OT: Gas Prices

[ToddT]

In regurds to gas/oil prices, you guys are leaving out the speculators and hedges funds, that have a intrest in driving up prices for their own needs.

gloabal warming, volcues do spew a lot of gases,b ut the also seend large quanties of ash into the upper atmaosphere causeing temps to actually drop. Mt pinatoba (sp) causes a slight drop for around a year.
that also applie to all exaust emissions, they contain particulate matter that has the same effect. so both the burining of oil has been sending both componets into the atmosphere. one tends to cause heating the other cooling.
funny thing particulate emmissions from us and europe are dropping, but are rising in china and india. cleaning up the the particulate emmisions are easy, the co2...........

[Atrocities]

People in the US started buying those huge SUV's because gas was affordable and the big SUV's were something that the Jones had so they had to have em.

I hate huge cars, SUV's, and most huge trucks. I don't see a purpose to them if your not using them to hull things and or huge amounts of people.

Now Gas prices have spiked and the poor are being priced right off the road. There are calls by some to raise the gas tax in order to "punish" SUV drivers. To me that is just utterly [censored] silly. The only ones who would be hurt by a $3.00 gas tax would be people like me who can barely aford the current price of gas. Hell I am about $0.50 per gallon away from being permentaly forced off the road. And I am not alone.

Higher gas prices serve only to make the roads less congested for the rich, the very people who can aford higher prices and taxes. The people who buy and drive those huge mother [censored] SUV's in the first place.

Ya, lets punish them by raising the price of gas to the point where only they can aford to drive. Ya, what a real incentive for them to stop driving those gas guzzling SUV's, price the poor and lower income right off the road and presto... no more congestion. Ya, bang on idea there guys.

Less drives, as we all know the ratio, 80% of Americans are at the poverty level or within a pay check of it, so by raising the gas prices to $4.00 and higher per gallon, most of us will be priced right off the road. Less drivers means less congestion. Not nessassarly less polution mind you, as those who can aford to buy those huge SUV's, will still be out their driving them, but with far less traffic.

But hey, this is progress in a free market so who am I to *****.

[Atrocities]

Brazil had the right idea back in the 80's. Now they are about a year away from telling OPEC and the Oil companies to piss off. If they can make sugar based fuel work with flex fuel cars, then why in the hell can't we?

[Suicide Junkie]

Wouldn't it be nice to have prices much higher, but have your first X liters subsidized and cheap?

You should add something like this to your plan in the ruler of the world thread.

[Dragonswrd]

We don't have anything here like "flex fuel cars" because the car manufacturers won't bring them here. There is no market for them. People here like to drive their gas guzzling SUVs. Those that have posted here, are the minority. I would say about 75 to 80% of those I have talked to want to get an SUV. They don't care about the gas prices or the environment. But then again most Americans are complete morons (see last presidential election). And yes I am a citizen of the US, born and raised. And because the government has shown that our voices don't matter, no one is willing to try to change anything.

[Atrocities]

Dragonswrd said:
We don't have anything here like "flex fuel cars" because the car manufacturers won't bring them here. There is no market for them. People here like to drive their gas guzzling SUVs. Those that have posted here, are the minority. I would say about 75 to 80% of those I have talked to want to get an SUV. They don't care about the gas prices or the environment. But then again most Americans are complete morons (see last presidential election). And yes I am a citizen of the US, born and raised. And because the government has shown that our voices don't matter, no one is willing to try to change anything.

US car manufactures do manufacture flex fuel cars, GM for one. They just don't sell them here because like you said, there is no market for them here....... Bush is an oil man thats for sure, he is also crippeling pro big business, as many presidents have been, and there is simply too much money coming from the oil lobby to stand against them. SO yes, lobby reform is also a must.

[Sivran]

Flex fuel sucks. Takes too much energy to produce the ethanol. And where does that energy come from? Fossil fuels.

Biodiesel, man. Biodiesel. A stock diesel can run it. A few modifications help it last longer. And, you're recycling, using waste from restaurants, using vegetable and other oils that were already produced and used for another purpose.

I don't care that oil's up to 70 bucks. The oil companies can afford to lower gas prices, but they've discovered we sheep will tolerate higher prices. It's as much our fault as theirs.

[Atrocities]

Suicide Junkie said:
Wouldn't it be nice to have prices much higher, but have your first X liters subsidized and cheap?

You should add something like this to your plan in the ruler of the world thread.

Is that like Canadian humor or something?

[Renegade 13]

Ahhhh.

I was just being a little dense I guess, not seeing the obvious. Thanks for the clarification!

[jeffel]

Some of this is re-tread, but still, I thought it worth mentioning.

1. The Oil companys are ripping us off.
2. Gas should be more expensive.
3. We need to stop burning things to provide energy.

I am sure that I need to clarify #2

I think that gas taxes need to be higher and that the additional proceeds be used to shore up our transportation infrastructure and to provide research into alternative energies.

This approach has two main advantages.
1. Roads and other Transportation Infrastructure can be used to support even alternative energy cars.
2. At the same time we ramp down the use of fossil fuels, we would be encouraging the development of their replacements.

Recently there has been a lot of push in the media for bio-diesel and other fuels made from crops. While these fuels are an improvement over dependence on fossil oil, it still has some major drawbacks, most notably that they still release poisonous gasses into the atmosphere.

While bio-fuel is a good interim step, it does not (IMO) represent a long term solution.

Personally, I think that the hydrogen fuel cell is the future of portable energy and that a combination of solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and tidal energy is the ideal way to provide the raw energy for "refueling" those cells.