly, we abuse our environments without much care or regard to the long term effects of our actions. We simply take what we want and then whine when our actions lead to catastrophic consequences.
And we are also tops in the animal chains on abusing our fellow species. It is not documented in our nature studies, at least to my knowledge, where species come rife with individual creatures that kill, steal or enslave their fellow species members in order to satisfy individual avarice, lust or greed. These self-serving attitudes are almost nonexistent in the animal kingdoms.
This whole discussion started because you espoused that we should just go and take the oil we want from other nations; and you claimed that that was Darwinian.
The facts are otherwise. We humans have become the greatest Earth dominating animal solely because we abandoned the barbaric, animalistic "might makes right" attitude, for the pursuit of actions and attitudes that let our populations build, grow and prosper.
Promoting an attitude that we SHOULD take what we want simply because we can constitutes a Devolution in the human species; and thus, is actually anti-Darwinian.
And if you don't agree, just go ahead and call it dumbness again; cause that makes you look both smart and right in everyone's eyes. You Alpha Dog, you.
BTW -- Rich, I have published more dumbness on this topic as an article of my own. Please feel free to come over and share your insight and wisdom.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=peak+oil
Some may say that proven Saudi reserves are sufficient, well the actual amount of oil left in Saudi Arabia is a state secret, AND has been subject to suspicious revisions. Still others may say, high oil prices are simply due to greedy oil executives, the oil executives are greedy today, were greedy yesterday, and were greedy 10 years ago, so it can't be simply that they woke up and decided to raise gas prices, no my friends this is due to something much much bigger.
Some may say well the oil shale of Canada and the US will save us, the problem is that it takes more energy to get the oil out of the shale than you get from burning the oil (with current technology) also at peak production it will only yield only a couple of months worth of oil.
Some may blame the environmentalists, for not allowing the US to drill in ANWR and whatnot. Ask yourself this, with 8 yrs of Reagan, and 10 Yrs of Bushes, and a powerful Oil lobby do you REALLY think environmentalists really had that much say in where we drill? Heck, environmentalists had trouble convincing Bush that G-warming exists.
No my friends, this is something much bigger, for the most thorough, well researched, and well argued advocate for peak oil please visit the website below. It is a long website, but I advice to read it completely it is well worth it.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
Thank You my friends
And this is something you will have to learn to do also, because the rest of the world will not continue to accept that you 5 % of the world population uses 25-30 % of the world resources. The USA is on its knees economically and ridiculed internationally for its (lack of) political leadership. The american way is no longer everyones dream.
However, the US is a big country with vast resources and a lot of smart people (I know because I have lived in the US). So if the US starts working *with* other nations instead of against them, the future is still bright for all of us. But if you think you can live outside the rest of the world, not communicating and most of all, not learning from us - sorry your lost!
You suggest we don't communicateand that we aren't working on these issues. You say we are on our knees economically and riducualed internationally and we lack leadership.
I guess I am missing something, but wonder what we do that we don't share or that isn' available to anyone who asks just look on the internet), what is the unemployeemnt in Europe, in Asia, in any other part of the world of coprable size, when haven't we been ridculed internationally (from the day of our founding we have been belittle and demeened), and lack of leadership (who is the largest giver on a per capita basis in the world, who is willing to risk the opnion of the workd for what they see as helping others).
You may feel we aren;t as good as we could be, but you show me a society that is doing more than we are. You may begrudge our size and our individual choices. Tell what sacrifices has your society made that has so elevated the individuals quality of life. Using per capita to negate the size difference what has your society don't in medicine, in technology, sharing, for integrating a greater diversity of peoples more than this country you see as so losing it way?
The day we start working "*with*" other nations is when we slow down the progress and we wait.
Now with costs going up, not just gas but food and energy as well, I've cutback more. The furnace was shut off in mid-April, even though it's still chilly here in Ohio. I'm trying to ride my bicycle more - not easy in a bicycle unfriendly city. This is the most difficult step so far! Rainy weather doesn't help. I've got to spend less time on other projects to have more time to bike to work. (My 10 minute drive takes 20-25 minutes by bike and 30 minutes or more if I went by bus!) I only drive about 20-25 miles a week but I still hate paying so much for gas!
Food prices going up have made an impact on what I eat. Grocery shopping is a scavenger hunt for markdowns and manager's specials. LOL I put in a bigger garden this spring.
One issue that is ignored when discussing alternative energy development is how are people going to tap into the new technology? I live in a low income area. Not a lot of new cars on the street- certainly no hybrids. A few years ago I went to a seminar on solar and wind power for the home. The cost of getting off the grid would far exceed the cost of the house! It would take 15-20 years to recoup the investment!
How can the lower and middle classes get behind alternative energy if the cost is prohibitive?
Pass legislation that requires all big corporations (Wal-mart, Kmart, Sears, JC Penney, Dollar Stores, etc.) to transport via train instead of semi-trucks. This is more than a band-aide that would help for a while & fall off & be back where we were. It is a permanent help. It could be done quickly & it would help immediately & long term.
Such legislation would help every family in this country & the world itself. The drop in emissions of these semis alone should be incredible amount & immediate. It would crash the demand for crude oil in the USA. Which would crash the price of gas & diesel, greatly lowering the price of everything you & I buy. Part of the cost of everything we buy is affected by gas/diesel because it has to be transported to our given areas.
It's time to make them do whatever has to be done to stop this insanity. There is no shortage of oil, gas or diesel. There are rich oil/energy tycoons who want to be richer oil/energy tycoons. Then there is the rest of us. Who do you support?