The Price of Oil
Posted on Aug 18, 2008 - 1:45am by Wayne Weisser in Economy
I’d like to have this badge over on the sidebar, but there isn’t enough room. I thought it looked interesting today because you can see the downward spiral oil has done since the price of gas has been in the political spotlight. The candidates came up with energy plans, the President okays offshore drilling, the Republicans hold their own special session to do something about the price of gas and that makes the Democrats and Obama look bad. Now gas prices drop and come November no one will even remember over $4 dollar gas. And if the public can’t remember $4 gas, you think they are going to remember almost $5 diesel?
It happens every time and we’ve mentioned it here before, that when America looks like their serious about becoming less dependent on foreign oil, the price drops.
If you move your mouse over the 1q 1y 5y the graph changes. This will continue to update no matter when you look at this post, this graph and price will be current.
A blast from the past! Jimmy Carter’s energy plan back in the 70s.
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Possible misunderstanding here….
Are you complaining that the price is decreasing?
Not complaining, I’m afraid that when price of oil goes down, people / politicians will move on to something else and forget the goal of getting away from foreign oil and we’ll be held hostage again later down the road.
It’s happened before. That was the point of the Carter clip. Like most other things, we talk a good game, but get sidetracked and move on to something else.
All of the grassroots groups will have been for nothing and the politicians will go back to playing games. Pelosi comes up with her own energy plan that she knows will be impossible to pass but it makes the Dems look like their doing something so they don’t get killed in Nov.
It doesn’t do much for rates, because now that fuel has dropped a little, customers are asking for discounts and stupid rates are back. The economy hasn’t recovered, the dollar still sucks, a small price drop in oil doesn’t help trucking that much.
Yup-it never fails. . .oil goes up until Congress pretends to get serious about it, then it starts dropping. That is, it drops far enough for we short-term-memory-challenged citizens to forget it and go back to watching reruns. But, it never goes down to where it was before!
I, for one, am damned sick of watching us being led down the garden path by politicians who dont intend to do a darn thing to fix anything. The partisan politics game is holding us all hostage to this. Even though my representative was one of the Republicans who stayed in the House-for over a week-after Pelosi turned off the lights and sent everybody home, this morning I get a political email from some group saying my rep didnt do enough to end speculation and went on vacation while we suffered! Blatantly untrue,and the group says it’s supported by the ATA, among others!
The Carter clip shows that, thirty years later, we havent done a damed thing to solve the problem. Now we’re talking about lowering the speed limit to 55mph again (Werner-Va). Arer we drilling? No! Are we actively developing massive alternative energy strategies? No! Instead, we wont get good alternative energy sources until the same major players figure out how they can make the most $$ off any new legislated, centrally-controlled energy plan. And we’re going to have senior citizens freezing to death this winter in the north, while they play games.
Its gotten to the point that I cant even keep score in this game-the players are changing sides faster than I can keep track of them. And, out of this mess we’re supposed to elect our leadership for the next four years? WorldNet Daily is selling magnetic bumper stickers that say, “None of The Above”. I think I’ll send for some! By the way, they also have some that say, “Throw The Bums Out”. That sounds pretty good, too!
I agree ”THROW THE BUMS OUT” we’ve all suffered through summer, winter is around the corner, frieght has been slow, haven’t seen any desend rates at all, fuel is going down, so are the rates, last report I seen 50,000+ less trucks on the road, I’m still here….BARELY………….
Hello Truckers,
I thought I would greet everyone. I’m into everything from sawing my own lumber to building websites and hydrogen Generators for diesel engines. Before I started cutting lumber I drove a log truck so I know how fuel mileage is. I thought I would tell you about this fuel saver. I have a website http://tinyurl.com/6hvgbx which touches on the generators a bit. I like the Idea of going green for the environment, much less the fuel savings these things can provide. If one is installed correctly it can produce an average of 40% fuel savings. To me that is Amazing and very interesting. I also have a bunch of other suff on there as well and it’s stiiiill in the modification phase so if ya’ll wanted to drop by you’d be more than welcome. I’ll try to figure out a blog/feedback page for your comments or suggestions. Thank You and have a good green future.
Sincerely,
David
http://tinyurl.com/6hvgbx
Just think about how different the situation would be today if over the last 32 years this country had focused on developing energy from hydrogen. It would have been developed and in use 22 years ago.
Hydrogen Cells would have been replaced 17 years ago by the DCS (direct-conversion-systems) for trucks. Passenger vehicles would still be tied to HCell since they couldn’t bear the weight of the holding tanks, Cell technology would still advance. Reefers would run on HCells based on a cost-benefit analysis.
Large Carrier Companies would still have a big economic advantage over Independant Owner Ops. Their contracts with the truck stop chains would result in a lower price for the HCCCLM’s for them since they purchase in such high volumes. (hydrogen conversion chemical compound liquid mixtures “Hycom”).
Polyethylene tanks would be used for PFW (particulate free water) to reduce weight as PFW weighs about 125lbs more per 100 gallons than diesel, but steel would still be used for the coffee thermos sized PCT (post-conversion fuel holding tank) and the Hycom tank. Your Preventative Maintenance schedule would be expanded to include checking the fuel conversion components with special emphasis on checking and possibly replacing the RIT (reaction initiator tip) in the conversion chamber and both the primary and redundant hydo-sensors between the conversion chamber and the PCT.
We would be debating the advantages and disadvantages of the different alternative chemical compounds used to coat the PCTs, and which ones would provide the best corrosion resistance against the effects of hydrogen.
Since 1986 the air around LA and everywhere else would have continually become cleaner, and the 300+ million vehicles in this country have no effect on the atmosphere. The continued clearing of the air resulted in reversals in EPA pollution controls and most manufacturing stayed in this country rather than outsourcing their labor since they didn’t have to foot the bill for all the EPA required pollution controls.
Our country’s (read as Oil Company interests) interference in the political and social issues in and surrounding the OPEC nations would have diminished to nill in light of the upcoming change to HCell energy platforms.
Yes, we still buy some oil for lubrication purposes… and it is Cheap!!
The hostage takings in the mid 1980’s and onward never occurred. Everyone likes us because we don’t interfere. We have no military expenditures in the area.
We withdrew from the U.N. in 1989 and stopped footing the bill.
We are still a production based economy as opposed to a service-based economy.
We do not have a trade deficit.
There is no contemplation of using our farmlands to grow crops for fuel rather than food, and food prices have remained stable.
The $3+ Trillion dollars wasted on a war in iraq never happened.
The 9-11 attack never happened.
Terrorist problems here and in other countries against Americans are non-existent and a non-issue.
Off-shore drilling is a non-issue.
Greenhouse effect, a non-issue.
Global warming, a non-issue.
Depletion of the Ozone layer, a non-issue.
And we sell our H-Based technology to other countries and have been doing so since 1986.
BUT none of that ever happened. Sorry folks, but where there are BIG MONEY interests involved things do not change. And Oil is big money. Hundreds of millions are spent every year in political contributions, lobbying, and courting influence in able to continue with a carbon-based energy platform.
That will continue for the next 30 years until the use of oil-based energy ends as the planet runs dry of this limited resource.
It really doesn’t matter who the clown is in the White House this year or next. It doesn’t matter which political party has a majority control in the Senate or in Congress. Big Money is influence, Big Money is control, Big Money is power, Big Money makes the rules.
And the Biggest Big Money right now is Oil Money. They make the rules, period.
So what do you since Big Money Oil is tossing money your way to help your political career? Simple, you posture, you make speeches, you set up committees to “study the issue”, you waste time; in the end, you do nothing.
Will Oil prices come down?
I will set the stage and give you the information, and then you tell me.
YOU are BIG OIL. You have been for the last 40 years, father to son, father to son. You gobbled up all the little oil companies that you could; you bought them out, you took them over. You are aggressive and mean, you are a winner. Your profit margin is higher than it’s ever been before, the money your accumulating is unmatched in modern historical times. You’ve got a good thing and you’re not giving it up. You’ve got money….power….control. Hell, you tell the government which reconstruction contracts you want for which of your susidiaries and spin-off companies, and they concede. They damn well better!!
But, you have problem. You’re not stupid, you can see what lies before you. You didn’t get to this point by not looking to the future. You know you are going to have to buy-up and control developing means of energy production. Hell, you’ve already started to diversify and build control in bio-fuels; and you will have controlling interest. But you still have this problem. You know oil is going to run dry. So-called experts have given different estimates ranging from 20 to 40 years. They are fools, …. those idiots are just guessing! But you, you sly devil, … hell this is your industry, you know exactly how long this gravy train is going to last give or take 3 months.
You have the product everyone wants and needs, they can’t do without it, you’ve made sure of that. Hell, when they came out with that damn electric car, you made sure GM only “leased” the EV1. But the idiots at GM leased them to friggin celebrities; that was a pain in the arse. But you made sure GM got back every one of them buggers and had them crushed, and you made sure you bought up all the patents for the NiMH batteries so they couldn’t be released to give the cars a 300+ mile range. You protect your product, and now you have to protect your profits.
There is the stage, now you decide.
You control this product, you know it’s a limited resource, you want more $$$ for diversification investments.
Do you “give the suckers a break” and decrease the price?
Or do you sell a limited resource that everyone can not do with out, and raise the price in the process?