Should Oil Be Cheap?

[blue3231]

The Real Question: Should Oil Be Cheap?

Expensive oil hurts, but there's a business case to be made for a floor under the price of crude

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4000658012.htm

[EldoFan]

Interesting idea......one that, with some tweaking here and there, might be able to help us in the long term........

[jwrebholz]

I'm sure oil companies LOVE this idea.

[member12]

I can't see anything. bad link

[63GrandSport001]

Making oil more expensive will mean that the oil we have will last longer, also keeping it so high will push people to find alternative to oil.

For the time being our economy and way of life will deteriorate........

[logansowner]

It should be and the only reason people say it shouldn't is because of the "hippie part 2" Revelation that everything must be green. Emissions are the sole reason these twats want high prices/less use. Unfortunately, their science tends to be very loose to say the least. They have no real proof that our cars are causing any of the changes we see now.

People didn't become green because they give a damn, they became green because the high prices forced them to more frugal vehicles, and they latched on to the green train as a side effect-a feel good factory. These same two mouth talkers drove trucks 5 years ago, and are now spewing their holier than thou crap on the rest of us.

If you want to be green, without any proof that you're accomplishing anything except funding the new green business revolution, but a Prius. Just leave the rest of us alone.

And don't even get me started on more taxes to lower use. Guess what? Those evil vehicles you feel so inclined to throw a gas guzzler tax at, ALREADY pay a gas guzzler tax in the form of paying for more gas...and the tax that is already on it.

So yes. Oil should be cheaper. Not necessarily cheap, but cheaper. I say it should be around $60/bbl. 5 years ago that price would have pissed everyone off, now it looks like an impossible dream. I also think these new CAFE regulations are a GOOD thing. If someone wants to drive a truck, so be it, but don't just buy one because the neighbor has one. Don't be a trend.

Without regulations, we'd all go back to Hummers if gas went back to $2.50. CAFE regulations would stop this, or slow it down a lot.

If we ignore personal transport completely, we still have the fact that high oil means expensive everything. It's a BS market. Oil goes up, so does every other fuel, even non oil based ones. Your food costs more, your kids toys cost more, hell, even condoms were more expensive than a year ago.

So how can there be any talk of oil being expensive a positive factor? How can anyone say that lower standards of living are good?

If we impose a minimum price on things like this, we might as well live in China, a free country doesn't have "minimum prices".

[logansowner]

Originally Posted by 63GrandSport001

Making oil more expensive will mean that the oil we have will last longer, also keeping it so high will push people to find alternative to oil.

For the time being our economy and way of life will deteriorate........

Or maybe if we want to go on a mandating streak, how about a mandate for a certian amount of bio fuel that is actually enough to make a difference. The mandates we have now are so small they are practically irrelevant.

Changing use through BS price manipulation goes against everything that a free country is about. FORCE advancement through reward, not punishment.

[I-Love-Pontiac]

Unfortunate but true.

I watch the price of oil daily, and every time it goes down its like "yay!", but then you think, well how many more Tahoes were just sold because of this. So I mean it sucks (especially for the US autos) and America can't afford it right now, but we really do need the higher prices.

[TJ95GAGT]

bad linkie for me.

Who is to say what the floor is going to be? Would it be good to have a floor? Yes and No. If there is a floor there should be a ceiling IMO. You can't set a one sided limit. Honestly, there is already a floor, once it's reached it will probably hover around there with the normal driving season BS peaks, weather prediction peaks and of course the daily terrorist activity in any number of countries. I'd bet gas would be cheaper if all of the US used the same gas blends all year round, but nooooo that would be to easy.

EDIT: okay so I found the article. Great, high fuel prices help some companies and obviously spur new technologies. Should credit be so easily had? It drove our housing market through the roof, that helped some companies I'm sure.

I love how all news outlets pick the extreme cases. Even at 1.20/gal that lady in the article shouldn't have been driving her exterra an hour 20 minutes to work, but she was and she complained as if she HAD to. It wouldn't have taken $4/gal gas for me to either move closer to work, move work closer to home or buy a more fuel efficient car. I don't know a single person that drives an hour to/from work, unless of course theres an accident or something.

[Dukeboy01]

Link still not working. Just out of curiousity, what do they propose for the "floor?"

[TJ95GAGT]

Originally Posted by Dukeboy01

Link still not working. Just out of curiousity, what do they propose for the "floor?"

They arbitrarily picked $90, if it goes below that a tax would keep it at that price for US consumers is how it would work.


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...ndex_top+story

[logansowner]

Originally Posted by TJ95GAGT

They arbitrarily picked $90, if it goes below that a tax would keep it at that price for US consumers is how it would work.


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...ndex_top+story

Well clearly a new tax will help us all. Thank God for these geniuses, otherwise we'd be wallowing in the squander we used to call a "high standard of living".

How about this...a new tax on government salaries...I'm sure they'd be happy to fund their country like the rest of us do... right?

[DemonKnightDK]

bullSh*t to taxing it to keep it higher. If its gonna drop let it drop. as has been stated there are better ways to make change happen.

Mandate that every fueling station has at least 1 E-85 pump (and stop using CORN I don't care that its feed corn, its part of our food chain either way, celuslic (i know I spelled that wrong.) is a more viable option, even switch grass, or maybe the corn stalks after the corn has been taken from it.) I'm not convinced on hydrogen honestly. I just don't see that working for America. Electric cars maybe, but not hydrogen.

I still wish that butanol would have gotten the buzz instead of ethanol it is so much closer to gasoline that there was almost nothing that needed to be changed from the automotive side or the distribution side, and it only lost like 2-5% instead of 5-15% of the MPG of gasoline.... whatever though. America will have to have a huge wake up smack from another country or something before any thing happens.

[GG_TECH]

SHOULD OIL BE CHEAP??

Yes and No.

Oil should be inexpensive for the reason it affects us deeply economically. Oil affects us in every corner of our society. Any item that needs to be transported whether by air or by truck oil will affect its pricing. Cheaper the oil means cheaper goods for all. Oil is also the base material that plastics are made from. So more inexpensive oil means that plastic materials will be more affordable.

Cheaper oil also means that countries that export oil and terrorism are less likely to have enough money to fund their malevolent activities.

On the other hand, cheap oil means more use of oil thereby creating more pollution and GHGs. Another words, Al Gore will not be happy.

[stormwatcher]

I think energy should be cheap though not necessarily oil. Cheap energy is necessary for the masses to escape poverty but if oil is running out, higher prices are the signal and motivation to find a newer (and also hopefully cheap) energy source.