Who is to blame?

[satpak77]

Econ 101 - supply and demand

Price of oil is based on supply and demand, honestly.

I know the experts on CNBC and the commentary on Fox News (which I like by the way) would lead us all to believe that there is a secret operation by unknown people to run the price up, but it is supply and demand.

Demand being the users of oil products, the more demand for oil, the more the existing supply is sapped.

Supply being the available oil FOR the DEMAND, please note that OPEC and governmental bodies influence the CONTROL of the supply, turning the spigot off or reducing flow, and with demand not changing, the price must go up

http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=$wtic,uu[g,a]daolyyay[de][pc50!a55.25][vc60][J27277717,Y]&pref=G

that is a 2 year chart of Crude Oil price, for your reading pleasure. Please note the "$42 zone" is the highest oil has been in 10+ years. Closing price Friday was $41.70

see ya

 

[spinproof]

Anwar, Anwar here we come!

Supply and demand......demand outweights supply...DRILL MORE OIL....we have an untapped supply in the Gulf of Mexico(Off-Shore) and in Alaska where by the way, herds of quadrapeds are holding up the show!

Not to mention we haven't built a new refinery in this country in 17 Years!!!

Ask your local inviromentalists to see if he is doing anything to remedy the situation?...No..How about alternative fuels!....No.. then get the H.E. double hockey sticks out of the way and quit ruinning our lives.

 

[Weasil]

Yeah instead of blaming India and China why not try to reduce the demand. Buy a hybrid instead of a H2 next time. Anyway... fuel is very cheap in the US compared to the rest of the world. In europe people drive fuel efficient cars because gas is $4/gallon. So maybe rising prices will force us all to be more fuel efficient anyway. GOOD!

And as for Anwar... it is a hoax. There is not enough oil in Anwar to make much of a difference anyway. The annual US consumption of oil is about 100 times what is in Anwar.

 

[46Driver]

Yeah instead of blaming India and China why not try to reduce the demand. Buy a hybrid instead of a H2 next time. Anyway... fuel is very cheap in the US compared to the rest of the world. In europe people drive fuel efficient cars because gas is $4/gallon. So maybe rising prices will force us all to be more fuel efficient anyway. GOOD!

And as for Anwar... it is a hoax. There is not enough oil in Anwar to make much of a difference anyway. The annual US consumption of oil is about 100 times what is in Anwar.

Look at some of the graphs: the amount of petroleum that China and India will consume is far more than we could conserve.

In Europe, people use public transportation much more than in America becuase their cities and society in general is more compacted. If you raise the price of gas, you will harm those in rural areas who have no choice but to drive, as well as the trucking industry, farmers, etc. That's just what we need to make our economy grow, higher energy prices....

You could go to nuclear or coal for many of the electrical generating plants and help conserve.

Finally, we could ban all airplanes smaller than 100 seats and force everyone to take the train........ GOOD!

 

[Weasil]

Look at some of the graphs: the amount of petroleum that China and India will consume is far more than we could conserve.

I'm not talking about trying to conserve enough to account for developing countries. I'm talking about reducing our own reliance on fossil fuels because it needs to happen and not blaming other countries for our problems. The US is by far the largest consumer in the world.

And as for Europeans use of public transport, I don't agree that European society is more compacted. They simply have better public transport systems, it is the same in Australia also. Governments fund public transport at greatly higher percentages than they do here, where the governments fund bigger freeways instead to encourage driving.


And as for banning small airplanes... you list that you are an Independence FO, so don't you fly small airplanes?

 

[46Driver]

The airplane bit was sarcasm.... If you raise fuel prices with taxes, you will have a domino effect - a bad one - on the American economy. As for European cities, I disagree, they are more compact than American cities and thus many things are within walking distance. Like it or not, America has a love affair with the automobile. Finally, expect China to pass the US in consumption of petroleum by mid century.

 

[sf3boy]

Smacktard,
Well said, old chap. If the drivers of the SUV's are to blame, then I think the blame should also fall squarely on the shoulders of the auto manufacturers. Is it not Ford, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, GM, etc....that are forcing us to buy their products? They keep making fuel ecomony unfriendly cars, but we keep buying them. If they did not make them, we would be forced to drive something else.

I, too, say that we need to get rid of these excess flights to minor markets with these little jets. When a plane with a 50 seat capacity us flying around on 60% load factor to small markets, the waste in gas is enormous. If there were half of the current RJ flights tomorrow, the world would be a much better place. Case is point, the plane I fly burns 5500 lbs/hr and can only hold 69 people. Terrible fuel burn considering an Airbus hauls twice the pax with nearly the same burn. If we gave all of our business to the wonderful and socially acceptable Europeans and bought the better quality Airbus products, just think of all the gas we could save.

And don't even talk about gas wasting, LJDRVR. You fly Lears!!! But, I will do my part. I have built a little trailer out of recycled paper to pull behind my bike so I have a way to keep my flight case and overnight bag with me as I ride the 25 miles to the airport in my uniform.

 

[sstearns2]

Saudi Arabia alone controls world oil prices. They are the only country in the world with a significant excess oil production capacity. No one else in the world comes close to the Saudis in terms of unused production capacity. This unused production capacity allows them to control the world oil supply and therefore world oil prices.

Why do you think oil prices didn't spike much after 9/11? The Saudis immediately raised their oil production and sent it straight to the US. Why didn't oil prices spike when we invaded Iraq? There was a fleet of oil tankers waiting offshore that moved in and flooded the market with Saudi oil when the war started Why are we fighting Iraq when almost all the hijackers were Saudi, we know that Saudi 'charities' funded Bin Laden, and we have no evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11? Because Saudi Arabia controls world oil prices and they bought Dubya a long time ago.



Scott

 

[sstearns2]

Smacktard,
Well said, old chap. If the drivers of the SUV's are to blame, then I think the blame should also fall squarely on the shoulders of the auto manufacturers. Is it not Ford, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, GM, etc....that are forcing us to buy their products? They keep making fuel ecomony unfriendly cars, but we keep buying them. If they did not make them, we would be forced to drive something else.

The car manufacturers make the cars people want to buy. The average fuel economy of the new vehicles sold in the US is at a 20 year low. The blame is squarely on our government for not increaseing the CAFE standards and gas guzzler taxes over time.

The most basic problem the that the US auto manufacturers are now totally dependent on the huge profit margins on SUVs and have let the other markets go. The Ford Tarus used to be the best selling car in America, now it is not even close.

Scott

 

[huncowboy]

Perrier bottled water still cost more than gasoline. How do we explain that?

it tastes better

 

[sf3boy]

The US auto makers aren't the only one in this game. Most of my last post was tongue-in-cheek, but some of it wasn't. A Toyota Land Cruiser, Mercedes SUV, BMW M5 are all just as bad. The 360 in my 4x4 truck gets better mileage than any of those afore mentioned advertise on their stickers at the dealer. I would say that the wages are way to high in this country if one can afford a $40K and then spend 45 bones to fill up every 450 miles.

The US car makers have let their other market lines decline for the same reason as sstearns2 said in his first sentence. The SUV's sell and the tin can with the four banger that seats 4 small adults uncomfortably for a little less, do not. If Ford, GM and Chrysler want to keep their revenue and stay in business, they have to sell cars that are in demand. Apparently, we all have more than enough money to purchase and opertate them.

 

[sstearns2]

My point in talking about how the US automakers have set up their businesses to be almost totally reliant on SUV sales is that any legislation that will negatively affect SUV sales will be fought because it would be a disaster for the US automakers. All the world automakers now make an SUV of some kind, but only the US automakers rely on them so heavily in their business plans. The market share of the US automakers has fallen in every area except SUV sales over the last decade.



Checkout http://www.policyalmanac.org/environment/archive/crs_cafe_standards.shtml

Also most people can only afford a $40K car or SUV because they have really scary financing or lease terms. The average new vehicle loan is for 101% of the cost of the vehicle according to USA Today.



Scott

 

[Cathay747400]

Dude, that is hilarious! Will Ferrell on SNL during the B.O.C sketch. Where did you get that? I won't use it just wanna see what else might be there. Cheers.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Vehicle choices are about ego and prestige, not about common sense. Otherwise we would all drive Prius's. And whoever said that gas in Europe was $4 a gallon. It was $6.50 there last year when I was there.

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Saudi Arabia alone controls world oil prices.

That might be a little bit of a strong statement, but it's true, they are in the drivers seat in the industry. The table in the attached link has some interesting numbers. Interesting just how much Kuwait has in comparison to the much larger countries of Iran and Iraq. Notice the US isn't on this list....

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html