Gas pricing

[Nolerama]

You guys are both making good points. We need to know how we got here so we can avoid a repeat, plus understanding that might help us find the solution.

The highways and the car were encouraged, while other systems like train and rail and bike were not. Nations like Germany, Japan and a few others are decades ahead of the US in the use of rail to move people around. Even Canada has better public transportation networks than any US city I've been in.

I agree. Great points, and Bob's piqued my interest. I wonder why in, "the greatest country in the world" we don't have a high-speed nationwide rail system. In Japan, they use a magnetic levitation system to increase fuel economy and speed. That's a SALE to me as an American; and the American in me is a little jealous at the fact that we can't seem to have something like that.

As a consumer, I want choice outside of getting robbed by big companies who overcharge me because they bought their oil in futures and want to make a quick profit. I've used this example before, but I believe the mentality behind our higher pump costs/ record profits for oil companies lies in the same arena as the Enron scandal.

I live in St. Louis, MO, surprisingly one of the first places in the US to have a "subway" and has until only recently made an expansion on its light rail system. Unfortunately, this is still a driving town, where public transit is shunned because it's seen as a divider between the classes in this city (outside of going to ballgames where no one wants to pay for parking).

Give me a fuel cell-powered friction-reduced train that can allow me to commute from LA to NYC in four hours, for a few hundred bucks.

However I don't see that happening any time soon. No politician want to earmark something like that in this consumer-corporate government of ours. And there certainly wouldn't be any pork for this pork barrel in the form of instant monetary gratification.

Another thing that needs to be done now, and done with serious effort is to find an alternate to oil that can be made available to people at an affordable rate that does NOT cause increases in pollution, food prices, etc. Hybrids that combine gas, electric and solar. Total electric cars. Nuclear power. Hydrogen fuel cells, corn gas, etc are all short term dead end bandaids.

Even the plastic in bandaids are petroleum-based...

Corn goes up because it's now in demand.
As a result, less corn is grown for food, causing shortages.
Higher prices for feed corn = higher prices for chicken, beef and pork.
Higher fuel costs = higher costs of transporting food = higher prices for food.
This is the cycle that we're facing, and we need to get off, now.

Even with the demand in corn, American farmers are still asked to not grow it to control costs, while Mexican farmers are approaching a famine, since NAFTA has put a premium on American corn, and makes Mexico buy their corn from the US, leading to poorer Mexicans and more illegal immigration to the US from Mexico.

Why not spread the wealth?

American/Global conglomerates won't, because they don't like seeing a decrease in their profit margins.

So, nationalize the US oil companies, stop giving them kick backs, stabilize US oil/gas prices so that that food prices will drop. Stop growing corn for gas as there are other plants that have a better ROI for that, and fund the long term replacements so that they can be developed now, not in 20 years.

That's the irony in this country, and no politician is going to bite the hand that feed him (or her). It's not like my $5 contribution to a Presidential candidate's campaign made a difference. Big companies own these people and our dependency on consumer goods means Big Companies OWN us lowly citizens.

 

[MA-Caver]

I will agree a couple of months and we will be begging for the 3.59 a gallon.

Well it's back... at least in my part of the country anyway... gas prices have been dropping thanks to crude dropping but the rate is a lot slower than it needs to be.
Still an improvement... not much but an improvement. Perhaps all the talk of the U.S. planning off shore drilling helped knock the prices down (a wee bit). :idunno: who knows.

 

[Kacey]

Well it's back... at least in my part of the country anyway... gas prices have been dropping thanks to crude dropping but the rate is a lot slower than it needs to be.
Still an improvement... not much but an improvement. Perhaps all the talk of the U.S. planning off shore drilling helped knock the prices down (a wee bit). :idunno: who knows.

I wish it were back to $3.59 here... the best I've seen is $3.78.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I wish it were back to $3.59 here... the best I've seen is $3.78.

We have had $3.61.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

We have $4.19.

 

[Big Don]

We have $4.19.

so do we

 

[Makalakumu]

$4.43 on Oahu, but what else does one expect...