Apparently America still doesn't get it

Any fill-up over $100 is an asinine amount if you think about it. So $400? OMG, I think I'll rent a helicopter.

 

Don't take the sticker too seriously. He meant "drill in someone else's neighborhood and let others pay the price so that I can stay clueless."

Good Luck

 

just had this conversation with my partner and accountant. one drives a seven series, the other an acura mdx. both mostly by themselves. both wondering when america was going to get a clue about renewable energy and conservation and blah, blah, blah. i think too many people figure, 'when everyone else does it, then i will too.

 

Yep, 36 gallons to fill up an F-150 is about right. That is enough gasoline to last me two months. It seems that the current gas prices are not high enough to get people out of their SUVs and pick-ups. I know that these prices are a bargain for prius owners. When gas prices went up to $4.50 in 2008, SUV sales plummeted, but they recovered about a year later when the gas prices crashed. It is kind of scary that gas prices are now at $3.60 and unemployment is a 9% in this country. If unemployment went down to 5% then gas might go up to $5/gallon. But if or probably when the gas prices go up to 5 or 6 dollars a gallon, our economy would be wrecked worse than it was in 2008. Then the question would be, would people start buying a cars that get 50 mpg or would they continue to own a gas-guzzler and go bankrupt? Only time will tell.

 

At current exchange rates, to fill a 36gallon tank in London with cheap 95, it would be:

1.322 british pounds per litre * 36 gallons = $288.52

And the F150 isn't quite as popular over there...

I'll say the same thing I have been saying since I drove a 18mpg subaru legacy and petrol was $1.40gallon.

Increase the tax on gasoline by a LOT. If it is $3.50 now, make it $10. It will get to $10 eventually but then it will just hurt even more to raise it. Use the excess tax to fund alternative energy schemes. CNG, solar driven hydrogen electrolysis, or just up the electrical grid and push out EVs. Or mass transit. Or anything better than what the states has.

 

Yep... Preaching to choir here.

Although I didn't see such bumper stickers often, when I was living in the Bay Area, I saw an INSANE number of monstrosity class SUVs (aka full-sized SUVs such as the Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban, Excursion, "Ice Capade", etc.) and a few uber-monstrosities (Hummer H2 and Ford Excretion), usually being driven solo or w/minimal cargo and passengers. Here in WA, the % seems lower, but it's still too high.

At my last job (at a large tech company), I didn't notice too many in the parking lot. I think at least the employees had a bit more common sense.

Why is it that Americans don't seem to have learned the lesson from the two oil crises of the 70s?

 

I know one person that drives alone to work everyday 100 miles round trip in Chevy Tahoe SUV and pump gas every 3 days. Basically it costs about $700-900 on only gas per month.

I told this person that they could buy a new Prius and pay for the gas and still could have money left over with the current cost.

The answer was NO. What a clueless redneck.

 

I'm down for that. Then again I'm rocking HSD and 99% of everybody else isn't.

They say that another huge spike in gas prices will drive us into a deeper recession, like people are going to stop driving to work or something. I don't know how true that is...I think it'll finally separate the boys from the men.

 

jadziasman, your avatar says, "michigan" . . . . don't you know back there, you can be burned at the stake for talking like that?
Sadly, there's a nutty but large contingent that believe the earth's dwindling reserves are NOT peaking ... but rather are continually replenishing their self. And they say people no longer believe in religion.

 

38 years ago, this country had a golden opportunity to deal with the '73 Arab oil embargo. Since that time, any improvements has been minor, at best. We put man on the moon, helped build the ISS with the space shuttle, gave the world the internet, personal computers, etc

But, energy we have done nothing. It is so sad. Maybe, just maybe when gas is $5 /gallon, this country will change. If not, we will be bankrupt, without countries like China, Iran, etc. ever firing 1 shot at us.

These countries know this, they can be very patient and wait us out. That is a very sobering, scary thought! A thought, that is not too far off the mark, during these tough economic times.

Another way to look at the above scenario, is if the U.S. taxpayer can't bail out the U.S.A. (IE: "too big to fail"), would will?

Does that mean China can now foreclose on us?

DBCassidy

DBCassidy

 

p.s., we're already bankrupt, just have not declared it yet.

 

When one looks at figures like http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2011/DeliveriesFeb2011.pdf, one still has to wonder (or not) that GM still is able to sell many thousands of full-sized SUVs every month.

Look at the figures for the Yukon, Yukon, Escalade, Suburban, Tahoe and the like.... Notice they're all up significantly from the same period a year ago?

 

Prius has a stigma around here. So don't even mention it to these people. Instead try and get them into something like a VW diesel. I assume 100miles is not all in the city, so highway diesel might be the way to go. Not as reliable, not as economic, but not a Prius.

The Prius is the best, but people are idiots are care about their image. And the more people that get out of 10mpg to 15mpg vehicles into 20mpg or even 30mpg vehicles it is much much better.

His Tahoe gets 17mpg on the highway according to fueleconomy.gov. (Seems a little high from others I know with similar vehicles, but lets roll with that).

Assuming a regular 5 day workweek, and 50weeks a year, then that is 25000 miles just to and from work. At 17mpg, that is 1470 gallons. At $3.50 a gallon it is over $5147USD a year. At $4.5/gal it is $6617.

Lets use $3.50/gal.

If he gets a 30mpg vehicle it is $3k a year on gas. That's $2k savings a year.
If he gets a 40mpg vehicle it is $2.2k a year, or $3k in savings.
If he gets a Prius at 50mpg, then it is $1750/yr and $3.4k in savings.

So basically, if he buys a VW that gets 40mpg, he will save $3k a year on gas and not be in a Prius.

Or to save an extra $400/yr he would have to get a Prius which would obviously be beneath him. So the Prius is a tough sell, but most others should be pretty easy.

 

The oil is continually replenishing itself.



Unfortunately it takes a few million years to complete its cycle which is the part most people forget lol. Some suggest it is "as fast as" a few hundred thousand years, not millions. But a few hundred thousand years is slightly longer than it takes to pump it into your tank, so methinks there is a problem here...

 

Actually, (I was very young back then) apparently, CAFE was enacted as a result of the oil crisis back then and there was a big increase in mileage between 1975 and 1981. Unfortunately, at lot of possible gains have been neutralized by car bloat and increases in horsepower.

More info at Fuel Economy and Annual Travel and http://www.epa.gov/oms/cert/mpg/fetrends/420s10002.pdf.

The worst part about people who say that we we should drill here or there (usually somewhere in Alaska) is that if you ask them how much oil resides in those places and what's the daily level of production possible there, they usually have no idea. They also have no idea how much the US consumes every day. I've seen this time and time again when debating people in comments on the net.

 

It's interesting to look at the variability of fuel prices world wide. I was just taking a look a this wiki article a few days ago and found it pretty interesting. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_pricing"]Gasoline and diesel usage and pricing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]


The US has about the lowest price of the non subsidized countries. Places like Canada and Australia are more expensive, but not all that bad by global standards. Unfortunately quite a lot of the countries listed have out of date information, but take a look at some of them that have been updated 2001. Look at the UK and some parts of Europe, close to $9 US per gallon! Turkey close to $10 US per gallon! Ouch I'm pretty sure they must be "getting it" over there.

It's an interesting question though. Just how high do you think gas prices would need to go in the US before it made a really serious impact on peoples usage?

 

There is a lot of misinformation in here. I realize what I am going to post will meet with skepticism and ridicule in here, but as a life long worker in the drilling industry, I know the facts. We actually have reserves that will meet the current usage for the next 300 years. These are reserves in this country, not the Arab oil fields. However, admittedly there are price constraints, environmental concerns, and even some technological difficulties, that temper these statements. A good synopsis and read is here. http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/The_U.S._s_Untapped_Bounty_080630.html This does not mean that conservation shouldn't be practiced, and the greener technology shouldn't be encouraged, but even in here, Americans love their autos.

 

The point of reserves is to reserve it. 300 years is nothing. That is like a grain of sand on the beach of time.