dgoreck Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Few things come to mind with the recent posts. 1.) Granted yeah we are paying close to or over now $4.00 a gallon for gas. I think someone mentioned it, but look at europe. They have been paying close to what $8.00 a gallon, prior to the drop in the US to Euro/pound. Right? If you have even been over to Europe, how many people do you see with SUVs? Last time I was in London, in november, I saw around 15 sedans to everyone 1 SUV. Now back here in the US, a week after my return in Dec here in NY, its more around like 5 SUVs to everyone 1 sedan. Now I'm using sedan broadly, but look at the ratio of smart cars, or small cars with higher mpg's in europe vs here in the US. Even with all the hybird promotion lately, comn, how is the Yukon Denali Hybrid SUV considered a green car... What next a H3 Hybrid? Does it really help that what they get now instead of 8-12mpg now they get 17-20? Heck, I 'tuned' my card from 165whp to 265whp and I still get 21mpg on the highway, granted I can 0-60 in under 5. Anyways. 2.) Oil company profits. So Exxon, or Shell has made a few billion in the recent earnings report. Think about this. Say your company made $114 million last quarter at 7% profit. Not bad right. Now what if you made $11.4 billion, but still kept the 7% profit. What is the difference between the two? Is this really windfall profit becuase the oil price has gone up from $20 a gallon to $120? Has cost not gone up? Whats the difference between the two when underlying costs go up. 3.) Yes, Flordia, Alaska, etc all need to wake up. We need to drill offshore. If America can produce a few more million gallons of gas a day by having these refineries local and not being dependent upon outside, think about how costs can go down. 4.) Alternative fuels. Things like bio fuels are good and bad. Some talk about biofuels based off of old cooking oils. First off, it takes something like a years worth of corn as you would eat to make enough fuel to fill up your tank once! Is that really cost effective considering how the price of these goods are going up? Price of corn goes up, canola oil goes up, but then the cost to transport it has gone up. It's all related. 5.) yes I lack citiations, but its all in the news, CNN, BBC UK, NY Times that I read all this. 6.) Mass transit or bicycles anyone? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Mass transit and high speed trains would help but most of it is on the government umbilical cord and in decay/coast mode. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Guess I'll just have to sell the boat......[H] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Does it take The Three Stooges to start all those motors at the same time? JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest srobak Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Cute... But - you don't don't start multi-engine boats (or planes for that matter) all at once. I usually wait about 30 seconds between engines on the Ray, and a friend has a Fountain with triples that he waits 30-60 as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Drug smugglers boat. They had to use a helicopter to chase it. Multiple engines.... On my boats at the office (19 & 21 BW's, dive platform, F-570, etc) we always start one, let it high idle, check pp, temps, and then start the other one. On that monstrosity, it probably took 30 minutes to fire evrything up and make sure they were working.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoreck Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 wow, yeah talk about gas guzzling. Man, but thats only 2000hp. My boat has two motors for 700hp... haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 More is Better!!! LOLOL [H][] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Hi Mark - I wasn't able to see the connection you are trying to make. That’s because I’m not that gifted with the art of getting my thoughts on paper plus I tend to write as if I’m talking to myself. At times I feel like Paula Abdul. "We" - the people, I guess, are using energy resources at a rate faster than the Earth produces them, and that cause the price to rise. That’s a well crafted statement in that the earth is essentially producing NO additional energy resources. So, yes, your statement is true. However, your statement begs that this question be asked: “At what rate of consumption is our consumption too fast and what all-knowing, all-seeing person decides or sets that “rate”? That’s probably as debatable as which came first the chicken or the egg or the meaning of life or worse yet…..women! The question is, why are we using that much energy? Why not?? And I don’t mean that in a smart-as* way. I mean, who decides what is too much? Are you proposing that we live in a society where some “entity” unilaterally decides what is too much? Scares me. What does the Federal Government have to do with the explosion of people buying Hummers and SUVs getting 12MPG? Essentially – nothing. Those vehicles were created because the market demanded them. Now I will admit that advertising probably played a role, but you could market the you-know-what out of a dog t*rd, but I don’t think folks would buy them. Besides, in our country, for every 4x4 SUV that never sees a dirt road, there’s probably hundreds that are purchased for exactly what they were designed for. So what’s the solution? Some all-knowing, all seeing entitity deciding who can drive what?? A special license for contractors to buy an F-350 to haul stuff? What if that contractor decides to take his wife & 4 kids to the movies in the F-350? Is he in violation of some inappropriate usage law? I mean, where do you stop with this sort of thing? Tangent => IMHO, these comments about the Europeans paying 8 bucks or whatever for gas is irrelevant to what’s happening here. Why do I feel that way? Because in Europe & the U.K., the entire transportation system scheme is different from here in the US. Driving distances are shorter, streets are not the same widths, population densities are greater in any given geographic locale. So taken as whole, I think you’ll find that the cost/mile/year is about the same. In the US, due to its physical size, we are forced to have to drive great distances (granted sometimes by choice). Let’s face it, in one day you can drive from one coast of the U.K. to the other – which you would be hard pressed to get across the state of Texas in the same drive time. What does it have to do with people buying 4,000 sq.ft. homes that need to be heated and cooled? Again…it’s a freedom of choice thing that I really don’t think any one has died and left someone in charge of deciding how big is too big. Do I think some folk’s homes are grossly oversized – sure. But that’s just me and my humble opinion. However, I would fight to the death against any attempt to dictate that Tom & Donna and their two dogs don’t need a 1900 square foot home with 3 bedrooms when there’s only two people inside. Oh the horror – we have three bedrooms but only need one. I’m not trying to be a jerk. Again….where do you draw the line and who will be the one drawing it?? What does it have to do with people paying Coca-Cola to bottle water 500 miles from my house and then ship it to me when I have perfectly good water in my tap? Can’t answer that in that I don’t drink bottled water. What does it have to do with people wanting fresh tomatoes in January in Maine? Really?? They get fresh tomatoes in January?? Sheesh….. Seriously though….Like I said, I was mostly venting and not really trying to make a point – my bad. Well – there was one point I tried to make and I hope it was obvious. That you can throw around that gross profit stuff all day long, but until you balance the equation with the “Loss” side of the P&L, it’s only half the story. But hey….it gets the sheeple all riled up and that’s what we want, right? God forbid we actually educate folks with the truth. Oh well – I’m gonna shut the hell up now. I’m starting to pis* myself off. [] Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Remember that Exxon had a profit of 41 billion and took in well over 100 billion. The profit goes to investors (stock buybacks) and don't forget the 500 million for the CEO. If I got into it any further I would throw up. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/international/usgas_price/?postversion=2008050109 Worldwide comparison on prices. Over $10 per gallon in Bosnia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest srobak Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 As someone else eluded to earlier in the thread... if I wanted to pay $10/gal - I would live in Bosnia... but I live *here*. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 sroback, I agree absolutely. What I'm wondering about is that it was just a few years ago that Al Gore thought our nation would be much improved by higher gas prices and suggested a tax so the country could benefit from the higher prices. Well.... he's happy now, right? Haven't heard. No offense intended toward any fans of Al Gore. Hey. I'm thankful for the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Al Gore has fans? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted May 3, 2008 Author Share Posted May 3, 2008 Forget about prices ? ............. Regular Un-leaded $ 3. 86 per gallon ............... Have You cut back Yet ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev313 Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 $4.298 / gallon yesterday. I could hardly sit down after that pumpin'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 $4.298 / gallon yesterday. I could hardly sit down after that pumpin'! What, that's up .20cents in a week! Waiting on the oil bubble to burst! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest srobak Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 $4.298 / gallon yesterday. I could hardly sit down after that pumpin'! 3.75 to 3.79 in the west and northwest burbs. A few nights ago I was on the bike in downtown and needed gas - the Amoco (?) on Congress Parkway was 4.19 for premium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev313 Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 $4.298 / gallon yesterday. I could hardly sit down after that pumpin'! 3.75 to 3.79 in the west and northwest burbs. A few nights ago I was on the bike in downtown and needed gas - the Amoco (?) on Congress Parkway was 4.19 for premium. Goes to show how fast it is going up...THAT is the Amoco I paid $4.30 at yesterday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest srobak Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 Side note - in the past week, I have seen THREE Smart-Cars around the Chicago burbs. I have NEVER seen one on the road prior. As of last night... this count is now up to 4. Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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