tajabaho1

DRILL damn it DRILL!!

besides, I think for most cars going 85mph gets better milage than 55......or is it just ours?

Poster6

Because then the Native Americans would gouge us for ******* them over.

Im like 16 or 18% cherokee....does that get me a cut of the future oil money????

ShinkaTeen

like... 55 over?

Socket7

It takes 10 years or so to bring a new oil field on-line so I've heard, so even if they had started 8 years ago, we still wouldn't be seeing oil from it for another 2 years.

Also, I cannot drive 55. I can however put a piece of electrical tape over part of my speedometer so it LOOK's like i'm going 55.

Flashwing

The 10 year figure has been propaganda spread around by opponents of drilling and that figure is very very much inflated. For extreme deep wells you might be looking at 5 years with 8 being the absolute max. With current technology from start to pump you would be looking at 2 to 3 years with 5 being a max.

Oil companies make their profits in volume, not price. The more oil they can produce and sell the more money they make. The issue is currently the areas they have leased either don't contain sources of oil or there is so little it's not worth the trouble of drilling.

Everyone hold steady. When the oil bubble bursts, and it will, it's gonna come down like a ton of bricks.

XlYesterdaYlX

55 is a bit slow for me...

ShinkaTeen

do cars even go that slow?

Telexen

Lets use a bit of intelligent thinking on this subject guys. Drilling more will not help.

American oil companies control the world's 2nd largest (I believe) untapped oil supply in Iraq - in an area where they haven't even bothered using advanced methods for finding oil mind you...so there's more to be discovered. Yet somehow Faux News has convinced people that American oil companies are having to pay the high price of other nations' oil to give us gas and that's the reason we pay so much for gas.

Right...not with $10-$15 billion/quarter revenue we don't. With the oil our oil companies have and the actual demand, they would still be turning a huge profit with $2.50/gallon gas.

Hell, it's not as if they even need profits to keep them going. George Bush and the rubber stamp Republicans of the early century have given billions of dollars worth of handouts to our oil companies for absolutely nothing. We should have free gas, and they could still be netting a profit.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Your post is Off Topic.
American Oil does not control the oil in Iraq. First of all, name an American oil company. All the big ones are multi-national. Second, Iraq controls it and the equipment in the fields & pipelines wasn't maintained under Sadam. Not much oil is flowing at the moment.
The US needs to develop it's own oil and reduce the worlds reliance on Arab oil supplies.

Jethro Tull

iTrader: (6)

^^In my part of the country, we don't use any middle-eastern oil. It all comes from local domestic sources and Canadian tar sands. There are two refineries within blocks of my office.

Prices are driven by the mantra "all the traffic will bear". Even fuel from cheaper sources gets priced near or at what the highest-priced fuel is getting hundreds of miles away.

Increased domestic production will help, but it will still take government action to keep the new supplies from being sold at levels driven by the international market.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Most U.S. oil comes from the Americas (Domestic, Canada, Mexico & Venezuela). A pipeline to bring the Canadian tar sand crude is being constructed in the upper midwest, but the expansion of a refinery to process it (BP's site in Whiting, IN) is be fought by the NIMBY people.

Telexen

First, my post was not off topic. Everybody in this thread wants to run around saying that us drilling more within our country will help - but it won't. This is because while in the long run we are facing a shortage of oil - there are numerous options oil companies across the globe (ESPECIALLY Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell) to tap, but they choose not to for the obvious reason of price inflation. They're not having difficulty refining, they intentionally shut down refineries. I'll get a link for Shell being caught in the act when I can find it ...I've got too many in this thread to keep track of right now.

Secondly, please don't write me off as ignorant just because you're misinformed. Oil companies that attempt to call themselves multinational simply because they've merged and or purchased foreign business are quite obviously still American companies when they are based and operate in the United States. Mid-2007 Iraqi law began allowing the contracting of foreign companies on Iraqi oil fields. Currently, there are about 5 companies in the final stages of negotiation of contracts. These companies include Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total (a French company), Shell and BP (your real multinational corps).

There have been plenty of reports linking Chevron with work in Iraq for several years (even helping Saddam pre-invasion). And why not - it's not hard to imagine why. It doesn't take much research to run down the roster of Bush Administration officials (both elected ones) who have either directly ran/worked for Chevron or ran/worked for companies tightly bound in contracts with them.

It's quite silly. People seem to be confused. They're under the assumption that anybody invested in oil wants anything pumped out of Iraq...that defeats the flow of their business model.

musclecarconvrt

I have already slowed down a bit. Now I use 55mph as a shifting point between 2nd and 3rd gear... as I wind my way up to a more proper cruising speed north of 70.

If they can catch me they can ticket me. I didn't buy a sports car to adhere to a speed limit that is only about 10 mph over the recomended lowest shift point for top gear.

Winfree

It might take an oil field in the arctic sea 20 years to develop, but I have been watching an oil patch off Jolan Road heading to Hunter-Leggett for about a year now - I think they spent about a month on the drilling, a couple of weeks installing the pumps and pipelines, and she is producing, and they moved the rig to another site and are drilling another one right now.

I bet if we let some independent wild-catters loose we might just get some oil...

Winfree

If you can legally prove you are Cherokee, the nation accepts anyone with even 1 drop of Cherokee blood - they have scholarships and stuff - the thing is are you Oklahoma Cherokee or East Coast? There is a center back east - send them something from your fireplace and your family tree and see what happens....do you know your clan?

EdwardsB

Is it jsut my car, because I notice no difference between 55 and 65/70ish?

heyarnold69

iTrader: (1)

70 mph in 6th gear is like 3500 rpms. thats my target for cruising

learycd

iTrader: (1)

put electrical tape over your gas gauge so you can still see the low fuel light and never reset your trip odometer, life will be much better

djgiron

I can answer the topic of shale oil really fast . . . It takes 5 barrels of water to make 1 barrel of oil from shale, the 4 corners in a desert. Figure out how to get the water there and you will have your shale oil. Water rights in Colorado is in such shambles it is unbelievable, every drop is accouted for BEFORE it even hits the ground. Issue #2 with shale oil, the super rich oil companies want to be able to mine it for basically free, Colorado (not sure about surrounding states) would like money for the resource to help the economy, rebuild the environment from the huge strip mining that will happen, etc. and they are not willing to pay that. There are big town meetings going on all over CO right now about all of this. Shale is a good theory, but in practice won't work as it is now.

alfy28

One foot on the brake and one on the gas, hey!
Well, there's too much traffic, I can't pass, no!
So I tried my best illegal move
A big black and white come and crushed my groove again!

CHORUS:
Go on & write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license n' all that jive
I can't drive É 55! Oh No! Uh!

So I signed my name on number 24, hey!
Yeah the judge said, "Boy, just one more
I'm gonna throw your *** in the city joint"
Looked me in the eye, said, "You get my point?"
I said "Yeah!, Oh yea!"

CHORUS II:
Write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license, all that jive
I can't drive É 55!
Oh, yea!

I can't drive 55! (four times)
Uh! (Solo)

When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.
And I can't get my car out of second gear.
What used to take two hours now takes all day.
Huh - It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.!

CHORUS:
Go on & write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license n' all that jive
I can't drive 55!

No, no, no, I can't drive...(I can't drive 55!)
I can't drive... (I can't drive 55!)
I can't drive 55!

SideOfBacon

short answer: no.

didnt when zones were marked 55 before, why would I now?

rotarygod

I drive at 70 on the freeway. That's where I'm comfortable regardless of what the posted speed limit is. Most people drive faster. Too many people drive too fast as in 80+. The speed limit on freeways in the city here is 60 so 5 less isn't going to do crap. You'll increase ticket revenue but you won't slow anyone down.

BaronVonBigmeat

Errr...yes?

It's already happened--in the mid 1980's. The price of oil crashed. There were a buttload of layoffs in oil towns like Houston. There was such a glut that refineries were shut down. Even then, gasoline hovered around $1/gallon for most of the 80's and 90's.

What we're seeing now is a replay of the 70's era stagflation. High natural resource prices come and go in cycles, plus they are fueled by central bank inflation. This one may be particularly big because of China's huge increase in demand, but rest assured, it will end some day.

Much of Iraq's oil and gas infrastructure has been destroyed by the war. And it's hard to repair when there are saboteurs and attacks on repair personnel.

rotarygod

I still think it's funny that people think all of this is the fault of the oil companies or due to Iraq. First of all, we haven't gotten ANY oil from Iraq in about 17 years or so. Most people aren't getting oil from Iraq. Iraq is a nonissue. The war over there is about religion and nothing else. It's about uniting the last of the 3 largest religions, christianity, judism, and islam. They all fought until judism and christianity reconciled but islam is remaining. That's what the extremists are trying to prevent. They don't want to be integrated. It's not about oil. It's about religion so get over it. That's 100% fact and anyone who says otherwise is 100% wrong! Period!

Second, oil companies are NOT to blame for this. They may be at record profits but there are 2 ways to hit record profit levels. 1 way is to have record sales. The other way is to have record profit margins combined with steady sales. I'll give you a hint to figure this out. It's not option 2! Oil companies are not at record profit margins. They are at record sales figures. You want to lower their profits? Lower their sales. It's simple. However that's not what is driving prices up. The fact that big oil is making record amounts is coincidentally happening at the same time as the real issue.

We do have increased demand. It's not a 400% increase as prices would suggest as this is NOT a result of supply and demand. I've seen others claim that everything follows the rules of supply and demand. Everything may have, until now. Oil isn't. Again, it's fact. Get over it. We have 2 fundamental problems right now but they've been forseeable for decades. Why it's a surprise now is beyond me.

One problem is the weakening dollar. Again it hasn't tanked to justify the current prices but it is a contributing factor. Another very big factor is speculators. Someone just has to mention publicly that oil prices "could" hit much higher levels and all of a sudden greedy people jump into the stock market game to buy in hopes that it will go up and they will get rich. The problem is that when people keep buying it, prices go up. This is where the supply/demand problem lies. It's not the gas tanks. It's the speculators. They want to buy it so prices go up because they can. Greed keeps setting in and more keep buying pushing prices further and further up. You want to lower the price of a barrel of oil? Get all oil speculators to sell and get no one to buy anymore. Oil prices will tank instantly. That's what needs to happen and at some point will as panic will ensue and they'll all rush to dump it as someone will have publicly stated that oil prices are going to go down. It's all inside trading. It's all dishonest and we all pay for it. It's not big oil doing this to us so again, get over it. I don't recall seeing anyone offer to bail them out in the 80's when they were losing money like crazy. Why not? If I were an oil exec, I'd say screw everyone, I'm raising my profit margins. That'll teach you to leave us hanging next time. They aren't doing that though so be happy.

The dollar value and the law of supply and demand in relation to consumption state that oil prices per barrel should only be in the $70 range or so. That's still double what it was less than 10 years ago which is still more than standard inflation would suggest it should be.

We also have the issue of not allowing any alternatives to be pursued. We all want them but no one will let us. The environmentalist whackos don't want more oil refineries built. They don't want windfarms due to birdstrikes. They don't want solar farms in deserts since it may disrupt the lifestyles of lizards or some other crap like that. They don't want us to use available resources such as coal, shale, or even existing oil fields while the rest of the world drills sideways into ours anyways. They want us to use less but offer no options to do so and guess what, the government, regardless of party, will agree. No one will get anything useful done and we'll all pay for it. Meanwhile these same people who won't let anyone do anything will pass the blame for the issues on to someone else who has nothing to do with it. The president, the war, and oil companies being prime examples.

The solution is to drive slower. Use less. Pollute less. They want us to all drive a Prius and live like bees on top of our jobs in the middle of the city. I say no! I like the suburbs and quite frankly I'd rather spew toxic waste into my water supply than drive a Prius and no that's not a joke!

Don't drive slower. It's a useless attempt at a failed strategy. The soltions are above.

Sorry for the rant. I'm one of the few smart people who seems to "get it".

BaronVonBigmeat

Actually if you look at the price of gas in terms of a steady currency--namely, gold or silver--it's about the same price it was in 1965. A dollar is (was) defined as .7747 troy oz. of silver, and a quarter was 25% of that. So, about 1/5th of an oz. of silver.

Today's price of silver is $17.81 per ounce.

17.81 x .2 = $3.56

...which is not too far at all from what we're paying today. You simply cannot double the money supply in less than ten years and think that nothing will go up in price.

Now factor in a bunch of other things. Ethanol is a crap fuel boondoggle that raises the price of both gas and food. There are a couple dozen regional gas formulations mandated by the EPA. There are restrictions on new refineries and offshore drilling (which is actually good for the environment. There is saber-rattling vs. Iran, and there is an almost endless appetite for oil from China. I read somewhere that if everyone in China simply switched from bicycles to mopeds, it would increase world oil consumption by 50%. Okay, I don't remember the exact number, but you get the picture.

One thing that isn't to blame though is oil speculators. Speculators and futures markets are a good thing. They buy commodities when there is a glut, and thus save producers from bankruptcy. They then sell commodities when prices are high, providing relief from shortages and high prices. Generally when there is a widespread phenomena like speculators or "price gougers" among peaceful non-coercive agents acting in a free market, there is a good reason for it. And by good reason, I mean "beneficial to the public".

Want cheaper gas? Goverment(s) need to do what they did in the early 80's when gas prices crashed: deregulate, abolish price controls, and stop printing money like mad.