$2.50 for regular gas

took me a while to realize you weren't talking about coffee!

Wow, I thought $2.39 was a lot where I am. Geez. Thanks Dubya!

ditto..

Yeah, I guess I could have been a little more specific but in my rant I wasn't thinking clearly.

I just am not sure either way.  Yes, our President is heavily vested in the oil business so one can't help but think he's happy about the exploding oil prices (I am a Bush supporter by the way).  On the other hand, as you said he is pushing for more domestic exploration and trying to maintain our close ties to the Saudi's. 

Although I doubt it will ever happen in my lifetime I look forward to the day when technology removes our dependence on Oil.  The middle east has too much money and not enough common sense to use it properly.

Bravo. I agree. I'll get flamed with you. Don't even get me started on welfare and handouts...

i think we'd be better of if this thread was about coffee.

we have a local roaster, Steep and Brew, that has a Scandinavian Blend which is so yummy. I have never had anyone else's Scandinavian Blend, and I am not sure what makes it scandinavian, but it is my fave lately.

I think we'd be better off if our cars could run on coffee.

Edited by dibujob 2005-08-09 9:27 AM

For what its worth - opening protected areas for oil exploration or upping domestic production won't make a dent in oil or gas prices. Anything else we can squeeze out domestically is such a small amount its just a drop in the bucket. As I understand it mainly the problem is that its not a problem of there being enough oil, we just don;t have enough refineries to make enough gas. It isn't Bush's fault or Clintons fault, it's the US peoples fault for having a voracious appetite for gas (can you say SUV? Demand just keeps going up & up) and ALL the politician's fault for not having any backbone to pass milage standards.

Oh sorry were we talking about coffee? As I understand it we have enough coffee beans, just not enough grinders...

hoagies and grinders.  hoagies and grinder.  navy beans, navy beans.  meatloaf sandwich.

I got a snake...

Sloppy Joe. Slop.. sloppy joe..

Great answer. It always so easy to blame someone else be it the president or large corps.However, you can't blame me. I work at home and drive only about 10 miles a day unless I go to my clients office in LA. Which is twice a month. BTW I WISH I could find gas for 2.50. Cheapest I have seen it here in San Diego is $2.59 and that was at Costco.

Calm down people. Breathe. Have some coffee. Sorry I let my true feelings for our president come through. I hope he's having a great time vacationing at the ranch, though. I really do.

It's more than that in Northern California.

Bike more; drive less!

Now Bush and his oil minions will use this as an excuse that we must drill all over Alaska.

Not that this makes it okay, but we still pay much less for gas than in other countries. We haven't really had the price of gas rise in years. I don't really appreciate paying more for gas, but it does make me much more aware of how much I am driving when it costs so much more. Maybe it should stay where it is and people will start using less gas. Probably a lot of wishful thinking there, though....

My Race Log

Preface: I am a chemical engineer working as consultant to oil refineries.

You are correct. It is a supply and demand thing.

Refineries in the US are at 95-98% capacity on average, which is amazing, because of the amount of maintenance that needs to be performed on different units.

A new refinery has not been built in the US since the 1970s. Part of this is due to permitting issues and part because of the payback periods/profitability. It wasnt' but 5-7 years ago when many refiners were losing money and small refineries were shutting down. When gasoline was less than $1, no one worried about fuel economy, but now that gas is near $2.50/gal in the US, it seems as though this is everyone elses fault but our own.

The truth is, as many of our friends in other countries could testify, $2.50 is still very cheap for gasoline.

The ways to lower the price of gasoline is to either decrease the demand by:
1. Using Public Transportation
2. Walking/RIDING BIKES
3. Carpooling/Combining trips
4. Drive fuel efficient cars

Or to increase refining capacity by:
1. Expanding refineries
2. Start up refineries that have been shut down
3. Build new refineries

Much research needs to be in the area of alternative energy sources. Nuclear and Solar energy holds great promises if the money is there to research how to recover and store the energy.

Hydrogen as fuel is a crock. There have been many discussions and articles in Chemical Engineering and Refining journals that I receive about this issue. Basically, to get Hydrogen, you have use energy (coal, electricity, natural gas, etc) to disassociate the hydrogen from the oxygen in a water molecule. Then you recombine the hydrogen with oxygen to form water. How much sense does this make?

In one article in Chemical Engineering Progress, showed that it would take $50 of electricity to make 1 million BTU of hydrogen energy. The 1 million BTU of hydrogen would only have a market value of $15. There is no corporation who would make hydrogen to lose $35 for every MMBTU that they produced.

The article also said that the amount of greenhouse and smog-forming gases would increase by a factor of 5, because of the electricity required to make the hydrogen.

Take it for what it is worth. It probably won't change anyone's thought about the price of gasoline, but it might help educate you a little more.

It makes me want to puke.

Realize also that the water vapor coming out of the vehicle's exhaust is considered a GREENHOUSE GAS. Hydrogen as an energy source makes no sense whatsoever.

I don't care whose fault it is and I think it's hilarious that the neocons profess to be the party of personal responsibility , that is until they have to be responsible for something. It's always Clinton's fault. Well sense all neocons believe in bumpersticker rationale then I'll simply say that "when Clinton lied, nobody died."
I just hope my kids hurry up and graduate so I can keep driving my new Suburban.