$7/gal gas predicted w/i 2 years.....

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Everything in the US is big. Bigger is better.

- US homes are getting larger. Nobody wants a half cape house anymore...those are 'starter homes'.

- Vehicles are bigger. Those Ford Excursions and Hummers marked the apex of vehicular big.

- Even our children are bigger, and so is the epidemic of onset type II diabetes.

What's left? ...I know. Debt!...let's make our national and personal debt bigger!

Now we're in 'BIG' trouble.

-Jeff

[Brian Elfert]

Everything in the US is big. Bigger is better.

- US homes are getting larger. Nobody wants a half cape house anymore...those are 'starter homes'.

- Vehicles are bigger. Those Ford Excursions and Hummers marked the apex of vehicular big.

Not everyone wants bigger. My house right now is 2,750 square feet. It was around 1,800 square feet before I finished off two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the basement. Way too big for a single person.

I'm trying to sell the house so I can move to a smaller house. I have a plan for a new house that is only 1024 square feet plus basement. In today's market it makes more sense to buy a small foreclosure and fix it up instead of building new. I really want geothermal to reduce energy usage, but the upfront cost is too much.

I bought a small VW Golf TDI back in June 2003. I had looked in March 2003 for one, but gas had spiked to something like $1.60 and the cars were selling like hot cakes. By June gas prices were back to something like $1.40 and the dealer actually had one car coming in that was not sold. I bought that one.

The problem with my Golf TDI is that the MPG sucks recently and diesel prices are 70 cents more than gasoline these days. It only gets 32 to 35 MPG with a fair bit of city driving and used to get 38 to 40 MPG. I also have the automatic that cuts up to 10 MPG. I've considered getting a new small gas powered car since Golf TDIs are selling at a premium. I would save money on a monthly basis.

[Chris Padilla]

- Even our children are bigger, and so is the epidemic of onset type II diabetes.

What's left? ...I know. Debt!...let's make our national and personal debt bigger!

Now we're in 'BIG' trouble.

-Jeff

I'm a bit smaller since downsizing to a Trek to commute to work!

[Steven Hardy]

Actually North America has a pretty substantial amount, more than half our oil comes from Canada.

True...and the usa has the largest oil shale reserves in the world (kerogen...not listed as oil reserves ) Estimated 50-60 years supply.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

True...and the usa has the largest oil shale reserves in the world (kerogen...not listed as oil reserves ) Estimated 50-60 years supply.

If they ever figure out how to efficiently produce. Of course, $7/gallon gas will make it more cost effective to produce it!

[Walt Nicholson]

I just got back from a trip to Alaska and the folks up there are saying that Anchorage has two very large refineries working at max capacity to refine Alaskan oil and that 80 to 90 percent of it is shipped direct to Asia when it is done. Maybe if we stopped that and took care of ourselves things would be different. It made no sense to me (or them), just raised the blood pressure a few notches.

[Dennis Peacock]

I just got back from a trip to Alaska and the folks up there are saying that Anchorage has two very large refineries working at max capacity to refine Alaskan oil and that 80 to 90 percent of it is shipped direct to Asia when it is done. Maybe if we stopped that and took care of ourselves things would be different. It made no sense to me (or them), just raised the blood pressure a few notches.

Walt,

I hear ya singing and I know the tune.

In other words...I know exactly what you are saying.

[Greg Funk]

I just got back from a trip to Alaska and the folks up there are saying that Anchorage has two very large refineries working at max capacity to refine Alaskan oil and that 80 to 90 percent of it is shipped direct to Asia when it is done. Maybe if we stopped that and took care of ourselves things would be different. It made no sense to me (or them), just raised the blood pressure a few notches.

It doesn't make any difference where they ship the oil or gas as it is a fungible commodity. It just happens to be more efficient to ship that oil to Asia than to the US.

If they shipped the oil to the US rather than Asia it would have zero impact on the price of oil or gas at the pumps.

Canada exports most of the oil from Alberta south to the US and imports oil and gas for the east coast of Canada from Africa. It has nothing to do with national interests it just turns out that there is no efficient way of transporting oil across Canada.

Greg

[Chris Padilla]

It doesn't make any difference where they ship the oil or gas as it is a fungible commodity. It just happens to be more efficient to ship that oil to Asia than to the US.

If they shipped the oil to the US rather than Asia it would have zero impact on the price of oil or gas at the pumps.

Canada exports most of the oil from Alberta south to the US and imports oil and gas for the east coast of Canada from Africa. It has nothing to do with national interests it just turns out that there is no efficient way of transporting oil across Canada.

Greg

They need The Great Canadian (to US) Pipeline!

[Greg Funk]

They need The Great Canadian (to US) Pipeline!

It's coming, Alaska Governor Proposes $500 Million in Subsidies for a Gas Pipeline but it's going to be expensive!

"The pipeline, which could supply as much as 7 percent of the current natural gas use of the United States, would extend from the North Slope, over the Brooks Range and into Alberta, Canada, where it would connect with pipelines that deliver gas to Canada and the United States. It would cost $30 billion to $60 billion, and it would not be completed until at least 2017 and potentially several years after that."

Greg

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I wanna try building a eeelektrik car.

[Pete Simmons]

Cliff - Your electric car would only move the fuel use to some other location (Power Plant ) and every time you change the form of energy you loose a lot in the exchange.

Coal, gas, solar or nuke at the plant - sent to you (another loss) then converted by you into your car (another loss ) and you see it takes even more energy at some far away location to power your clean car.

Fact is Gas is 126,000 BTU/gal and it is very difficult to put that much energy in your car that is easily converted to rotary power at the wheels any other way.

I hate to say it but gas at $4.00 to $10.00/gal and maybe more is a great deal that is tough to beat with todays technology.

Many people have all kinds of better ways to power an auto it is to bad none of them seem to work.

Again I hate to be the naysayer to all these ideas and I welcome anyone to show me a better way that works.

[Clifford Mescher]

Interesting topic. It is always supply and demand. If we dig and get our own supply of domestic oil, foreign oil cannot demand premium prices? Clifford

[Brian Elfert]

Interesting topic. It is always supply and demand. If we dig and get our own supply of domestic oil, foreign oil cannot demand premium prices? Clifford

Unless the USA government nationalizes our oil the owners will just sell to the highest bidder. If you owned oil would you rather sell it to Americans for $75 a barrel or the Chinese for $100 a barrel?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Cliff - Your electric car would only move the fuel use to some other location (Power Plant ) and every time you change the form of energy you loose a lot in the exchange.

Coal, gas, solar or nuke at the plant - sent to you (another loss) then converted by you into your car (another loss ) and you see it takes even more energy at some far away location to power your clean car.

And eliminate the inefficiencies on transferring all that energy by virtue of letting it flow along the wire. And electric is in the pennies per mile range.

Fact is Gas is 126,000 BTU/gal and it is very difficult to put that much energy in your car that is easily converted to rotary power at the wheels any other way.

The ICE is a terribly inefficient power plant. It consumes more than half of the power it produces in friction and reversing inertial forces.

A 40 - 50 HP DC electric motor will make a car perform about as well as all that smoking howling screaming ICE motor will. Most folks don't use more than a 20 HP motor.

I hate to say it but gas at $4.00 to $10.00/gal and maybe more is a great deal that is tough to beat with todays technology.

Yes I agree it's still cheap stuff.
I still wanna build a Eeelektrik car.