Consumers blame oil companies, oil companies blame the politicians, and the politicians blame foreign countries. Yes, we’re talking about the price of gas, or crude oil if you will. If you have been trading the black gold, you may be laughing all the way to the bank right now. However, the average American isn’t laughing at all. I think it's safe to say that no one likes to feel like they are being robbed at gunpoint every time they fill their tank.
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The MarketClub Team
Let see... OPTION A: Ride a bike, and move closer to work??? Are you kidding??? OPTION B: Go from an oil driven world to an electric driven world. Electricity... it's clean, it's reproducible, and it's cheap. The best thing we can do about gas prices long-term is to invest in R&D on SuperCell and Battery technologies. We will only need the following to make the world ZERO dependent on oil for energy (and as an added bonus, have the Arabs return to herding goats in the wilderness):
(1) R&D on SuperCell technology as an alternative to Nuclear power plants (we'll need a lot more electricity if our vehicles will run on electricity). We are currently about 10-15 years shy of making SC technology viable for mass electric generation;
and,
(2) R&D for longer capacity electric batteries. We already have electric cars with over 100-150 mile ranges, just need a little better battery technology and the problem is solved. Battery capacity has increased 15-20% year over year the last 3 years. Mercedes already has an electric (not hybrid, but 100% electric) research prototype of it's top of the line SL gullwing that gets a 120 km range. If we can get a battery that will produce a range of 350+ miles per charge per "normal" sized vehicles that would be a viable alternative to gas/diesel. Charges could be made from home overnight using 220 current, or an ultra high voltage "quick-charge" at a station in under 5 minutes.
This is the ONLY viable long-term alternative to gas/oil.
We have more oil in reserve right now then we've ever had. The speculators are helping with the price if oil or any other commodity. In my town, the lines are restaurants on Friday & Saturday aren't what they used to be. People won't go & do things if gas doesn't settle down.
I heard that the goverment, "We the People", are still giving the oil companies subsidies. 11 billion profit for one oil company this year. What are we subsidizing? Anyone know if this is true?
I heard the government, WE THE PEOPLE, is still GIVING them subsidies. Anyone know if this is true? Just 1 of the oil companies made 11 BILLION in profit & MAY still be getting subsidies!!! For what?
And don't even start talking about how the speculators are helping to drive up the price of oil, corn & other commodities. Personally, if gas goes up more, there won't be people going on vacation because they can't afford to. The restaurants here in Nashville aren't as busy as they usually are. It's not standing room only
i thot the deficit started close to 8 yrs ago... were we not in a surplus when bush came into office? did he not spend all of that on the war and then some? if the tax benefits for the wealthy had been allowed to expire, would our government need to be spending and cutting out sooooooooo much? what could we do with the 700 billion that would have been accrued if the wealthy had to pay taxes the same way i have to? what if general electric did not have the loopholes they have now... they didnt pay a dime in taxes for last year... what if all the corportations did not have these loopholes ? wouldnt more money be coming in, our country a tiny bit better, and GE would still have a very nice profit... and the CEO'S and etc's, a house nicer than mine... or rather a few houses .
can u clear something up for me,... if OPEC is the enity that has the power to control oil prices... how can our government be at fault, or where is our government at fault? WHO makes up OPEC?
i agree with you, however i think if we drilled at home, or tapped into reserves for the short term, for right now, with the promise of alternative energy in the making as we support ourselves with our own reserves.. might work. we already have the ability for alternative resources... but we (america) aren't doing anything. ive heard that a big reason is, our dollar is still worth something in saudi arabia and our government does not want to go alternative b/c of money to be made . even with our dollar being devalued, it is still of some importance/value to saudi arabia... dont know how tru this is.... this info came to me from a canadian investor i know. bottom line, somewhere we are still in the dark about why we are not going alternative and we should have started years ago..
Duh…
I’m not too swift so I did a search as an exercise in ‘Follow the Money’. Please use your favorite search engine to look at “Gasoline Taxes Vs. Exxon Profit, Per Gallon”. You might like all the bright colors, the numbers and it might be some food for thought. You may ‘get gas’ and I don’t mean UGA…
In terms of price there isn't much that can be done being that they (the Gov' and Fed) are trying to devalue the dollar so even if its not a problem of demand, oil will continue to go higher in dollar terms. Until they stop trying to control everything and the markets we will never see low oil, low food, low Gold ever again. We just have to play the market and wait until the IMF does what they say they're going to do and get rid of the dollar as reserve currency and see how they begin to manipulate the markets.
Till we have a President that will stablilize the dollar and also do the following:
1. Get rid of most red tape for drilling here in America
2. stop subsidizing solar, wind power, and ethanol (it has proved to ruin engines
and does not have as good gas mileage as oil alone
3. Who loves America and is proud of her.
4. Who is serious about reducing the $14.3 TRILLION DEBT
5. Who will forget which party he is from and concentrates on the good of the country.
Till we have such a person our country will continue to decline at a rapid rate. Our country needs CHANGE NOW FROM WHAT WE HAVE NOW, SO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN CAN SURVIVE.
We must continue with other energy sources, but it will take time till they are energy efficient and less costly. Going green this fast is ruining our country.
Gee whiz. I thought the "Cash for Clunkers" would fix our problem with getting all those old gas guzzelers off the road.
NONE OF THE ABOVE. I have all the answers as many others do, but people do not want to hear the reality of how to accomplish such.
Las formas alternativas de enery es la única solución a largo plazo.
Eugene you have the best answer.
We lose sight that there are many things which effect gas prices. Naturally inflation will bring upward pressure. Then those folks in China have more concrete companies than the rest of all of the other nations put together building roads. They, unlike Japanese consumers who spend discretionary income on travel and fashion, will and are buying autos. A nation with one fifth of the world’s future consumers, one third if you include India, makes this a game changer. Price is but a rationing mechanism. So thereby, those cheap consumer items we buy at Walmart have a hidden cost. The demand will increase as the economy improves, thereby increasing price. Then a cartel (OPEC) can also limit supply. However, that being said, Exxon/Mobile, Chevron and others are more interested in natural gas these days, rather than fossil fuels. Do they know something we don't know? Besides this country being self sufficient with natural gas, it’s a no brainer.
We lose sight that as price increases, substitutes, efficiency, mass transit become more attractive and the market/technology morphs into another beast. This all stands to reason to benefit the consumer in the long run. To any economist, this would be stating the obvious that is if there are no outside/unnatural forces acting upon the market. Government and OPEC seem to be the only saviors (unnatural forces) for fossil fuels. It’s just a matter of time.
So a smart man/woman would see these changes coming and profit from the change. I saw the entire subprime market as a sham. Who was creating all of this demand for housing? The baby boomers were very unlikely to take on a mortgage, considering their age. Why didn't the pension plan money managers see this? Connect the dots and you see that contributions have to be made to these ill-funded pension plans. So thereby, teachers/educators are now held in low esteem. Prior, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, and the teaching profession was regarded as a benevolent underpaid public servant as big business was luring math/science teachers into more lucrative employment.
In closing we must say "there is no one as blind as he/she who will not open their eyes and or turn on the lights".
How about depending on public transport. Govt must have efforts in providing efficient public transportation system, such as mass rapid train. It is environmental friendly too. Or else we can opt for cars with smaller engine capacity.
To stabilize the dollar get read of the ones in congress that can't tell thier ass from a whole in the ground! Give the breaks to the small oil companys and cut the tax breaks for the big boy's in oil. Also cut back on the oil and refind oil that we export. Make our reserves bigger and open them when the price get's over $80.00 a barral. Keep in mind you have to make it worth the little guy's effert's to get it out the ground! As for transportation , I driver a semi for a company and I'm glad I'm not and owner op right now! After driving for over 15 yrs , I can say the first to get screwed is the DRIVER"S! If you don't beleave me just ask one!
Increasings in the value of the euro hasn't done much to lower fuel prices.there oil but its increasing refining will lower the cost by capacity.more drilling will help.
Natural gas in the US. You got plenty of it.
Uhh..."In order to stabilize the price of oil in dollar terms, the value of the dollar needs to be stablized"
Did you forget to read all the options?
Uhh, "In order to stabilize the price of oil in dollar terms, the value of the dollar needs to be stablized"
Did you forget to read all the options?
lol, save oil, burn coal, or build more nuclear plants. Which one of those solutiosn do you find the most appealing?
D.P. you have to be joking. Our refineries could process the crude we drill instead of purchasing it from OPEC members and paying the costly tansport costs... Please think about the entire process before crying about the oil companies profits...
Tim,
Alternative energy is a great long term solution, but can you please tell me how anybody thinks it's a good idea / efficient method / cheapest method... to transport oil from 10,000+ miles away to our refining plants? The OBVIOUS solution is to get the oil we need right here in the good old USA until we find another source of energy. We're not just going to suddenly stop needing oil tomorrow, so stop crying about being "greedy."
We--and Canada--have tons of natural gas. It costs about 1/3 of the equivalent energy amount of oil.I understand that in Brazil they have cars that can switch between gasoline and natural gas depending what is more economic on any day. Natural gas burns considerably cleaner overall than oil-to-gasoline-to-gasoline engine.In this country there have been buses and trucks operating on natural gas for several years.
Sure, it would require a major investment, but what a return. And no guessing whether a brand-new technology would really work
Only Countries and gasoline production type Co.that are trading to taking delivery of oil (for production) Should be allowed in the oil market.Option #4 is what is driving the price of a gallon up. So until changes are made lets go for $8.00 a gallon.
I'm writing to you from Canada, where the majority of the oil produced here goes to the States where you pay around $3.5 per gal, I pay $1.5 per litre, roughly $6.00 per gallon. Why?? Anyways, at this price, it now makes dollars and sense for me to pay the extra for more efficient vehicles. Just bought a turbo-deisel (bio-fuel) Volkswagon, 60 mpg and power to boot. (Couldn't find a North American vehicle that could match)..Looking forward to when plug in and full electric vehicles are available here. Just imagine a plug in diesel (bio-fuel) fired electric hybrid.
DRILL, DRILL, DRILL. WE'VE GOT PLENTY OF IT!!!
OPEN THE RESERVES . . .
1) Invest in Alternative Energy which can be produced in own countries, ideally at home
2) Work from home (saves on transportation)
3) Grow your own food (saves on transportation and production costs and money!)
4) Get Gov to heavily tax oil related production, and give more subsidies to alternative energies.
I saw a comment on the net about someone remembering gas at a quarter a gallon. Well, he said, you can still buy gas for a quarter a gallon--or better. It just has to be a pre 1965 quarter. Those are worth $8.79 for their silver content as of the current price of silver today. They will be worth more next year. But currently will buy almost 2 gallons of gas. Something to think about.
Use less of it, which won't solve every problem, but it's possible now. Quit living so far from your job, or telecommute. And yes, invest in oil perhaps, it made me a lot over the last 18 months or so, but I'm now out -- if it goes higher, the rest of the world will tank, and if lower, I'll be glad I'm out at the moment.
I'm not denigrating the statement "it's the dollar", because it is very much that too. Whether your fuel is local or foreign sourced, the tanking dollar is going to make it cost more regardless -- so don't use it so much.
I am considering buying a Volt as an adjunct to my off-the-grid PV powered campus. You see, even using technology some of which dates back to the '80s (some of my solar panels were bought then) I often have too much electricity(!), so a Volt would act as more batteries for my house system, and be charged when I needed to do the minimal driving I've set myself up to need to do. In bad solar times, the thing could easily be rigged to be a rolling backup generator that can drive to where it can be filled up again.
This "invest more in alternate tech" stuff is a dream. It's here in practical forms now -- and I went off the grid in 1980 and all that stuff still works fine -- you just have to pay for it upfront, cheapskate.
Just not a magic black box you're going to clip to your radio antenna and make your car run on water or freely available hydrogen (yeah right, try to buy some -- it's a hazmat, and not free) and no change in your lifestyle needed. I'm a scientist, and there's no magic of that sort out there to be had, money or not.
The big energy guys have been quietly astroturfing all this time. "Wait till solar panels are 50% better and can be sprayed on like paint to any surface, it's coming". "Hydrogen cars are coming". Yeah -- they've been spinning that crap since I can remember - and they aren't coming in useful form in decades. It's a way to keep business as usual going for them. The solarex panels I bought in 1980 are still like new in operation....and do the job fine. Solarex was owned by Amoco then, BP now -- do they know something about the music getting ready to stop?
Put your money where your mouth is and be ready for anything instead of complaining, which does no good.
my system
Because it's not just oil going up as the dollar tanks.
WE SHOULD PATRONIZE OUR OWN, DO NOT DEPEND ON FOREIGN CARS, OR BUY THOSE RICH
AND EXPENSIVE CARS FOR OUR COMFORTS, WE SHOULD DRILL IN OUR OWN BACKYARD,
MAKE MORE BATTERY OPERATED CARS, IF POSSIBLE USE THE RAILS, AND WALK OR USE
BATTERY OPERATED BIKES WHICH COULD BE USED TWO WAYS WHEN PADLING YOU WILL BE
BURNING FAT, LESS OBESE, AND WHEN TIRED THEN USE BATTERY, ON SHORT DISTANCES,
I AM RETIRED VOLUNTEER FOR OTHER SENIORS, I MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP PEOPLE WHO
ARE INTERESTED IN BATTERY OPERATED BIKES, WHICH I CAN GET FROM SOME WHOLESALE
DISTRIBUTOR FOR ABOUT $500-600. IS EASY TO RIDE, WHICH WILL REDUCE CONSUMPTION
OF GAS AND OILS REDUCE POLUTION, REDUCE EXPENCES, AND LIVE MUCH HEALTHY LIFE.
Bullish factors included (1) the slide in the dollar index to a 2-3/4 year low, which boosts investment demand in commodities, (2) the decline in Apr German unemployment to a 19-year low, which shows economic strength that my lead to increased fuel demand, and (3) the rally in the S&P 500 to a 2-3/4 year high, which bolsters confidence in the economic outlook and energy demand. Bearish factors included (1) the unexpected increase in weekly US jobless claims to a 3-month high, which shows weakness in the US labor market t hat may curtail fuel demand, (2) the weaker than expected Q1 US GDP, which shows slower-than-expected energy consumption, and (3) the action by the BOJ to cut its GDP growth forecast for Japan this year, which signals reduced energy consumption and demand.
20% of the crude oil price is speculator driven. As long as the dollar keeps falling oil will keep rising. Drop the U.S. dollar as the world currencie. This ship is sinking...fast
Bullish factors included (1) the slide in the dollar index to a 2-3/4 year low, which boosts investment demand in commodities, (2) the decline in Apr German unemployment to a 19-year low, which shows economic strength that my lead to increased fuel demand, and (3) the rally in the S&P 500 to a 2-3/4 year high, which bolsters confidence in the economic outlook and energy demand.
20% of the price is created out of speculators. This is wrong and drives the price without reason. The number one reason is the slide of the dollar which oil trades on......drop the US dollar as the world currency and your problem is solved. This ship is sinking.....and fast.
What good does it do to increase the drilling of new wells. We don't have the Oil refineries to process the crude oil.????!!!!!
Also stop giving the oil companies a TAX BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Alan.
What about the options Walk or Ride a Bike?
You can't get a more fuel efficient vehicle than that! 🙂
Thank you all for your feedback thus far.
@Keith and James-
I have added a fifth option for you guys, so vote away!
Also, I just want to point out that the question was now HOW the price of gas/crude oil has risen, but simply what action individuals would like to see taken to bring prices back down.
As usual, we respect all of our viewers and their opinions, so I hope this adds more depth to the poll.
Thanks!
Jennifer
The only one here that got it right is Keith. We do not have time for alternative energy, we been working on that fantasy for 20 years and Bio fuels would cost $8.00 a gallon retail and the mileage is only 70% compared to gasoline. All alterative energy combined make up 3% of current energy consumption. We don’t have 10 years to fix this problem. We have a problem with the dollar in free fall look at the dollar chart for the last 90 days.
If we can’t fix the dollar problem all commodities will continue their clime as the dollar continues its decline. This is caused by the massive printing of trillions of dollars that is getting into the streets from the federal government’s deficit spending. Over the last 4 years and up to September 30, 2011 we will have barrowed printed or digitized $6.5 trillion to cover the massive spending once the Democratic Party took control of congress in January of 2007.
This didn’t start 2 months ago it started 4 years ago.
http://wp.me/pO1Ho-58
http://tiny.cc/anjwq
Can't believe not a single vote for the most obvious, responsible and sane answer. Addfress the problem by starting to look for a LONG TERM solution. Are all of you people blinded by your greed? Alternative energy development and research should be heavily underwritten by our government(ie.We The People)now.
The price of oil is rising in terms of the dollar, but not in terms of gold. Therefore, the problem is the value of the dollar is falling. The supply or demand for oil does not need to be changed to affect the price. In order to stabilize the price of oil in dollar terms, the value of the dollar needs to be stablized.
This is another bad survey. I'm surprised that a financial web site would miss the reason why the dollar price of oil is rising. In future survey's please include "the problem is caused by a falling dollar price" or "the problem is caused by bad government" or "end the FED" or "too many dollars are printed" or "congress spends too much" or "the problems in DC cause the problems on main street".
Alternative forms of enery is the only long term solution.