You have been watching too much CNN. The tree huggers have climbed into your brain and taken over. Fill your tank and drive until this dooms day feeling is gone. There is enough oil to last way beyond the car you are currently driving and you. Price of gas is still cheap compared to inflation over the years. Talk to the Germans, they have been driving their Mercedes on $6.00 gas for years. True we need to wean ourselves off of mid-east oil but I'm not quite ready to fill my tank, seal up my car and buy a bicycle.

 

[:-]No, I think I smoked way too much chronic last night...That and listened to too much of Rush's "Red Barchetta" as a kid in a rock band playing bass guitar.

It is just a thought of the future, what it may be like. The more tree huggers are in politics the more this becomes a reality. It does not matter if it is based on fact or fiction, for a tree hugger enviornmentalist it is simply belief that drives them. Just about as bad as fundementalist muslim, or any other fanatic. The only problem is that the oil is in the hands of the Muslim Fundementalists and the other options land us in bed with the enviornmental fundementalists. Either way, bad deal for us. there will always be cars powered by gas, it just is a matter of mass production by the Big 3 here in the states. will they invest the capital to make gas powered cars when the average consumer starts looking towards something cheaper? Looks like the rice makers are already way ahead in the hybrid game.

OK, less chronic next time.

 

I think that you worry too much. You do relaize that we produce 46% of our oil domestically? This is the irony of the whole raise the prices over turmoil in the mideast game. As mentioned before, we produce 46% of our oil domestically and another 28.84% comes from other western henisphere nations. This means that just 25% of our oil comes form the middle east. Further, in 2003/04 large reserves were discovered in Canada which may easily make Canada the number two oil producing nation, behind only Saudi Arabia.

The threat of oil shortage is a myth, the real problem is our distribution system and taxes. The price of gasoline is made higher by taxes, refining costs, and distribution. We are simply inefficient. We have one blend of gasoline for Kalifornia, another for the midwest, another for the southeast, one for the south, a seperate one for high altitude, etc. When oil refineries have to track and distribute all of these different blends it drives up cost. We need to standardize on just one formula, and make the three octane grades and be done with it. Adding chemicals which preclude oil from being piped just drives up costs. Fully 12% of the cost of gasoline is the distribtion cost, another 18% are refining costs (which could be halved by producing one formula, the rest is all tax - 23%. Here is a point to ponder, with the cost of the oil making up 47% of the total cost in 2004, is it right that the government slaps another 23% in taxes. Fully 40% of the cost is attributed to taxes and simple inefficiency.

 

Were you iotximacated when you wrote this jibberish ?

 

By the time that the gasoline era is over, which is not going to be in twenty years, they will have invented another, possibly ethanol based, high performance gas. If gas was really on the way out in the next couple years, GM and Dodge wouldn't be coming out with the new camaro and challenger, which are big gas guzzlers.

 

some of us remember when the "end of the world" happened with lines for gas and even/odd days depending on the first number on your liscense plate and "GASP" gas went up to a horrible price of .79 a gallon!!!!