OT: Gas Prices

[Renegade 13]

Ahhhh.

I was just being a little dense I guess, not seeing the obvious. Thanks for the clarification!

[jeffel]

Some of this is re-tread, but still, I thought it worth mentioning.

1. The Oil companys are ripping us off.
2. Gas should be more expensive.
3. We need to stop burning things to provide energy.

I am sure that I need to clarify #2

I think that gas taxes need to be higher and that the additional proceeds be used to shore up our transportation infrastructure and to provide research into alternative energies.

This approach has two main advantages.
1. Roads and other Transportation Infrastructure can be used to support even alternative energy cars.
2. At the same time we ramp down the use of fossil fuels, we would be encouraging the development of their replacements.

Recently there has been a lot of push in the media for bio-diesel and other fuels made from crops. While these fuels are an improvement over dependence on fossil oil, it still has some major drawbacks, most notably that they still release poisonous gasses into the atmosphere.

While bio-fuel is a good interim step, it does not (IMO) represent a long term solution.

Personally, I think that the hydrogen fuel cell is the future of portable energy and that a combination of solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and tidal energy is the ideal way to provide the raw energy for "refueling" those cells.

[Parasite]

1. The Oil Companies are ripping us off. True, but so is everyone else.
2. Gas should be more expensive. Anything useful that they are not making anymore will rise in price as demand goes up and, as stated, supply goes down.
3. Stop burning things... Well, maybe. Give me a better, cheaper solution and I will. Taxes on gas will make the old solution more expensive and new better technology seem more reasonable.

I filled up my gas tank this weekend. Man it was expensive. Over $30 dollars for a month of gas. I still wonder how I was able to put 11 gallans into my 10 gallon tank. The gas was 10 cents cheaper than the other stations... Hmmmmm.

In case you are wondering, here is my car. Lifetime average of 53.1 miles a gallon and rated SULEV or Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. I have had it four years and counting. Still loving it. (see attachment)

[Azselendor]

Everyone might be ripping us off, but the Oil Industry is making them all look like amatures. The problem is demand is going up and up and and they can keep raising prices. If you increase taxes on it, people will still pay.

It's like walmart syndrome.

[Renegade 13]

Wow...

I just did a bit of a search for information on the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada, since I know there's a tremendous amount of oil there. I just never knew how much oil...

According to estimates, there is 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil in the tar sands. That's 1,700,000,000,000 to 2,500,000,000,000 barrels! Enough to supply the US at its current rate of consumption for nearly 250 years!

The catch is that it is very expensive to recover the oil from the sands. Only about 10% of that oil is economically recoverable. Still, having an oil reserve of 170-250 billion barrels in just that one oil field (compared to the US having 21 billion barrels reserve) is quite something.

I wonder how many tons of living matter had to have died in that general area to have ended up as that amount of oil....

[Captain Kwok]

Wasn't that part of Alberta part of an inland sea back at the time of the dinosaurs?

[Morkilus]

Happy birthday, R13!

On the subject of tar sands, you're completely on the target there... if we want oil, we'll find a way to get it. People will see that there is a cheaper way soon enough; here in Utah, the Gov's been eager to set up new mining operations, and they're resuming uranium mining and exploration, not to mention tar sands. And they're finally starting to collect natural gas from current coal mines, which previously was simply vented into the atmosphere. And we complain about farting cows... :roll:

[Renegade 13]

Morkilus said:
Happy birthday, R13!

Thanks a lot Morkilus!

[Kamog]

I filled up my car with gas today. $1.195 per liter! It seems that once the price exceeded $1, it just keeps going higher.

[Atrocities]

You have to blame your governments excessively high tax on that one. You pay about the same per barrel of oil as we do but you have a very high gas tax.