OPEC Sucks

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Hi,
We just hit 5 bucks a US gal here today, $1.249 a liter at the pump.
I guess the Shieks can buy a few more RR and planes this year.
Our goverment sucks for all the gas taxes it gets too.
Perry.

[map]

Read this...
http://www.investors.com/editorial/e...90041104121506

[Bob In Ct]

Perry:
Much of the oil we use in this country comes from the good ol' U.S. of A. It's a world price and a world market. Remember Economics 101 - supply and demand? If you want the price to go down use less. Luckily we have an oilman in the White House so my dividends from XOM and COP are not going away anytime soon.

Bob

[427 S/O]

Bob, I believe that's what I said........use less..

[427 S/O]

Ops!.. not use to others named Perry...

[modified]

PRICE OF GAS AROUND THE WORLD

Prices are quoted in US dollars per gallon for regular unleaded.

Oslo, Norway
$6.82

Hong Kong
$6.25

Brussels, Belgium
$6.16

London, UK
$5.96

Rome,
Italy
$5.80

Tokyo, Japan
$5.25

Sao Paulo, Brazil
$4.42

New Delhi, India
$3.71

Sidney, Australia
$3.42

Johannesburg, South Africa
$3.39

Mexico City
$2.22

Buenos Aires, Argentina
$2.09

... YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS ...

Riyadh , Saudi Arabia
$0.91

Kuwait
$0.78

Caracas, Venezuela
$0.12.
Luckily we have an oilman in the White House.......HMMMMMMM

[hi-tech cobra]

Bottom line:
Until energy cost get under control the economy is going to continue to plummet.

Inflation due to gas prices and high energy cost are impacting everything from food to tires. People are hanging on to their money because their SUV's cost $130 to fill up.

I'm not too concerned with what other countries are paying for oil. I lived in Sweden and paid very high gas prices but the towns are built for walking and the country is small. So it didn't have such a negative impact like it does here in the good ol' USA where our cities are spread out and our transit is auto dependant. Our economy is set up for driving / trucking and until that changes we better have cheap gas to make it run.

I thought that is why we bailed Kuwait out in Gulf War 1?! But the Kuwaitis are not returning any favors. Maybe we should tell the Saudis, lower prices or we not stop playing nice.

Russia on the other hand (the world's second largest exporter of oil) is lovin' it. They are making billons and in the process they are weakening us on the world stage. What a sweet deal for them. Europe needs oil not Quarter Pounders so our whole international strategy is going to he11 in a hand basket. Meanwhile Russia is modernizing their military and flexing their new muscle. Challenging the US on many fronts.

Plus our European friends with high gas taxes actually get something in return - the best roads in the world and many other benefits like an advance rail system.

[modified]

Originally Posted by hi-tech cobra

Bottom line:
Until energy cost get under control the economy is going to continue to plummet.

Inflation due to gas prices and high energy cost are impacting everything from food to tires. People are hanging on to their money because their SUV's cost $130 to fill up.

I'm not too concerned with what other countries are paying for oil. I lived in Sweden and paid very high gas prices but the towns are built for walking and the country is small. So it didn't have such a negative impact like it does here in the good ol' USA where our cities are spread out and our transit is auto dependant. Our economy is set up for driving / trucking and until that changes we better have cheap gas to make it run.

I thought that is why we bailed Kuwait out in Gulf War 1?! But the Kuwaitis are not returning any favors. Maybe we should tell the Saudis, lower prices or we not stop playing nice.

Russia on the other hand (the world's second largest exporter of oil) is lovin' it. They are making billons and in the process they are weakening us on the world stage. What a sweet deal for them. Europe needs oil not Quarter Pounders so our whole international strategy is going to he11 in a hand basket. Meanwhile Russia is modernizing their military and flexing their new muscle. Challenging the US on many fronts.

Plus our European friends with high gas taxes actually get something in return - the best roads in the world and many other benefits like an advance rail system.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SPF2245]

I've got to think that other then missing the fun driving the Cobra, I DREAM of the day we don't need OPEC oil because the desert dried up. Then Iraq, Iran, Saudi and all the others will go back to what they were 100 years ago...NOTHING. Granted, this will take time, but with China's thirst for oil and some of OPEC nations already producing below (numerous reports of OPEC nations pumping water in the wells to get to the deeper supplies of oil) their quotas...this will only be a matter of years.

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by SPF2245

...but with China's thirst for oil

A lot of good comments here, but China is only part of the (problem). There are SEVERAL emerging economies evolving all over the world...India, Indonesia, Philippines, the entire Central American cooridor, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe. As the globalization of resources continues to grow, these other economies are placed into a DEMAND position for oil and oil-based consumer products (whether that's the shampoo they spread on their head or the plastic seat cover they sit on inside their econo box or scooter).

So GLOBAL DEMAND for OIL AND OIL-BASED PRODUCTS is what is driving the price. Now if OPEC were to start upping their outputs, there will still be bottlenecks at the refinery level...THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH REFINERIES TO KEEP UP WITH WORLD DEMAND. Even if Bush could get Congress to pass emergency legislation and completely open up Prudoe Bay (Alaska reserves) to unfettered exploration and drilling, there stll won't be enough refineries in the U.S. to deal with it all. So the U.S. does not have the refinery capacity to be "vertically integrated."

We need to do the following things:

1. Open up ANWAR and Prudoe Bay...the caribou will have to suffer a little.
2. Provide tax incentives to oil companies to build refineries and increase capacity. Not sure WHERE they build them, but we need them. This will take 5 years to develop and implement.
3. Provide tax incentives to corporations to develop NON-AGRI alternative fuel sources (the whole bio agenda is a joke). I'm talking about hydrogen fuel cells, better batteries, etc.
4. You simultaneously attack short term (10 year) needs (gasoline production) with long term (10+ years) energy needs for alternative fuels.
5. Give GM and Ford tax incentives to make capital investments in re-tooling so that all car frames are hydro-formed light weight aluminum (ala Corvette) and not the heavy, old school steel that they keep using over and over in the existing factory set-ups. Same goes for bodywork, etc. You can make things a lot lighter and stronger than steel, and still be safe. You just have to be able to re-tool to do it.
6. More nuclear powered electricity plants to reduce dependencies on coals and fuel oils. We can sell the coal to China because they love to burn that crap.

If you devise a plan that implements the following, within 10 years we will be completely vertically integrated and COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT on domestic fossil fuel demands. Essentially we would be able to tell OPEC to shove it. They will just sell their wares to China and India and everyone else who hasn't take the steps to be energy independent.

We don't need the rest of the world....we can do this on our own. We just have too many pig headed politicians on Capital Hill with different personal agendas.

-Dean

[JTD]

Over 99% of Canadian oil exports are sent to the United States, making Canada, not Saudi Arabia, the United States' largest supplier of oil

[hi-tech cobra]

Dean,
Good post, I agree about attacking short and long term. Thinking outside the current energy box is needed. But the powers that be want things to stay the same. Lots of money involved here.

Take this for example: http://www.eyebeam.org/reblog/archiv...grid_effi.html

We could have all America's power needs meet with 100 square miles of these. Not to mention wave power (GE and Ireland just teamed up on a big project), wind power and grid tied PV powered homes.

Speaking of PV home systems. Here is a good site: http://www.solardaily.com/index.html

If cost on these systems came down and they became widespread think what would happen. Terrorist could not take down our power grid. We could cut our oil usage in half. Appliances would become more energy efficient. The nations electric supply would not be so strained, etc...

Also, I believe there are going to be some great investments in this sector-check out this book on Amazon:
Profiting from Clean Energy: A Complete Guide to Trading Green in Solar, Wind, Ethanol, Fuel Cell, Carbon Credit Industries, and More (Wiley Trading)"
Richard W. Asplund

[mjmacqua]

Ever drive by an office building at night. Notice how all the lights are on and no one is there. Talk about waste. What about parking lights with no one in them, what about motion sensors for that.

There is tremendous waste.

Goverment gets in the way of progess way too often. Here on Long Island, NY they spent millions, probably billions building a nuclear power plant only to have it never run due to local politics. There are proposals for Wind farms in the atlantic 10 miles off shore. People are afraid you will see them (not in my back yard). Changes need to be made, politics need to get out of the way and people need to stop complaining and do something about it. Hey I do not want to pay 4 and 5 dollars a gallon and only get 5-7 miles a gallon in my cobra, come on people save a little and help my cause.

[rbray]

Everyone here needs to go green and get a small block in their Cobra.

You big block guys are destroying the planet for the rest of us.

[SP01715]

Filling up the Cobra, the boat, the Harley, or any of the other toys is the least of the problems for me. We have a vacation house that is a 600 mile round trip drive for us that we do at least twice a month. The vehicle we drive is a 2500 HD with a Duramax diesel, and the price for diesel is more out of control than gas.

Why am I paying 50 cents or more than premuim for a fuel that is of less quality than any grade of gas? I bought my first diesel truck in 1999 and in less than 10 years it has gone over 4 dollars a gallon ($4.19 a gallon this morning at the local Chevron). The government wants people to buy vehicles that get better mileage like diesels, but why would I pay a premium for a diesel vehicle and then go pay a premium at the gas pump to fill it up?

Like I said in another post the government needs to step in and put some regulation on the oil companies. I am against big government, but as a former gas station owner I can tell you that the oil companies are evil IMO. They are putting station owners out of business by violating leases and other laws, but they don't care because they have an army of lawyers if you try and sue them. The only thing that matters to them is the bottom line, but fuel should not be looked at like other comodities IMO.

If you heard some of the stuff I heard from people that worked for ConocoPhillips you would be outraged. They know they have the public by the balls and there is nothing you can do about it. I am sure the other oil companies operate with the same principles, but my first hand knowledge is of ConocoPhillips.

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by SP01715

...but as a former gas station owner I can tell you that the oil companies are evil IMO...If you heard some of the stuff I heard from people that worked for ConocoPhillips you would be outraged. They know they have the public by the balls and there is nothing you can do about it. I am sure the other oil companies operate with the same principles, but my first hand knowledge is of ConocoPhillips.

I used to work for AtlanticRichfield ("AM/PM" mini-market fame). They were all crooks, too...that's why I left.

[Dan Stryffeler]

SPO1715,

"Why am I paying 50 cents or more than premuim for a fuel that is of less quality than any grade of gas?"

Most U.S. refinerys are setup to produce more gas than diesel, they are different processes and like mentioned before - it's a supply/demand issue as the demand for diesel is increasing. I think the ratio is something like 60% gasoline, 20% diesel and the rest is motor oil, jet fuel and asphalt.

I know what you mean though, I used to have a little MB 300D and diesel was about 2/3 the price of gas.

Dan

[Iceberg]

Guys... Supply and Demand do have a lot to do with it.. China, India and all the others...

However, our president’s failed "Strong Dollar" policy is responsible for 40% of the increase in gas prices.. The entire increase over the last few weeks has nothing to do with reduced production or increased demand. It is solely the result of a declining dollar. It takes more dollars to purchase a barrel's worth of oil because the dollar is worthless...

Now let's talk about why our currency is worthless..

1. Are banks are quickly going under due bad risk decisions based on deviant selling tactics employed by greedy mortgage brokers who could care less about the credit worthiness of the customer. They then lumped all the bad loans and sold them as AAA bonds to even stupider instituitions. The Fed keeps printing money to keep the banks solvent and that just decreases the value of the dollar. It all started with the slime suckers wanting their mortgage sales commissions.

2. One screwed up foreign policy. Some estimate we have spent over 3 Trillion dollars on the Iraq war.. Bush and Chaney’s fiasco will go down in history as the single event that took us from being the lone super power down to just another UN member like the UK, France and Germany.. (No offense to the British, Germans of French.) Think what we could have done domestically to curb our demand for oil if we had 3 trillion dollars to burn.

Now who is laughing all the way to the bank.. Exxon & Halliburton.

Don't get me wrong, I voted for this guy the first time as I thought he would do a good job. However, do I ever regret it.

My $.02

[imagine2frolic]

I will be 57 yrs old next month. My 5th grade teacher forewarned my class of all these problems. A 5th grade teacher in 1959 was feeding us this information. Everything he said has come true......... Where were the smart guys with all the money who could have slowly over these past 50 years eased us into independence. They were in the back room making every cent they could with no allegiance to their own economy, and country......TALK ABOUT PREDATORS!!!!!!!

When we use to travel on our boat at least 6 months out of the year. We were very fossil fuel independent. We relied on a wind generator, sails, and 4 solar panels. The boat has radar, autopilot, freezer, fridge, tv, dvd player, interior lights, navigation lights, computers for navigation, and the list goes on. This boat has run on these generators of power for 10 years. When I build a house in the South Pacific in about 4 years I will use the same system for the house.

This was the most forward thinking country. We need to go back to good old American know how, or we will be a third world country. We need to use our brains, backs, and pride of who we are to get back to the top. We need to bring our jobs back home, and quit farming out everything in the name of profit. These companies need to realize there is more than just profit. There is the survival of AMERICA at stake here!

[JTD]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

Guys... Supply and Demand do have a lot to do with it.. China, India and all the others...

However, our president’s failed "Strong Dollar" policy is responsible for 40% of the increase in gas prices.. The entire increase over the last few weeks has nothing to do with reduced production or increased demand. It is solely the result of a declining dollar. It takes more dollars to purchase a barrel's worth of oil because the dollar is worthless...

Now let's talk about why our currency is worthless..

1. Are banks are quickly going under due bad risk decisions based on deviant selling tactics employed by greedy mortgage brokers who could care less about the credit worthiness of the customer. They then lumped all the bad loans and sold them as AAA bonds to even stupider instituitions. The Fed keeps printing money to keep the banks solvent and that just decreases the value of the dollar. It all started with the slime suckers wanting their mortgage sales commissions.

2. One screwed up foreign policy. Some estimate we have spent over 3 Trillion dollars on the Iraq war.. Bush and Chaney’s fiasco will go down in history as the single event that took us from being the lone super power down to just another UN member like the UK, France and Germany.. (No offense to the British, Germans of French.) Think what we could have done domestically to curb our demand for oil if we had 3 trillion dollars to burn.

Now who is laughing all the way to the bank.. Exxon & Halliburton.

Don't get me wrong, I voted for this guy the first time as I thought he would do a good job. However, do I ever regret it.

My $.02

1, It is called capitalism.

2. I would vote for W again in a heart beat...no terrorist attacks here since 2001.