I don't hate the oil companies as much as I hate the idiotic tree huggers that won't let our country build the badly needed refinement centers, so that we can stop outsourcing so much of the oil we need.. If we had the refineries so that we could process what we needed from our own reserves, the price of gas would go WAY down. Not to mention, I'm willing to bet money that if we let oil companies drill in Alaska, they would bend over backwards to please the environmentalists- investing big $$$ into projects that would improve the environment beyond it's condition now- animals would probably be better off. But, it will never happen. Katrina took out a few of offshore processing centers we had too.. Not sure if those are rebuilt yet or not.
People have been prospering in this country over the last few years, despite the terrorists' best attempt on 9/11 to screw our economy. Lots of people around me buying new homes (myself included), buying new BIG vehicles, going on more road trips, buying power boats, using more gas. This is the reason why the oil companies made so much profit- there was an assload of gas sold, and therefore more profit. How many Hummers do you see on the road? I see alot around my way- 2 in my neighborhood on the same street! They get 10mpg! Should we penalize the oil companies for making a profit? Would penalizing oil companies for doing well businesswise actually make the situation better in the long run? Are they gonna be as willing to invest and build more infrastructure to lower the price of gas if there is less return on investment for them?
Guess who made more money than the oil companies for every gallon of gas you bought? Tax on gasoline is outrageous- it's more per gallon than the oil companies get! I hear the politicians are lobbying for an increase in gasoline tax! This is so they can persuade us to take public transportation or some nonsense like that. Don't get me wrong- I hate the fact that it just cost me 51 dollars for a weeks worth of gas!! But, I'd love to know how much $$$ in 2006 US dollars people were paying for gas in 1950? I think (I'm not positive) that if you figure out what the value of a 1950 dollar is worth in 2006, and then find out what the price of gas per gallon was in 1950, we'd be ahead of the game today- even at the $3 I paid at the pump today.
And, why can't cars get better fuel milage than what they get now? I looked at a Honda Hybrid Civic, which their website claims gets 49/51 mpg. That's cool, except for in the late 80's, I remember their Civic economy model also got 50mpg, and that was without all the computerized/high-dollar battery hybrid BS. Does anyone else remember that? Remember the Honda Civic HF? I think HF stood for High Fuel efficiency. While I'm griping, why the frig does diesel fuel cost as much as gasoline? It's less refined!!! This is a ripoff!
Plus, I shudder to think how much owning a hybrid will cost- how long till the batteries are toast and have to be replaced? What's my gripe? Why the f*ck can't the car manufacturers make a more efficient car in 2006, when we've had about the same level of fuel efficiency in the 70's? Why can't we have 100mpg in a large SUV?
The funny thing is, as expensive as gas is these days, my arse is being a super grandma driver when I'm driving my truck. I'm at the point where I don't allow myself A/C if the truck is going up a hill! :-) Then I look in my rear-view mirror, and some bonehead in a Suburban is flashing his lights at me, because I'm going 62mph in a 55mph speed limit zone, and I'm in the right lane and no one is in the left lane (he could easily pass). When he does pass, he lays on the horn, and proceeds to pass me and surge ahead to like 85+, as if he doesn't have to pay for the gas that he just burned up "teaching me an example" hahahahaha..
I think I'm gonna try to invent the real deal Flinstones car. Maybe pedals instead of feet though.
The Federal Gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. My state charges 20 cents per gallon.
True, refinery capacity is an issue. Ask anyone that knows about the industry and they will tell you that we are up to our EARS in crude oil, but lack the refinery capacity to turn that crude into usable products.
Did you know that no new refinery has been built in this country since the 1970s? But they've been closing every year. The double whammy of Katrina and Rita didn't help by pummeling the coastal refineries, many of which will never re-open.
Check it out:
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Forget everything you think you know about oil
'Black Gold Stranglehold' explodes common mythsIf you believe that oil is a fossil fuel, be prepared to have your thoughts turned upside down.
If you believe that the U.S. has no choice but to rely on foreign oil until we ultimately run out of the precious resource, prepare to be challenged by new views that "have the opportunity to help give birth to a new generation of oil politics and economics."
WND Books' newest release, "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil," by Jerome R. Corsi and Craig R. Smith, explores and debunks some of the popular myths surrounding the international and domestic politics of oil production and consumption to provide Americans with beneficial information while being held in a virtual stranglehold at the gas-pumps.
In "Black Gold Stranglehold," Corsi and Smith expose the fraudulent science and irresponsible politics that have been sold to American people in order to enslave them. By debunking several myths, Corsi and Smith provide an outline for progress that would help to establish America as energy-independent.
Be prepared to be challenged by:
The myth of fossil fuels: Corsi and Smith argue that the deep abiotic theory of oil is a more reliable theory than the fossil fuel theory. It rejects the contention that oil was formed from the remains of plant and animal life that died millions of years ago. Instead, they believe in Thomas Gold's argument that oil is abiotic: "a primordial material that the earth forms and exudes on a continual basis" and is "pushed upward toward the earth's surface by the intense pressures of the earth's core and the influence of the centrifugal force that the earth exerted upon the specific gravity of oil as a fluid substance."
The running-out-of-oil myth: The 1970s scientific study known as Hubbert's Peak, predicting we would exhaust oil reserves by 2003, has been proven false. We are currently sitting on "more proven petroleum reserves than ever before despite the increasing rate at which we are consuming petroleum products. New and gigantic oil fields are being discovered at an increasing rate, in places the fossil fuel theory would never have been predicted as possible.
The global warming hoax and other environmental myths: Corsi and Smith present compelling evidence that "burning fossil fuels does not release into the air chlorofluorocarbons or halon compounds, the types of chemicals identified as the culprits causing holes in the ozone." Instead, "human beings breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide" while "plants absorb carbon dioxide and throw out oxygen."
The folly of oil conservation: "Black Gold Stranglehold" presents and documents how no alternative energy option has been able to provide enough energy and how each alternative has been deemed uneconomical.
Oil playing a part in the illegal-immigration problem: Mexico has the third largest proven reservoirs of crude oil in the Western Hemisphere behind Venezuela and the U.S. As a result, the United States imports virtually all the oil Mexico exports. Consequently, "the U.S. government finds it difficult to take a systematic, hard look at the nearly free flow of illegal immigrants coming across our southern border. As a hedge against instability in the Middle East, the U.S. government has to calculate our oil needs when considering any steps we take regarding Mexico or illegal immigrants.
The value of the dollar and its effect on terrorism: "In recent years the buying power of the dollar has decreased 40 percent on the average against all major foreign currencies. Since dollars can no longer be exchanged for gold, no hard, fixed commodity stands behind the U.S. international payments, including oil purchases. Osama bin Laden's "war against America was fueled by his belief that the U.S. has stolen the oil of Muslim countries. At the core of the issue is bin Laden's perception that America has paid for oil, a hard commodity, with paper dollars that are no longer backed as they once were by the hard commodity of gold."
How high the price of oil?: "Today, the U.S. oil industry is sitting on a quantity of oil reserves that has never been higher. Still, we have built no new refineries, and the refineries in operation are producing at or near capacity. The picture that emerges is one of industry conglomerates simply sitting on large reserves and waiting for oil prices to go even higher. At some point, increased gasoline prices become an inevitable drag on the economy."
Terrorism and Its Threat to Oil: Terrorists are "willing to bet that the U.S. will not be able to afford politically or economically a protracted global war against radical Islamic terrorism. Terrorists, like governments determined to impose price controls on oil, act to disrupt free markets. In doing so, they clearly understand the economic harm they can inflict."
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