The price of home heating oil here in New Hampshire, USA just hit $3.799 a gallon, up $1.50 since September..... My question is, are we the only ones getting screwed here in the US or has the price gone up as much in other countries around the globe ????? I believe we're getting it shoved up our backsides because of George Bush's war pissing the rest of the world off, but that's just my opinion... Please, I'm not looking to start a long flaming thread here, just interested in what other people in other "non Bush" countries are paying...............
The lack of energy policy is a chronic condition from the 70s forward. Pretty much all of the world's oil fields (including the big ones in Saudi) have passed their peaks and are on the way down.
High oil prices IS an energy policy (albeit not a planned one--Bush isn't responsible for it) With high oil prices, alternative energy will gain strength. If oil is cheap, we won't change. I've been advocating $5.00 per gallon for gas for some years now. However, I would have like to have seen it gradually, and through taxation, instead of a dollar devaluation and a rise in world consumption.
Virtually every survey shows that the cost of oil is not a deterrent to its use. Oil is not price elastic. Like food, fuel is a necessity and increasing the price - through taxes or supply/demand - only nibbles at the margins.
Doubling the cost of fuel means adding 10% to the cost of almost everything that travels by truck. That translates to about a 30% increase at the retail level.
Alternative energies may gain influence, but there are two things to consider when pinning hopes on such plans:
Solar energy is dependent entirely on the earth's distance from the sun*. It would take a solar collector farm the size of the Los Angeles basin to provide electricity for just California.
Meddling in the natural order causes unintended consequences. Conversion of traditional crops to grow corn (for example) has contributed to a doubling of rice prices in only one year (now up to 00/ton from 0 in January 2007). Just this past week, Egypt, Pakistan, and Viet Nam stopped the export of locally grown rice to forstall famine and inflation.
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*745 watts/sq meter at the equator, at noon, with no clouds. Adjusted for latitude, night, and cloud cover, a solar collector farm in, say, Arizona might average 100-200 watts/sq m.
snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net wrote on 29 Mar 2008 in group alt.home.repair:
Ed Wallace, a commentator in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out in a recent column that supply is up, and demand is down, so prices should be down. He thinks the high prices are driven by speculation and a weak Dollar. In 2000 there were 9 gigabucks in the oil futures market. In 2008 the amount is 250 gigabucks.
feds should loosen smog regulations on gasoline and additives, to help bring price down a little
temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax
feds should allow cheap dirty econo car sales in the US for a limited number of years. low power they wouldnt be allowed on some roads, lower safety. but say 50 MPG minimum. such cars are sold in other countries thru out the world
now before you gewt your panties in a wad, people use motorcycles for transportation too, and by all means any car should be safer than a harley...
all of these would help our short term problem. the cost of in action is a major recession..........
and most importandly change funding of all national elections completely. limit 100 bucks per person, no corporate giving to candidates.
so our representives arent bought and sold anymore
Loosening any gasoline formulation regulations is only going to bring the price down a little. Given that gas prices have about tripled, it doesn't seem to me that any small change in the price is going to be worth dirty air.
Yeah, they could do that. I think it's about 16 cents. But without a corresponding decrease in spending, it would add to the deficit,
Where are these cheap dirty cars being driven? Certainly not in Europe, Japan, Canada, etc. Maybe in China, where they don't give a damn about the environment. I don't understand why they need to be dirty. We have reasonable cost cars here getting very good mileage that also meet all US regulations. The problem is, people haven't been buying them. They've been buying bigger cars and more importantly SUV's, so clearly price isn't the problem.
How is allowing cheap dirty cars into the US a short term solution to anything?
You have something like seven different formulations that need to be changed during the seasons. And most refineries can't do many of the different types without major changes. Even then, refineries have to be shut down to make the changeover. If demand is increased in one area, it is not likely that the refineries in another would be able to easily change over. Having just one or two (probably even if the one is for California) could help a bit with using refinery capacity we have now more efficiently.
Cheap oil was the reason (among others) and the fleet doesn't change all that quickly. You can see the smaller, cleaner, and more fuel efficient cars making head way in market now. It will accelerate once people get convinced that this isn't just another 70s style bounce that will go away soon.
a little here, a little there. it all adds up in the end. diesel has soared in cost because of the low sulphur regulations
But without
Unemployment benefits welfare and all the rest to help a recession costs too. better to start the help at the top.
don't give a
add a fuel hog tax to any new vehicle getting under 20 MPG. sure car companies will miss the SUV sales but its important.
they get excellent gas mileage around 50MPG the tata costs 2500 bucks, so lots of americans could afford a commuter or around home car.
theres lots of rules on fundraising, this would just be more restrictive........ and great for our country. and necessary, just look at congress in the last 10 years, they are pathetic
we also need to look at what america can afford to do in the world? wht should we still have military in europe? japan etc?
pre set hardened bases, with skelton crews, our troops back hme spending their money here, providing border security etc......
currently our troops are just fiancial aid to other countries, like germany.
definetely keep active bases in s korea etc........
in this day and age we can create a system to get our troops to any part of the world in a day or two
And again, how is this a SHORT term solution to gasoline demand? And the problem is most people are buying bigger, more expensive cars and particularly SUV's, instead of cars like the cheaper Honda Civic, which gets 30/40MPG then how does offering a $2500 Indian shit box solve anything? If anything it would likely increase the fuel usage problem, by putting MORE cars on the road. People would use them as cheap second, third or fourth cars and we would go back 30 years in air and safety standards in the process.
Sure it's elastic! It's just not IMMEDIATELY elastic. You have to be able to buy the more efficient car, or the alternative transportation has to be made available. At $1.00/gallon, carpooling isn't "reasonable". At $5.00, it sure as heck becomes reasonable. Cheap gas = SUV. Expensive gas = higher mpg car. Europeans live a comfortable lifestyle, and for many years their gas has been at a price that would cause a revolt here in the guzzler nation.
Yep, that's just the point. Maybe we'd grow produce locally instead of trucking it all over. Maybe we wouldn't be bottling water in Europe and Hawaii, just so some bunchasnobs can pretend they know the difference.
Solar may vary with the distance. But it's relatively trivial. Put solar on all the roofs in LA, and you make a big difference without taking any land up.
Here, you are absolutely correct. I am not a fan of ethanol from crops, primarily because there isn't sufficient gain in energy after you consider the farming, trucking, processing, fertilizing, water pumping, and land consumption. The price of tortillas for Mexicans has jumped substantially since we started putting corn in our gas tanks. The whole thing is a moneymaker for Archer Daniels Midland, which gets huge subsidies from the feds, even though they make huge amounts of money from the crops. And don't get me started on crop subsidies for the farmers themselves. It's a racket.
Without a collector, people in AZ use fossil or nuclear fuels to cool their homes.
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