oil hits two year high

[TRONZ]

Uuuuggghh... all makes my head hurt. Gonna go drive our LEAF around and listen to the Beatles.

 

[Jimmydreams]

The question I have for all you smart folks is: how can we get more people - especially our politicians - into the same version of 'reality' so we can do the critical things we need to do?

As long as lobbyist money and special interest money can be lavished on the politicians with almost zero limits, we can't. The oil industry has too much money and influence at their disposal. :evil:

Now, sustained high gas prices at-or-above $5/gal would certainly help. Public opinion can be ALMOST as strong as lobbyist money, but you won't get the public on our side en masse until something really bad happens.....

 

[evnow]

The question I have for all you smart folks is: how can we get more people - especially our politicians - into the same version of 'reality' so we can do the critical things we need to do?

We can't. "Optimism" will always trump realism. Anyone who wants to get re-elected will not speak the harsh truth. Even people who speak mild truth like Dean get booted out.

Esp. when there is some uncertainty involved in terms of timing and effect. Look at AGW - a large section of population has decided to consider it a hoax / conspiracy. Why, a majority of Republicans even believe that Obama wasn't born in the US.

We need to go through 2 more cycles of high oil prices - before the mainstream accepts reality.

ps : What will happen to KSA after the current ailing 80 year old king Abdulla ?

 

[AndyH]

Uuuuggghh... all makes my head hurt. Gonna go drive our LEAF around and listen to the Beatles.

Agreed. I'll be under the bed in a fetal position. Crank the Beatles please?

 

[TRONZ]

So it's at a 28 month high now. When we get to the 32 month high it will be right back to the record July 08 prices. :roll:

 

[AndyH]

ps : What will happen to KSA after the current ailing 80 year old king Abdulla ?

Don't know. I guess we can check with the BinLadin Group and see who they have lined up. :twisted:

 

[edatoakrun]

LAT today published an Op piece that describes decades of US energy policy failures.

It concludes:

"...Decades after the Arab oil embargo, we accept instability and even war in the Middle East as inevitable. We take it for granted that we will pay the costs in lives and treasure. And although we know that high gasoline prices change people's behavior, Congress refuses to impose taxes that would raise petroleum prices, even though it could devise a way to return all of the revenues from such taxes to the American people based on their household size or level of income. As a result, our growing oil consumption and our reliance on imports continue.

The president recently described Libya's oppression of popular unrest as unacceptable. It is. But so is our longstanding failure to address our inadequate domestic policies concerning oil."


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-graetz-mideast-oil-20110307,0,1363635.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

 

[mwalsh]

Last time I was out on the roads was Wednesday of last week. Was it my imagination, or were people driving better (ie: slower and more diligently) today? Seems like the whole deal was less frenetic to me.

 

[Ready2plugin]

Last time I was out on the roads was Wednesday of last week. Was it my imagination, or were people driving better (ie: slower and more diligently) today? Seems like the whole deal was less frenetic to me.

I think it was just from getting use to driving your LEAF every day...the rest of the world is still the same . I drove trough LA on Saturday on the way back from Disneyland to the Bay Area (no...did not take my LEAF), and the drivers were just as rude as the last time I was down south. I did take the train into work today, and it looks like a lot more people are taking mass transit, so maybe there are just a few less cars on the road.

 

[Jimmydreams]

Last time I was out on the roads was Wednesday of last week. Was it my imagination, or were people driving better (ie: slower and more diligently) today? Seems like the whole deal was less frenetic to me.

I noticed a subtle change yesterday as well....I think the high gas prices are starting to get noticed at the gas pump.

The last time gas hit $4/gal, about 10-20% of the traffic disappeared and speeds seemed to drop in every lane. This time, I'll fit right in!! :mrgreen:

 

[evnow]

And although we know that high gasoline prices change people's behavior, Congress refuses to impose taxes that would raise petroleum prices, even though it could devise a way to return all of the revenues from such taxes to the American people based on their household size or level of income.

When one of the parties makes "tax cut" as the one & only "policy" - we can't expect any better.

This kind of ideology can continue to the point of self-destruction. As they say, humans are no better than bacteria when it comes to using up resources.

 

[jhm614]

Last time I was out on the roads was Wednesday of last week. Was it my imagination, or were people driving better (ie: slower and more diligently) today? Seems like the whole deal was less frenetic to me.

I noticed this change today as well -- however, I attributed it to less traffic because spring break started for some of the DFW area public schools this a.m.

j.

 

[TRONZ]

Yup. People are going into slow motion on the roadways around here. We just came from the mission Viejo Mall and gas was $3.89, $4.05 and $4.17. I don't blame people a bit for slowing down!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i think higher gas prices should have happened a long time ago. prices going to $1.61 a gallon in 2008 was completely irresponsible and inexcusable in the light of our 100 billion dollar a day interest payment on our debt (guessing here, its probably higher than that)

we should have immediately raised gas taxes to a reasonable level of at least $2.50 and then slowly increased it to the mid 3's then bleed it off as "real" prices began to rise.

this would have acclimated the country to start energy saving options months ago. now we have a huge portion of the country that is simply unprepared and the government is still broke to boot.

now, its great that people are slowing down, but that should have happened years ago. how many less gas guzzlers would there be on the streets and in the showrooms if gas had not gone back down??

now i strongly question the validity of this statement, but ABC News had a report on Oil pricing speculation and they stated by the time the gas was transfered to the car, it had exchanged hands which means bought, sold or bidded on average, 80 times.

ya, thats right....80 times. during that process, everyone gets a piece

 

[AndyH]

Hang on tight - it's getting more fun every day...

http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/03/27/idINIndia-32715320080327

(Reuters) - A bomb attack in the northern province of Nineveh halted oil flow through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, which carries a quarter of Iraq's crude exports, a spokesman for Iraq's oil ministry said on Wednesday.

The attack occurred on Tuesday night, but oil flow is expected to resume in a "few days" after fixing the damage, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.

"A bomb attack ... has led to an explosion in the pipeline. There was no fire only an oil leak so flow was halted," Jihad said. "We have enough stocks in storage for exports."

 

[Ready2plugin]

This just hit my Bloomberg....nice read about oil prices and the LEAF:

For Obama, High Oil Prices Bring Energy-Policy Green Lining
2011-03-17 18:17:05.768 GMT


By Mike Dorning
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- When gasoline prices go up, presidential approval ratings historically go down. So the current occupant of the White House is offering sympathy to drivers suffering sticker shock at the pump and publicly ruminating about releasing oil from the nation’s strategic reserves.
“For Americans already facing tough times, it’s an added burden,” Barack Obama said at a March 11 news conference.
Still, there’s a silver lining in higher oil prices -- or, rather, a green lining -- for Obama, who has made clean energy one of his paramount causes.
Rising fuel costs could go a long way toward advancing Obama’s “Win the Future” vision of an economy remade by green technologies, including electric vehicles, advanced batteries, wind and solar power, and high-speed trains, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its March 21 issue.
“If you want to make people switch toward cleaner energy sources,” says Nigel J. Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight, “you need to change the price incentives people are facing. One way to do that would be to make traditional energy much more expensive.”
Take electric vehicles: Obama set a goal of putting
1 million on the road by 2015. Based on the $2.66 per gallon average price of unleaded regular gasoline at the beginning of last year, it would take 10 years to break even on the cost of an electric Nissan Leaf and home charging station, compared with a comparable gasoline-powered car.

Tax Breaks

That’s even factoring in federal tax breaks. The Leaf is a better deal now: At the $3.54 per gallon national average on March 10, a typical car buyer would break even in seven years and save almost $6,000 over 12 years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Truth be told, higher prices are what it takes to change the energy consumption habits of large numbers of Americans.
“Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu told The Wall Street Journal in 2008 when he was director of the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu has backed away from that view since taking office.
Higher energy prices are precisely what Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade legislation to control carbon emissions would have achieved.

Tradable Permits

Had it passed Congress, the system of tradable permits would have raised the cost of carbon-generating fossil fuels, making clean energy sources more competitive.
Unlike limits on carbon emissions, higher oil prices don’t directly boost alternative power-generating technologies such as wind and solar energy. Oil is used to generate less than
1 percent of U.S. electricity, which is mostly produced by coal, natural gas and nuclear energy.
Still, over time, greater use of electric vehicles and hybrids could make a difference.
“If you start substituting electricity for gasoline, it does transfer,” says Martin Lagod, managing director of Firelake Capital Management, a $400 million clean-energy investment fund.
Only perceptions of a sustained change in gasoline prices will shift consumer car-buying habits. After all, the savings from driving an electric, hybrid, or fuel-efficient conventional automobile are spread over many years.

Price Surge Timing

The timing of this price surge early in the expansionary phase of the business cycle may be propitious, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. It jolts consumers out of complacency after the recessionary ebb in oil prices.
“The higher oil prices are, the more viable alternative energy and conservation efforts become,” says Zandi, who predicts oil, trading at $97.98 on March 16, will average $125 per barrel in 5 years.
Obama made a similar point during the March 11 news conference, arguing that the jump in prices provided new justification for his energy initiatives.
“When prices go back down, we slip back into a trance. And then when prices go up, suddenly we’re shocked,” Obama said.
The White House isn’t overly concerned that the run-up in oil prices to date will cause major damage to the economic recovery. The president’s advisers are telling him a $10-a- barrel increase will cut between 0.2 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points from 2011 economic growth, an administration official says.

Less Vulnerable

Since the 1970s, the nation has become much less vulnerable to oil price shocks as the economy shifts away from manufacturing and businesses become more energy efficient.
Energy consumption per real dollar of U.S. gross domestic product is more than 8 percent lower than in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina disrupted supplies, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
That’s not to say the White House is privately celebrating.
Americans already are feeling pinched, and motorists are reminded of gas prices each time they fill their tanks.
From Richard Nixon during the 1973 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo to George W. Bush after Katrina, many a president has seen his popularity decline after sudden oil price jumps. Obama’s own job approval, which had been rising since mid-December, reversed direction in early February and began declining as gas prices rose.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican who is mulling a run for president in 2012, says Obama’s policies “have been designed to drive up the cost of energy.”
That isn’t quite right. Three months before the last presidential election, Obama called for tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down gasoline prices, which had recently reached $4.11 a gallon.
In the current price run-up, Obama shows less willingness to release oil from the reserve, but his hand may yet be forced.
Obama the policy wonk understands the value of higher gasoline prices in curbing climate change and cleaning up the environment. Obama the politician appreciates the peril that high oil prices present to his standing with voters.