Posted on 05/18/2008 12:14:41 PM PDT by BulletBobCo
Drivers will likely need to become comfortable with gas at $4 a gallon, as oil experts say an era of historic pain at the pump will endure well beyond the Memorial Day weekend, when prices traditionally peak.
You might trade in that GMC Yukon for a Honda Civic, skip the highway for the bike lane and redefine that time-honored tradition of the road trip. Americans are already reordering their Memorial Day weekends, with AAA predicting a decrease in travel for the first time since 2002.
But those changes might not be enough to immediately pull down a gasoline market that follows the whims of the world economy. Newfound wealth fills pockets of the globe once known for overwhelming poverty, and for the first time prices are responding to their thirst for fuel as much as demand in America.
The new world order for petroleum markets has some analysts predicting far higher prices ahead. Gasoline in the U.S. could reach $7 a gallon because more drivers in India and China will hit the road even as American oil consumption retreats, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce predicts.
"Millions of new households will suddenly have straws to start sucking at the world's rapidly shrinking oil reserves," wrote CIBC analyst Jeff Rubin.
The forces behind the oil boom include the emergence of China and India as economic powers, exhausted fields controlled by nationalized companies, and market speculation that could be pushing prices higher than supply and demand can justify. While industry insiders dispute how much each of these factors contributes to oil prices, many expect the high prices to last for years.
"It's not going to be a one-year blip and go away like the Internet bubble," said Joseph Dancy, who manages the LSGI Venture Fund in Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
No, no, no, supply and demand is the only factor. </ Sarcasm>
We can only hope so...and we can only hope that it doesn’t take them so long that there’s no way back.
price is up due to limiting of supply.
hydrocarbons on saturns moon prove that dinosaurs and algae aren’t the chief components of oil.
it is a natural geological conversion of carbon, which is a virtually limitless element on our planet.
greed and ignorance are the only things limiting supply.
follow the money and you will find who is propogating the lies and myths.
Now that we have low-sulfur diesel, fleets of clean-diesel automobiles (which would be ruined by high-sulfur diesel) that have been available in Europe for years are going to become available here in the US.
My current Acura TL gets about 25 mpg combined, or around 30 highway-only. The new Honda Accord 2.2 iCTDI diesel gets about 65mpg combined.
So by replacing my Acura with a Honda diesel of the same chassis and interior size, I'll get the same number of miles that a gallon of $3.99 gasoline provides with only $1.87 worth of diesel, a $2.12 savings every 25 miles, about $1,275 in an average 15,000-mile year.
This type of report is part of the method used by those speculators who are driving up prices.
I am the mostest stupidest poster here. I worked hard for the title and I ain't gonna just let someone walk in and take it away. Who do you think you are?
Here is what Sen. Martinez had to say about the oil crisis:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the expansion of domestic drilling in our nation. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.
The United States faces a fundamental need for increased domestic energy supply in the face of increased global demand to reduce energy prices. I share your concerns with the high price of fuel and its effects, particularly the unprecedented wealth reallocation resulting from our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
I helped design the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (S. 3711), which was passed into law in 2006. This bill opened 8 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration while securing environmental protection for Florida’s beaches. Although this opened OCS area contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and millions of barrels of oil, no new production has begun. Production in this area is the most immediate option we have for a large-scale increase in domestic energy supply. We must take advantage of this available asset before considering expanding coastal drilling that may jeopardize our beaches.
In order to increase domestic energy supply, I have consistently supported an environmentally responsible approach for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I have also promoted coal-to-liquids technology, the development of cellulosic ethanol and other non-food-based renewable fuels, tax incentives for renewable energies, and the extraction of vast oil shale deposits in America’s West. To reduce demand, I have consistently supported increases in fuel efficiency standards and investment in mass transit. I am committed to both increasing domestic supply and decreasing domestic demand of energy in order to alleviate these factors that contribute to high fuel prices.
Hmm, let's see, that is some great Myopic plan you got there Red. It should work about as long as the summer tax holiday that McPain and Hitlery want.
The US currently has 21 billion barrels in proven reserves. At a consumption rate of 21 million BPD that means it would last all of 4 years. (I am guessing you don't know anything about price elasticity and will assume that a lower price means the same consumption level).
If we assume that the amount of oil is actually 3 times this amount, your plan would help make the US oil independent for all of 12 years. After that, the US would be 100% dependent on foreign oil.
You see, the only real, long-term solution is greater efficiency and a switch to alternatives. Plus-in hybrids are a good start. The era of cheap oil is over.
Your plan is an addicts solution and it is a quick fix with questionable benefits and very high long-term costs.
If the Liberals take over, the era of America, as we know it, is over. Your comment, “the era of cheap oil is over” and the only real, long-term solution is greater efficiency and a switch to alternatives should have been the mantra back to Jimmah, the traiter, Carter days when we were in lines waiting for gasoline. The elected morons (both Parties) that we invested our future in have led us down the path to disaster.
ban all the red tape for drilling and refineries;
I like that one. :-)
Not merely remove the red tape, but ban it and anyone who proposes governmental interference. All we would need is a nice remote island for the banishees.
As one other poster at the beginning puts it, stop printing money. Our entire government and way of life has been built upon two really, really bad decisions. One was to relax investment and banking laws in 1999.
The other was the fairness in lending laws. 911 didn’t help matters or the war on Islamic radicals, this drove up massive spending and deficits.
Devaluing the currency is a governments choice, it is not an accident. The response and remedy to non-sustainable public and private deficits (think we are 13 trillion) by this government was to devalue the currency. This remedy to financial equilibrium by devaluing creates inflation which is a tax on it’s unsuspecting citizens and spun as a million other things. Speculation is part of the problem but more based on easing of investment regulations back in 1999. Money goes where it is safest. That used to be the entire U.S. financial sector. With that looking very, very unstable investors are pouring money into essential commodities such as oil, food and metals. Blame the Federal Reserve and your U.S. government for double the food and energy bills.
Needed to be said again....louder.
Just how much are we paying due to good old fashion gouging? How are we to see it? The price of oil keeps going up and up so it would be so easy to gouge us and we would never be aware of it. I’ve mentioned that in threads past and have been chastised for it. Now, who knows? I would dearly hope that’s not the case. Still.......
I’m beginning to think that Lindsey Williams is right.
“I’m planning on moving from an 8 cylinder high performance vehicle to a hybrid. They’re getting pretty good reviews and I’m hearing good things from neighbors. I have no objection to using less gas.”
You and many others.
If things keep going the way they’re going, I would expect Ford, GM, and Chrysler to ALL file for bankruptcy within five to seven more years. Their vehicle product lines no longer make any sense in a rapidly-changing world.
- John
Last year Congres (some committee or something) did a study to see if there was price gouging....they could find NO EVIDENCE!
As long as oil based fuels remain a monopoly, we will pay monopoly prices. Moonshot to energy independence is the only solution.
Sure, they could find no evidence, but I can’t shake the feeling that we are getting the shaft somehow. I just can’t help feeling that way.
Go look at THIS...http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html
Look at the “adjusted for inflation line” in light gray.....
Whe you write something without thinking, your brain slips out.
The very first part of economics 101 is to understand that resources are limited and unevenly distributed.
The earth is finite. What makes you think there is an infinite amount of oil?
My FRiend, it is impossible to argue a complex subject with a someone who cannot grasp complex issues. Your understanding of basic economics appears to be non-existant. Thus, you switch to silly rants and name-calling the second you are confronted with the facts that contradict your pre-conceived notions.
Real conservatives understand economics. Fake conservatives praise the market when it helps them and blame the market when it hurts them. The fungibility (look that one up) of oil means that a marginal increase in US production will have little impact. The limited US reserves means that even signficant increased production will have no long-term impact other than to weaken US security.
Have you ever considered the issue of what it costs to produce a barrel of oil? Do you know that it costs more to produce a barrel of oil from oil sands than from a traditional well? Do you know what I even mean when I write “cheap oil”?
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