Gas Prices!

[ssd]

I would not blame the collapse of GM and Chrysler strictly on high gas rices and the decline of SUV sales. Yes - domestic SUV suffered BIG TIME in 2008 butToyota's truck and SUV sales only dropped about 8% I think.

Back to topic - Weasel makes an excellent point. Whatever your thoughts on alternative energy are, at this point in time - we are an oil-based economy and need to operate as such. The US has been lacking a comprehensive energy policy since the Dept of Energy was introduced under Carter - it's goal was to reduce the US dependence on foreign oil - their yearly budget is in the BILLIONS and every year, we use MORE foreign oil.
Put the R/D $ into alternatives with everything on the table but make use of the natural resources that the US has within it's own borders.

Muff's point is spot on as well - US has not built any new refineries in YEARS. Again - no real energy policy has come out of either party.

Build new pipelines, new refineries, drill, start some nuclear plants, build some wind farms, erect solar panels - whatever -
we have the capacity in this country to solve a lot of our own energy issues and we do not.

 

[The Sponge]

Hilarious how guys think if the oil companies are allowed to drill anywhere they want they will all of a sudden become passionate and cut us a break. :mj07:
They will play the same old song on how it will take 50 years to get that oil to the markets and then when 50 years pass by they will have another excuse on why the prices are 300 dollars a gallon. :0002 the only time they cut ya a break is to get to a goal of theirs. Clinton had the prices at 73 cents a gallon but he let these fukers merge which made things even worse. That was their compassion. Shame i couldn't buy about 500 thousand barrels of the shit and stored it somewhere back then. Im sure there is some type of law that would have stopped me in my tracks if i had the means to do this.

 

[ssd]

There is a massive oil storage hub in Cushing, Okla.
Perhaps you could have done so, paying a storage fee

 

[Trench]

I would not blame the collapse of GM and Chrysler strictly on high gas rices and the decline of SUV sales. Yes - domestic SUV suffered BIG TIME in 2008 butToyota's truck and SUV sales only dropped about 8% I think.

SSD, I didn't mean to imply that SUV sales was the sole reason GM and Chrysler both filed Chapter 11, but it was the final straw. Until the economic crisis of 2008, both companies continued to build vehicles for luxury, comfort and performance. When gas is $4 a gallon, Americans change their buying habits in a hurry, as they did in 2008.

IMO, the Toyota analogy isn't germane because Toyota doesn't sell a lot of trucks and SUV's, compared to say, GM, where trucks and SUV's accounted for a large portion of their core market and an even larger portion of their profits.

Personally, I'm in agreement with Geno. I turn a deaf ear to Americans whining about gas prices as well. Until I see Americans changing their habits, our incessant whining about gas prices is just fodder for the water cooler, cable TV and the Internet. There's about a hundred ways the average American can save money to offset gas prices when they spike, but we'd rather whine about it while we drink our bottled water and mochachinos.

 

[ssd]

i agree, Trench - what does a gallon of 'bottled water' cost at the price of the little 16 ounce jobs everyone carries around? Or a gallon of beer?

A lof of people laughed at Obama when he said - "get a tune up and inflate your tires" - sure, it is not going to solve the US energy problem but it may affect each person's individual pocket book.

i'm all for doing whatever you can do to help - be it, large scale - as in effectively managing our own resources to small scale - properlin inflating your car tires.

imagine - if you don't have to drive that 3 miles to the Starbucks for a $5 coffee, how much you'll also save in gas!!!