Comments on: You read it here first! $1000-a-barrel crude!

By: Jerry Watson, Atlanta, GA

Jerry Watson, Atlanta, GA — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:35:38 +0000

Giving public assets as blackmail to big oil companies to get lower gas prices has never worked. Yet, republicans continue to insist that we should contine to give more public assets to big oil companies and wait for them to lower gas prices…eventually. How long do republicans want voters to continue playing “blackmail fool and high gas price victim” to big oil companies?

By: Paul, Millbrae, CA

Paul, Millbrae, CA — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:32:02 +0000

I say BRING IT. I calculated I can still drive my Prius at $2000 a barrel.

Here’s how I got there:

There are 42 gallons in a barrel, so $2000/barrel is $47.60 per gallon. I get about 47.6 miles per gallon, so it would cost me $1/mile to drive around. If I carpool with 3 other people, this drops down to $.25/mile. THIS IS ALREADY WHAT STUPID SOLO SUV DRIVERS ARE PAYING TODAY. Gas here in California is $4.76/gallon, and the BEST (highway) mileage for those SUVs is 19 mpg – which (surprise!) is costing the driver $.25/mile.

So, even with oil at $2000/barrel, I’d be able to get around with three car-poolers. And since they’d be leaving their (more guzzling) cars at home, all it would take for the world to get around at $2000/barrel is for the 75% of the population who have the least efficient cars to carpool with the 25% who have the most efficient cars.

Now, as far as how to power the semi trucks that bring us food, medicine and everything else, well, we could convert them to run off of BIOgas (natural gas from landfills and wastewater facilities) – yep, we can run them on crap!

By: DocWild, Columbia, SC

DocWild, Columbia, SC — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:07:58 +0000

this is way more than I can text msg to my friends driving everywhwere talking on their cells.

By: Bill Jones, Logan, UT.

Bill Jones, Logan, UT. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:47:27 +0000

What’s going to happen when the US economy collapses?? I’ve always thought that our whole economy is based on cheap energy, period. If you haven’t read the book “Patroits” by James Wesley, Rawles (ISBN 13: 978-1-4257-3407-7), then you should. A novel about what’s in our near future when we can’t afford gas anymore. June 23 “While you were out” is right on.

By: erikweiss@aon.at

erikweiss@aon.at — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:48:44 +0000

Why don´t you write about ocean power. There is all the electrical power anybody could wish for – at very reasonable prices. With this we can have unlimited hydrogen, to drive our cars and planes- much cheaper than uing oil and not polluting either.

By: Kenneth Moree, N. Palm Beach,FL

Kenneth Moree, N. Palm Beach,FL — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:21:15 +0000

I say what ever the price of gas is we should make the price the same for everything we sell them. Five doller gas, five dollar a pound corn, five dollar a pound soy beans, five dollar for anything that our country sells to them. Let um eat sand….

By: paperfrog

paperfrog — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:27:14 +0000

It’s too late already — if it’s business as usual.

The solution is two-pronged: radical conservation, to buy ourselves some time to develop a new energy economy, and bipartisan support fora 12-year energy plan whih includes massive, DARPA-style investment in energy R&D. The market is just too slow to go it alone.

Coal isn’t a good answer. Supplies are more finite than most would lead us to believe, and the environmental and health damage it would cause is unthinkable.

Time to get cracking. The clock is ticking.

By: Anonymous, Oregon

Anonymous, Oregon — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:39:46 +0000

DRILL THE ARCTIC!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:03:01 +0000

I am so tried of the Fat Cat in Congress parading around in hearings acting like they are going to do something about high oil prices then going play golf with the oil industries leaders.

If you aren’t going to do something the high price of oil, please stop insulting the American people and stop wasting our tax dollars, while subsubizing the oil industry.

By: That Guy, Los Angeles, Ca

That Guy, Los Angeles, Ca — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:18:24 +0000

Everyone reading this page needs to go to http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net . You will quickly learn that there are no alternative fuels that don’t take oil to make. We all need to wake up and take responsibility for our waistfull shortsighted habits. 1000 dollars a barrel is not neccessary to see the changes in which you speak of. When we are at 200 a barrel, our economy will have already colapsed. Don’t just reply to this blindly, go to the website I previously mentioned and look at the facts about oil, our economy and alternative fuel. Everything in your life has oil involved. The best alternative fuel I have personally seen was invented by Stan Meyer. Unfortunately, he was mysteriously killed in 1995.

By: JC, NY, NY

JC, NY, NY — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:49:29 +0000

Make that algorithm.

By: Just curious, NY, NY

Just curious, NY, NY — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:51:45 +0000

Temporary solution? How many shares of Exxon would someone need to own to receive dividends enough to cover cost of gas at the pump as it rises??? ie. is there an algorhythm for this???

By: Steve, Charleston, WV

Steve, Charleston, WV — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:40:57 +0000

I’m going to disagree with one of your predictions because it conflicts with another. “There will be no food available that is not grown locally” is exactly why the countryside will not empty out. In fact, rural population will increase, as more people are forced back to a life off the land.

Horses and other non-petroleum based modes of transportation are more practical in the country — you need a barn for those critters, and a food supply, and someplace to spread their manure. Behemoth tractors will go by the wayside, meaning that farms will either be smaller and more numerous, or more farmhands will be hired to raise and harvest crops/livestock. Country living also lends itself better to small-scale wind/solar/hydro power generation.

As for those who remain in the city, they will have basically three options for transportation — walk, ride a bike, or electric-powered mass transit.

By: Sam, Manchester, Lancs

Sam, Manchester, Lancs — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:04:36 +0000

Oil for December 2016 delivery is trading at around $140pb at the moment. With your prediction the price would jump over 70 folds in the coming few months. Not to mention the rather large gap between your prediction and the direction of the market. So did you walk the talk and invest all your assests into oil stocks, contracts, futures and etfs? Nah, you just want a bit of attention, like all the other cloumnists.

By: Frank, West Point, California

Frank, West Point, California — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:54:51 +0000

I hate to be the one to crash the doomsday party, but check out the link below. This is only one example of a number of companies that are currently working on advanced solar technology. Long before oil runs out, utility companies will be selling us enough electricity to maintain all of our needs. In the future, everything will run on electricity, and there will be enough oil left to use for other goods (anything made out of plastic, for example) for eons. Mankind is way too clever to run out of power. It’s not going to happen.

By: Mar Catipay, Anaheim, CA

Mar Catipay, Anaheim, CA — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:48:59 +0000

It’s not too late yet. We’ll go to school and study Petroleum Engineering. This will be the sector that will boom in the next century. Tell your kids, friends and relatives to take up this field in engineering. We might be able to convert sea water into gas. Who knows… what do you guys think …any scientist here?

By: ross berg,syracuse,ny

ross berg,syracuse,ny — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:57:39 +0000

If we don’t get control of the “greenies” and get to building many more coal fired generating plants NOW, then the lights will literally go out, homes in the greater Northeast will freeze-up and then all hell will break loose!!

By: JC Hayward Ca

JC Hayward Ca — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:41:36 +0000

Here’s the real scenario,There is a supply and demand problem now and in the future,however speculation has driven the price per barrel up $40 to $50 dollars higher than should be.Oil may go up to who knows what but it will fall like most bubbles and eventualy settle back to the true supply demand market value.
In the near future 2-3 years Americans will have traded in their SUV,s and fullsize trucks.This market is currently at over 50% of all sales in the U.S. It will shrink to 20-25 percent of the market.The ones who traded in their fullsize SUV’s that average 13-18 mpg will most likely downsize to larger crossovers that get 20 to 23mpg.This is a big drop for the largest car market in the world at 15 to 17 million new vehicles per year and 40 million a year used. So consumption in the U.S will go down, but will it be enough to offset the explosive growth of China,India and Russia.China is the second largest market at approximate 6 million vehicles a year (but growing at 20% per year) with a very small used car market.Add India with a $2,500 new car for the masses and Russia on it’s way to becoming the largest European car market and you can see how automobile oil consumpsion will continue to increase in the next 10 years.
The oil company’s and petro national country’s have all the incentive to explore and drill like crazy now,that they didn’t have in the not so near past.They will find it and yes they will sell it and the beat goes on and on.

By: Jack Hammond Canada

Jack Hammond Canada — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:47:43 +0000

I’m amazed we don’t have more dissenters chiming in.However I’m more concerned with our apparent NSA person speaking up and no one commenting on it. Has the US, Russia, and China really pre-arranged a deal for this? I find that hard to believe.

Posted By WDM in Raleigh, NC :

Not gonna happen, mister NSA has his head up his backside. Any military intervention by anybody would lead to total collapse of the world economy.
I am amazed that the Iraqis have not seen the obvious way of making the US leave by blowing up their own oil infasructure instead of fighting troops.

Supply side economics has a new meaning for the world

By: charlie tifton georgia

charlie tifton georgia — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:57:54 +0000

I think that wells and fargo will soon be escorting tanker trucks to make their deliveries, either that or armed guards riding with the tanker trucks to prevent hijacking