stockpile gas money

[Afterthought]

while i'm not completely serious about that yet, it's getting there. yesterday i went in to work overtime and gas was $3.19.
that afternoon when i got home, it went up to $3.38. so in the span of 6 hours, it went up $0.19 per gallon! what the hell?
did i miss something?
did the refineries in Louisiana get shut down again?

i've heard people state that it'll be almost $4.00 come full blown summer travel season. that's incredible!
if that happens, i'm taking the bus because my commute can't take up that much of my paycheck.
my car averages about 25-27 miles per gallon, but $4.00/gallon is extreme!
but taking the bus means about an hour of my free time per day will be gone.
also gone will be me travelling up and to Omaha to see most of you guys.

does anybody know who's to blame/what can the average person do?
at this rate, people will be turning to just driving off cause they can't pay for gas. or worse, mugging/theft.
is it because the current administration has ties to Big Oil?
is it because oil executives got us by the ****s and won't let go?
is it because jerk faces think driving Hummers that get 9 miles to the gallon makes them "cool"?
anything? anybody?

[Pr0nY]

gas here around the boonies of nebraska is about 3.49, and a week ago it jumped 30 cents in 6 hours from when i went to work until i went to lunch  

because of stupid oil tycoons and their greed, i am now saving more to go to arizona this summer because i can almost imagine what gas prices are going to be in that area in a month

[Asus]

It is insane. Wish there was something that would be cheaper than oil but not cost a lot to get into either. Public transportation is not that strong here. But I don't live downtown either. I might have to get a motorcycle for local transportation... :x
My dad rides a burgman 650 to work (~60 MPG). A lot better than my Saturn (24MPG in town/32 highway).

[Grizzly]

Get a scooter! 

[OU8]

My theory: I've always thought that the oil companies, of which there are too few, used any and every excuse to raise gas prices by some extreme amount (up to .20 at a time).  Ever notice how long it takes for prices to come back down (a penny or two at a time)?  Weeks, if there's not another price jump in that time. 

Don't you think that maybe, all that is going on this time, is the oil companies just testing to see how far they can drive up prices before they start seeing the consumers actually make any significant change in their consumption?  As long as people don't change their driving habits, why shouldn't they keep driving up the cost.  As long as we're willing to shell out $2, then $3, hell, why not go to $4 and see what happens? 

It's all up to each and every one of us to reverse the trend. 

[Thunder]

Cartels exist for a reason - its not customer service, its not charity. 

[OPIE]

The problem is simple. More and more 3rd world countries are modernizing. Which means the demand for world oil is sky rocketing. It is also coming down to a point that we are just simply running out of oil.

The prices in America will not change. Why you may ask? Because Americas fuel economy is straight. We HAVE to pump gas. It's not just the commute to work, a lot of businesses require you to travel. Wither by plane, by car, box truck or van. Many businesses have traveling employee's. Thus it's not just your commute to work, but what you do for a living.

There are so many people out there crying for people to stop pumping gas on certain dates, claiming the prices will drop. Maybe...but at most a nickel. The fact of the matter is, if we don't pump one day, we'll have to pump the next. People need to travel, so they need gas. The oil companies know this.

There is dispute over the oil that is in Alaska and if we should destroy the wild life there to drill for it. The problem is the oil up there is such a small amount...it wouldn't even impact us. America uses something like 14 million barrels of oil a day. The little bit and the slow speed at which we will drill it, in Alaska, would not even scratch the surface of our fuel crises.

The solution? Alternitive fuel source. We'll have to make the change eventually. The only reason we haven't yet is because of the oil companies. But you can bet that when we do make a fuel switch, those oil companies will find some way to get in on it. And lets say hydrogen is are next fuel. You can bet your life that the cost for water will sky rocket.

[Asus]

Air-powered car getting ready for production.
Runs up to 68mph with a 125 mile range. At least the emissions released along the road would be gone. hehe

[Grizzly]

Some other countries made the switch to hydrogen quite some time ago. This country needs to step up the funding and research for alternate fuels.

I think step 1 will be getting Bush out of office...

[Blimigerite]

Some other countries made the switch to hydrogen quite some time ago. This country needs to step up the funding and research for alternate fuels.

I think step 1 will be getting Bush out of office...

To be honest it really has to start in the Congress.  Just this year they decided (after how many years? 15?) to increase the fuel economy rules.  And it really wan't that big of an increase.  If we want federal oversight we can't blame the president (though he could push harder) but put the blame instead on the ones that actually propose and vote on the measures.

Funding and research can only really go so far.  (Besides the air pressure car, the ideas for fuel alternatives have been around for decades)  It's more of a feasability and corporate resistance to change that haults the progress to switch from oil.  Only an act of congress (or extremely high gas prices forcing change) would entice change in the short term. 

[Kub]

Funding and research can only really go so far.

Negative!

Let me give you an insider view into how academia works.  People do research where the money is.  That's the number 1 rule.  For example, right now if you include the word 'nanotechnology' in a grant proposal, you are almost guaranteed funding, and therefore univerisities across the nation are opening up devoted nanotech departments and investing a ton of money.  Strides being made in this field are, frankly, astonishing (you can ask Eppy about this).

Right now there is, to a large extent, very little funding for alternative fuel research.  In fact, most of the research money comes from the the big oil companies (I'm not defending everything they do, but you can't lay all the blame at their feet.  They are well aware that oil supplies are limited and they know they have to change their business model soon).  The research that these companies do is usually 'in house' as well, leaving a lot of intelligent people outside the loop, since a lot of their stuff isn't published so that others can build on it.

Also, the alternative fuels that the government is pursuing are temporary at best.  Ethanol still suffers from a large energy cost to produce, you have to use almost as much energy to make the product as you can get from the product.  It's also driving up food corn prices making it more expensive to feed people and livestock.  Hydrogen is not feasible.  Numerous scientists have said this, officially in submitted reports, to the government, who seem bent on ignoring it.  Despite popular claims, it also pollutes just as much as fossil fuels. 

There simply isn't a good alternative out there yet, and that's why our focus needs to be on attracting researchers to tackle the problem.  Make the grants available, and you'll be surprised what innovative ideas start popping up.

[Heero]

while I agree with a lot of what opie says and I do think its time for alt fuel sources in the meantime we should Drill in Alaska to help ease the prices for a short amount of time and not to mention the area that we would be drilling barley is used by the animals that its meant to preserve not to mention that the way that we can drill nowadays can almost go quite literally horizontal so we could drill and barley affect the land around the drill site. I didn't mean to go off on a rant about the Alaska Oil thing. I do believe that Oil is running out and when it does were gonna have to deal with a huge realization that we need change i think going for Bio diesel or getting a diesel engine and converting to take veggie Oil as fuel all these are good ideas to change this current situation and dependency

[OPIE]

The problem is Heero. It wouldn't even impact the current prices or ease anything. The oil up there is a very very small amount.

Kub makes a lot of strong points in his post. We are indeed running out of oil. But drilling for more is not the answer. We need to find new fuel resources.

[Blimigerite]

Sorry I haven't seen anywhere that says anything about Hydrogen polluting as much as fossil fuels.  The only neg I've heard on it is that the distribution of it would be a very drastic change in the current infrastructure and that storage issues would arise.

[Kub]

The basic point is that you do not get Hydrogen for free.  To power a fuel cell, you can either pump the fuel from a station like you would gasoline, or you can create a system using electrolysis to produce it "on the fly".  Industrial Hydrogen production is one of the largest CO2 producing processes in existence, along with a laundry list of other pollutants.  Electrolysis requires electricity to produce the gas.  The electricity comes from mostly fossil fuel plants (of course a fix is to find an alternative to fossil fuel burning electric plants, but you never really hear about that, do you).

You'll notice that neither the media or the govt ever actually mention where the Hydrogen comes from, only that once it's in the car, it's "pollution free".