Oil $180, gas $5.50

[madjack]

...no, but big oil can and does...ever seen those gize testifying before congress...they look just like the gnomes of Zurich(close enough ayway )
madjack

[Kurt (Indiana)]

With gas prices climbing, it's costing me well over $5000 per year to go to work. I'd better retire before I cvan't afford to make the trip.

Good new is I got a $3000 raise . I'm still behind.

I read (today) about a massive oil discovery in Brazil (SA). Bad news is that it probably won't be pumped until 2020.

According to the Mayan calendar, we might not need it anyway.

[Joseph]

...no, but big oil can and does...ever seen those gize testifying before congress...they look just like the gnomes of Zurich(close enough ayway )
madjack

Kinda like the people they're testifying before...

And the beat goes on...

"A day after GOP leaders demanded to see the gas price plan that Democrats alluded to a couple years ago, Democrats charged that Republicans have blocked legislation that would have given consumers some relief."

I think the point was they never had a plan to begin with.

OMG - our politicians LIED to us?!!

Joseph

[Claw]

Get over it friends the price of gas it just another excuse not to take control of your life. My God there were probably people bitchin' about the price of hay as to why they wouldn't go west in 1880.
If you can't beat them invest in them. OH, you don't have any money to invest America is the best place on Earth, figurure it out.

[Randy G]

Glad Im not fillin up one of those big motorhomes. I been mowing peoples lawns the past several years and havent raised the price yet.
I think this season Ill send people $5 to mow their own when they call.
It cost me more to fill the rider mower than it used to fill the jeep.
Maybe rent a goat will work.

[caseydog]

With gas prices climbing, it's costing me well over $5000 per year to go to work. I'd better retire before I cvan't afford to make the trip.

Good new is I got a $3000 raise . I'm still behind.

I read (today) about a massive oil discovery in Brazil (SA). Bad news is that it probably won't be pumped until 2020.

According to the Mayan calendar, we might not need it anyway.

Yeah, one of the big problems with oil exploration is that, once you find it, it takes a long time to get production up to where there is a benefit in the supply/demand equation. And, any new reserves found are probably going to be harder to get out of the ground than reserves already in production. Oil is getting hard to find, and hard to harvest.

Plus, any new production is still going to have to keep up with constantly increasing demand. China and India are growing rapidly, and for the last several years, demand has grown here as we've bought more and bigger cars, trucks and SUVs.

But, as prices go up, some companies will develop new technologies too replace how we power our homes and transportation. Sadly, it will probably come from Japan or Germany. Instead of looking for new technologies, it seems American corporations are looking for new ways to eliminate workers and pay executives bigger salaries and bonuses.

CD

[Elumia]

I watched this last nite

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/

Click and Clack looked at the car of the future...

Featured some good ole American technology. Hybrid research being done at UC Davis, Tesla motor cars is Silicon valley (interesting that the biggest part of what makes the tesla cool is Software for controls and battery management). Chevy volt, and research at MIT in internal combustion engines.

Mark

[caseydog]

I watched this last nite

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/

Click and Clack looked at the car of the future...

Featured some good ole American technology. Hybrid research being done at UC Davis, Tesla motor cars is Silicon valley (interesting that the biggest part of what makes the tesla cool is Software for controls and battery management). Chevy volt, and research at MIT in internal combustion engines.

Mark

Ah, the Tesla. The great white whale of electric cars. I hope it makes it. I hope I get to drive one.

Electric motors have incredible performance capabilities. But, Tesla isn't big enough to make it a mass market success.

There is something out there that will be commonplace in 20 years, that seems far fetched now. I remember thinking in 1978 that a four cylinder engine could never power a serious sports car. Ten years later the Europeans were getting 600 HP from two-litres of four-cylinder engine. I remember thinking that diesels were slow in 1988, and now they are winning LeMans.

Anything is possible -- but if big corporations can't see a way to make a lot of money on it, they won't even try.

CD

[Arne]

""But, as prices go up, some companies will develop new technologies too replace how we power our homes and transportation. Sadly, it will probably come from Japan or Germany. Instead of looking for new technologies, it seems American corporations are looking for new ways to eliminate workers and pay executives bigger salaries and bonuses.""

Yes, our government is almost entirely reactive instead of proactive. They can't see beyond the end of their noses when it comes to heading off problems. They only jump on the bandwagon when the mule bites them in the ass. And then they jumped on the ethanol bandwagon.. huge mistake.

Take a look at this article. The pic shows a tiny parcel of rain forest someone saved from clear cutting. The article is definitely an eye-opener.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html

[pete.wilson]

Hey

Arne,

You are absolutely right about most US companies/goverment being reactive instead of proactive. I'm working now for a large GPS manufacturer (Garmin) and it's amazing at times we do as good as we do with the quality of our inter-company communication. We still have not had a inter-department meeting with our Manager and Director over the last two years. But to the companies credit, they do very well and we have a very good customer service group which is very responsive.

The last company I worked was as Avionics Manager and we did good at communication but a comapany program (Corridor) we used was under-utilized and when I explained and showed them how it could be used, they said no because several key people didn't want to give up their little control of things (even though it would have made their jobs easier). Both companies tend to be run by "crisis management"; put out the fires instead of working towards ways to eliminate the fires before they even get started.

The real sad part is when someone of average importance who has the idea's to make positive change, only to have it ignored by upper management tends to make you give up on making suggestions after a while, which could have saved a very substantial amount in dollars to the corporate bottom line.

I had approached a senior advertising person about the idea of doing a bigfoot related commercial using our Garmin products and was turned down the first time and I then mentioned it a second time this past fall and it was very interesting what he had wrote in response, I had suggested this the first time before Jack Links did their "Messin with Saquatch". Even Jeep had done a bigfoot segment with the Jeep Liberty about a year ago. I even suggested I could arrange to get people, vehicles, and help from my "Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy" group which is non-profit operation at the same time. Now how might things had gone if Garmin had did it first! And they still could do it, but don't want to. So I don't make anymore suggestions about commercials. Instead we had the flop "map monster" 2 years ago and "Napolean" which was slightly better but far from great last year.

Pete Wilson

[H@nk]

One thing I don't understand. The € is worth 1 and a half more than the $,
here in Europe we pay for 1 liter petrol €1.59. The oil world is completely lost
Yesterday I have driven a Audi A6 TDI, 160 HP and I had to look to the dashboardx to see it was a diesel engine. Quick and less consumption.
I saw the last 2 years at Le Mans, the Audi and Peugeot dieselcars won the first 3 prizes. Number four however was a Corvette petrol car.
Greetings Henk

[Mini Renegade]

to cheer you americans up, I just paid 122.9p a LITRE for Diesel, times that by 4.5 for a gallon then when you recover from the shock you won`t be as worried about fuel prices in the US

[caseydog]

One thing I don't understand. The € is worth 1 and a half more than the $,
here in Europe we pay for 1 liter petrol €1.59. The oil world is completely lost
Yesterday I have driven a Audi A6 TDI, 160 HP and I had to look to the dashboardx to see it was a diesel engine. Quick and less consumption.
I saw the last 2 years at Le Mans, the Audi and Peugeot dieselcars won the first 3 prizes. Number four however was a Corvette petrol car.
Greetings Henk

The Corvette finished sixth overall, and second in it's class. It finished 27 laps behind the overall winning Audi Diesel.

Mercedes sells a full line of diesel vehicles here -- E320, ML320, GL320, R320 -- but they are the only ones with that kind of diesel presence in the US, so far.

CD

[Doberman]

If people decided to go with electric cars, that would solve the problem right? Not so fast...the greenies have not allowed us to build any more powerplants (which are overextended already).

[Joseph]

If people decided to go with electric cars, that would solve the problem right? Not so fast...the greenies have not allowed us to build any more powerplants (which are overextended already).

First they have to mandate electric cars by law. THEN they'll worry about making excuses as to why there isn't enough power to charge them.

And you can bet yer butt they'll find some way to blame Bush, Cheney & Halliburton...

Joseph