65 Dollar per barrel

[Matt400]

Maybe some relief is on the way:

Could oil plunge to $65 a barrel? - MSN Money



In the mean time I have held steady with just a cam change but may try the Edge or Quad mileage box.

 

[RRees]

I do believe that it can happen. Because it could never be related to our election year cycle.

 

[Grizzly]

I guess we can hope!

 

[The patriot]

One can only hope... .

 

[rweis]

Think about the problem the Middle East countries have, sort of like a drug dealer. If the price gets too high then alternatives become attractive. The US is driving something like 10 million miles less / month than a year ago. Wind power, biogasses, the whole movement has started.



I bought a 65 mpg scooter to get to work (SUZUKI Burgman 400 2008). 3 months = 3000 less miles on the truck (200 gallons) and 3000 miles on the scooter (46 gallons) * 4 = 600 gallons less in a year, $2500 in my pocket.



Less truck maintenance (3 gallons of engine oil / 5000 miles, 5 gallons of transmission fluid / 12000 miles, bypass filters, air filters 1/year, radiator fluid @ 30000 miles), scooter maintenance (oil filter $5 + 2 Orings ($1)) every 4000 miles. More risk for sure, not for everyone, but works for me.



The product got too expensive, we found alternatives, now do not HAVE to go back. $65 / barrel would certainly unwind some of the conservation issues though.



Just like generic drugs. If it does the same thing at a lower price it probably will stay. Wind generation is not going to go away. Fuel cell technology is not going away.



I would like to see $11 / gallon like in the EU. My boss went to Scotland and rented a diesel midsize luxury sedan that got 55 mpg. Why can't we do that?



The scooter is here to stay though, I am finding I like to ride it over and above it's economy function.



Bob Weis

 

[GHarman]

I hope the fuel prices go way down with the cost of oil! Hopefully our consumption will go back up and we can collectively shoot ourselves in the foot, AGAIN! Alternative fuels based on primary food grain stock is a bigger FRAUD, perpetrated against the American People, than the current "mortgage crisis". We have the technology to make fuel efficient vehicles, Efficient crude oil extraction and petroleum processing. However, we get hamstrung by the EPA (thanks to the folks in "La La Land"), limited drilling, no new cracking plants and high priced junk for our driving pleasure. This is just one area of failure to grow our infrastructure. Our economy runs on transportation of people, goods and services. This is a fundamental concept. Until we get a replacement foundation, we better not let the existing foundation crumble underneath us! Problem is; we are not even trying to develope another basis of economic support. Instead, we waste valuable resources on feel good P. C. trash that looks good in news bites and generates as much money as possble for an elite few! Examples are: Ethanol, e-85 at half the fuel mileage(made from primary food grains), Carbon Credits (billion(s) dollar(s) tax windfalls), Bio-Diesel that costs 12% more than #2 fuel. Wake up FOLKS. GregH

 

[JDiepstra]

Think about the problem the Middle East countries have, sort of like a drug dealer. If the price gets too high then alternatives become attractive. The US is driving something like 10 million miles less / month than a year ago. Wind power, biogasses, the whole movement has started.



I bought a 65 mpg scooter to get to work (SUZUKI Burgman 400 2008). 3 months = 3000 less miles on the truck (200 gallons) and 3000 miles on the scooter (46 gallons) * 4 = 600 gallons less in a year, $2500 in my pocket.



Less truck maintenance (3 gallons of engine oil / 5000 miles, 5 gallons of transmission fluid / 12000 miles, bypass filters, air filters 1/year, radiator fluid @ 30000 miles), scooter maintenance (oil filter $5 + 2 Orings ($1)) every 4000 miles. More risk for sure, not for everyone, but works for me.



The product got too expensive, we found alternatives, now do not HAVE to go back. $65 / barrel would certainly unwind some of the conservation issues though.



Just like generic drugs. If it does the same thing at a lower price it probably will stay. Wind generation is not going to go away. Fuel cell technology is not going away.



I would like to see $11 / gallon like in the EU. My boss went to Scotland and rented a diesel midsize luxury sedan that got 55 mpg. Why can't we do that?



The scooter is here to stay though, I am finding I like to ride it over and above it's economy function.



Bob Weis

Why would you say something like that?

 

[Grizzly]

Why would you say something like that?

I believe all he is saying is that it will force us to seek other more efficient methods to solve our transportation needs and our hunger for monster vehicles.



I would never want to see diesel go up to $11 per gal either because I'm not giving up my Dodge/Cummins. I just take shorter trips towing the 5er.

 

[rweis]

Exactely!



We (USA) have extreme ability to figure out a problem if we just put out collective minds to it.



It took Europe high fuel prices to design extremely fuel efficient transportation. My boss's rental car was a Volvo mid size diesel. Nothing special, just a mid size rental @ 55mpg. Show me the mid size car in the US @ 55 mpg.



I still haul my 5er just shorter distances. At work for the first time ever they are helping organize carpools using company vans. People are figuering out alternatives, driving slower, conserving and waiting until somebody offers a vehicle that will get 50+ mpg. Watch the car ads on TV, xx gets a whopping 30 mpg highway. My wife's van gets 25 mpg so I am supposed to spend 35k to get 5 mpg more? Breakeven analysis woud be 5 million miles (a guess).



We need to get serious about how we are going to do transportation. The US is NOT Europe, the US is NOT Brazil, but we certainly need to focus the entire country on fuel efficient transportation just like we did when we focused on going to the moon. I would like to think we could do total electric or ??? and get out from under foreign fuel control.



If it takes higher gas prices to get there because the government is married to oil (I know, my political statement), then so be it, but lets get on with it so we can move on and get this behind us.



I run my scooter so I CAN run my truck and RV once a month. Our RV group is limiting the radius to 30 miles for campouts, use to be 100 miles, but we can live with that. If we need to limit it to 10 miles we can do that too, IF alternative transporation is emerging. If we traded for a van that got 100 mpg I would do that. I would trade for a total electric van if it would go 400 miles on a single charge and it did not cost an arm and a leg.



If higher gas prices drives technology, then let's get it done. If lower gas prices drives complacency, then we are going to stay on this roller coaster for a long time. If it ain't a problem we are not going to fix it.



Bob Weis

 

[GHarman]

RWeis, I agree with you on the need to move into more efficient transportation with new technology and ideas. However, those of us that are stuck with the old tech, waiting for the new tech should not be penalized by useurious prices for the existing infrastructure. Who do you think is going to benefit from those artificially inflated prices for fuel? Certainly not the end user/consumer! BIG Government would probably be the instigator of such penalities for use of a commodity that was designed to fail from the get-go. Your scenerio is a Win-Loose reaction to a real problem. We have the technology, knowhow and the ETHICAL capability to make a paradime shift a WIN-WIN situation for everyone! In the meantime I will continue to run my 1St Gen till the Wheels Fall off and regularly hammer my State and Federal representatives with the fiction of their "P. C. , feel good, sound bite" solutions to the problem at hand. Getting where we need to be by STABBING everyone else in the back is not a plan for the future! GregH

 

[Grizzly]

Well said Bob.

 

[Matt400]

The US is driving something like 10 million miles less / month than a year ago. Wind power, biogasses, the whole movement has started.

I read where it was like 800,000 barrels a day less. That's pretty substantial. It seems the younger generation is really coming on board to cutting back and finding ways to conserve, plus the last of baby boomer group who recently just spent there way through their 40's are tightening up in preparation for retirement age. I think fuel will significantly go down more than we think. Good for you on your scooter!

 

[rweis]

If you think I am being flippant, I risk my life everyday on my scooter, and don't even think I do not know that the risk are significant. One wrong move, one mistake, and you are seriously injured or dead. So do not even consider I am discussing this lightly.



Remember the gas lines of the 70's? We were getting 25 mpg then. What has changed?, nothing, 35 years later. A few hybrid car platforms, no new refineries, just starting to think about drill more wells, I think Boone Pickens is right, "we are not going to be able to drill our way out of this".



Gee, the gas prices are starting down, and the election is right around the corner, strange the prices are going down right at the moment. Still trying to buy your vote is what I think. Want to bet what the prices are going to be in December, AFTER the election?



My truck is paid for too, and I am not going to buy another petroleum main fuel vehicle if I have to ride the bus, walk, whatever. I will run my truck till the wheels fall off or I die trying, but this oil transportation system has got to point in some other direction. I have over 100k on my wife's van. Not until there is a new direction in fueling are we going to even consider a new van. We are only 2 in 350 million, but for me and my house I am not going to just settle for "SNAFU".



I am getting to wound up about this so I will go sit down and let this all cool off. There are many other opinions out there, what are you going to do?



Bob Weis

 

[Matt400]

There are many other opinions out there, what are you going to do?

Look out for #1 is what my wife and I will do. We car pool more and may spend more time on the motorcycle. Camp trips are more close now. We even set up our 5th wheel to take the motorcycle with us. We don't HAVE to use as much fuel as we did in the past to have fun and go about our day to day business.

 

[opjohnny]

I talked to a campground host that said in '52 he was paying $ . 31/gal for gas and making $. 65/hour, so he does not mind $4. 00/gal.

 

[Matt400]

I talked to a campground host that said in '52 he was paying $ . 31/gal for gas and making $. 65/hour, so he does not mind $4. 00/gal.

He must be loosing it. . thats what fuel was in the early 70's

 

[MEby]

All this discussion about getting rid of oil dependance is fine and dandy, but until we have a viable technology to replace it we have to more oil. As it stands right now there isn't a single technology that can come even close to replacing oil. Even these hybrids we have now are just as dependent on oil as any other vehicle. Nuclear power is a viable option for electricity instead of coal fired plants if we can convince the public and congress that its safe. Which I happen to think it is. As much as I don't like the French, they are doing that one right. Hydrogen might be a possibilty, but is still years in the future before it becomes a viable alternative. Namely there are issues like a lack of infrastructure to deal with. Biodiesel from algae looks good, but again it will be years before it develops to the point where it can start replacing crude. Ethanol is harmful in more ways than one. Ethonal costs us in taxes and then it costs us some more in high food prices. Ethanol would not come even close to succeding if it weren't for large tax infusions. I'm not knocking alternative fuels at all, i'm merely pointing out that we can't just stop using oil overnight, or even in several decades. I don't think we will be able to replace crude in my lifetime. (I'm 24)

 

[Regcabguy]

There's a really good article on upcoming energy in the latest Popular Mechanics. Algae-derived diesel really impressed me. As stated above,wind,solar,ethanol etc. do not even come close to petro-derived fuels in efficiency. I hope we speed the drilling up as Putin's mess in Georgia could really put the skids to the world as far as oil goes. He intends to restore the Soviet Union to it's former "glory". $3. 99 here today.

 

[Grizzly]

He must be loosing it. . thats what fuel was in the early 70's

In 1973 we were paying $. 35 per gal of regular gasoline, which was approximately . 06% of an hour's wages for a Civil Engineer. Today we are paying $4. 00 per gal for regular gasoline, which is approximately 13% of an hour's wages for the same Engineer.



These are my own figures based on what wages and gas prices were in 73.

 

[K5IP]

I just returned from a trip to Norway.

Nice country but I was glad I was not driving my RAM. Diesel was $10. 87/gal