Aside from the tax portion, the price of gas is a supply and demand driven commodity. Want to pay less per gallon at the pump? Then we need to start using less. It's a finite resource and it might be nice if we left some of it for our children/grandchildren.
Yep it is supply and demand and the best way to bring prices down is to INCREASE supply whilst also DECREASING demand. To say one can work while the other will not, is beyond misleading, it is incorrect in every form. Approach the problem from both directions. PS: I paid $4.05 a gallon for premium fuel today here in NC....
I don't think decreasing demand here will do anything, cause the rest of the world will just suck up the extra, keeping demand up means keeping prices up. China added more cars to their roads last year than we did, and will continue to do so every year, so will India.....the overall worldwide demand is not going to go down from what we do here. The only real long term answer to me is fusion powered cars, running on garbage. I need a Mr. Fusion!
Not how we have been going about it and much to big a subject to go into detail here, but we need to fire everyone at the DOE and close it down for starters... It represents failure by all definition and is beyond repair. Glad to see though that you are now open to discussion on the subject here!!
For one thing we should stop adding ethanol. The use of food crops for our transportation needs is frankly just silly. Now if we could find a way to cost effectively use other crops to make fuels that would make sense.
I've always been open to discussion, I just don't have a lot of time or interest in pointless rants. My point is that like a lot of things, we say we need a new one, but no one seems to know what the old one is, and what it should be. Mind you I'm of the opinion that less gummint can only be a good thing, so I'm in your corner on that topic for sure. Using minimark as an example, "We need to fire everyone at the DOE and close it down".... OK, then what? If you're suggesting that the DOE doesn't really do anything and no one would miss it if it was gone, OK. Again, I'm in the less gummint is a good thing camp all the way. But, it must do something, doesn't it? It's just that sweeping blanket statements like "We need a new energy policy" don't really mean anything, do they? They're just a way of expressing frustration at a situation beyond our control and ability to even influence. Another one I hear a lot " We need an new immigration policy" or "We need to get tough on immigration".....what does that mean exactly? It doesn't mean anything except "I'm tired of things the way they are and they need to change" Air, it's all just hot air...... The point of the picture to me is - get ready, its coming to your neighborhood soon. Get out your bicycle and air up the tires, dust off those walking shoes, start looking for a new house closer to your job or a new job closer to your house. In a way, i wonder if gas prices like this could usher in a new living environment - similar to the way we used to live in this country, with the house upstairs and your business downstairs. with small shops serving the local community first, and people walking to work because their job was right there in the neighborhood. We could be in for an major shift in how we all live. Edit: Nathan I agree about corn ethanol being a complete waste of time money and resources. If we want to run on alchohol, we should do like Brazil, and do it 100%. however we don't have the same crops and growing season they do, it might not be do-able here as it was there. For those not familiar, you should look into how Brazil handles their fuel needs, it's pretty interesting, and they went thru hell in the 70's and early 80's till car technology finally caught up with the fuel they mandated.
Well I gladley pay $8.00 + a gallon at the Dragon for 100 octane race fuel. FYI the gas at the end of the dragon is ethanol free.
We all would love a world reliant on non fossil fuels that are completely free of polutants but in reality that day is far in the future. The question is how do we get from here to there with the least possible discomfort for humans and the planet. If that is looking to much at the big picture then so be it. I don't have all the answers and don't pretend to but to strangle free speech and an exchange of ideas will not help the situation we are in. Fact is we have huge energy supplies right here in the US that are being blocked from harvest. The DOE was formed to reduce our dependance on foreign oil. Billions....even trillions of dollars later and this huge oversized agency has not reduced that dependance since day one of its creation. FAIL. Dismantle it and start over with investments in research at places like MIT in advanced clean, cheap technologies. When the research finds breakthroughs, patent those technologies in the taxpayers name with use of those technologies being given for free to companies here in the US and owned by the US. All foreign companies would have to pay for it and or not be able to export those goods to the US.... These technologies need to be viable in their own right, not just when subsidized by the taxpayers... IE: Wind mill farms, built under subsidy, maintained under subsidy and subsidized when the wind doesn't blow enough and subsidized when the wind blows too much.... Why not invest in research into better energy storage solutions so that the energy overproduced when the wind blows to much could be stored for when the wind doesn't blow enough.... Just the tip of the iceberg.....lol
Our real problem right now in my opinion is not hat we do not a decent Energy Policy or Immigration Policy or Insert Policy Name Here Policy. The real problem as I see it is the lack of focus to fix anything our elected folks have. I refuse to call them "leaders" or "officials". The folks are so beholden to every interest that tosses money at them them that we the people no longer matter. They are also focused on the "other side" being wrong that they refuse to work as a team for the collective good. Until this incredibly adversarial state of affairs is rectified I fear we will just keep on the long slide into oblivion as the greatest country on Earth. I wish I could offer a fix, but then again they won't listen to me, I'm just a voter. Even still, I think the US is the best place to live.
There you go, Minimark....ideas and solutions, not just rants and complaints. and Nathan, I agree....it's been along time since we had real leadership in this country, so how do we fix that?
Nathan we have two diametrically opposing views in the US, one that thinks companies and individuals should aspire too self reliance and another that believes Government can bring about equalization through wealth redistribution. The latter being the easy road for many politicians because they can buy their position and office through promises of money for nothing... I contend that equalization is an unnatural and unobtainable state because without a ruling class to run it, an equalized society would rapidly become kaos...and if there is a ruling class, there is not true equalization.... I'll call it my " Roberts Theory of Societal Equalization." I'm working on the equation now...lol At the rate we are going, how long do you think this will continue to be the best place to live?
Green light the Keystone pipeline project, if Canada doesn't send to oil to us they will most assuredly sell it to China. With future fleet replacement for city's and government vehicles, such as busses, patrol cars etc they should all be running on natural gas, the US has the largest reservoirs in the world. Develop hydrogen fuel, it is abundant and clean. Also, Drill, Drill, Drill. We still have vast reserves here in the US and offshore, the methods they use to drill today are very efficient and can have many horizontal bores from one rig. Continue developing EV's the technology will catch up to the idea. Don't force us to use some environmentalists idea of what we should be driving, let us decided for ourselves and choose what fuel source we want to use.
The thing about the Keystone pipeline project is that it will take the oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast where all the refineries are. While that in it's self is not a bad thing it is also where the ports are too. Whats to say this is not a ploy by the crafty Canucks to get their oil to deep-water ports to be shipped overseas. If it was excess capacity that we here in the US and of course Canada are not using that would be one thing. Great for all, but if the oil is going to bypass our use and be sent oversea's all we are doing is providing a conduit over our land for the Canadians. I have nothing against Canada or Canadians as a whole, my biggest consulting client in terms of overall billable hours and income is Canadian.
Then we need to say if you build the pipeline 75% of the oil refined by us has to be for domistic use