Why gas is $3 a gallon

HappyHarry said: "Here's an interesting article on why gas is so [url=http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P116177.asp?GT1=6970]expensive lately[/url] The big trouble has been the refineries."

SanteeClause said: "NOT This time,Happy ! Americans have Grown up Bashing the Oil companies for Decades ! i Think it's About time some Truth comes to the story,Don't You ? Here it is,Folks: Who the Heck do you Think is PAYING for the barrels,Welfare Moms ? It's the OIL Companies that pay ! In case ya didn't Already Know that ! It's those Dicks in the Financial PITS on Wall Street ! They're Bidding the Damn things higher And HIGHER ! Stop the Pit Geeks and your Price Comes Down ! don't Blame the Oil companies,cause: They don't WANT to pay $100Bucks o Barrel ! SanteeClause"

chahinemm said: "its not even to that level its a pure simple supply and demand. The more u consume the less u have the less u have the higher the price but if u compare the price vs inflation and economic growth in multiple countries the price for fuel is lower then it should be so the GEEKS as u call them are capitalizing on what the most basic financial concept of the market being fair is being exploited nothing less nothing more. at least my opinion. chahine"

AlfredSokol said: "Of course it's supply and demand. 8 out of 10 American's now wish they didn't have SUVs. Conservation is the main thing that will lower gas prices."

LanceJ said: "The larger problem here is that we're running out of oil, thank you China. Analysts guestimate that the Chinese economy will surpass the U.S. economy is just 5 years at their current rate of growth. We've got China consuming almost 40% of the world supply of concrete last year. We've got China consuming almost 50% of the world supply of steel last year. We've got China importing (rather than exporting to the U.S. like they've done in the past) oil for the first time... that is they are consuming more than they are producing so not only are they not selling us oil, but their buying oil from the same guys we are. I don't think most people understand the size of China's society. The U.S. has a population of about 280 million. China has a population of about 1.3 billion. So let's put this in perspective using time, we all have a spatial understanding of time. In order for a million seconds to go by, it takes about 12 days. In order for a billion seconds to go by, it takes about 32 years! Most people think, ohhhh... it's so high anyways, a million, a billion, whatever.... Now lets convert the Chinese and U.S. population into time, so we can better compare the difference between the two. Time wise, the U.S. population is 280 million x 12 days / 365 = 9.2 million years. Time wise, the Chinese population is 1.3 billion x 11,680 days / 365 = 41.6 billion years! So 10 million years ago, continued cooling and more seasonal rainfall led to extinction of many tropical species from eastern North America. Evergreen coniferous forests expanded in the north and at high elevations. Broadleaf deciduous forests that had been abundant in western North America disappeared. The land connection to Eurasia was finally severed. At least 4 Ice Ages have occurred over the last 2 million years. Orangutans depart from the combined African great ape and human line about 13 million years ago. The great ape (or gorilla) lineage splits from the combined chimpanzee and human lineage some 8 million years ago. We share over 99 percent of expressed DNA with gorillas. This does not mean that we are "descended" from gorillas, but rather, that we last shared a common ancestor 8 million years ago. So what happened 41 billion years ago? Well the Earth was only formed 4.5 billion years ago, and life reached land from the water about 1 billion years ago, so there was no Earth 41 billion years ago. In fact, the big bang dates back to 15 billion years ago... so there wasn't even a Universe 41 billion years ago (according to Big Bang theory). In summary, China's population is vastly more larger than ours, more than the average person comprehends. As China's economy continues to grow and overtakes the U.S. economy in the next 5 years, becoming the world's largest economy, they will have greater purchasing power (much like how we enjoy today where our gas is $3 a gallon, but in Europe it's been about $5 per gallon for years). Meaning that China will be able to out bid us on oil contracts. The world supply of oil will be depleted by 2050. Worse, the energy demands per capita continues to rise. About 100 years ago, the average person on Earth consumed about 1 horse power worth of energy per year. Today, the average person on Earth consumes about 300 horse power worth of energy per year. In any event, just yesterday I was looking at PETS. Even in a company so far removed from energy such as a pet health company, we have the increase in gas/energy costs showing up on its books charged to Freight Costs. Energy is in everything, part of everything that is made. Energy is currently adding to inflationary pressure in which the price of everything goes up because the cost of everything goes up. But not all is gloom and doom. Nuclear power is coming back big time. One has only to look at the price of Uranium to see that, and the growing backlog of countries with plans to build nuclear power plants. China is on a schedule to build something like 2 new nuclear plants per year for the next 15 years because they know that oil and gas refineries and other forms of energy generation are not enough for their growing economy. The best thing you can do at the moment is to start going through your companies books and start trying to spot the impact of rising gas/energy costs are having. Next, you may want to aggressively play the rising price of Uranium by buying CCJ, and you may want to hedge yourself against inflation by buying a gold company such as GG. Both picks I go over in the Sticky Six message thread. I'm not saying panick and sell all your holdings right now, god forbid. But keep it in the back of your head and start looking at your companies 10Q filings and look for what the rising cost of energy is having on your company. And if you start getting hit hard in your holdings and need a little bit of shelter, consider adding Uranium and Gold as a hedge against your other falling equities."

HappyHarry said: "You have a point. Alternative energy is a MUST. We really have no choice, so it will end up being a big priority. I have to admit, also, that I'm sickened by the fact that the average fat-head American won't conserve fuel. Bush finally mentioned the concept, as if a small amount of sacrifice would be too much for people. Smaller cars and less driving could release a lot of the pressure on the oil industry."

mhdirect said: "[QUOTE=HappyHarry]You have a point. Alternative energy is a MUST. We really have no choice, so it will end up being a big priority. I have to admit, also, that I'm sickened by the fact that the average fat-head American won't conserve fuel. Bush finally mentioned the concept, as if a small amount of sacrifice would be too much for people. Smaller cars and less driving could release a lot of the pressure on the oil industry.[/QUOTE] the biggest problem with alternate energy is that it takes more petroleum to provide them than they make. take ethenol for instance, if you grow soy or corn andturn it into gasoline, you end up using about 1.3 barrels of crude to make one barrel of eth. the biggest lie in the world is that we are running out of oil and natural gas. i am investing in oil and gas heavily, and with the high tech science we are using , we can go into a "played out" field and find hundreds of new wells within hundreds of feet of the old wells. the technology to find crude and nat gas has not kept up with the rest of the world. mainly because it was easier and more politicallly correct to team up with the arabs. we are working in central west virginia, and have enough product to keep our nation in crude and nat gas for the next hundred years. it just cost more to produce than it was worth when crude was $8 a barrel. i am extremely excited to put those guys in the middle east back on their camels, and keep our money at home. with all the new exploration going on, you can look for crude to go back to about $30-$40 per barrel in the next two years, and our imports to go down by about 50%. Politics has played a big part in this for years now with the new trade agreement with china, there will be problems.....with the new science we are using,, there have been over three hundred and forty new wells drilled without a single dry hole..... mostly in "played out" fields.the days of "closeology" are over. my friend forrest at [url]www.vproil.com[/url] can explain it to you in detail, no pressure to buy......we want to drill twenty to thirty wells next year, and we are just a small company add that up all over the us, and it really adds up. pray for our country mhdirect"

mhdirect said: "[QUOTE=AlfredSokol]Of course it's supply and demand. 8 out of 10 American's now wish they didn't have SUVs. Conservation is the main thing that will lower gas prices.[/QUOTE] conservation is one of two things that will really work. we need to revamp our public transportation system, which will help a lot, and we need to really put a lot of interest into exploration in our country . as i mentioned in another post, we have plenty of crude left in our country. it has just taken an emergency to get it going . we have enough crude and natural gas left in the continental us to last us at least 100 years......."

mhdirect said: "[QUOTE=chahinemm]its not even to that level its a pure simple supply and demand. The more u consume the less u have the less u have the higher the price but if u compare the price vs inflation and economic growth in multiple countries the price for fuel is lower then it should be so the GEEKS as u call them are capitalizing on what the most basic financial concept of the market being fair is being exploited nothing less nothing more. at least my opinion. chahine[/QUOTE] if you were in france right now your gasoline would be about $7 per gallon. they have been paying more for years. The germans tax the bmw and mercedes on the size of the motor, because bigger more powerful motors use more gasoline. i bought my daughter a mercedes c220 with a four banger, and it still gets 34 mpg with over 150k on the odometer. we really need to quit trading with china, and push exploration as i have mentioned several times in these posts. we aren't out of petroleum, we just havent' been exploring for it when the price was too low to make it economically feasible look for crude to go back to 30 to 40 per barrel next year when new wells like ours kick in and there is more prouct."

mhdirect said: "[QUOTE=HappyHarry]Here's an interesting article on why gas is so [url=http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P116177.asp?GT1=6970]expensive lately[/url] The big trouble has been the refineries.[/QUOTE] we are selling crude every day, and have no probblems. all the refineries that are in the gulf were put there to be convenient for the super tankers bringing it in from the middle east......we don't need them anyway."

warn81 said: "they are taking advantage of their customers."

thezster said: "We're not used to gas being $3.00/gallon... and I don't like it any more than you do. But if you consider the prices other countries pay for their petrol..... you'll realize our system works pretty well...."

AlfredSokol said: "Oil companies are making record profits. There's bound to be more conspiracy theories because of that."

Heather said: "Gas has fallen under 2.00 a gallon here.."

glock35ipsc said: "[QUOTE=mhdirect]the biggest problem with alternate energy is that it takes more petroleum to provide them than they make. take ethenol for instance, if you grow soy or corn andturn it into gasoline, you end up using about 1.3 barrels of crude to make one barrel of eth. mhdirect[/QUOTE] But I understand that Brazil is mostly using ethenol more than petrolium gasoline. They have even gone so far as to say that is crude was never again to be brought into their country, so what. It would not effect them at all. So I have to ask, how are they manufacturing their ethenol if they don't depend on petro?"

AlfredSokol said: "Brazil is at nearly 50% alternative fuel now, and it's a huge success. BUT, and this is a big BUT: they only were fitted for ethanol because of a dicator in the 1980s who forced all 170,000 gas stations to fit for ethanol because he was paranoid about foreign oil. In the US there are 220,000 gas stations which would need conversion."

betaisbetta said: "yeah. will be even more expensive on the future.:o"

bobjitsu said: "[QUOTE=Heather]Gas has fallen under 2.00 a gallon here..[/QUOTE] I was gonna say your full of crap, till I read the date you posted this. :p"

AlfredSokol said: "Anyone still driving a SUV in late summer 2006?"

Rickster said: "Checked out the prices of big used cars lately? They are giving them away."

bobjitsu said: "[QUOTE=AlfredSokol]Anyone still driving a SUV in late summer 2006?[/QUOTE] Of course. Wife has an Explorer with a 4.6L V-8 and my F-150 has a 5.4L, nobody dicates what I drive but me. :D"

Lagg-Alot said: "[QUOTE=warn81]they are taking advantage of their customers.[/QUOTE] The Oil that comes from the earth is running out (the needle reads 1/2 a tank). [URL="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=peak+oil"]Peak Oil[/URL] If we don't find an alternitive fuel the human race will be in a world of poo! And you though we were really looking for terrorist in the middle east."

bobjitsu said: "[QUOTE=Lagg-Alot]The Oil that comes from the earth is running out (the needle reads 1/2 a tank). [URL="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=peak+oil"]Peak Oil[/URL] If we don't find an alternitive fuel the human race will be in a world of poo! And you though we were really looking for terrorist in the middle east.[/QUOTE] We will both be dead long before that happens. Let the future generations figre it out. ;)"

AlfredSokol said: "Mankind will figure it out. As it gets closer to running out, human genius will figure out a way to pull the "fat from the fire" and make the money."

Harry said: "A local restaurant in my town put a kit in his VW Jetta so he can use his establishment's used cooking oil and grease to fuel his car. Our luck...we pick up this standard and then everybody begins to eat healthy. :D"

lil dickie said: "Im selling my car and buying a moped. I dont care how i look."

Lagg-Alot said: "[QUOTE=lil dickie]Im selling my car and buying a moped. I dont care how i look.[/QUOTE] Since you don't care about looks then [URL="http://www.zapworld.com/cars/smartcar.asp"]ZAP[/URL] :)"

RupertB said: "[QUOTE=AlfredSokol]Brazil is at nearly 50% alternative fuel now, and it's a huge success. BUT, and this is a big BUT: they only were fitted for ethanol because of a dicator in the 1980s who forced all 170,000 gas stations to fit for ethanol because he was paranoid about foreign oil. In the US there are 220,000 gas stations which would need conversion.[/QUOTE] Given our recent history, I'm surprised that the general public isn't paranoid about "foreign oil". I find it surprising how many people talk about "[I]when[/I] gas goes back under $2.00 (not if)." I challenged one of my co-workers on the point and he responded that "its an 'energy bubble' just like the 'dot-com bubble'. It'll burst like bubbles do & prices will go down by 40-50%." IMO, even if the big developing countries' (China, India, etc.) growth stalls, we'll be lucky to see more than a 20% drop."

Slidingby said: "Where are we now in terms of price falling? I know we're back to 2.30's around here. Is it going back up before next summer? :confused:"

Slidingby said: "I'm all for alternative fuel as long as our country benefits from it, why can't we set the trend and let others get in line damnit!??"

Corey said: "The recent 'fall' in oil seems to me to be more of a correction that occurred over a year than any real change in the market. It is my opinion that before barrel prices really hiked, companies had begun to stock pile so that they could ride out the storm. They created such a stock pile that demand has finally decreased. Perhaps they stockpiled so much that supply is too great and we are seeing a swing in the opposite direction. Do I have any evidence for this claim? Not really. But seeing as we have yet to find a solution for the 'energy crisis,' after another readjustment, I don't see how people can expect to see gas at less than $2 a gallon. But either way, I think most of our research into 'alternative energies' has been a waste. Ethanol uses as much energy to make, if not more, it as it creates. Until we find an efficient method for creating it, we are actually using MORE energy. I also read an interesting article a while back (but can't find it, so take this tid-bit with a grain of salt), that in the long run, most consumers would end up paying more for their ethanol cars. The 'savings' at the pump don't outweigh the loss in gas mileage and the price they pay for the car. Until this stuff gets figured out, ethanol related companies stink to me. I am going to wait until I see a solution that makes sense to invest in a single 'alternative energy' company."