Bring on 6$ a Gallon Gas

SFGate.com ^ | Mark Morford

[Tzimisce]

No wait, not six. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree?

Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV owners. Everyone else, 10 bucks a gallon, across the board. Eleven for premium.

It would take some finessing. Maybe also give a price break to some truckers and trucking companies (so vital to the overall economy), but not so much to global delivery companies (FedEx, DSL et al.), because not doing so would force them to raise shipping rates and force you (and me) to reconsider buying everything online and hence will encourage you to shop locally once again, thus reviving a stagnant local economy.

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[Tzimisce]

The problem is some people are going to take this guy seriously.

Of course this idea is totally nutz. A lot of our food is grown on corporate farms. Charge them 1000 bucks to power their farm equipment and you'll see the price go up at the store. Which brings in something else: how does the food get to the store? On a gas powered truck.

Oh, but we'll use organic farms...too bad you can't sustain a large population on organic farming. Even a population the size of San Francisco would starve under that plan.

How do you heat/cool your home? With oil. Jack up the price and poor people (that you claim to love more than anyone else) will feel that too.

So trying to insult a certain group of people won't work - they'll see the price raise everywhere else.

Yeah, let's all drive hybrids. Just forget the fact that it takes a lot of energy and releases a lot of CO2 to make a hybrid. Let's all convert our houses to solar power and ignore the amount of energy it takes to make the solar plates and the amount of water we suck out of the lakes and rivers to fill the drums of water and the amount of metals we rape from the earth to make said drums. The worst thing about this is the mentality of the b@st@rd who wrote this. You want to come and get into *my personal business* and tell me what to drive, how to live, what to eat, etc.

Environmental destruction? Global Warming? You can't tell me with any accuracy what the temperature will be tomorrow...or if it's going to rain...or if the wind is going to blow. Yet you want to tell me the temperature 100 years from now?

If you're worried about hot air close your mouth. If you're worried we're using too much paper stop writing stupid editorials. And if you're worried that we're using too much energy stop blogging.

Why is that offensive? You want to tell me how to live.

[Brilliant]

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Californians who won't allow drilling off their coast, when they complain about the price of gas.

[coconutt2000]

The problem is some people are going to take this guy seriously.

The real question is how seriously does the author take himself...

[Dog Gone]

More "wisdom" from San Francisco.

[edcoil]

Hey, how come your not bothered by the Fed's raisining interest rates 14 times. Quit complaining...

[cripplecreek]

It's offensive and as effective as all green ideas combined.
(remember I did say it was offensive)
http://www.rvi.net/~mdhorban/hybridmotorcycle.htm

[facedown]

The problem is some people are going to take this guy seriously.

Nah, not Missy Morford.

[mountn man]

Hey, how come your not bothered by the Fed's raisining interest rates 14 times.

Freudian slip?

San Francisco - Fruit- Raisining

[Solamente]

American Cheese $4.99 lb.
Bologna "
Liverwurst "
Milk $2.79 Gal.
Onion $0.99 lb.
Tomato ("vine") $2.99 lb.

Brooklyn, NY.

[Red6]

Artificial market manipulations to force consumers to behave a certain way coming from a liberal? I’m surprised (sarcasm)

He should move to France and buy a 1.2 liter Renault. He can then live in his 36 square meter flat and philosophize about how great it is to have so little.

[dalereed]

"Hey, how come your not bothered by the Fed's raisining interest rates 14 times. Quit complaining..."

Raise it some more, get it back to 17%!

I did real well under those rates, the bank offered me 50k@12%, I took it and loaned it out at 18% and a year later converted it into a 25% ownership in commercial acreage that we sold and I turned that loan into a 64k profit in a year and a half.

Also took advantage of some forclosures and turned them for 80-100% profit in 90 days.

Those were good times.

[edcoil]

Sorry, my puter & keyboard is wall mounted so I get a few typo's.

[Torie]

Well six bucks a gallon will help clear the roads for well to do lawyers, to shorten their commuting time. What is wrong with that?

[Sender]

The author takes himself very seriously. He is a visionary in the fudge packing industry. When you open a well-packed box of fudge, thank this man.

[359Henrie]

Its not my fault, I want one off Babs beach house.

[coconutt2000]

I'm so put off chocolate now thanks to you... Ewww...

[Zeppelin]

*****I have a hard time feeling sorry for Californians who won't allow drilling off their coast, when they complain about the price of gas.*****

Look at the elitists like Kennedy. Supposedly he's a staunch proponent of renewable energy, but a few months ago he killed a plan to put a windmill farm off the coast of his sweet pad.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1586558/posts

Do as I say, not as I do, right?

That's a shame, too. The hot air spewing from the Kennedy compound could power half of Massachusetts.

Then again, we wouldnt want a drunken Teddy driving his boat into one of those windmills.

(this is just too easy) =P

[ElkGroveDan]

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Californians who won't allow drilling off their coast, when they complain about the price of gas.

Why bash just Californians? Why not bash all Americans because the U.S. Senate won't allow drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge?

[PLK]

Tomato ("vine") $2.99 lb.

True that. But not a valid comparison, we don't need enough tomatoes to drive us to work every day.

[elmer fudd]

How 'bout they only do it in San Francisco? That's a plan I could get behind.

[gpapa]

From Wikipedia.

"Mark Morford is a tattooed, iconoclastic columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. His liberal-leaning social commentary column is called Notes & Errata. "Edgy" is a mild description of his work, considering that his columns have gotten him suspended."

[AZ_Cowboy]

DSL is a type of high-speed internet connection. Is he referring to DHL? By the way, what about the Postal Service?

Of course, energy prices like that would make DSL rather expensive as well...

I see no mention of farmers, miners, loggers, and the millions of other jobs that are dependent on the steady flow of affordable energy. I guess he thinks all the stuff he buys comes from the store.

[mission9]

We got the same problem from Republicans here in Florida, not even counting the nut and berry crowd.

[vetvetdoug]

This guy's hypothesis has more open holes in it than all of the fairies in San Francisco!

[ExpatGator]

Stalin has been reincarnated as a Fag named Morford in San Francisco.

[mikeybaby]

Maybe we ought to raise the coast of condoms sold in bath houses in S.F to $10. I bet that would Moford in his, um, pocketbook-or purse.

[Phocion]

I wouldn't be surprised to see $6 or $10/gal. at some point in my life. Years down the road, of course, when world demand is much higher and supply is in shakier shape. Or sooner, if something like an embargo or attack shuts off Iran's exports. I suspect that such insane prices will be necessary to ever get the US public to use fuels other than gasoline.

It's not a great socialist fantasy of mine like it appears to be for this guy, but it seems an inevitable part of a natural progression away from gas. My educated guess is that people will eventually have to come to grips with the idea.

[Brett66]

This might be a new record for Morford, he wrote an entire article without a reference to gay sex. Though he did mention porn.....

[NAVY84]

Speaking of clearing the roads....

What about the break for local munis with snow plowing to do? They only get about one half to one mile per gallon when pushin' snow.

[Torie]

That is where global warming comes in.

[RBroadfoot]

Moron.

[PoorMuttly]

That's pretty much how I see it, 'nuff blame to go around.

But y' know, since we are evidently now a nation that waits for trouble when we have seen it coming for several decades and done nothing, like with the borders, drug demand, all sorts of things, well, in such cases perhaps getting a swift kick in our lazy wise-asses with, well, maybe, a skyscraper getting blown down in a major city...no...er...that won't work.....an indigent foreigner invasion...nah...they can sleep in the woods...and in the emergency wards, delivering babies....fatal diseases and frequent murders from funding drug gangs....well...then where will we get our fun from...??!! OK...OK...I've got it, $10 gasoline, so we actually DO something (of course for wimpy, self-gratification reasons, not wisdom or national welfare, like WHEN our foreign sources are closed, it will be too late to drill and crack and pump...) but perhaps again, the resilient American freedom under law system will rescue our worthless asses by the working of simple Capitalism.....the demand causing us to not only drill our own stuff, but perhaps even change our 100 year old gasoline engine technology for something better, rather than struggling to preserve the buggy industry by growing super oats, and 5 legged horses.

Years ago if you told me our space project would mostly yield great pictures and a golf game on the moon, but in the 21st. century we'd still be running our Japanese teardrop cars on stuff even Henry Ford thought was a second choice, I'd have laughed.

Then again, I'd also have laughed about people having bones through their noses, and people debating the sensitivities and motivations of the people who slit our stewardesses throats with razor blades and crashed our planes into our Pentagon and office buildings...so what did I know, after all?!

$10 gas?

We need it.

[NAVY84]

Sorry, my bad.

[aquila48]

Finally an honest liberal!!!

This is the wet dream of all "progressive" politicians - they just don't have the balls to share it with us, or maybe they're smart enough to know what our reaction will be.

[Solamente]

Forgive my exhaustion, I'm posting tired, not a good thing.

I do have a point, despite the comparison.

I understand that FR posts regarding illegal aliens will focus on the southern border because Freepers are from all places across America.

But I'm from Brooklyn, and NYC is my sustenance turf. I must admit that I admire the "gentle people of the Mexican persuasion" who snuck all the way here. They are unique in that they put up a noble fascade of cheerfulness in their work ethic. They are a weak target, and it is an immature stance to be held by anyone professing to be conservative.

I'm not defending them; illegals should be deported.

What bugs me is that on the other side of the coin, FReepers are ignoring all the other Tom, Dick, and Harrys from the rest of the planet who are here illegally, and taking REAL and SKILLED jobs from American citizens coming of age.

Down South, we'll always need migrant farm workers.

I have wanted to get my two cent's in, but I don't care to argue about it. Good Night.

[ArGee]

It's offensive and as effective as all green ideas combined.

What's amazing is that he will support you if you decide to add $4 in tax to a gallon of gas, but if you suggest that Exxon should get the $4 as profit he'll kick you down the stairs.

Shalom.

[ChinaThreat]

Its time for Alaska to say screw the feds. Why should they suffer because a bunch dumb asses in California and New York are hung up on some tree hugger fairy tale that ANWR is the garden of Eden? For most of the year, its flies and mosquitoes, and the other part a frozen tundra. If I were the Alaskans, I would pass a state amendment reclaiming ANWR and start pumping the black gold and distributing the revenue to its citizens.

Why the hell should alaska get driven into the 3rd world with the rest of these idiots in the blue states? It has its own resources, plenty of land and one of the last places Jefferson or Washington would consider living in the US these days.

[peggybac]

"...vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV owners."

I'm offended. I own a SUV but am not numb nor do coke. What really pisses me off is that I have to vacuum my own SUV.

[stop_fascism]

Me too, and I'm a Californian.

[Hi Heels]

So, gas real cheap where you live?

[VeniVidiVici]

Morford. What a putz. So classically illustrates a liberal too.

Implement a favorite liberal program so that everyone lives they way you want them to, but, oh yeah, we need to give breaks and subsidies to these folks over here otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

Do they even see the stupidity and hypocracy in their schemes?

[Qout]

Raise the price of gasoline high enough and I might decide to start makin' my own high test.

Gas Too Pricey? Make Your Own
Tennessee Man Sells Still and Kits to Make Ethanol at Home
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=1902339&page=1

The directions are all here.
http://www.ethanolstill.com/

Of course that's a type of adaptation Mr. Morford doesn't expect. It's one of those unintended consequences that happens when you mess with free market forces.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

He's also deluded in the typical liberal way about other things:

Another example: You know what would happen if guns -- all guns, everywhere -- were banned outright tomorrow?...

...Over a short blip of time -- say about 10 or 20 years... Guns would begin to disappear. From the culture, from the drug dealers, from the streets...

[Screaming_Gerbil]

This might be a new record for Morford, he wrote an entire article without a reference to gay sex. Though he did mention porn.....

He does manage to fit in a refence to an orgasm in there...

Think 20 years is too long? BS. It is but an eyeblink, a twitch, a faint toe spasm in the great long orgasm of time.

[Young Scholar]

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday...

er·ra·tum n. pl. er·ra·ta: An error in printing or writing...

[ChEng]

Actually, they do drill off the coast of California. How about drilling off the West coast of Florida (where I reside) and the wastes of Alaska? I was staying in a hotel in Scotland, the hotel owner had a Pathfinder, said it cost him a $100 every fillup, that was in 1997..

[backhoe]

I have been covering, ( Or, as Seamole puts it...-backhoe's pseudoblog--... ) pseudo-blogging, this issue for years, so allow me to drop out of Lurk & Link mode for a rare bit of commentary-- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.

Our consumer-based economy is driven by and dependent upon readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that off, and we'll all be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room, watching one TV in the living room, and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet or a Nash Metropolitan...

We need to

1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read & weep:
Castro Plans to Drill 45 Miles from US Shores, But We Can't

2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam.
And if we replaced our existing nuclear plants with this one there would be significant benefits.

3) end Jimmy Carter's idiotic ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it. Europe has done this for decades.-- what to do with spent nuclear fuel? Answer here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50 hattip:  Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)

4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology.
-Clean Coal Centre--

5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation, we should all practice it- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage. Nor is there anything wrong with "alternative" energy sources- except they don't supply the vast ( not to mention readily-available ) amounts of power we need at a price competitive to more conventional sources. Then again, there is this to ponder:
Energy From the Gulf Stream
http://www.energy.gatech.edu/presentations/mhoover.pdf

We do need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.

My tongue-in-cheek collection of energy-related links:

Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:

And kindly note, and note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was $1.45 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now?

Vest-Pocket Summary:

1- drill for gas & oil like crazy- onshore, offshore, and in Alaska
2- go nuclear for power
3- convert stationary plants to clean coal technology or Next-Gen Nuclear
4- slash taxes and regulations like crazy

[B4Ranch]

If you've got it, a truck brought it.

[B4Ranch]

It's nice to be debt free, isn't it?

[dalereed]

Sure is!

It's also comforting to be in a financial position to take advantage of other peoples misery when their financial foolishness catches up with them.