re: gas going up 650Time == Money Let's say I make $20-hour - ignore taxes for the moment. Car can do 55-70 down the highway, my commute is 25 minutes at these speeds. My commute 'cost' me...
Ah, some insite here. Most people just seem to want to sit and complain.
I knew this would eventually happen, but didn't know when, so my last three new vehicles all had 4 cylinders. It made me happy to pollute less and save several hundred dollars of gas per year. Didn't really pay off until now.
There are several factors in the price of gas. These all seem to point to $5 gallon in the not to distant future and staying there for at least 5 years.
* Base petroleum demand increasing with India and China industrializing their population of billions -- all want to drive big vehicles like the Hollywood movies show us doing.
* China industrializing spiking comodities market. This greatly increases costs of bringing new production online which results in delays for new oil to hit market.
* Petroleum supply flat. Recent new fields brought online essentially balance lost production from older fields. Looks like this will be true for the next 5 years.
Gas Going UpBecause your love of a mechanical monster is evidence that you weren't brought up right. That you fail to see it merely means you tend...
* International supply situation chaotic. Recent easy to access new supplies are from places with unstable governments (Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, ...) Many locations of existing large reserves unstable or antagonistic to the US (Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, ...) With a distrubing trend towards nationalization of oil infrastructure (Russia, Venezuala, Columbia and Bolivia)
* US refinery capacity limited and geared towards light, sweet crude which is becoming scarce as compared to more available sour crude.
Gas Going Up 652Ed Jensen Depends on the SUV, doesn't it? Would you buy a Hummer? A CR-V? A Explorer? All referred to as SUVs, all getting significantly different gas mileage. Here's something...
* US petroleum industry consolidating which reduces price compebreastion.
* US consumer sent message to oil companies to increase prices with their purchase of large inefficient vehicles. Money speaks louder than words. When consumers cared more about cup holders than gas mileage any oil exec knows that consumers can afford pay more for gasoline.
* US dollar getting pressure from Iraq stalemate.
These reasons were uncovered without too much effort during last year's price spike. Since we can't really change the situation, how about try to profit from it? Maybe Apache Oil (domestic supplies), Marathon Oil (sour crude refineries), Grant Prideco (oil dril bits), British Petroleum ("Beyond Petroleum"). It's not without risk, an International economic distruption could cause crude prices to dive, but at this is doing something with the situation as it presents itself.
"Even in the worst of times, someone turns a profit" Ferengi Rules of Acquisition #162