Big Oil has beatin me down
#61
Hey man... I live in SoCal too... LA... what kind of mileage are you getting with the blower?
I'm about to put a Saleen on and was wondering the difference.
#62
For 15-20 years the price of gas had been around $1.50 when adjusted for inflation. However over the last 5 years we have seen crazy increases and I do not think it's a coincidence that the oil companies are also seeing record profits. Sure the government gets it's share, but they always have. The price of gas has more than doubled in the last five years but the taxes are a percentage so they rise when the price rise.
May 1992 1.12 (2006 dollars = 1.60)
May 1997 1.21 (2006 dollars = 1.50)
May 2002 1.45 (2006 dollars = 1.62)
May 2007 3.26 (2002 dollars = 2.28)
Now I agree that it's a free market but the oil companies say prices go up when there is increases and decreases in demand...I'd like someone to explain that.
May 1992 1.12 (2006 dollars = 1.60)
May 1997 1.21 (2006 dollars = 1.50)
May 2002 1.45 (2006 dollars = 1.62)
May 2007 3.26 (2002 dollars = 2.28)
Now I agree that it's a free market but the oil companies say prices go up when there is increases and decreases in demand...I'd like someone to explain that.
Even if they are raising the prices unfairly...What are you gonna do about it? Go and start your own rival oil company that sells gas for 99 cents? Have at it. It's a free market like you said. And to answer your question, supply is the problem. Supply is steadily going down which means price is going to steadily go up, demand fluctuates and balances out in the end.
#63
Yeah paying for it bites but if we dont the economy will probably collapse and we will all be hurting from it. Gas in the 60's was wicked cheap, now its wicked expensive. How much more do we all make now compared to then. Not really sure I was born in 85. My dad tells me he made 15bucks a week working in his fathers store as a kid my age. I make 650 a week working a dept supervisor of a store.
#67
Gas was up .20 from last week. Filled with 87 and loaded Doug's 87p tune. I was running 93p tune. It still just rocks. I just don't need the extra hp going to work right now and am so impressed with how the 87 tune can do this and not have detonation. Heck with talking about oil prices...I am just glad I can drive a car that can run 87, gets over 300 at the flywheel and gets just over 20 mpg with my driving.
Thanks Doug! ...well, ok... and Ford.
Thanks Doug! ...well, ok... and Ford.
#68
yeah a good tune will help, so will a v6 daily driver pos that gets me mid-upper 20's and my fiancee's 4cyc honda that gets like 33-25 highway mpg. But hey the stang is way more fun
#69
And hasn't supply been going down, well forever?
My point is that the price isn't going up steadily at all. It's taking giant leaps. One month ago I was paying $2.75 gal. and now I'm paying $3.49. Are you tellling me that in the last 30 days there has been some market event causing a 27% increase?
#70
I lust for a M24
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Supply of what? The middle east is buried in crude. Don't buy the BS that the news portrays of OPEC cutting production to raise price... OPEC cuts production so they don't have so much to store.
#72
The station I work at went from 2.96 to 3.05 after the second comp shop. (@2pm) We had stayed at 2.93 for about a week and a half, then went up to 2.96 on tuesday. All day I hear people crying about the price, going so far as to tell me it's illegal to change it after a certain time. Luckily enough I get two or three delivery trucks a day, so I can say the price went up on the docks.
#73
If you want to think of something scary as far as supply goes, look at the rate India and China in particular are adding more and more vehicles. In the not so far future we are going to be big oil customer #2 or #3, not #1. And we're paying for China's blooming economy.
#74
I dont care what the rationale is...or how much money you have. NO ONE wants to pay more, no one likes to pay more. When prices double or triple over the course of a few years people just start to wonder. And quite frankly when you see the palaces and metropolis like mega cities springing up in the deserts of the middle east, its hard to sit here and go..."Oh well thats supply and demand for you".
#75
Gold
Jan 1972 $45.75/oz
May 2007 $659.80/oz
#76
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Yeah. They have the supply. We have the demand. Until that balance chagnes, we will ALWAYS be at the mercy of OPEC.
But, until the people in this country decide that we actually need to take oil independence seriously, we are going to be stuck at the mercy of OPEC. Of course, they don't want to do the things that have to be done:
Build nuclear power plants to produce electricity (burning hydrocarbons to make electricity is one of the stupidest things we can do in my opinion)
Develop cost effective methods of converting oil bareing shale into oil
Develop alternative energy resources like solar and wind power (of course, anyone that has actually SEEN a large scale wind farm will realize that they destroy the visual environment like nothing else does and if we used enough land area for solar to produce the power we need, well, the land wouldn't exactly look "virgin" anymore)
Develop our geothermal energy. We have enough geothermal energy close to the surface in this country to provide all of our electricty needs now and in the future. It would be clean and reliable (unlike wind or solar). But we have not really looked into using the energy sitting litterally right under our feed.
Develop much more efficent methods of converting hydro carbons into motivational power. The IC engine at it's best still wastes 2/3's of the power from the fuel. Fuel cells? Different engine designs? Who knows...
Increase production of our own oil and gas reserves. Especially off shore. The off shore rigs are some of the RICHEST environments in the ocean. Life congregates on and around those rigs.
As for the "hydrogen economy", the problem is hydrogen in this sense is really nothing more than a batter: It stores the energy produced some other way (nuclear, solar, geothermal, oil, natural gas, etc) and releases it when it is burned in an IC engine or a fuel cell. But you can't drill a hole in the ground and pump out liquid hydrogen. The stuff just isn't available in it's molecular form in nature. It has all bonded with something else (oxygen comes to mind. aka: water) and you MUST use a LOT of energy to seperate it before you can use it as a fuel. It's just a battery and until we have a clean, reliable supply of energy to produce it, it's not viable. Not to mention the fact that a hydrogen powered car is just a bomb waiting to go off. Hydrogen IS one of the most reactive elements on the planet...
But, until the people in this country decide that we actually need to take oil independence seriously, we are going to be stuck at the mercy of OPEC. Of course, they don't want to do the things that have to be done:
Build nuclear power plants to produce electricity (burning hydrocarbons to make electricity is one of the stupidest things we can do in my opinion)
Develop cost effective methods of converting oil bareing shale into oil
Develop alternative energy resources like solar and wind power (of course, anyone that has actually SEEN a large scale wind farm will realize that they destroy the visual environment like nothing else does and if we used enough land area for solar to produce the power we need, well, the land wouldn't exactly look "virgin" anymore)
Develop our geothermal energy. We have enough geothermal energy close to the surface in this country to provide all of our electricty needs now and in the future. It would be clean and reliable (unlike wind or solar). But we have not really looked into using the energy sitting litterally right under our feed.
Develop much more efficent methods of converting hydro carbons into motivational power. The IC engine at it's best still wastes 2/3's of the power from the fuel. Fuel cells? Different engine designs? Who knows...
Increase production of our own oil and gas reserves. Especially off shore. The off shore rigs are some of the RICHEST environments in the ocean. Life congregates on and around those rigs.
As for the "hydrogen economy", the problem is hydrogen in this sense is really nothing more than a batter: It stores the energy produced some other way (nuclear, solar, geothermal, oil, natural gas, etc) and releases it when it is burned in an IC engine or a fuel cell. But you can't drill a hole in the ground and pump out liquid hydrogen. The stuff just isn't available in it's molecular form in nature. It has all bonded with something else (oxygen comes to mind. aka: water) and you MUST use a LOT of energy to seperate it before you can use it as a fuel. It's just a battery and until we have a clean, reliable supply of energy to produce it, it's not viable. Not to mention the fact that a hydrogen powered car is just a bomb waiting to go off. Hydrogen IS one of the most reactive elements on the planet...
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