Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

More on gas prices...

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web
This is interesting, especially in light of the comments we were making last night. Senators really doing little but fingerpointing and saying words they can later put into their political commercials, and afterwards they get back into their gas guzzlers, even to go a block away.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/26/AR2006042602307_pf.html

[SIZE=+2]Going a Short Way to Make a Point[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By Dana Milbank
Thursday, April 27, 2006; A02
[/SIZE]
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.
"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a Hyundai Elantra to take the one-block journey to and from the gas-station news conference. He posed in front of the fuel prices and gave them a thumbs-down. "Get tough on big oil!" he demanded of the Bush administration.

By comparison, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was a model of conservation. She told a staffer idling in a Jetta to leave without her, then ducked into a sushi restaurant for lunch before making the journey back to work.

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas). The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction -- as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

Senators were debating a war spending bill yesterday, but the subject invariably turned to gas prices. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) engaged his deputy, Dick Durbin (Ill.), in a riveting colloquy. "Is the senator aware that the L.A. Times headline reads today, 'Bush's Proposals Viewed as a Drop in the Bucket'?"
"I'm aware of that," Durbin replied.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) responded with an economics lesson. "Oil is worth what people pay for it," he argued.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarms. "We are one accident or one terrorist attack away from oil at $100 a barrel!"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) made a plea for conservation. "We have to move quickly to increase our fuel efficiency," she urged. But not too quickly. After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg). Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15). Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17). Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).
Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

Also waiting: three Suburbans, a Nissan Armada V8, two Cadillacs and a Lexus. The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

As a political matter, Democrats clearly sense that they have the advantage on the high gas prices, judging from the number of speeches and news conferences. "The cost of Republican corruption when it comes to energy is hitting home very clearly for America's middle class," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) exulted yesterday morning.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced an amendment to repeal oil-company tax breaks and distribute $500 tax rebates to consumers. It was quickly ruled out of order.

But Republicans were clearly feeling defensive. "We passed an energy bill last year, last July," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) pleaded at a morning news conference. "It changes CAFE [corporate average fuel economy] standards. It changes some of the things that we can do -- I'm sorry, changes not the CAFE standards, but changes some of the supply issues, boutique fuels, all these things."

Only Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who can speak freely because he is retiring, was willing to note the disconnect between rhetoric and action. "People say, understandably, 'Solve our energy problems right now, but don't make us do anything differently,' " he said on the Senate floor.

If the politics of gasoline favor Democrats at the moment, the insincerity is universal. A surreptitious look at the cars in the senators-only spots inside and outside the Senate office buildings found an Escort and a Sentra (super-rich Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl's spot had a Chevy Lumina), but far more Jaguars, Cadillacs and Lexuses and a fleet of SUVs made by Ford, Honda, BMW and Lexus.

A sampling of senators' and staff cars parked along Delaware Avenue NE found that those displaying Democratic campaign bumper stickers had a somewhat higher average fuel economy (23 mpg) than those displaying GOP stickers (18 mpg). A fuel-efficiency rating could not be found for the 1970s-era Volkswagen "Thing" owned by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).
Maybe, lawmakers are starting to learn. When GOP senators had a lunch Tuesday a couple of blocks from the Capitol, many took cars. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) emerged from the lunch looking for his ride when he spied The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray. Reconsidering, he set out on foot. "I need the exercise," he reasoned.
 
King,
Good points. Too many people competing for the same resources is dangerous. Wars have been fought for this reason and will be again and again. I agree that what is going on in the world is for oil.

China knows peak oil is coming and is scrambling to make deals with everyone.

Whether we want to believe it or not: Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz etc. know about peak oil. They are doing in the world what they think will make America stronger in the future. Securing oil.

414,
Nice article. It is amazing how hypocritical and clueless they are huh? God help us.

Jet
 
jeezemon!

I only have a few hours a day to read this stuff. I leave for
a few hours, BAM! a whold crapload of more reading.

Do I need to start posting my electrical conversion links again?

THPHT~!!

CE
 
jetflyer said:
Securing oil.

negative. Iraq will turn out to be a bigger mess than anyone could dream of. still not one iraqi military unit capable of fighting on its own. good luck with that
 
Unfortunately I agree Big_Al.

It's obviously is not working and is self-defeating. We're kind of stuck on a disasterous path that is hard to turn back from now.

Jet
 
I put another 16 miles on my road bike today. Almost hit my record split coming home. It takes me 20 minutes to walk to garage, get in car, and drive home versus 30 to bike it -- and the route I took home today was 9.5 miles with about 800 feet of climing.

On Wednesdays I help crew a sailboat. Yesterday we used its little diesel for all of 5 minutes to get out of the harbor & get the sails up.. say once those are up, no engine all the way back into the slip a couple of hours later. Nice hobby (especially when its not your boat!). I ran to get to the harbor after work for some exercise... it took 15 minutes (a bit over 2 miles) versus 10 to drive the same route with 5pm traffic on the road that gets there.

...Moral of the story: It is possible to reduce dependence on vehicles significantly, if you look for small ways to change your life. Start combining trips, become more efficient, use your body to get from A to B. It will leave more "gas" money left over to spend on airplanes..
 
Listen to the U.S. Govt. Department of Energy Expert Robert Hirsch and Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett talk about peak oil on April 24th:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze4gqr9/audio/audioindex.htm

The first thing Robert Hirsch says is "Peak Oil is NOT a theory. It is a fact. The question is when will it occur."

They just want us to be preemptive so the effects of declining oil production will be no big deal because alternatives will have time to take the place of declining oil.

He says if we're not preemptive by many years we will have a bad economy for a long while. What's wrong with being preemptive to avoid a bad economy?

This is NOT a wolf crying event. NOT a chicken little event. This will happen in our future. Sooner? Later? We don't know.

This interview is very good.

Jet
 
Bender,

I saw one of those where I live, and I thought it was awesome.

SUV's and muscle cars are going to only be driven by the rich in the future.

I guess that means I'll be driving a Zap car:)


Jet
 
Matthew Simmons has been on Fox News for the conservatives and CNN for the liberals and CNBC for the business oriented folks talking about Peak Oil. He was an advisor to Cheney for the Energy Policy.

Jim Puplava on his FINANCIAL SENSE NEWS HOUR radio program just had Matthew Simmons on as a guest last Saturday.
See a picture of Jim Puplava and Matthew Simmons here:
http://www.netcastdaily.com/fsnewshour.htm
You can also listen to old shows about peak oil in the ARCHIVE section.

Here is this weeks interview with Matthew Simmons about PEAK OIL:

For Real Player click here:
RealPlayer

For WinAmp click here:
WinAmp

For Windows Media click here:
Windows Media

For MP3 click here:
mp3

Thought you guys might wanna hear this interview. I listen to Jim Puplava's show weekly to see what are good investments. He is very peak oil aware and talks about it weekly when talking about the future economy.

Jet
 
Last edited:

Latest resources

Back
Top