Will Gas prices ever go down?

[scott]

Haven't we explained this about 3298432423 times in the Political Forum?

[Capt Bringdown]

Since the American economy, its infrastructure, its cities, etc. are all designed with the assumption of cheap and readily available oil, this means we are screwed.

Copy that - our entire way of life is based on cheap oil. Kinda frightening, isn't it?

I thought that after 9-11 the top priority should be developing alternative fuel sources. A massive project, along the lines of NASA and the Manhattan project.

[Heath Ledger]

$3.99 for premium today in Baker California.

[sa_butta]

This doesnt help...

Trans-atlantic flight had five passengers
An airline is under fire for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers.

The Boeing 777 used 22,000 gallons of fuel to take the five from Chicago to London.

It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Friends of the Earth said it was 'obscene' to waste so much fuel flying an almost empty plane

It's estimated each passenger was responsible for 43 tons of CO2 - enough to carry a Ford Mondeo around the world five times.

An American Airlines spokesman said: "With such a small passenger load we did consider whether we could cancel the flight and re-accommodate the five remaining passengers on other flights.

"However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft.

"We sought alternative flights for the west-bound passengers but heavy loads out of London that day meant that this was not possible."

Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner said: "Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel.

"Through no fault of their own , each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full."

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2755142.html?menu=

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

1. Demand is up because of growing economies like China and India, but supplies can't keep pace.

2. We are close to the point in history when oil production will plateau and then slowly start an irrevocable decline. Since the American economy, its infrastructure, its cities, etc. are all designed with the assumption of cheap and readily available oil, this means we are screwed. Sorry. The party is over. We will invade lots of countries to forestall this as long as possible, but ultimately we are screwed. If we don't bankrupt our economy because we can't compete anymore, we'll bankrupt it by fighting all the wars.

3A. There is a lot of misinformation in this thread about things like corn ethanol and refineries. Liberals do not support corn ethanol, and neither do conservatives. Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, and Cargill support corn ethanol because basically the scheme consists of giving them free money from taxpayers. We should be impaling their executives on blunt poles like the Turks and Romanians used to do, and/or eviscerating them with dull, rusty tools, and/or subjecting them to the Iron Maiden, but we don't seem to practice viciously cruel, medieval-style violent torture like that anymore.* Pity. The bas s deserve it.

3B. The whole talking point about "no new refineries since 1979" is bull meant to mislead you. Of course no oil company in its right mind is going to build a greenfield facility when it can just expand its existing refineries over and over again; why spend the money to recreate the infrastructure and logistics that they already have? Dozens of refinery expansion projects are going on right now; that is why my company has to keep throwing money at me so that Chevron, ExxonMobil, or Motiva won't lure me away.**

4. Even when oil supply and demand reaches an equilibrium, the price rises in dollars because the dollar is turning into Monopoly money lately. The British pound is $2 now; the Euro is $1.52. Our fiscal policies have been Third-World stupid since January 2001, and eventually the chickens come home to roost. Inflation is running at an annual rate of 7%.***

In summary, oil prices are never going down ever again, they'll actually go much higher, it will affect the cost of all goods that require transport such as food, and basically your quality of life is going to decline significantly. The post-WWII era of American hegemony and boundless prosperity is ending. Sorry.

*Except for waterboarding, WHICH IS TEH AWESOME
**Yes, while your life is collapsing into an economic unseen since the 1930's, I'll be doing OK. Thanks for asking. This is why I give to the homeless, because eventually a lot of them will be people I know.
***Zimbabwe runs 150,000% inflation, which is worse than 7%. THANK GOD for term limits on the Presidency. That was one seriously enlightened amendment.

Thank you ES, a voice of reason.

As for you Ray, you think I don't have a clue? You get your information from 1950!

Oil is a non-renewable resource that will run out - the International Energy Agency, who keep tabs on this sort of thing, predicts that to happen (based on the entirely predictable yield curves of oil fields in each country) in 43 years. FACT.

Transport fuels (ie. oil) are the 2nd major contributor to greenhouse gas production after electricity generation. FACT.

No-one currently pays for the damage being done to land, earth and air by fossil fuels. FACT.

Sitting in a traffic jam alone in your 5L V8 SUV is extremely wasteful when you could be sitting in a car with a 1,5L engine. FACT.



People like you make me sick.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

You are a . FACT.

And you're a lying sucker who pretends he's mouse when he's actually not. Who's the again? What do you actually add around here? Not a ing thing that I can see.

Ray mouthed off about me and I'm not allowed to say something back to him? Go yourself with a cactus.

[Nbadan]

1. Demand is up because of growing economies like China and India, but supplies can't keep pace.

2. We are close to the point in history when oil production will plateau and then slowly start an irrevocable decline. Since the American economy, its infrastructure, its cities, etc. are all designed with the assumption of cheap and readily available oil, this means we are screwed. Sorry. The party is over. We will invade lots of countries to forestall this as long as possible, but ultimately we are screwed. If we don't bankrupt our economy because we can't compete anymore, we'll bankrupt it by fighting all the wars.

3A. There is a lot of misinformation in this thread about things like corn ethanol and refineries. Liberals do not support corn ethanol, and neither do conservatives. Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, and Cargill support corn ethanol because basically the scheme consists of giving them free money from taxpayers. We should be impaling their executives on blunt poles like the Turks and Romanians used to do, and/or eviscerating them with dull, rusty tools, and/or subjecting them to the Iron Maiden, but we don't seem to practice viciously cruel, medieval-style violent torture like that anymore.* Pity. The bas s deserve it.

3B. The whole talking point about "no new refineries since 1979" is bull meant to mislead you. Of course no oil company in its right mind is going to build a greenfield facility when it can just expand its existing refineries over and over again; why spend the money to recreate the infrastructure and logistics that they already have? Dozens of refinery expansion projects are going on right now; that is why my company has to keep throwing money at me so that Chevron, ExxonMobil, or Motiva won't lure me away.**

4. Even when oil supply and demand reaches an equilibrium, the price rises in dollars because the dollar is turning into Monopoly money lately. The British pound is $2 now; the Euro is $1.52. Our fiscal policies have been Third-World stupid since January 2001, and eventually the chickens come home to roost. Inflation is running at an annual rate of 7%.***

In summary, oil prices are never going down ever again, they'll actually go much higher, it will affect the cost of all goods that require transport such as food, and basically your quality of life is going to decline significantly. The post-WWII era of American hegemony and boundless prosperity is ending. Sorry.

*Except for waterboarding, WHICH IS TEH AWESOME
**Yes, while your life is collapsing into an economic unseen since the 1930's, I'll be doing OK. Thanks for asking. This is why I give to the homeless, because eventually a lot of them will be people I know.
***Zimbabwe runs 150,000% inflation, which is worse than 7%. THANK GOD for term limits on the Presidency. That was one seriously enlightened amendment.

Bravo....that the most significant post I've ever read from ExtraStout...

[mikejones99]

$3.59 and rising here

[JoeChalupa]

After this summer the days of gas under $3 may be over.

[Heath Ledger]

$3.59 for reglar in my home town right now. been going up every day for last week.