[SSearchVT]

So everybody’s been concerned with gas prices going up – the news this morning was covering a few options being tossed around.

The Government is looking at issueing everyone a check for $100 to buy gas: OK, nice thought, but at about $45 for each fill up how will this help long term? And, where do they propose getting the money from?

One suggestion was for the Government to buy the gas guzzling SUV’s back from people – I don’t recall anyone holding a gun to my head when I was car shopping and forcing me to buy a huge SUV… Good God, you bought the damn thing in the first place, if it’s strapping your budget so much, trade it in or sell it and get a Kia (or any other inexpensive, fuel efficient car) – most likely your payment will go down as well as your gas bill!!!! I couldn't believe this one...

[TurboRush91]

Ya know, even if they put in some kind of plan to return money to people it is obviously going to be structured by how much people make, number in the family, etc... and I pretty much NEVER qualify for anything good like that... hell, I can't even deduct my student loan interest anymore because I make over the friggin maximum salary.

Unless they figure out a way to really lower prices at the pump I think, just like with a lot of other stuff, the impact will be relatively limited and not address the real problem.

[mycirus]

Actually the 100 dollar offset would be good for 15 fillups or so for 16 gallons. The way I figured was we are paying about .40 cents more a gallon, so 40 cents times 16 gallons is 6.40 . Then divide that by 100 and you get roughly 15. So 15 fillups of better prices gas.

Bruce

[hessogood]

Originally posted by mycirus
Actually the 100 dollar offset would be good for 15 fillups or so for 16 gallons. The way I figured was we are paying about .40 cents more a gallon, so 40 cents times 16 gallons is 6.40 . Then divide that by 100 and you get roughly 15. So 15 fillups of better prices gas.

Bruce

good math!

[TheIglu]

I'll take the hundred dollars and get nearly 1500 miles of gas on the bike with it.

I'm glad the prices are going up. I hope people go bankrupt and have to sell their houses are reasonable prices so the average person can actually afford one. I also hope they drill in Alaska since that is the obvious permanant solution to the gas problem!!!

In case you didn't know, the bill just proposed for the $100 check has the alaska drilling included in it. They try to sneak that fucker in there whenever they can.

[benVFR]

Originally posted by TheIglu
I also hope they drill in Alaska since that is the obvious permanant solution to the gas problem!!!

Permanent? Nope... current problem is almost purely just that the oil companies built in a short supply of refining capacity.

The only permanent solution is to get the country off of oil dependence, as oil is not an infinite resource.

[mycirus]

If there is such a shortage, how come I dont see any gas stations with signs that say "out of gas"????

Bruce

[skiierx]

Originally posted by mycirus
If there is such a shortage, how come I dont see any gas stations with signs that say "out of gas"????

Bruce

That is because there currently is not a shortage! The price on crude oil is based on futures. They are pricing in for shortage plus they say the world is running out of oil. Once summer gets here more people use more fuel and the plants that convert the oil into gas cannot handle the demand, which is another reason fuel costs are rising. That is what happened after the hurricane last year, the plants had to shut down and could not convert the oil over.

[ultraTwist]

The reason the refining capacity is so low is because the ROI is so long on a plant like that, on the order of 30 years. The people loaning them the money know that just as the oil companies know that, they also know that China and India are coming online and all you bozo's had to use up your life's allocatoin of oil driving those SUV's to your desk job. They also know how much oil is in the ground and they know they are not going to get their money back if they build a new plant. The frozen north is hardly a solution, it might have 2 years worth of oil. The strategic reserve has about month worth. We use 21 million barrels a day. I was watching a show on deep Gulf drilling and they are down to finding "big" wells pretty much by luck now, defined as 5 days worth of oil. Of course if the price goes up enough it would bring the ROI back down and we might see another local refining plant.
Also at 75 bucks the tar sands are viable.

But if you really care here is how you fix the price. The price of gas is a simple, but highly non-linear equation, like a step functon with a slight ramp. If you want to stay on the low side of that all we need to do is use less than they make like we did in the 80s and 90s the last time we ditched all those gas guzzlers. That's it.
The current price is the simple result of too many people feeling they need too big a car. ( Does not take into account China )

[TheIglu]

Originally posted by benVFR
Permanent? Nope... current problem is almost purely just that the oil companies built in a short supply of refining capacity.

The only permanent solution is to get the country off of oil dependence, as oil is not an infinite resource.

I was being sarcastic. I'm hoping you picked up on that. C'mon, you know I'm a bleeding heart tree hugging commy!