Gas prices out of Sight?

Crank up the Coal Burners - Oops!

Published on August 31, 2005 By Dr Guy In Current Events

Yes, the mean and nasty oil companies are defying the law of Supply and Demand (probably one of the few laws that cant be broken) and getting rich at our expense! Never mind that my need is greater than your need, so I will pay a premium for my gas while you go begging (that could not possibly be my CHOICE! It has to be price gouging!). No, it is just those evil Bushies and their Oil cohorts extorting money from the peons of America!

But what does America have more of than any other nation on earth? (Down MM, quit saying idiots)

COAL! We are filthy rich in it! We got it coming out of our wazoo! We cant give the stuff away! Knock off a few know nothing meddling environmentalist that cant tell a 3 toed sloth from their cousin, and we can power the world! And it is cheap and with modern technology, clean! So lets convert to coal!

Arrgggghhh! But there is the rub! For as the price of petrol, and more importantly natural Gas skyrockets (natural Gas was a lot harder hit by Katrina than Oil was), Coal is cheap and plentiful!

Or was! People are now bidding up the price of coal! Yep! Not the consumers per se, the buyers (I think you call them middle men). They see a huge market coming, and so they are bidding it up!

Coal is so plentiful here, and so many mines are abandoned as it is so cheap, that no company can monopolize it and dictate prices. yet the price is going up! Why?

The Immutable law of Supply and Demand!

Sneer at the Bushies. Rail at Big oil. As you drive your cars (does not matter if it is an SUV, all of them burn oil derivatives) and refuse to cut back. Even as refinery capacity is at the max. And now crippled.

I hate $3/gallon of gas too. But I also welcome it. For Oil Shale is now viable, as is Ethanol, and Coal tar derivatives. Butthey are not going to be cheap, and the transition painful.

Rejoice Luddites! You have prevented a nuclear (or as Carter said, Nuclar) Power plant from being built in the last 30 years. You won!

Now revel in your victory. Might I suggest a bent? There is a member here at JU that can advise you very well on them.

Comments (Page 2)

Dr Guy

on Aug 31, 2005

sorry Dr. Guy, I had to...

You are forgiven. That is what we are about after all.

dabe

on Aug 31, 2005

Worse than the cost of driving to work is going to be oil to heat our houses. I am not looking forward to what it's going to cost this winter. I have a feeling my savings account will be drained paying for heat.

Dr Guy

on Aug 31, 2005

I wonder what will happen if oil becomes too expencive? 1970's again?

70s was not too expensive. It was a bad situation made worse by bad policy.

Dr Guy

on Aug 31, 2005

I live in the Midwest and we are @ 2.899 per gallon and here it hurts. There is no public transportation and for me it's 5 miles to the nearest grocery, 7 miles to a small town and 10 miles to Springfield a small city

That is called rural America and it is in every state.

Dr Guy

on Aug 31, 2005

The cost of being anti development of resources. Kind of sucks when it is you that is paying the price and not some SUV driver.

TasT

on Aug 31, 2005

That is called rural America and it is in every state.

duh, just giving a general local for price comparison1

rural America will of course get hit the hardest as we have no defense against driving to get to the things we need. Most of us already didn't just run to the store at the drop of a hat, not because of fuel prices but, because of location, it becomes habit to do your shopping in one big trip and then gather esentials on the way home from work. So for the most part our driving is already minimized.

Dr Guy

on Sep 01, 2005

So for the most part our driving is already minimized.

Which just kind of magnifies the pain as there is no room to cut back.

Chaos Manager

on Sep 01, 2005

Tell me about it. My house (an older 1950's era Cape Cod) has hotwater, baseboard heat. The furnace/hot water heater is an oil fired furnace. I called around yesterday checking on #2 Heating Oil and found that most of the places around want $2.39 or $2.40 a gallon - before 1% sales tax. After the tax, it ends up being $2.60 a gallion. GAH!!!

And to top it off, the companies were warning me that prices are changing almost daily, based on what they are charged from their suppliers.

Lucky me, I managed to find a place that was a bargain - $2.18 a gallon.

If this winter is anything like the summer's been so far (wacky and extreme weatherwise), I'm not looking forward to the $$$ that's going to go into that tank. But, what can I do? I've got 4 small children (and me and my wife) to take care of.

I know that I'm going to be breaking out my chainsaw and axe to get some more firewood laid in. A buddy of mine still has wood lying around from the hurricane two summers ago, so it's nice and seasoned.

Zoomba

on Sep 01, 2005

8/31, 8:00am EST - $2.70/gal
8/31, 5:00pm EST - $3.10/gal

I saw a 40 cent hike in just one business day... and I know it's only going to climb over the next few weeks. With this hurricane, we may be seeing the end of the under $3 gallon. I have a fuel effecient car (Ford Focus), but filling up this morning was $30 for 3/4 of my tank. I also live in the burbs so no public transit for me, and no nearby workers to carpool with

I'm already down to the bare minimum of driving too (to work, from work, out once on the weekend to do errands) so I'm pushed to the limit here.

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 01, 2005

Dr. Guy,

You forgot the oil reserves in Alaska that are MUCH larger than ANWR, but aren't profitable to drill unless the price of oil exceeds $50/barrel, a price I doubt we'll ever see it drop BELOW again! But yes, shale oil and ethanol, among other things, should benefit from the oil price surge. Legalizing industrial hemp (though not necessarily marijuana, though I personally favor that as well) should also begin entering serious discussions on how to handle the oil crisis.

Well written article, with much to think about. Given the fact that I actually HAVE underground mining experience, my motto might soon be: "Go east, young man!"

Dr Guy

on Sep 01, 2005

When I was looking for a house, I told my broker what I wanted. One of the things I told him was that it not have Oil Heat!

Dr Guy

on Sep 01, 2005

I saw a 40 cent hike in just one business day...

I saw the same, but in a 24 hour period (5pm to 4pm).

Dr Guy

on Sep 01, 2005

You forgot the oil reserves in Alaska that are MUCH larger than ANWR, but aren't profitable to drill unless the price of oil exceeds $50/barrel, a price I doubt we'll ever see it drop BELOW again!

I also did not include some of your own grasshoppers that have been capped because it was too expensive (before) to extract any more oil from the well. With the price at $70 (and I agree we will not see the down side of $50 except as an exception) and rising, there are going to be a lot of entrepreneurs that find ways to get more oil, and creating alternative fuels.

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