[SLB]

At $2.75 it is not fun filling my Suburban.

[backhoe]

Allow me to drop out of Lurk and Link Mode for a brief 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 on 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, and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet or a Rambler...

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.

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 it 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- 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.

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 less than $1.50 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now?

---

PS- sympathize with filling the Suburban- I drive a 4x4, and cuss the bloody thing at the pumps, too-- but the last time the roads flooded here, I got home when many didn't.

[samm1148]

"Simmons' book has created such a stir in the energy industry that the world's largest oil company, ExxonMobil, created an ad to dispute it. It says that the Earth still has plenty of untapped oil to meet demand for decades to come."

Yeah but we won't be tapping it. God forbid that a freaking tree be uprooted.

[XtreMarine]

Should Floridians support drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Please vote

http://snappoll.com/poll/90298.php

thanks

[proudCArepublican]

remember the gas lines of the 70's and odd and even days I was little than but I do believe it had to do with the trouble at the time with Iran and who was President? Jimmy Carter himself. And if Mexico wants us to take in all there illegals they could spare some oil and if the enviro mental wacko's would let us drill maybe we wouldn't be cleaning out our wallets. The the enviro nuts how do they get to work????And than in my lovely state we are winter and summer blend how fashionable. I guess I will have to apply for that $50.00 an hour job that John Mc Cain said we as Americans are to basically lazy to do because it is so hard John I am coming to Yuma to get that $50.00 an hour job so I can fill up my car

[Amelia]

And because energy-hungry nations like China and India are in the midst of economic booms, the demand for energy is increasing daily, while the supply of oil, if it is shrinking, will make oil scarcer, and much more expensive.

Because demand is increasing, even if the supply of oil stays the same, oil is going to be scarcer and much more expensive.

We might as well get used to that idea.

[ElTianti]

Not to criticize you specifically, but all you SUV / pickup (otherwise known as tough guy costumes) owners, what were you thinking when you bought them. It’s been know for YEARS that gas prices were only going up.

[Cardhu]

At $2.75 it is not fun filling my Suburban

Gas here in Spain is $7.44 an American gallon and we are not the dearest in Europe.

[georgia2006]

""A huge and sustained increase in the price of oil that would devastate our economy and the world economy"


Well then the price of oil would fall wouldnt it?

Guess old Patsy Robertson doesnt understand the demand side of supply and demand

[Gator113]

I paid $3.20 per gallon yesterday to fill one of my Harleys.