Crude oil JUST hit 98 bucks....

Sometimes things like this need to happen to spur forward inovations and new technologies. Dont get me wrong, its gona be a tough road ahead but we will persevere.

Now is a good time to start investing in alternate technologies and fuel sources. See if you can hit the jackpot and pick the next Google of the energy market.

 

Time to start brewing the bio diesel.

 

We're all going to be like you Neo, riding our scooters -- and I say, what's wrong with that (except for when it rains).

 

this is just the kick in the arse americans need to get off oil, either that or a swift kick with my boot. Stop funding the terrorists already come on...

 

It is easier said than done. getting off oil will not be an easy move.

I for example own two gas vehicles. While not the most economicle they were pretty high on the list for what they were and yer of manufacture.

02 ford taurus. Around 25 miles to the gallon average. Was prety good in 02 cost to trade it in and get something that gets better MPG. not economicle as of now. The mileage iss too low the MPG gain would also not be very good. I'd have to own a hybrid for 15 years for it to be economicle.

03 F-150. Tritan 5.4 16-18 MPG from factory but I get 20 MPG average now And I tow a lot. Upgrades for towing not Speed racer.

So to buy another truck would be rediculuose. Not to mention a desiel starts at about 30k.

Again I am stuck for now.

What we really need is technology to catch up to the consumer.

A 2-3 mpG improvement is not justifiable for the exrteme expence of a new vehicle.

 

All we have to do is drill Alaska and off the coasts.expand nuclear plants and power and were good to go for the next few centuries and by then we'll have alternate energy sources.

 

Not a bad idea, but try to convince the idiots that protest wind mill generators because they disturb bats migration.

There will always be people that try to stand in the way of progress, and our government has gotten to where they cave in to the ones that scream the most :shock:

 

At $100 per barrel, crude oil costs about $0.28 per 16 ounce cup. Be glad your vehicle doesn't run on Starbucks coffee. Some of you don't remember, but a new Impala in 1967 cost about $3500, today they are about $30,000. Gas at the pump then was about $0.30, today pushing $3.00. In reality, the Government (Fed, State) earn more per gallon than the oil companies.
Perspective, folks, perspective.

 

Who wants to bet when a barrel hits $100 the price at the pump goes to $4.00? I'm in Chicago area now and it's $3.25 in a rinky dink town, I bet near the airport it's $3.50+ already. Too bad the high school days at $0.97 a gallon are gone.

Although this type of thinking appears to be sound it is not in todays economy. Those prices may be accurate but a guy in a steel mill was also making about $30,000 a year and had to be the only one working to support his family. Today, many people are lucky to be making $30,000 with a 10 fold increase in inflation the numbers do not equal out. When a month of fuel is equal to or greater than rent or mortgage payments something is wrong.

 

That, and the fact that my job in the USAF is totally dependant on petroleum and it's byproducts.... I am not saying that I disagree with anyone griping about the prices, I fill up and pay just like you guys do. It's just that if the government ever wants to introduce a flying car, or an all electric fighter jet, I'm out of a job.... :?

 

Same thing here: Unless they want me walking around New Mexico and Arizona packing 50lbs of gear AND laptop(s)...this guy's leather personel carriers aint goina cut it. As it is, there is a company gas card, but vehicle is only for buisiness use (No worries, I just need to get there...)

 

Well just to prove that its not all bad. The company I work for grossed $70M two years ago, last year we did $177M, this year we are on track to do $240M. Our manuracturing facility in Tulsa cant keep up with orders running 24hrs a day.

If you need to know we make pipeline equipment. Automatic welders, benders, suport equipment, etc.

 

I never worked in a steel mill, but I was a working stiff in those days. From the table in the Census Bureau web site, the only guy making $30,000 in those days was the Boss man on the top floor of the factory.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/h01ar.html

The average guy on the floor was making about $7,000/year.
I had a service station in part of those days and normal prices were 28-30 cents per gallon. During price wars in 1970, I sold regular at 19 cents. My station profit was reduced to 3 cents per gallon from the normal 5.5 cents per gallon.

Don't get me wrong, I was doing OK and I worked for my favorite person. My point in my original post was that from that time period, prices on practically everything except electronics has risen by a factor of 10.

Now I didn't address income, because that was not what the thread was about, but it has obviously not kept pace. Up by about a factor of 8. I just as easily compared the price of gas to milk, which has increased by the same proportion.

 

All this stuff about the high cost of oil is crap utter crap! They claim it is a fossil fuel then why did prehistoric animals fall into tar pits [a fossil fuil] and die. Why are a lot of old oil wells that stopped producing actually starting to produce again?
This is just the BS of Oil Companies to have a reason to ramp up the oil price. Of cours having ancient refineries doesn't help as well

Oil is a renewable source more and more are coming out with proof that oil is formed by the earth NOT by old lizard,birds or whatever ya wanna call the beasties

 

Don't take me back to those days... when 25 cents would fill up the motor bike... I thought I was dreaming. Cokes in the machine I think only cost 20 or 25 cents too. (P.S. - I'm really not that old... but I was a punk teenager in the '70s riding my dirt bike around.)

 

LOL that is the funniest thing I've read all day.

 

Oil is formed by the earth? Well I suppose thats true, since the earth encompasses everything on it.

Well lets see if public education has stuck with me. Oil is hydrocarbon, all the flora and fauna on the planet eventually get buried, pressure and heat make it into a form that is convertible to energy like coal or oil. So yes it is a renewable resource, but the rate we use it, and the rate its renewing is probably hugely discrepant.

As to the old wells coming back, yes, like water wells if you don't use them the aquifer will refill as water flows in from the rocks seams, if you pump out more than it free flows then the well will go dry again. When oil price started up a few years ago, old wells were injected with water around the edges of oil fields to force oil into the central reservoir so it could be pumped out. There are other recovery processes as well, and they all are only worth doing when oil hits a certain price level. So its not like the magic oil fairly is using her wand on oil wells.

 

How oil is formed has NEVER been proven. For all we know there may be an Oil Fairy with her magic wand! Both the old or new theories are all viable.

 

No matter how it is formed, it is all over the place. Yes more in the midle east then here but, The chicoms, and mexico and cuba are all drilling in the gulf of mexico. chevron found a hugh field in the gulf 175 mile off of N.O. but it reqiruiers 'deep Water drilling, something that while we have the technology is very expensive. but at $100 a barrel, the cost might not be as bad as it was a year ago when that field was opened. The seems to be at least enough oil to add 50% to our nations reserve. Sure thats not a great long term deal, but thats just 1 field.

There is oil off the coast of FLA but the enviromentalist don't want us to go get it. There is more in the Alasjain edge clse to the artic, but again the enviromentalist say no. Canada is getting to it from CANADA by "cross drilling!!"

The fact is there is oil, then is no shortage. We just can't get to it. Then if we could, we haven't built any new refineries in over a decade. So we don't have the capacity to refine it.

Then there is the supply and demand. The oil companies are sell record gallons of gas because there is record demand. We haven't stopped using it at all.

When was the last time any of you bought a bottle of Dom Perignon ? A 750ml bottle cost me $130 last month to celebrite my daughters 1st wedding anniversary. how about a bottle of jack daniels? A 1 liter bottle of Black Label JD is going to cost you $30 buck. A HALF a Gallon of Candian Club will cost you $30 buck. A 40 oz bud is going to cost you $3 bucks, there is 128 oz in a gallon, thats $9 a gallon for Budwieser.

Like someone said earlier, prespective people prespective. Gas isn't doesn't cost us that much when you look at iot against all of the other daily products we use. What did you pay for the bottle of water you bought today?