| Author | Message | ||
     Dynasport |
Truly, some people speak from such ignorance it frightens me. | ||
| Jlnance |
The long term answer is to get our economy off of oil. Unfortunately, there isn't going to be one silver bullet replacement. Fusion.  A few years off. | ||
| Jlnance |
I keep reading newspaper editorials how our SYV's are gas hogs and how we should conserve...BS. The Pres of OPEC has even said that none of that will bring the price of oil down. If demand drops sufficiently, the Pres of OPEC won't have much say as to what the price is. | ||
| Naustin |
Truly, some people speak from such ignorance it frightens me. republican. | ||
| Oldog |
one size does not fit all. The more people who trade their SUVs for Smart Cars, and sell their suburban McMansions and buy condo's My truck and bike are paid for, I needed the truck when I ran my business ( its closed) I am out of debit, and intend to stay that way. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and my electric bill runs from 50$ to 70$ a month started at 40 2 years ago. I want a 50 mpg car for grocery store trips and errands VS 18 mpg my trip to work today cost me 7.50$ in gas but I dont need a car payment?? so what do I do? Taxes on gas are OVER 1$ a gallon here in NC perhaps we should consider ( you know we the people ) demanding an accounting of what it goes for,}} How fondly I recall the day when the world was begging for Kansas Grade 4 Hard Red Winter Wheat. ALSO WHY are we importing any thing that can be grown here,  are the "corperate farmers" bowing to the desires of the share holders? less food better profit I have to comment on that I was raised to believe that I should save some money every payday ( I do this now, but after last year I have to add the banks to the list with the oil co's 3500$ avg loan balance, 2500$ avg saving balance, 450$ interest last year loan 5.00$ yes 5.00$ on my savings from my un educated narrow minded point of view, we may all need to wake up and look and around things are not good here and the appearant level of GREED should be alarming Dalton Gang Good on you for trying to hold the line on your prices, lots of older folks live down there ( fixed income ) | ||
| Greenlantern |
Fusion. A few years off. Let's get cracking......   | ||
| Naustin |
so what do I do? Sounds like you're doing fine. I have a truck too. It doesn't get driven much, but its paid for and I have no reason to sell it. I only drive it when I really need it. For example, I used it to pick up a floor sander to help a friend refinish his wood floors this weekend. What you do is minimize how much you drive it. You can get groceries on your motorcycle. Yes you can! Just takes more effort. Most corporate farms are co-ops between several smaller family farms (brothers/sons/uncles) who incorporate for tax reasons. Just throwing that out there. PS) I work at a Bank. Funny how people think banks are greedy. THey only advise I can give you on this point is that you should stay away from corporate banks. I work for an Employee Owned Community Bank. You still aren't going to make a dime on a savings account balance though. Banks make money by investing the money you deposit - either in loans, or sometimes in the bond markets. If we can't invest your money long term, we can't pay you very much on it. Put your money in CDs if you want to earn a better rate. The bank needs a spread of 3% over what we pay you on a CD just to break even. When the markets fluctuate, we can get trapped bacause suddenly loan rates adjust lower and we're still paying a high rate on CDs locked in for 5 years. Big corporate Banks can be greedy (Usually on fees), but the hometown banks are usually squeeking by pretty thin. You'd be surprised. Its like assuming a gas station is making money hand over fist because gas prices are high. In reality, gas stations make very little profit on fuel sales. (Message edited by naustin on April 28, 2008) | ||
| Xl1200r |
www.aptera.com | ||
| Greenlantern |
You can get groceries on your motorcycle. Yes you can! Just takes more effort. On a Lightning, double bag plastic and use the lollypop stalks as bag handle holders. Instant recyclable Tank Bag! (2 chicken/4 pounds chuck tested!)  | ||
| Chellem |
As incompetent as our elected officials may be, as greedy as our corporations may seem, it is only us who share the ultimate responsibility or blame in any of this as we are the ones who placed them at their stations.We put them there either by ballot or check to watch our interests. It is Apparent that they are not performing up to spec! Now the question is can we their bosses (all 700 million + of us) conference call a solution to this, or just wait for necessity to outweigh need? I would LOVE to take responsibility for our elected officials being dumb-ass jerks. The problem is, as ONE person, I can either a) not vote at ALL, which is obviously not a good solution, or b) vote for the least offensive. I also can't purchase methods of heat other than what's offered to me. My backyard won't support a windmill, it's just not big enough. And I needed a variance just to build a house with a porch, so I don't see getting a permit for it. What I mean, of course, is that regular, non-engineer people are just not in a position to find a good substitute for energy. Who should I give my check to? I'd be happy to do it! Until some non-dumb-ass, non-morally-bankcrupt person runs for office, I can't vote for him. So please don't place all the blame on me, or the collective "us". The system is designed so that I have to choose someone who is offered to me. That person has to have a lot of money to run, and unfortunately, as people give him money, he sells little pieces of himself. Maybe the answer is to completely disallow all advertising for candidates. Disallow any campaign contributions of any sort. Force them to run on actual platforms and to walk from door to door. But I don't know how to do that. Just don't completely blame the masses. I'd love to hear a solution, rather than just a presentation of the problem. | ||
| Court |
>>>>Gas was 36 cents a gal. when I started driving and I wish it still was. True. I was buying gas for $0.249 when I was working at Northeast power plant. In fact, once bought it at Skelly for $0.199. But, I was working out of Local #53 making $3.11 an hour. With the overtime I thought I was living high on the hog. That's too simple a view. Americans have an elevated elasticity in terms of the gap twinxt feeling pain and reacting. Smoker's who declared the minute fags hit $3.00 they'd quit are lined up to buy (along with Lotto players who are the pinnacle of stupidity) to buy at $8.00. If common sense were, we'd all be driving a Prius. I confess, as a truck driving frankly no reason to, to having gone and driven a Smart car and looked at a Mini. I'm also attacking this from a bit of an opportunistic angle as I get paid by the mile and, as an example, drove over 300 miles one day last week shuttling from the Outerbridge Crossing to Chappequa to speak at a luncheon and back to Goethals. But . . and you'll soon share my smile . . . I get paid the same mileage no matter what I drive. I'm sitting here working the 2,000 miles per month equation for a truck AND a bike. I'm feeling a new love for that $2,000 KLR. It's likely time folks start developing plans. I predicted, some of you will recall, the better part of a year ago that we'd be seeing $5.00/Gallon by June 1. . . . the current $4.299 in Huntington, LI is making that prediction look good. Interesting times. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
with this being said, oil is jumping over 120.00 a barrel due to some crap in Nigeria and a refinery strike....a refinery strike? WTF are these guys striking for? | ||
| Naustin |
Pensions "The Grangemouth workers are having to strike to defend their existing pension scheme which, despite the fact it is well-funded and in profit, their hugely rich employer, Ineos, wants to close it," said its national officer Phil McNulty. (Message edited by naustin on April 28, 2008) Also, when you look at it holistically and factor in the battery's costs of manufacture and proper disposal, a stripped down corolla is better for the environment than a prius. (Message edited by naustin on April 28, 2008) | ||
| Swordsman |
"Fusion. : ) A few years off." Heh, you think an oil well catching on fire is nasty, wait until a fusion generator has a meltdown and creates a new star on Earth. Then the new star and the sun will collide in a giant supernova, and the whole solar system will blasted into oblivion. But dammit, for a little while, energy was cheap!  Solar. Solar. Solar. SOLAR. The only way to go. ~SM (Message edited by Swordsman on April 28, 2008) | ||
| Greenlantern |
Michelle and whoever else read my meaning "right" ( I better start thrice proofing what I type!), The point I intended to make was that we are the source of our own troubles in the sense that no one person or event lead to this current situation and though a lot of us are feeling the pinch some more than others, general consensus and hard economic data does not bear out the crisis a good deal of us believe to be real. when I ( a bit ham handily ) pointed the finger at us, I did not mean it in the "we are dumbasses" sense but was trying to point out that the whole cycle begins and ends with us. With that I believe the answer is for us to use that base of power and vote with our wallets besides waiting for election day once a year. To actually open those wacky petitions we get in the mail every week and read them, maybe sign and send a few of them back! Take one less drive a week when we can help it. I should have said this in my original post but was trying to leave it between the lines, my bad. Sometimes you are so sure of your thoughts that you take it for granted everyone else will see it for the "genius" (sarcastic emoticon here) it is!  Steps I have have taken include : Giving up my paid company transportation home for a $260.00 a month train commute. 1 car family(+ 1 motorcycle  ) Walk to store for things I can carry in 2 bags or less. Energy efficient appliances and bulbs throughout the house. ( don't even have a flat screen tv yet until they bring that consumption down) Throw a little money at non-profit environmental groups on a quarterly basis. I know these are all drops in the bucket and that some of them are not possible to a lot of people for economic , logistical reasons or both . But I hold on to the belief that millions of us dripping into the bucket is going to eventually fill it to overflowing! Here's hoping. | ||
| Kyrocket |
I'm actually looking to get a truck. I've been considering the Ridgeline, albeit it's not winning any awards for looks but it would suit my needs the best. I currently drive a 12 year old Toyota Avalon. I need something I can put three kids in the back seat of and run to Lowes for mulch and throw the bicycles in the back. They're both six cylinders but at the rate I drive I don't see it being a big difference as I only drive about 8500 miles a year. We also burn wood for some heat in the winter and I try and replace as many trees as I cut down on the farm and clean up as many storm toppled trees as I can. I don't think we'll ever be off of oil in my lifetime. My wife watches gas prices religiously and I couldn't tell you what one said just after I past it. If I want to go somewhere I have to have gas. That's it! If it's $8 then it's $8. Will I piss and moan? You betcha but when it gets to where it is really adversely affecting me I'll cut down or stop all together. I only live a mile from work and have walked it before, I can put the kids on the bus and start beating feet. I've gone so long without driving that my battery went dead, and that was actually a pretty good feeling. Crap I've gone off on a tangent and can't focus now. Lets get started on a steam powered bike. | ||
| Court |
Careful what you get to thinking is better. . . . what if you found out that the electricity generated to charge an electric car produced 10 times the emissions coming out of the tail pipe of my truck? In may ways you are choosing not only how MUCH pollution but where. . . . we in NYC like to pollute in Quebec. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/environment/ 2008-02-25-plug-in-hybrids-pollution_n.htm | ||
| Naustin |
That's what I was getting at. Current gen. hybrids are not all that green, the Prius included. A very lightweight vehicle with a small standard engine can acheive 50+ mpg. The trade off is performance. Most of the current hybrids use the electric motors to augment performance in stop and go and in-town situations and the systems and do nothing but add dead weight once you're on the highway. Pure electrics are no better for the reason Court points out. That said, we're in a transitory process. The solution will evolve, so perhaps encouraging continued development by buying the Prius is actually more important than getting better real MPG with a 5-speed Chevy Aveo? | ||
| Kyrocket |
Where's that post about the '59 model vehicle getting 376 mpg in circa '73? | ||
| Greenlantern |
Interesting article.......My head hurts now! Can't even go back to Horses at this point, all the Methane would cause the planet to combust starting a fusion reaction which would.... cause us to collide with our new sister star Sol and then .....there would be less demand for gas..... which would drive prices back down...... uh, carry the three and check your gazintas.....*  | ||
| Jlnance |
I predicted, some of you will recall, the better part of a year ago that we'd be seeing $5.00/Gallon by June 1. . . . the current $4.299 in Huntington, LI is making that prediction look good. To be fair, I think you were predicting that for last summer as well. I'm sure if you predict it often enough you'll be right. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Can I make a bold prediction? No matter what, we won't see gas at under $3.00 a gallon again. | ||
| Greenlantern |
Can I make a bold prediction? No matter what, we won't see gas at under $3.00 a gallon again. Now you are just being plain silly! | ||
| Zane |
I can't vouch for this man's credibility but here are some scary thoughts about gasoline prices. I worry that he may be right. How does $10 a gallon strike you? http://www2.nysun.com/article/75363 | ||
| Xl1200r |
I know that a big factor in the price jump is from the exploding economies in China and India. So maybe we can also blame all the big companies for off-shoring our jobs? The jobs go to India, and so does the pay check, and we're fighting them for oil, not just jobs. | ||
| Court |
How does $10 a gallon strike you? Fine as long as the minimum wage is at $17.50. Guess what country in the world had more economic GROWTH (just the growth component alone) than the GNP of China, India and Japan combined? Ain't all that bad here folks . . . . | ||
| Hughlysses |
Oil, shmoil: U.S. Resources The United States has enormous coal "resources" and "recoverable reserves." The most reliable information about coal is published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The most recent figures available from the EIA, show that America's estimated recoverable reserves of coal -- -Stand at 275 billion tons, an amount that is greater than any other nation in the world. -Are capable of meeting domestic demand for more than 250 years at current rates of consumption. Rail transport could be converted to coal by electrification or production of modern coal fired locomotives (something I've followed for 28 years). This would free up a lot of diesel fuel for other means of transport that can't burn coal easily. | ||
| Greenlantern |
In the article it states that a Minister led a "Pray In" asking God for cheaper gas! That route didn't work on the President and he only has a stake in "Big Oil"! What makes him think the Owner of all Oil is going to cut his profits?!?  | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Doom and gloom...stock up on food,water,ammo and gold | ||
| Pammy |
I am only 46 years old and I can remember when gas went "up" to 33 cents a gallon. YIKES! I remember when bread jumped from 15 cents a loaf to 4 for a dollar. Outrageous! I also remember when minimum wage was less than 2 dollars an hour! Let's face it. Prices will never go backward, only forward. It's the natural yet very ugly progression in this capitalist world we live in. I think what makes it seem worse now is there are more ways to find out how horrible the economy is on a day to day basis. It used to be the newspapers and the 6 o'clock news on maybe 3 channels of a black and white Television and an AM radio if you had one. Progression isn't all bad, it's just expensive... |
