Tony's Rant on Gas Prices (again)

[hotboyluke]

$4.46 for regular here in Chicago

[CamCruise]

Energy consumption expected to jump 50% by 2030; greenhouse gases will see similar rise. Oil prices seen ranging from $113 to $186 a barrel.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/25/news...ion=2008062512

[hotboyluke]

Well some of the reason the price of gas per barrel is so high is because the dollar is a lot weaker than it was.

[JamesXR]

On a positive note, my latest economist quotes GE as saying that they expect something like 15% of our power to come from wind by 2020. Within a few years solar power will likely as cheap or cheaper than natural gas power. Many companies are working on next generation lithium ion car batteries that may allow 200-300 mile ranges and 5 minute recharges, thus decoupling our transportation costs from the price of oil.

On another positive note, my dad recently signed up to lease solar panels for his house. No money down, and the payments are cheaper than the electricity that they're replacing, so he'll actually be spending less per month on electricity. Let me put that in a more basic equation. Upfront cost waived, solar panels, lower total cost of electricity, right now. I believe that solar city is the company that does it.

Given cheap solar power and a future of cars that run on electricity and I'm optimistic.

[A_DeAngelo]

When I started this thread over a year ago, I really didn't expect that everyone would still be reading it and posting all these months later...

And yes, we've made some progress but...

since I'm back here checking in on some of the comments, its interesting to see how far (or not) the US has come in just one year - nowhere but to our knees... not to mention the fucked up weather patterns and everything else that's happening at an exponential and seemingly unstoppable rate

And why? Because in the minds of most Americans out there, buying a Range Rover or high end import is still high on the list along with adding extra rooms that need heating and cooling to their idiotic over-sized McMansions that suck up tons of power - LA is the WORST!

I've been told repeatedly by people we know that they'd rather add an extra room to their homes to add value to the property as opposed to adding solar panels !

How fucking stupid is that? Well here we are and we still know people buying huge gas guzzlers (because they're cheap now) and blah, blah, blah...

What I blame all of this on is our inexorable appetite for everything NOW - I call it the FedEx mentality - I first got pissed a long time ago while attending a dinner party in NYC given by some friends that had their BBQ rib dinners FedEx'd and all of the millions of consumers that can't wait two fucking days to get shit they've ordered - this all carried over into the manufacturing end of things as businesses discovered how easy it was to conduct day to day business by FedEx

I also would complain all the time about needing to wait on the tarmac in SF or LA while all the other flights to and from that were scheduled in the same time window were piling up waiting to take off.

As a nation, we've become lazy with needs for bigger stuff NOW and more of it. No wonder we're in trouble.

Meanwhile, we've been cutting way back on consumption - we have dumped the big, gas guzzling power truck - moved to an area that requires no air conditioning, switched over to as much solar as is possible (right now) etc, etc... and we're now shopping for a quick around-town go to the market and run errands vehicle (see pic) - just in case you didn't catch this on the other board we hang out in these days...

[JamesXR]

Fun little car. I've got to say that I see things getting better, but I think that the pain of high gas prices and other rising costs is going to encourage more positive change. As for people still buying SUVs, let them. It's not your problem when gas prices hit $6 a gallon and they're paying a dollar a mile to drive.
As for the airlines, they can just stop bitching and whining about fuel prices. When I can get a direct flight from the orange county or LA area to Costa Rica rather than first flying to Houston or Florida then they can talk, but so long as they're doing their stupid hub airport thing and want to fly you two or three places you didn't want to go before getting you to your destination, they can just zip it on rising fuel prices. I support the culture of getting things right now when the alternative is wastefulness.

[CamCruise]

Fun little car. I've got to say that I see things getting better, but I think that the pain of high gas prices and other rising costs is going to encourage more positive change. As for people still buying SUVs, let them. It's not your problem when gas prices hit $6 a gallon and they're paying a dollar a mile to drive.
As for the airlines, they can just stop bitching and whining about fuel prices. When I can get a direct flight from the orange county or LA area to Costa Rica rather than first flying to Houston or Florida then they can talk, but so long as they're doing their stupid hub airport thing and want to fly you two or three places you didn't want to go before getting you to your destination, they can just zip it on rising fuel prices. I support the culture of getting things right now when the alternative is wastefulness.

Yes it is great that Americans are now being forced to change their piggy ways.
And It will get better,but I dont see it doing so for another 5 to 10 years.
We are so far behind with mass transit in places like LA. But I would hope that people will start ride sharing and living closer to your place of work.

[CamCruise]

So now that the price of gas is going down again. Will Americans start driving like they did before?

Or do you think that the US has figured out that this dip in the price of gas is only to try to put McCain in office, and once hes in oval office the price will shoot up again!!

[hotboyluke]

If it gets down to under $2.00 I'll vote for John McCain but that ain't going to happen!

[nickbaer]

It went back up again here in Vegas yesterday.

The sign post at Rebel said $3.65, but the pump was $3.81. I buy like $12 a week, so I wasn't too mad for the false advertising.

I don't mind spending a couple of bucks on gas, to go to a Strip Hotel for dinner under $10 with free parking - and $25 in free slot play.

But if I was commuting to work, I'd be pretty mad.

[CamCruise]

Well now they have a reason to jack up the price again.
With a big hurricane heading for the golf it looks like we will be back at over $4.00 at the pump by this weekend.

[CamCruise]

Well it looks like we missed the bullet with Gustav.
The price of oil is down on the stock market today.