Gas

If you want to speed up the switch to alternative fuel sources, you should be using more gas, not less. The only way we can get rid of our use of oil is to use up all of the oil. As long as there is supply available, there is no reason to invest in switching to an alternative.

 

Vote for Kerry. He plans to offer tax credits to companies who research and develop alternate forms of fuel.

 

You've got a lot of issues going on. You've got a liberal Senate that is holding up progress on passing the Energy Bill. That uncertainty is hurting the energy markets. You've got resistance from liberals to fully utilizing America's natural resources by drilling in environmentally friendly ways in Alaska. You've got an incredible shortage of refining capacity in the US because of permitting difficulty which has been brought about by environmentalists. You've got China's burgeoning economy putting incredible upward pressure on demand for worldwide fossil fuels. So many factors are contributing to this.

When I read andymoon's ignorant answer, I simply laugh. John Kerry may be pro-tax credit for alternative fuels, but he would be an absolute NIGHTMARE for the energy industry. He was jack up regulation, he would raise taxes on corporations doing business abroad (oil is a worldwide industry), he would hike capital gains and dividend taxes and in so doing put downward pressure on energy company stocks, thereby increasing their cost of equity capital, and he would be a virtual disaster for air quality control measures, which is a huge cost for energy firms. Basically, he would cripple the entire corporate entity of an energy firm. To think that a little tax credit for a tiny piece of their business is going to help the issue is absolute insanity. It really amazes me that people actually buy into that. ANYONE in the energy industry or with knowledge of it would laugh the fool that thinks that way right out of the room.

We should not look to the public sector to solve our reliance on oil. This is a problem best left to private, free markets. Companies are pouring billions of dollars into solutions, don't think for one minute that they aren't. Right now going away from oil would create a worldwide depression the likes of which we have never seen. The cost picture is horrific for alternate fuels, despite the existence of an abundance of tax credits already. Progress is being made, but the worldwide dependence on oil is not something that will magically change because John Kerry is elected (perish the thought).

 

It's going to take MASSIVE government investment to kickstart renewable energy for it to become a viable alternative in this country. Currently it is far from being economic compared to fossil fuel sources. Simply offering tax credits are not going to be enough to allow renewable energy to "cross the chasm" (for those of you familiar with Geoffrey Moore's book). I'm all for renewable energy, but both candidates' plans aren't going to do squat about it supplanting what we currently use. This is not a topic that Kerry clearly beats Bush on.

 

its all about one thing...CHINA

they are econimcally blowing up (in a good way). china needs more fuel now than they ever have before. it driving up prices elsewhere and its never going to go down. if anything, as india emerges they will begin to purchase more too and our gas prices will go up even more.

as capitalism speads, demands for oil increase.

sucks for us, but we have been getting off cheap for a long time. we still pay less now than europeans have had to pay for a long time. higher oil prices will cause everything to go up in price, as the cost to transport our clothes and food and beer increases. trickle down economics goes bad.

as far as gas prices go, it doesnt matter who wins the election. neither will bring cheap gas back.

 

Look at the bright side: gas is still cheaper than the biggest ripoff of all - bottled water.

 

Certainly China is the engine driving continued high prices. And an insightful take on India adding to the equation, now and down the road. Oil prices will fluctuate, of course, but I don't think we will be seeing the sort of price range we've become accustomed to. Higher gas prices will stay with us and, in Texas, we will probably be seeing a hike in the gasoline tax, once the Legislature comes to grips with the fact that Texas government has been cut to the bone, and we have to get a revenue increase from somewhere. Our sales taxes can't possibly go up much more, property taxes need to go down, an income tax is political suicide in this state, and is a non-starter... so where else will revenue come from?

People, start hoping for a vast increase in the number of available hybrid cars, vans and SUV's. The days of blowing off the fact that you're buying something that averages 18 mpg is coming to an end, unless you feel like burning up your money out your exhaust, don't care that you are helping to drive up demand, and prices along with it, or both.

Personally, I like having room in my vehicle for whatever I want to put in it. I hope to have one van, wagon or SUV with a hybrid engine, in the future, and a nice sedan that I'm not as hung up on as to how efficient it might be. There are plenty of those available that get pretty good mileage, and run on unleaded. I'm tired of driving a tin can, with a rubberband-driven toy under the hood! (can anyone tell I'm sick of my wheels??)


Keep D&D Civil!!

 

The best thing to speed up the development of renewable fuels and conservation is for gas prices to continue to rise.

I've almost given up hoping that far sighted government or private sector businesses will end up making a difference and now its just going to take really expensive gas to do it.

 

The population of the US is increasing meaning we have a higher demand for fuel. OPEC has set a level of output set which really gets hurt when we have teh hurricanes in FL which have effected demand.

We need more fuel. Wheter it's twisting OPECs arm, finding alternative fuels to use (again this takes time) or finding new fuel. At some point we may have to allow more drilling in our our land (Alaska for example).

 

Actually, the engine driving high prices in the short term isn't China, it's the market, which reflects fears of the destabilizing mideast, especially Saudi Arabia. (ironic aside: part of the goal of the Iraq invasion was to stabilize the ME and thus America's oil supply - and it has had the exact opposite effect) There's an excellent article abou t all this in this weeks New Yorker from which I am cribbing all my info, btw.

Long term though there is a serious problem. And to be fair, the approaches of kerry and Bush can be labeled as bad and worse., respectively. Kerry has great plans for alternative fuel sources like wind, HE, and solar - but that's not going to make gas any cheaper since most insitutional power needs don't come from petroleum. Bush's plan is more drilling - a short term fix if there ever was one - but even drilling all of ANWAR would, even in the rosiest possible scenario, satisfy somewhere on the order of a paltry 3% (and likely far less) of America's daily oil consumption. Nobody wants to mention fuel economy standards (though cars got more fuel efficient in the 70's due to market forces, remember) or gas taxes because that's political suicide. Instead, we spend billions more, and lose thousands of lives, on ME military operations than we ever would on a gas tax

Lil Pun - gas prices won't likely go down significantly -- ever, but take heart as you still manage to pay less than most people not living in the mideast by a longshot. There's no birthright to cheap gas though and that's a lesson we will all learn, likely the hard way.

 

don't forget starbucks either, prices are up an average 11 cents a cup. thank goodness i refuse to drink the stuff. I swear they raise coffee 11 cents and you hear nothing, if they did it to gas we'd have to invade another country.

oh yeah, and as for alternative energy, its never going to happen as long as the automotive industry has its hands down the government's pants. that goes regardless if bush or kerry is in power. If the gov demanded alternative fuels, it would cripple automakers into changing their production lines, forced research and testing, and revamping the automobile. our cars suck enough and such a law would kill our auto economy.

 

You've got resistance from liberals to fully utilizing America's natural resources by drilling in environmentally friendly ways in Alaska.

Is there an evironmental way to drill for oil?? I've been out to the oil-fields and I can't imagine it. You can start smelling the oil a mile away.

When I read andymoon's ignorant answer, I simply laugh. John Kerry may be pro-tax credit for alternative fuels, but he would be an absolute NIGHTMARE for the energy industry. He was jack up regulation, he would raise taxes on corporations doing business abroad (oil is a worldwide industry), he would hike capital gains and dividend taxes and in so doing put downward pressure on energy company stocks, thereby increasing their cost of equity capital, and he would be a virtual disaster for air quality control measures, which is a huge cost for energy firms. Basically, he would cripple the entire corporate entity of an energy firm.

I don't think environmentalists, myself included as I have the environment near the top of my list of important things to protect, are really worrying that much about whether or not Devon Energy's cost of equity goes up. I'm worried about the environment, and our continually neglect of it.

Companies are pouring billions of dollars into solutions, don't think for one minute that they aren't. Right now going away from oil would create a worldwide depression the likes of which we have never seen. The cost picture is horrific for alternate fuels, despite the existence of an abundance of tax credits already. Progress is being made

While I agree with you that progress is likely being made and the switch to alternative energies won't be instantaneous, I can guarantee you that the exploration & production companies today are salvating at the high energy prices (assuming they haven't made any stupid hedging moves). These guys are raking in the cash right now, presumably either buying back stock or repaying / refiancing debt at cheaper rates while re-investing capital into drilling. I don't know where U.S. or international drilling levels are right now, but I'd imagine with the cash coming in and the current high price environment, these guys would be throwing money at further drilling. The OSX is up over 120 for the first time in over 2 years.

Again, I'm not saying some progress is being made, but the high price environment certainly isn't stimulating it.

 

higher gas taxes and also we are seeing more toll roads, which are kind of a hidden tax.

the state needs more revenue so they are doing the toll roads.

here in austin we are getting up to 5 new toll roads...the real b of the whole thing is that they are going to toll existing roads. you wont be able to go anywhere w/out paying a toll - its not like we have alot of highways here.

and what about sam houston tollway? 15 years and we still pay tolls on it? not only do we still pay, but they keep jacking up the toll on us. you cant tell me that the road has not been paid for by now. the government NEEDS that money and cant let go of the revenue.

 

Problem is once someone starts investing in alternative methods, OPEC will drop their prices and the alternative method investors are out of money.

 

i think that we will have viable alternative fuel sources w/in the next 10 years (providing we are still here - 2012 baby! the mayans know. )

its not going to come from the government, but the private sector. gas companies like shell and exxon are some of the biggest investors in research into alternative fuels. they would be stupid not to be. as soon as its cost effective (and/or gas gets rediculously expensive) than things like carbon-hydrogen fuel cells and all this stuff will come on the market.

gas companies dont want to be left holding their collective ding-a-lings when alternative fuels become truly cost effective. they are the ones at the forefront in all this.

drive out on i-10 in west texas and you see hundreds of those wind generators. probably about 10 stories high w/ massive propellors. the wind provides the power. when it becomes cost effective to turn the wind into actual energy than we will start to see these more. right now its real expensive to do so.

im very optimistic about alternative energy sources. i see radical change in the next 10 years or so (again, providing we dont nuke ourselves out of existence first).

 

The solution, is a steady and persistant decrease in oil consumption
When oil prices are this high, it becomes more viable to get oil from smaller and smaller fields and to drain them more thoroughly

Toyota Prius is a great first step, and sales of motorcycles are up big this year

As far as twisting OPEC's arm... when you're making $50 a barrel, you don't have to twist very hard, and very often outproduce the limits they set for themselves

 

found some stats on u.s. oil consumption. i didnt know that canada was our biggest foreign supplier and i didnt know that so much of our oil came from w/in our country. we only get 2/5's from OPEC, which is significant, but not as much as i had thought. of our top 4 foreign suppliers, only 1 is a mid-east country.

During 2003, the United States produced around 7.9 million barrels per day (MMBD) of oil while consuming 20 MMBD.

The United States averaged total gross oil (crude and products) imports of an estimated 12.2 MMBD during 2003, representing around 62% of total U.S. oil demand. Over two-fifths of this oil came from OPEC nations, with Persian Gulf sources accounting for about one-fifth of total U.S. oil imports. Overall, the top suppliers of oil (crude and refined products) to the United States during 2003 were Canada (2.1 MMBD), Saudi Arabia (1.8 MMBD), Mexico (1.6 MMBD), and Venezuela (1.4 MMBD).

id give a link to this, but i found it on askjeeves and the web address was about 10 lines.

 

Here's the article I was referring to. Excellent read: