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Toggle, I hope that was a smile. What I am saying is that some of the fault for our situation with the oil shortage lies with (oh, oh, better duck and run!) the Consumer, Us!! If you want to buy a range at HD DO NOT buy the one with the pilot light and ask to speak to the manager about they should electronic ignition to the Americana. I have asked the question about who would want to buy a GM car today, wonder what answers I will get. Maybe its the high pressure advertising, they often advertise the Cobalt at a low price but everyone I know who owns a Cavalier hates it (they are cheap, which is the reason people buy it, same with the Neon). And I'm sorry, Ford Focus is ugly!.

Could someone who owns an SUV please tell me why so many people want to buy them? My parents took us kids on long vacations (loads of fun, right) in sedans and never had any need for an SUV. Do you use them much in remote areas? When you go to a dealer, how to they pressure you to buy one?
 
Steve, your grandfather was a very wise man. I say that every time a Repulican comes in, and I have yet to be proven wrong.

Nate, you haven't upset me, I understand what you are saying, but I do have to say that just because yours and other countries have been paying so much money for gas does not make it right. Your price is a little closer to ours, but this $6 and $7 crap they have in Europe is just outright heresy.

Every time this gas price thing comes up people in other countries cry wolf at us for the same reason. Woe is me we've been paying $3 a gallon for gas since 1963. Where is the backlash, people? Quit buying the damn gas, send a message, and it'll go south real fast. There is simply no excuse for it. From that standpoint we're even more guilty here. Price keeps going up, people buy just as much if not more gas, buy large vehicles, on and on.

It would be one thing if prices had progressed naturally over years like other things, but no. Prices have more than tripled in the last 5-7 years. As late as 1999 I paid less than $1 per gallon. Have my wages tripled? Don't think so. It's up down up down up down up down every time you turn around, that is not natural market forces at work, I am sorry, any more than I should be paying $800,000 for a house my parents would have paid $15,000 for.
 
No offense taken here either, I completely agree that it's the end user that generates the demand. With reckless abandon, we suck up fuel for transportation of not only ourselves, but everything we eat and consume on a daily basis. Instead of transporting hundreds of containers over long distances by rail, we send them via individual trucks that consume much more fuel and spew tons of carbon and sulfur into our air. The current administration has claimed that we are addicted to oil, which is completely true but when you look at the funds cut from fuel conservation programs that would bring immediate savings from the 2007 budget by the same administration, you wonder if the rhetoric is more akin to the drug pusher putting a sticker on his car that says "just say no." The current lip service to hybrid cars and renewable energy isn't backed with action and the public seems to be ignoring it in large part, with the exception of a few who are still drunk on the Kool-Aid of neo-con agendas dating back to Reagan. The human tragedy of our "war" on terror aside, perhaps the "whipping boy" needs a sound lashing.

Since there is little hope of things changing in Washington anytime soon, and with a $14 million lobby from the oil & gas industry, they absolutely won't, we must take matters into our own hands. Write your congressional reps., senators, state and local officials and demand the changes. The power of the people can win out if the voices are united and loud enough. Contrary to election rules in Ohio and Florida, this is still a democracy and if the voters speak, the elected will listen.
 
The shipping of Food esp--why not Grow it LOCALLY what used to be done-the local small family farmer grew what the local people typically ate-less shipping and the food was more HEALTHY for you-didn't need the processing so it could be shipped long distances-Heard of the "salad Bowel" express-a train that shipped lettuce and other produce from California all the way East to New York--think we can grow the lettuce closer.
Yes we do consume the fuel to run our cars-I have to do it because NO public transit out here-where I work is in the middle of the countryside 15mi away from downtown Greenville-lets face it small town like this will NEVER get any sort of public transit-other than a small bus system for people downtown.I do kinda miss the subways,trains,and buses of downtown DC.For many years when I lived there didn't have a car.Now I have no choice.I am afraid you can write to senators and congressmen until your hand falls off-they are more interested in their LOBBYISTS than you.You really can't blame them for the predictament-Its our petroleum based economy-I am afraid that infrasturcture isn't going to change soon.Lets really face it -the executives at the oil companies can have more say and clout than the politicians!I would like to see MORE domestic oil drilling and use-build more refineries-esp to replace those lost from Katrina-A mobilization effort should be done like what was done with some things during and after WW2.I don't blame the cuts in the conservation programs during the Reagon years-lets get the Gov't out of this-they have other things to do-conservation is more up to YOU than them.You can conserve and it doesn't cost anyone else and saves you money-gov't programs only SUCK UP MORE money than they save.With the current events in the Mideast and the Cartel-don't think we have much other choices-we have to use our own oil and NOW.It could save everyone money-and helps create badly needed JOBS.Many wells that were capped during the 50's and 60's could be put back to work.
 
Begins another day, another week

Top of the mornin' to everyone! Hope you all slept well or are sleeping well.

Steve-(Mayken4now) Yes the whole world seems to be getting a little more out of control each day. Unfortunately we have no leadership at this time, politicians have made themselves inaccessible and we are seemingly forced to grin and bear it. Sometimes I wonder what its going to take.

Tolivac-Yes, once money got into the political system, we lost what we began with in 1776. I don't know if you guys thought about this at the time, but I could see this whole FEMA shell-out to the Katrina effort would be plagued with corruption from the government on down to the individual. I just shook my head for lack of a better idea, but knew what would go down.
 
Hydrogen fuel------

Iceland did it and so can we.

Alternative fuel sources are the answer! When Russia, the oriental countries of the middle east, and the Venezualan's no longer have our gazillions pouring in every day-----all the unrest will stop. They will have to scramble and figure out how they will make their money without us and that will keep them all too busy to fight.----except with each other of course as has long been the history of those nomadic tribes.

The day will come when every neighborhood will have its grocery store, shoe repair shop, doctor and dentists offices,hardware store, furniture/appliance store, bakery, etc. just like in the old days and people will hop on their bikes or Vespa's and zip around the neighborhood shopping like most of the rest of the world has been doing for quite some time.

Places like here in Atlanta are fast becomming dinasaur's.
Dizzy blonde soccer moms in their Hummers or Suburbans (in sparkling "Stepford Wife Taupe Metallic" of course!)are all over the place as they drag their yuppie larvae thirty miles here for this and fourty miles there for that, with reckless abandon and not a care in the world about how much fuel they are sucking out of the ground because "W" and his family and all their oil-company friends and henchmen have set a precedent for years. They want us to pour money into their coffers!

No real national energy policy in place at all. Only untill recently they have begun talking about conservation, but no incentives or directives to the automakers----mainly because of the aforementioned lobbyiests who are slowly being allowed to destroy our political system. At this point no automobile in America that gets less than 40 mpg should be allowed on the market---no pick-up truck that gets less than 30 mpg with a "standard" engine should be sold.

Tolivac is right. Shipment of goods over the road has got to stop! Imagine if just half of all those menacing tractor-trailer rigs you see on the road every day rode "piggy-back" over the nations (woefully inadequate) railroads---how much fuel, traffic accidents, traffic jams (which cause unbelieveable levels of wasted fuel by Americans commuting to their jobs evey day), etc. that whould save all of us Americans!
 
Not only do we need an energy policy (one NOT written by characters like Ken Lay) we need a transportation policy.

Rail - even as represented by poor old underfunded, spit-and- duct-tape Amtrak is 18% more fuel efficient than certified airlines, and 17% more efficient than cars. Yet is has been starved and micro-managed for 35 years, while some of the private freights (who had it formed in the first place as a prime example of corporate welfare) lobby actively against it.

I'm definitely *not* saying we should curtail the airlines or auto travel, but I think that rail - both in the form of short-term lines like we see in California, Washington State, and the Northeast, as well as long long-distance runs - should be expanded, and available as an option.
 
dalangdon-------

Back in the 1950's the airlines saw the railroads off in a big way! The significance of it did not really hit me untill last year when I actually had the silly thought that it might be fun to hop a train for the trip up to greg's wash-in last summer in Omaha. Ha Ha Ha! Now at one time the Railroad used to be a HUGE thing here. Not no 'mo!

Since that time I have tried to use the rails no less than three seperate times only to discover the same thing---needless inconvience (Multiple changes) and expense both for ticket and meals on board and "Pullman" accomodations for a private compartment with a bed and access to the shower compartment. PLUS tips to all the associated people. Not to mention time!

That just has to change. As a child I could take a trin directly from Atlanta to New Orleans, Chicago or Washington, D.C on the way to New York City without connection. The train to New Orleans or Washington D.C. was considered a "day trip" and did not require the expense of "Pullman" type accomodations.

If the rest of the world can have a good transportation system by rail---then we can too. But like everything else American's MUST become vocal about it to enact change.
So I have had an additional cause on my agenda when I blog my usual Senatorial and Congressional victims-----BRING BACK THE RAILROADS! Which reminds me----voting day tomorrow here in Georgia----I'll be there!
 
Gryrafoam (is that the name of an agitator), according to the electric car movie, it takes four times more electricity to make hydrogen as it does to charge an electric car battery. But Iceland is doing the right thing to find another fuel for cars. Also were you around during the 50s when GM cars were so wonderful that seniors have good memories and still buy GM today?

Rich, I though since you lived in SF you might see the movie. Give us a review if you do. I do believe that the battery disposal could be taken care if the companies want to do so. Almost all lead acid batteries are recycled now and the few that are left, West Penn AAA has the "Great American Battery Roundup" for any found in garages.

Tolivac, here's the link to an energy quiz where it does mention about the energy used to ship food. It's also the one that asks how many baths/showers you take.

http://www.areva.com/servlet/Conten.../FolderGameQuizFullTemplate&cid=1047549578563
 
Interesting...gas is still at $2.89/gallon here. Hasn't risen, yet.

(Btw, I made a mistake in my other post that some of you probably caught. I said "$2.99" when it was actually "$2.89", and mentioned that Premium was $3.09. The "Plus" grade was actually at $2.99/gallon.)
 
NeptuneBob------

Oh yes, I was around in the fifties all right.
Those old GM cruisers were great cars.
Most of the elderly folks I know of nowadays prefer cars from Lexus/Toyota, their loyality to GM cast aside in favor reliability and customer service.
 
I am fortunate I live right on an Amtrak line. I take the train to Dallas every Christmas to be with my sister. I find it very civilized. Yes, I would have loved to train to Omaha or Tucson, but too darn impractical. Get this, a Greyhound type of bus to go from here to Glenn's is a 14 hour journey. I have a buddy that lives in a small town 3 hours west of here. Looked at bus schedule, options would take 19 or 25 hours. I could take Greyhousd to Abilene and hten have him pick me up, only 6 hours or so. Transportation options here in smaller-town American can be quite frustrating. In the late 1960s, my sisters could take the train from Houston to Lubbock.
 
Gyrafoam, maybe that's the case in Atlanta with Lexus but Pittsburgh is a GM town. As one car dealer puts it, "In Pittsburgh, we Really Do Drive Chevy". I thought maybe its becuase we have more seniors than Atlanta does.
 
well neptunebob, you live in a closed socitey dahlin. ya'll folks dont even acknoweledge that you have folks living next door to you, so how in the hell would it be determined that they "pefer chevy"? Just a question? I lived in PA for a years when I was a pup, now, back to where I belong, I cannot imagine being just as well slapped when out in a store or place of business. YES Sistah they was rude.
 
any more than I should be paying $800,000 for a house my par

Remeber when the rule-of thumb was a house should be 5 to 6 times your annual gross income, and when rent was 25% to 33% of your take-home (net, after tax, pay).

But let's not forget that my parent's $250 Maytag was a week's pay in 1966.

HA!
 
I filled up for $2.71.9 today. There were a few guys with pickups that had a myriad of portable gasoline containers in their truck beds. After they filled up their trucks, they began filling up the plastic containers. Of course while filling those containers they left them in the truck bed. Each one must have been 10 or 15 gallon models. There was one yahoo that was fillng up a metal container marked "Shellac" with gasoline.
I wonder what they needed all that gas for?
 
Yes-can agree that the railroads need revitalization-esp for passengers-compared to England and Europe-or Railraods are literally a hundred years out of date.In some areas the trackage is over 100 years old-explains why the freight trains going over them crawl along at 5MPH!Do you blame some companies for using trucks to ship and delivor their goods?And the truck is more flexible.Don't think we can get rid of all of the trucks just soime of them(remember the trucking lobby is especially powerful these days-another 800lb Gorilla)We could use the trucks for LOCAL delivory.After all the trains can't delivor goods to your favorite stores.They can get them from the manufacturer to the regional dist centers where trucks can delivor the goods.Passenger trains-would love it if they could come back--the airlines need some competition!maybe they would improve their service.And the train can delivor passengers to downtown locations unlike, the airliners.Railroads also have to get their safety polocies better-at one time the RR's were SAFER than the airlines-now its the other way'round.If you travel by train you can be more likely to be killed or injured in a mishap.It doesn't have to be that way.Both airlines and RR's were more careful with safety about delivoring their passemgers to their destinations-becuase of cost its slackening.
 
The problem with transporting humans....

Is that no one ever made a dime off it. Even Southwest Airlines and the very few other profitable airlines are profitable only because of the huge government subsidies for airports, traffic control, etc. The same is true of the relationship between the private secotr and the interstate highway system.

There's nothing wrong with that - those subsidies more than earn their keep in the economic activity and convenience they generate.

In theory, Amtrak should be the ideal public/private partnership: As a quasi-governmental agency (It's a private corporation, that receives an operating subsidy) it enjoys a monopoly on rail service - thus relieving the private railoads of the expense - and priority over freight. In reality, the railroads, who have neglected their infrastrure for fifty years, provide it with varying degrees of service and no priority. They reject the idea of introducing competition, and some lobby actively for its discontinuance. To be fair, I should note that the private railroads have been over-regulated as to their routes and pricing, and over-taxed on their property for years. Only now is just parity emerging.

Some fiscal conservatives and libertairans reject that the "government" should be involved in transporation (ignoring the highway and airline subsidies). That, coupled with the ridiculous annual funding process Amtrak endures (the only transportation form that has to endure that) ensure that passenger rail remains hobbled and micromanaged by congress. In the meantime, lavish highway projects - including the NAFTA highway, which will allow Mexican truck drivers to drive across the nation to Canada - proceed.

To show I'm not being a liberal moonbat (which I'm afraid I am ;-) I'm including a link about the NAFTA highway from a soundly conservative source - Human Events Online. If this project goes through, expect to see even more appliances coming from outside this country.


http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15497
 
There could be a use for electric cars.....

Even if their range is limited. Years ago, many stores offered home delivery of products. I could see the EV1 being used by a pharmacy or grocery store to deliver prescriptions, groceries, pizza (could the batteries keep a pizza warm?), or, how ironic, auto parts from the store to garages. The cars could easily be recharged at the store, which would have commercial wiring that could better tolerate the current draw. Since the electricity doesn't cost as much as gasoline, these businesses could afford to offer this service. Now, with this kind of service, many people, especially seniors, could probably live without a car at all and save so much money. But wait, we can't let that happen! If people gave up their cars, the car, oil (unless you walk to BP for a snack), auto parts, car insurance, car finance, car care, car service, car wash, and car product industries would go under! The economy would collapse! People would lose their jobs! Oh, the humanity!
 
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