OPEC likely to OK 2 million-barrel output cut

Instead of drilling and continuing our dependency on oil, how about we figure out other fuel alternatives!  There are other countries way smaller than ours that have hydrogen fueled cars.

Time to get off the oil!!!!

Agreed and agreed... Hydrogen is a viable alternative however, we will still need oil for a great many other things. Let's stop sending billions to people who hate our guts...

Alternative fuels will replace gasoline in a natural progression soon...

One last questions.. are there any GOOD cartels?

They can cut the supply. I'll continue to do my part to cut demand. Maybe we will finally start to shift war dollars into renewable fuels.

As if this Government didn't see this one coming, that's why the gas has been cheaper lately, well I guess that's getting ready to change.

When your Country is depending on Creeps this is the results you get...F. The Moral high ground never trumps being Screwed.

That is a great idea; and perhaps we should ship NO oil, but keep it all ourselves.  Drill, baby, drill isn't going to get it for those of you who support it.  It will help little and take at least 5 years to bring it to fruit; what we need now is our new energy.  Solar, wind, and more energy efficient vehicles; a perfect time for Detroit to get it's act together, if that's possible!!  Let's get going and get this country turned off of so much foreign oil and help our planet in the doing!!

tiredofidiots...how many people here do you think are gonna blame bush for this?  when OPEC cuts this again next year, can we blame OBAMA for trying to raise prices of oil?  Yeah, I am tired of idiots too, but they are usually from the left because their policies make no sense.  By the way, I like your alternative energy solution  8 people have voted for...this is same idea that leftists, libs, and enviormentalists trumpet.  yeah lets do it...

Hydrogen, despite what others have said  IS NOT viable..they been trying to perfect that energy source for the last 30 years.  Wind energy IS not efficient and neither is solar energy, we cant do nuclear, and electric cars have to run on something to recharge their batteries and the electric cars can only go 30 miles a day on one charge.  Since everyone drives, not only do we have to invent a new energy source, but we have to invent a whole new engine, and put it into, or give EVERYONE a new car to drive.  Not too mention replace all the governement vehichles, worktrucks, jets, and military vehicles.

Here is a more viable more intellegent answer for you "tireofidiots"  how about we drill here to power the vehicles and hybrids we can build here, today.  Continue to work on a viable energy alternative now and in the future, and when it is developed, we can finally stop using oil.

Your idea and all you whacko left idea on this deal is to have us stop using any vehicles tomorrow, or to stop using heat, cold, or electricity in our homes right now..until we find an alternative to oil..but there is none RIGHT NOW.  So what do we use tomorrow December 17 2008 if we suddenly stop using oil today december 16 2008 as you suggest.

If you want to have hope goggle blacklight energy. They have 2 reactors online now. We will not need oil in the near future.

Youtube "Lindsey Williams" and you will learn what is really going on.  OPEC has been targeted by the private oil and banking elite.  Instead of invasion, like Iraq and Afghanistan, the elite  have released 2 new enormous oil fields in north Russia and in Indonesia to make OPEC go broke.  It is going just as planned.  OPEC is cutting production at record amounts, Dubai is becoming a ghost town, Iran, Venezuala, and Saudi Arabia are in huge trouble, and soon, these countries will be forced to dump thier US bonds and collapse the US dollar.  OPEC will then appear to  be the cause of the US collapse and the media will blame them, the American people will be outraged, a new enemy is fabricated, and the nukes begin to fly.  Its all pre-planned.

toastee - people like you are one of the reasons that I picked this user name.  My thoughts aren't based on what moron is running the country.  It is based on the fact that we NEED new types of energy.  It is also based on the fact that I (along with a lot of others from different politcal tendencies) am tired of supporting terrorists by purchasing foreign oil.

The reason people think Hydrogen isn't viable is because they have invested too much in oil.  Your mentality is the same lazy mentality that has gotten us to this point.  Besides, with OPEC trying to screw everyone, now is the perfect time to give alternative fuels more attention to MAKE them viable.  Also, Hydrogen was just used as an example.  I really don't care what type of alternative they find so long as the air that my family, loved ones and I breathe is cleaner!

And, I NEVER ONCE in my post said anything about stopping using the fuels that we are currently using "RIGHT NOW".

You sure found a lot to b!$#h about in my 3 SENTENCE POST.

So a 3 or 4% cut in worldwide demand forced oil prices to drop from $148 a barrel ro about $45 a barrel. So much for those "experts" that claimed that drilling off our coast would only increase our supply by 10% and save us a penny at the gas pump.

We should drill now and use our own oil to save the hundreds of $Billions we now send to our enemies each year. This would be a perfect way of transitioning to alternative sources of energy over the 10-15 years that it's expected to take to make wind and solar competitive competitive and bring nuclear plants on-line.

I, for one, would support a modest increase in the Federal Gas Tax at this time to encourage development of alternative sources in return for the right to drill off our coast to tap into our known resources. Modern drilling technology virtually eliminates spill dangers. But Congress needs to get their heads out of the sand because 90% of our coastal oil resources are within 50 miles of shore.

Okay, we all know change can not happen over night BUT change must come. This whole topic is coming down to a question of national security. We can't continue to reley on outside sources for something as basic as energy. The sooner we break with oil the better. Perhaps as a first step we should move to natural gas something we do have in this country. The vehicles as they are produced right now can be modified to run on this. It is still a fossil fuel so we can't just stop there we must move forward and quickly to develop other more renewable sources. This question of where is our energy going to come from is important enough that we should concentrate all of our intellect on it and fund it fully. We Americans are pretty damn smart people when we want to be. How quickly? I don't know but I know we put a man on the moon in ten years.

We need the oil, they need our food and money for survival. They aren't successful in growing crops in their sand...

If they want to cut back on production of oil, then maybe we should cut back on food supplies to their country.

I wounder who will give first?

Can we all agree that OPEC is involved in price fixing?  That should be enough to have our leaders steer clear of their product.  There is absolutely no viable evidence related to supply and demand that has caused the mass fluxuations in oil prices.  They squeezed us and we backed off their product.  They lowered the price and we are still backing off.  Now they understand that demand will likely be lower in the future and America as well as other developed nations are serious about seeking alternative fuels.  Now OPEC is trying a new attempt for mass profit by lowering production, decreasing overhead, and steadily increasing the price of their product to find the level just below breaking point.  The breaking point will be where it is more costly for us to invest in new fuel technology versus the cost of importing oil.  Let's see how long this lasts and how many politicians bite onto OPEC's coat tails when Obama pushes forward his new energy plans. 

Ron & Ziggy - I agree with both of you.  However, TYWHT63 probably has the interim solution.

Thanks TYWHT63!!!  I know that I could ride my bicycle to work and run errands (although it would suck in our current -0 wind chills, I could have a nice warm US grown meal when I got home).

Get ready people...the blood shed is about to begin!!!

Lets see now who will get re-elected in that do nothing congress and see if that done nother ever elect will do anything except let the saudis jack that oil price up and leave it their for the elect doesnt know it is happening like everything else that goes on around him"I wasn't aware of that". Let me put my "special" internal investigation on this and see if I knew anything about this happening. Now we are starting to see what that "change" word means.

When I was stationed in Korea inthe middle eighties, they had many autos running on LPG. Why can't  the US convert over to the same thing?  Doesn't the US have vast sums of natural gas and propane? Wouldn't this be one way to keep our energy dollar at home?

I too am tired of the lame arguments of people like tiredofidiots. What are we going to use and how are we to produce it? It is not as simple as you would like it to be. No one has a magic wand, some have a magic head, they may even come up for air if and when they stand up and their head falls out of its repository. Currently it takes more energy to hydrogenate the "fuel" for a hydrogen powered vehicle than would ever be saved, and the process uses fossil fuels. So it would seem to someone who just may be a bit better informed or logical, that the technology just isn't there yet. That is not to say we should stop trying. But the thing I don't see is people buying these type of vehicles when they are available. Why? Because they are inconvenient and expensive. It is easier and cheaper to go to a gas station and fill up than to recharge an electric or hydrogen powered vehicle. Toyota just announced they were not going to finish their new prius plant because the cost of fuel dropped and people are buying their trucks again. You can't tell people what to buy and drive in a free society. And if the wackos would evolve into common sense people we would be able to drill more and refine more. Anyone who thinks that an energy company wants to waste energy by dumping it on the ground is living in a bubble. The (over) regulated energy industry in my state had 6 fuel refineries. Now because of the wackos we only have 1. Saudi Arabia told us while Bill Clinton was still in office that they could flood us in oil, but they also said you screwed yourself by not rebuilding and updating your refineries...something Bill shut down with his executive orders....Since then Bush tried to get things relaxed, but the dems blocked the way (as usual), now all we can hope for is more executive orders from Bush before the anointed one takes office.

As far as the production cuts go, it is all on the OPEC nations who have expanded their socialist programs (like Hugo Chavez) and need to have the price of crude at $80.00 or more a barrel just to keep from going bankrupt and getting their government overthrown. It's their costs that are driving the market.

tired,

and until those new technologies etc are available and come online, we use what? 

even after those new technologies are available on a mass scale, there will still be a need for oil. 

with what is available offshore, recoverable from old wells, proven on land and in the shale sands, we outstrip saudi in reserves.

minan,

we have plenty of natural gas. i suggest you ask pelosi, reid and the enviro-fascists why we can't extract it from the ground.  they-and only they-are the roadblocks. the technology and the equipment exist today.

We should just raise the cost to the Saudis for protecting their oil fields from invasion by the radicals over there in equal dollar amounts. Or..................how about $2,000 a bag rice? Or.......................WE could blow up their oil fields, drill our own and watch those princes and sheiks waste away. Without oil they would all be camel farmers. Their only credible reason for their worthless existance is their oil.

ChevsMark & WildWeasel - It isn't my job to come up with WHAT we use.  If it were, I wouldn't be worried about this at all.

My WHOLE POINT isn't WHAT to use, so much as RELYING soooooo much on that oil instead of finding cleaner alternative fuels that are renewable.  Hydrogen was just used as an example just like others have suggested natural gas.  We are so lazy when it comes to developing cleaner ways of obtaining energy (regardless of whether it is cars, housing, etc.)

I SWEAR oil is the new crack!!!

Cut back on amount we use, same for rest of World. It is not a FREE MARKET, when OPEC manipulates supply so they can make unwarranted profits. I have said it many times, You want how much for that Barrel of Oil? OK, we will match you dollar for dollar, per bushel of wheat, corn, oats, soybeans. That would be only for the OPEC Countries, not the rest of the impoverished World. At same time declare a state of Highest priority here in America and implement a TEN year energy sufficent program to get us off all imported oil, use our own and get alternative energies to the fore front. By Golly we put men on the Moon and dreamed of bigger and better lives for all, its past time to renew than same can do spirit, and lets get it done.

Not to mention our food exports to these countries.  Let them eat their crude.  This is when the US Gov. should give families stimulus check that could enable them to buy solar panels and equipment. 

We have the biggest oil field in the world in ND.....develop the ability to use what we've got.  If hybrid autos got as good a mileage as the 3 cyl GEO Metro they'd be worth investing in but they don't.  Plus their batteries don't last long enough and cost way too much to replace.  Going hybrid just switches the energy demand from crude to coal because electric is still produced mostly with coal as fule.

tired,

you said it was time to get off the oil; i agree. my point was until new technologies and alternative sources are online, what should we use?

packer,

exactly. we kept iraq, then iran from overrunning the kingdom and seizing those fields. the saudi government does reimburse the feds for maintaining those troops there, but if it's anything like other defense agreements the past 60 years, we don't get anywhere near the true cost.

Robin Hood - Crappy choice of user name.

Why should I be tired of myself?  Because I am tired of idiots like you who only want to continue the use of the crack we call oil?  The whole point of DEVELOPMENT is to work on that product to make it better, more efficient, cost effective and usable for the American public.

By drilling, we create more environmental problems (we have already lost over 1/5 of the world coral reefs due to global warming caused by greenhouse gases).  Yes, we need to continue using oil, but we need to develop and perfect the use of alternative fuels.

Your CNG argument sucks.  That would be one of the easiest problem TO fix.  Hmmmm, take forever getting oil fields in the US up and running or make existing gas stations come up to snuff (probably with government help in the funding dept) and install CNG dispensers?  And in regards to the cost, would you rather spend a little more on a product produced here that is cleaner and the technology pretty much available, or continue to support terrorists who are willing to take the food we produce while raising prices to balance the budgets that they messed up for a dirty, over used, out dated fuel source?  Bet you are invested up to your arm pits in oil.  Lose a lot and trying to get it back before the US develops something that is cost efficient and produced right here?

Honestly, what do you think would be more environmentally and financially responsible?  Guess you don't care that your kids won't be able to breathe due to the depleting oxygen caused by greenhouse gases because you won't be here.  Think long term!

Tired,

The simple question isn't long term. It's the short term. If you know of something that can be put in place to fix our problems now we'd all love to hear it. I'm all for getting away from oil but unless you have a solution that is going to fill my gas tank for next week it's not going to help me much.

Getting ourselves off of oil is a long term question. Why is it that we have people who won't understand this? We know that you're smart enough to. I'd certainly like to see something aside from gas be the fuel for my next vehicle but that's years down the road. I'm worried about 4, 5 and 6 dollar gallons of gas this upcoming spring. That's the problem we have to look in the eye today. In the mean time we can let the engineers do their job to offer up an alternative but for today there is no massive technology that is going to do that for us.

The fact that OPEC is going to cut back on oil production does not necessarily mean that the price of a barrel of oil will go up to the price that they may desire.  

With the economy as it is and so many folks losing their jobs etc each day, there will  probably be even less folk driving, and many more lowering the thermostat ie using less utilities.  Perhaps OPEC need to realize that if a person cannot afford to buy a product they tend to stop purchasing it or using it less as has been seen even before the price of oil went to 145 dollars per barrel and near 4 dollars plus for 9/10 th of a gallon of gas.

The great part about OPEC's action is that this will keep the pressure on in this country to use other types of energy sources like solar, wind, etc.  It is not as if these alternative forms of energy are not in the market place already and have to be developed from scratch.  The biggest impediment to solar energy is the cost to the home owner at this time.  If it was less costly many folks would have had it installed it already on their homes. Perhaps solar panels and installation will get less costly as time passes and it becomes a more common source of energy.

In the long run developers of alternative forms of energy and people in general will be thanking OPEC for their stance on raising the cost of their product. lol    Perhaps this will make the USA a less car dependent society and continue to seriously develop other means of efficient public transportation like light rail, trams etc instead of just building more roads or homes out in the sticks. lol

The sun shines on everyone and the wind blows at will etc.  The USA has always been a country that invents whatever it needs to solve a problem.  The country may have forgotten this, but with all that has been happening recently the people are again looking to science to solve this type of problem.  If NASA can transport a man to the moon and have folks living on a space station, finding a solution to the country's energy problem should be a walk in the park, shouldn't it?

Oh to be self sufficient again, what a beautiful concept. lol

See, BZe1 gets it.  Read that post!

I never said in any of my posts to stop using oil today, tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year.  Cripes, even crack junkies need more than a day in rehab to get off of it; and then it is a battle for life.  As a country, our crack is oil.

My entire point is that we HAVE to work on those alternatives.  And due to the cheapness of oil over the years, we have been to lazy.

Any RATIONAL person will realize it doesn't happen over night, but you HAVE TO HAVE A STARTING POINT PEOPLE!!!!!

Along with shipping all the US $$$$$'s over seas for asistance....because we damn sure don't get anting in return except grief....and #####'s of it!!!!!!

All you people are angry. That's good! But for many of you, your anger will subside as soon as you see the glorious - and Walmart cheap! - price at the pump. What works better than anger is a sustained effort to neutralize the petro-dictators permanently while saving our species from global climate change. The only way to do that is get off oil and get off oil as soon as humanly possible. 

Now, those who say "drill here, drill now." Do you remember the last presidential candidate who proposed that nonesense? It was John McCain, and he LOST! HE LOST! Last I checked this is still some form of representative government where our votes translate into policy. So for the next four years it is time to try things another way. Now it is time to build a national policy that moves us as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels, permanently.

I saw the google suggestions above. One was BlackLight Power, which looks interesting. The other was to Lindsey Williams, which was - well - a little nutty. Here's one some people might like.

http://www.betterplace.com/

Or this one.

http://www.wecansolveit.org/

If you love your kids, and I imagine most of you do. These are some places to check things out.

tired of idiots:

"We have exactly enough time if we start right now."

Schwannomin - That is what I have been trying to tell the "drill baby, drill" people.  They don't seem to get the concept of:

If you don't start now, when?  When gas is $8 or more per gallon?  When you HAVE to get a job in the same city that you live in because you can't afford gas and therefore miss out on a possibly better paying position (not that they can be had right now)?  When you can't afford to heat your home?  Where/when is the starting point if it isn't now?

I realize that you cannot put a "time line" on something like this, but as I stated, it DOES need a starting point.  And, although earlier would have been better, "there is no time like the present" to get moving!!

This girl's tired of them rich "ex" camel riders !!!!  Perhaps they forgot about how many people "DID NOT DRIVE", last time they cut oil production .............  Perhaps more people should cut back driveing, if the prices get 2 high again !!!   sunny

Minan59

"When I was stationed in Korea inthe middle eighties, they had many autos running on LPG. Why can't  the US convert over to the same thing?  Doesn't the US have vast sums of natural gas and propane? Wouldn't this be one way to keep our energy dollar at home?"

That's exactly what Boone Pickens proposed - using LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) to replace oil (gasoline). Unfortunately, the low gasoline prices don't make this feasible right now. Keep in mind that OPEC likes to see big fluctuations in oil prices to discourage expensive investments in alternative energy. Just when the alternative sources are close to coming on-line, they lower oil prices so the investment capital dries up. Unless we keep gasoline prices artificially high, we'll never make progress in energy independence. I suspect that Obama will find a way to force expensive change, which, by the way, I would support. I would like to see an increase in Federal Gasoline Taxes, but use the revenues to reduce the deficit or fund alternative energy and not fund new pork barrel projects.

Does anyone realize that the first cars in this country were overwhelmingly electric? Look it up! If we started drilling last year it still would be years befor we got anything to speak of out of the ground. And when are people going to realize that no matter what we do, oil is going to become, first, more and more difficult and thus expensive, to get out of the ground. Could there be a reason that Iran is developing alternative energy cars, like they know wht I have just stated? Every now and then I hear a whisper of that rumor. I believe T. Boone Pickens believes it. In any case, the oil ran out in Pennsylvania (remember Drake and his oil wells?), is getting harder and harder to get cost effectively in texas and Oklahoma, and even if we opened up the entire state of Alaska and all possible offshore drilling, plus oil shale, oil tar sand,etc. it will be used up or become so difficult to get at and process that the price will go sky high anyway. Why not do what we should have done 30 some years ago when we had our vulnerability demonstrated to us as far as getting oils supplies where the really was a lot, and get out of oil dependency altogether? Oil in Pennsylvania wa dicovered and made commercially viable just in time as the sperm whalers were runnining out of sperm whales to catch. They nearly went extinct and we were nearle left without a viable source of oil for light. Natural gas was very dangerous and unreliable, though we could probably overcome some of thos difficultie now. But get over it! Sometime things must change, like it or not, and we need to change with them. Let's not be stupid about this. Everyone who has seen Mad Max and has ANY knowledge ofthe world's oil supplies must know in their gut that Mad Max's world is a distinct possibility if we insist on doing things the way we always have and assume that because we want it to be it will always be the same, just what we want, when we want it, without lifting a finger to face the future, which will present us with changes we are too lazy or foolish to face.

America should strike back , a two day volentary stay at home with not one person purchasing fuel should send a strong messge that America will not be threatened . Pay a little now and save HUGE later . They need you , Irans economy will be a disaster with low oil prices , think about it , destroy them with no fuel purchases or spend multi millions going to war , mmmmmmmm should be an easy choice .

FINE.  Then we'll all just continue to cut our oil consumption more than ever.  Damn greedy pigs.  If they are cutting supply, then we need to cut demand.  This is the only way to keep oil prices where they need to be for our economy to recover.  

This is a perfect win/win for the environment as well! 

The steep price drop just confirms that speculation was driving the high prices over the summer, not demand, nor the lack of local drilling.  A relatively small decrease in worldwide demand has deflated this speculation bubble rapidly.

We need to stop the unregulated trading of oil, specifically the "purchases" that don't take ownership.

If the true, non-speculative price of oil is indeed $40, then we should be smart and increase our fuel taxes to invest in renewable energy sources and protect our future. 

With low oil prices, it's hard to make a case for investment in alternative/local energy sources that are still a hazard to the environment, compared to renewable sources that are not.

OPEC is greedy & are making matters worse. They should be labeled as such.

If there is a gas tax, I am for it. But we would have to offset some other tax for those who are rural and poor. I don't care if it's an increase to the Earned Income Tax Credit, or even a decrease to the payroll tax. Then we'd simply use the extra gas tax to temporarily funnel cash into Social Security.

I'm no tax whizz, but the investment dollars for alt. fuels can very easily dry up if we don't give industry a stable price point. For the skeptics, Thomas Friedman wrote a nice little book Hot, Flat, and Crowded. It states in layman's terms the mammoth job ahead of us and some of the ideas to get us out of our serious dilemma. If you don't like hearing about global warming, read the book. It won't hurt, and if you're still unconvinced, more power to you.

As a nice sidenote. Getting off fossil fuels immediately weakens petro-dictators. The first thing we can do is buy the more efficient cars. We can start doing that with our next purchase. It hurts them. It already has. Just ask Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, and Tito Ahmadinejad.

As long as the OPEC is making so much money then they can afford to pay more for the grain and other American products that we export to them. this can't continue to be one-sided any more. we export so much food to them and they raise prices again. there will be a cause and effect that will raise food prices again. they want to buy food from countries that don't protect it like the us does then they can eat the pesticides that 3rd world countries use on the crops they grow. DDT is Illegal to use in the USA but south america and china continue to use it. This will come back and bite them in the asses.  I hope it is a hard bite. The condition of the American Economy has recently been proven to have an effect on the rest of the world too.

The first thing we can do is buy the more efficient cars. We can start doing that with our next purchase. It hurts them. 

I like where you were going with your comment schwannomin and would add that maybe even before spending more money on fuel efficient cars that we all just stop making unnecessary car trips.  Just look around while you are driving at all of the cars with only one driver.  Get to know your neighbors again and group up your trips!!

All I want for Christmas...that's right Ali, Chekib & ALL you OPEC scoundrels...CHRISTMAS,  is to see your OPEC monopoly dissolve, like detritus in a septic system. Americans, we can beat 'em. Just say "NO" to wasteful consumption of gasoline...and join in the growing effort to become free of petroleum for our travel. These mutha countries have screwed us for way too long. Jihad the gas pumps!!

What we should do, as a country,  is contine designing and building vehicle's like the Chevy Volt.  However, in the mean time we should raise the price on Wheat, Grains and any other foods we supply to the rest of the world to some insane price!  Say $ for wheat!  Hey, we could run out, RIGHT!?!

If OPEC put less oil on the market it will not efect the price at the gasstation the price will come down even more if the American people don't go for this BS again when they try to hike the price again with lower fuel export. We have it in our own hands simply don't buy at the pump and let them fill their swimmingpools with their own oil.Realy folks the price of gas should be $1.00 a gallon and they stll make good profit. So don't buy and let them swim in their oil. Having said this we should dubble our effords to find a new kind of energy asap so we don't need any foreign oil in the future.

Opec has said for weeks it wants the price per barrel to be $75.

Here it comes, the price at the pump is going back up.  Along with the BILLIONS our oil companies have been making in profits. 

All this is just the reason to continue pushing our Congress and automakers to make cars that run on anything else but oil derived gasoline.  There are so many alternatives that just haven't been put into production because the oil companies refuse to diversify.

AND, YES, it IS Bush's fault.  He and his family are oil-men.  They have been making huge amounts of money over the last 8 years.  Wealth in this country means power and power means they get to make the decisions and no one else's opinion, fact or science means crap.

 Our politicians won't change because they have a vested interest in the oil stocks.  We should use our own resources as we can to help our economy.  The other countries are already taking what is ours and selling it back to us or using it but not paying us for it.  I make the prediction that the Dem in Congress allowed the off shore drill ban to expire.  It made them look good for the election and votes.  Now that Obama is on his way to the office, our ban will return shortly after he takes office.  It will take years and many more bailouts to bring any smart fuel to this country.  We need to work on other sources of transportaions for larger cities, and alternate fuels for vehicles.  drilling can happen a lot faster than anyone knows.  They have been waitng for years and the equipment is there, they just need to put it to work for the people of this country.

Kevin Ryan:

You mean do like Jimmy Carter did to the Russians when they invaded Afghanistan, He punished the Russians with a food embargo no matter how much he had to beat the American farmers over the head.  All Russia did was to go to China and China supplied the Russians with grain no matter how much the Chinese citizens had to learn to live with starvation.

Right now (sorry to say) oil is king.  If you are saying (Kevin this is not directed at you) that it will take so many years to realize production from an exploratory well therefore we should not even start is actually stupid.  You drill anyway to get the ball rolling now and if we find something else in the future then determine then if you should continue, but if we dont find alternatives then we still have a future.

I agree. There just getting greedy because oil per barrel isn't outrageously high compared to a few months back. Cutting into there building ski resorts and redicoulous @!$%# in the desert? Aww. Poor babies. Big ten wah!

I see a lot of people calling for a switch to "green" energy. I'm sure almost all Americans would be in favor of it if it was competitive. Unfortunately, it is not at this time. Solar and Wind generated energy is still 2-3 times as costly as natural gas and coal, so who wants their utility bills doubled or tripled? Obama's plan is to add fees to natural gas and coal (through "cap and trade" schemes) to force us into more expensive energy sources. It will work, but it will be very costly for American families. Watch your utility bills skyrocket in the future, and remember why. By the way, for every pound of Carbon we save the earth through these "Cap & Trade" schemes, China and India will pump 10-15 pounds into the air with their dirty coal plants, and they could care less about the consequences because they will actually benefit from global warming with longer food growing seasons.

This black mail by these oil producers is exactly why we need to produce our own. We are not converting to hydrogen or nuclear cars anytime soon. That is just a pipedream by wackos. We have plenty of oil. Drill for it. If you don't like it, ride a bicycle!

Hey,, am I way off the mark here..but doesn't it make sense that whatever we use a lot of--hydrogen or whatever--it will cost a lot for the same reason oil usually does...GREED?  I'm referring to the day that our primary source of vehicle fuel is no longer oil.

'Saudi Arabia, OPEC's de-facto leader, said Wednesday the group will slash a record 2 million barrels from its daily production.'

Americans alone saved 1.2 million barrels a day by simply cutting back a bit on driving after oil prices spiked. Two million a day worldwide is an empty threat. Also...remember that OPEC is gambling you won't conserve, because by cutting production they hope to drive up the price.

If it doesn't work, they lose even MORE money, and then OPEC countries begin to fight among themselves.

Your answer: HERE 

Trust me on this one.

As soon as the oil started dropping the sales of Toyota Prius's went down and the sales of Toyota Sequioa went up. So we are going to entangle ourselves in this mess for the rest of time, unless we invest in a different kind of renewable energy. The government has to start by deciding on and mandating a type of energy and building the infrastruture for it in the US.

P.C.U.

It is a great lie that Taxes and Government intervention are the only way for us to get progress.

It will happen on its own as the technology becomes more and more viable...

To that point, I believe Hydrogen cell is the best alternative and the Honda Clarity proves it is viable...

The party is nearly OVER for the oil producers, especially with Obama taking office (for better or maybe worse)- the technology is changing, finally.  What will happen to these Arab countries when their main source of revenue and "progress" is gone?  It's back to the Middle Ages for them.  They've spent nearly everything they've taken in, or lost it in bad investments.  100 years from now, if we and they are still around, the Middle East will be the biggest ghetto in the world.

So your saying that the people that are making billions of dollars of profit a year are going to give up their nestegg. These people are going to control government to keep these technologies off the market or out of the general public, until they can squeeze as much out of it until we stop them. So the government funding of new technology and infrastructure whether it be electricity, hydrogen, or other energy is the only thing that is going to get us in that direction.

Mr. Rogers, where are you going to buy that Hydrogen to go in that Honda Clarity? Don't drive too far away.

How nice to see a voice of reason on here, PCU.  I was around during the OPEC "Oil Embargo" of 1973.  We swore we'd never be at their mercy again.  By 1978, however, Winnebago was the hottest stock on the market.  Then came the 1979 "Oil Shock".  Again, we were gonna wean ourselves off foreign oil.  Big surprise then that we were again hit in 1991 with yet another "supply crisis" (only a year after then Pres. Bush #1 promised to help the Saudis get oil back up to at least $18/barrel).  Same promises.  Same response... and suddenly Hummers were taking over the road alongside Suburbans and Expeditions and... along comes 2008 and the same old song and dance. 

SO, let's look at this production cut by OPEC as a blessing in disguise.  Oil has already dropped far enough in price to make most, current alternatives cost prohibitive.  When that has happened in the past, all of our "energy independence" proclamations were promptly forgotten and the same folks who were carping at the "Big 3" for making gas hogs went out to buy their own gas hog, thereby setting us up for the next mess.  If oil stays higher, however, then alternative energy will remain more viable and, perhaps, at some point, we'll be able to avoid this cycle.

For the same reason - and even tho' I am what is known as a "global warming skeptic" (no, I don't think mankind is heating up the planet, at least not with CO2) - I'm not unhappy that the "Green Movement" has provided yet another rationale for pursuing alternative energy strategies.  Left to the marketplace alone, alternative energy strategies will not be adopted until we actually run out of oil, by which time it will be too late to implement them.   If it takes a bit of "environmental hysteria" to force us into moving away from oil as a primary energy source, then let's consider that an unintended consequence of a good kind.  

Indeed, we could even use this as an opportunity to fix the "credit crisis"/"financial meltdown".  Instead of channeling billions through the folks who caused the mess (anyone else not notice any appreciable increase in credit availability in return for our money?), we could take a mere $10 billion of that money and, using SBA loans, finance nationwide LNG/CNG delivery systems.  Not only would that infuse cash into the various local economies, where it is needed, but it would also encourage the auto makers to make LNG/CNG powered vehicles and the energy companies to start exploration and exploitation of domestic natural gas resources, resulting in significant job creation and returning to the Treasury far more in taxes than the "stimulus" cost.  Or we could give the money to AIG and Citigroup (the latter largely owned by the same Saudis who are cutting oil production).   

All it takes is some foresight and some leadership.  Regrettably, that is even scarcer than $1.00/gas these days.

Oldefart,  are you running for office?  You have my vote.   I am unconvinced about Global Warming too.  

I am sorry that the Affirmative Action Laws shut down the 8 nuclear reactors in the South.  Had the Phd in Engineering not been replaces with a weak mind with a Bachelors who couldn't argue effectivley to Congress to keep the programs, we would have had all the energy (at much lower rates than today) we need.  Charging electric cars would have been a snap.....

Time to stop the hysteria of the Eviro-idiots and work these problems out....

I too wonder why LNG/CNG is not readily available, and wonder why many of the other technologies we have heard about over the years since the seventies have not surfaced again.  I wish the Rust belt to melt away to allow new technologies to make their way to the forefront.  I for one cannot afford to pay their outrageous salaries by supporting them.   I will purcahse a high technology Toyota or other green car.....

But we will have to reeducate the Minoriities- especailly the welfare dole, and get them to buy into mass transit again.   Kansas City, MO voted down mass transit that is working in other cities (Pasadena and LA, California is a great example).  The Black vote turned down the project that would have boosted the city, renovated the slums and provided jobs.  

CO2?    Just another route to income streaming, putting the money in the pockets of the greenies instead of venture capitalists-  they hypocracy goes both ways. 

If the greenies were really truthful and sincere they would condemn the practices of runaway false greenies-  like The Nature Conservancy, and other preservationist organizations that are ruining the habitats in California and other states.  Thank God Arkansas thinks before it leaps (so far) and has discouraged management  philosophy of the Nature C. gang.  (Buy and let it take care of itself- regardless of environmental outcome such as fire or erosion).

If Californians learned that the Nature C gang were responsible for much of the destruction last go around, there would have been gangs of vigelanties roaming the streets looking for supporters of Nature C. ....

Obama is going to change all of this for us? Don't hold your breath. He's one of the ones in favor for keeping the auto industry alive. Granted, he could use them to push a new technology but we still don't have a technology that can logically solve this problem during his term in office.

It's up to those of us who want to break from oil to invest in new technology. Obama isn't going to do it by himself.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Curata et al., however, in one of my many incarnations, I was actually a lobbyist.  It took years to get the stench of politics out of my nostrils and I doubt I'd ever run for office.  Why suffer all those indignities just so I can then listen to guys like me pitch BS for a buck...?

I certainly have issues with the hypocrisy of the "hyper-Greens" (how many private jets will Al Gore be able to afford with the money he makes from "carbon credits"?) and I recognize that there are lots of "unintended consequences" of most environmental initiatives (e.g., when the "Clean Air Act" removed particulate pollutants, which are "bases", it left only the acidic/proto-acidic gaseous emissions, which, without the particulate matter to neutralize them, then turned into "acid rain", a wholly environmentalist created environmental nightmare), however, I'm not all that "down" on the Nature Conservancy and like groups.  They've merely stepped in and bought up property that otherwise might be developed and their handling of their lands is no worse than the BLM's (and I have to pay for the BLM to screw stuff up). 

I also have no cause to blame any "minority" or racial group for short-sighted boondoggles.  From where I stand, stupidity and cupidity come in all colors.  Is the current financial mess the consequence of poor blacks taking out "NINJA" loans or of fat-cat white guys giving 'em those loans?  It was white folk moving en masse to LA, in the wake of WWII, which killed the "Red Line" public transit system in LA.  The blacks and Hispanics who displaced them merely inherited the same sad public transit system the whites left 'em there.  No wonder they're not big believers in "public transit".  I've had bullets shot at me for the sake of this country while I was next to a black guy and an Hispanic guy (and even two gay guys), as well as other white guys, only to come home and have BOTH black and white folks spit on my uniform.  I have plenty of contempt for all ethnic and other groups, as well as plenty of respect for them, too.  In fact, I believe that half of the current craze for "ethnic identity" and "multiculturalism" is nothing but a scam by those in power (all shades of them) to Balkanize the electorate so that they can screw us over even more efficiently.  Convince some black dude that the poor cracker is to blame and the cracker that some poor black dude is to blame and you have a great system of social control which ignores the fact that it's the "boss class" (all shades of them) which are causing the problems.  Great book recommendation, btw, called "The Redneck Manifesto", by Jim Goad (a fellow Oregonian, like me).

So, hold your vote.  We may not be in as much accord as you thought (or maybe we are and I misapprehended).  Nonetheless, thanks for the vote - and Merry Christmas (or whichever event you celebrate). 

Go ahead, be nay-sayers.  That is exactly what will stop us from progressing. 

There were NO alternatives in the 1970's like there are today. 

The purchases of the hybrids went down because people can't afford to buy new cars and the cost of a hybrid is still higher than a 'normal' car.  That has to change!

Of course, the car manufacturers have to stay alive--all of you who don't see the big picture are ruining this country.

Who's "naysaying", poor?

As to "no alternatives" in the 1970's?  Gee, we had coal gasification (actually, they developed that in the Kaiser's Germany).  We had solar and photovoltaic (since the 1950's, in fact).   We had natural gas and bio-fuels (when do you think ethanol usage first started?).  We had wind and hydro (even tidal hydro).  Come to think of it, the Dutch had those two back in the 1600's...  Certainly we had nuclear.   We weren't exactly knockin' rocks to build a fire in the 1970's. 

Granted, the technology (particularly computerized control technology) was not as advanced as now, but we weren't lacking in the technology to "de-oil" the economy.  What we were lacking was the will.  Unfortunately, as "Curata" points out, albeit somewhat tangentially, even when there was a will to do something, oft as not it was the "Green" movement of the day which killed it, so, while France responded to the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 by building nuclear power plants (to the point where the majority of their electricity is now nuclear generated), we quit building nuclear plants in the 1970's.   Amusingly, one of the reasons the 1970 enviro-nuts cited as cause for opposing these technologies was their fear (at the time, widespread) of the "Coming Ice Age".  30 years later the "Greens" are still pursuing their Luddite agenda, only now its rationale is "global warming".  Sure wish someone would make up their mind... 

This is yet another perfectly good example of why we need to start drilling more of our "own" oil instead of keeping it locked up. I'd rather supply our own citizens with jobs and pump that money into our own economy, then pump it all over to the sandbox so they can get rich as hell. Proof is all the massively expensive rediculous stuff they building and buying over there. They can't spend it fast enough. We need to stop being at there mercy on this. Although I agree we must find alternative methods of fuel because... no matter what. Its not gonna last forever.. probably not even another decade with predictions.

The problem here is not one politician who has the balls to stand up and tell Nancy or Harry that it is time we do for ourselves and cut off the funding to OPEC.

Joe you really need to get your head out of your backside and place blame where it belongs.  Republicans controlled congress from 1-20-94 to 1-20-07.  Also, the republicans controlled the congress and the white house from 1-20-01 to 1-20-07. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had no power what so ever until 1-20-07.  So, Joe, stop guzzling the Koolaid and stop listening to druggy Limbaugh and pay attention.

hahahahahahahaha

Tim, please get your head out of YOUR BACKSIDE..everyone knows that the President has powers but he is mainly a figurehead.  The real powers comes from CONGRESS and the DEMS despite what you just said, have controlled Congress the last two years.  yes thats right, the last two years... look it up and be informed.. the dems have a had a majority in Congress since 2005. 

BY the way, also despite what you have heard, the economy was rolling until 2005, the last two years it suddenly tanked....who can we blame for this now, since it is Congress's job to run the economy and the Dems have had a majority since 2005.  How else do you explain the first bailout when the Dems wouldnt pass the bailout until some Reps got on board?  They already had the majority and it could have passed without any Reps voting for it..

Go do some reading and find out who is in your Congress and stop listeining to Al Franken and Pelosi, will ya?

Tim if you think that the 13 years the repubs controlled congress and the 6 years they had total control makes a difference you are the koolaid drinker. This goes back for decades. They are all acting in their own self interest. I know we should all listen to Al Franken

- if what you say is true then its a good thing we all voted for Republicans this last election.  THANK GOD for MCain and Palin running the country.  We are all saved now JESUS now that the Republicans are fixing all the problems that the Democratic President cause and Congress.  Whew! What a relief.  Wait, didn't the Democrats take power in Congress and the President?  And the prices are falling as we speak.  I checked and found that there are a lot of article's talking about the prices of gas going up BEFORE the Democrats taking power.  Your theory of "its all the Democrats fault"  does not hold a lot of water unlike your head which holds a LOT.

Robert keep drinking the koolaid. Read the comment nothing was said

was said about the dems being to blame. I mentioned "decades" 10 years for you Roberts which includes both dems and repubs. I have no problem with Obama being my president, unlike you libs which never got over it being "stolen" in 2000.

Toastee, you're an idiot!  Obviously, you're a kool-aid drunk Rethuglican to be blaming the Democrats razor thin majority counting that turncoat Joe Leiberman as the reason why we are in the mess this country is in now.  You've got a lot of nerve asking somebody on here to "be informed" when you obviously don't know that the Ruthugs have filibustered (LOOK IT UP TOASTEE, SAY IT WITH ME NOW; FIL-I-BUS-TER!) anything and everything the Dems have tried to do.  Even if something reached that moron W's desk, he just vetoed it anyway.  Now, you be informed.  Fool!

tim,

oil didn't start it's meotoric price rise until late 2007. even if it happened before when the gop was in the majority, there are plenty of procedural maneuvers and the filibuster to stop any vote. get a clue. if you can't find one buy one.

News flash, the republicans never had a clear filibuster proof majority! The last party/president who did was the democrats with the peanut farmer Jimmy Carter, and from it those who are old enough to know, we had inflation over 11%, unemployment was over 9% NATIONWIDE, and home loan interest rates were over 20%. Look it up before you spout from your posterior! Because you don't (as usual) know what you are talking about!

That's true Mark, but damn close enough to get some of the Dems to come to their side on issues because they don't have balls large enough to match Republican greed.  You know, I don't need to be lectured by you about "those who are old enough to know" something from that long ago.  It was a bunch of old @$$ dudes who started the last two wars, illegally I might add, but guess who paid for them in blood.  Kids who weren't even born when that peanut farmer was in office.  So French Connection U.K. pops.

tim layman

Keep dreaming.. the DEMOCRATS gave Bush almost EVERY SINGLE THING he has asked for DESPITE what their constituents wanted. BOTH DEMS AND PUBS work NOT for the people but FOR THEIR OWN SAKES trading what is right for some future hookups.

jenksed:

As if the ignorant morons didn't make enough money on us when the price was triple now they need to cut production to drive the price back where it was. I think the US should stop shipping oil over seas period and start putting it into our own gas stations and reserves and start drilling in the oil enriched gulf coast. Hows that for an idea there biggest buyer all of a sudden stops buying oil from them that would put a cramp in there style huh.

You are clearly a populist, and I mean that as a compliment, but there are three big problems with your suggestion:

I wish you guys would stop blaming politicians and stay on topic.  We need to decrease our use of oil in a massive way.  All sources of alternative energy should be brought into play.  There should be hundreds of thousands of wind turbines producing electricity, along with hundreds of thousands of solar panels.  All major dams should produce hydoelectricity.  There are electrical systems that work from tide flows.  Bring down the cost of electricity.  Find new ways to make coal clean.  Use naturtal gas.  Develope more methane gas.  We need a concerted effort to bring on alternative energy sources now.  Put people to work producing these alternatives.  Give the alternative energy companies major tax breaks for at least twenty years.  Educate our children to become scientists and engineirs.  Keep the oil companies out of the alternative energy industries.  Eliminate their tax breaks.  The hell with OPEC.  They are not our friends.  The time to do these things was after the first oil shock in 1973.  We see this coming every time.  The cartels raise the price.  World economies tank.  The price comes back down.  The hell with the oil companies.  Let's break this cycle.  Also let's peg the price of our food we give them at the price of a barrel of oil of say 1950.  They raise the price we raise the price.  When we defend somebody we need to charge them and make a big profit or not do it.  I want the price of electricity to drop.  When we see electric at say 1000 Kilowatts for $10 then things will run on electricity. Instead of bailing out wall street and the banks we should be building wind generators and solar panels and insulating our buildings.  And to you guys that say drill baby drill that will do absolutely nothing.  Lastly nuclear is not the answer until we find a way to nuetralize the waste.  One last thing to those of you who do not care about the environment please move to Love canal or some other  toxic waste dump.

The real difference would come about if the common men in these countries would stand up for their share of the profit being derived from the oil found in their country. Uber rich are the same everywhere and the common man must make a stand against them.

The problem is the common man is not educated enough to know they are getting the shaft..

Roland, a couple of weeks ago they had the man in the caption on 60 minutes. He is investing heavily into research and development in green energy. The thing about smart people, they do smart things. Unlike bush and cheney who have done nothing but short term thinking the last 8 years.

Unlike bush and cheney who have done nothing but short term thinking the last 8 years.

and reid and pelosi are looking long-term by blocking drilling now as a short-term solution while alternatives are developed and brought online? 

and lbj and the dem congress were thinking long-term in the 60s when they voted to give opec anti-trust exemption?

Wildweasel,

It was also LBJ and the dems who started us down the road we are on today by getting the first Can-Am treaty/trade agreement. They made it so the corporations could manufacture goods offshore and import them back here with no tarrif!

i've heard of the treaty but am unfamiliar with it.

my point ww was this person has been making those investments the past 8 years and the usa under bush has not.

Rod,

i'm not sure who you are referring to that was on 60minutes, was it t boone pickens?  i am aware-don't have the names in front of me-of some companies and individuals doing alternative energy research and development. i sincerely hope they succeed.

the feds do need to fund universities and colleges to do more r&d in alternative energy r&d. let the schools keep the patents, and license the technology to industry...great source of scholarship or research revenue. it's a serious mistake to let the schools sell those patents to industry.

so the poor and starving should suffer?

Mark I don't disagree with you however that's a catch-22.

I liked the way we were starting to think when gas was $4 a gallon. Kinda sad how quickly so many people dropped that mentality...

pure market manipulation

by the likes of george soros and warren buffett as starters...

we  are not self reliant we depend on others to do almost anything if we would stop being dependent on others we could stand on our own two feet.

Thank your government for enough regulations to choke a horse. The left would have us believe that we can't survive without the rest of the world, and that we do not deserve to have our standard of living. Our expectations are just too high for most so we must stoop to the standards of the least common denominator.

LOL!  Oh Jesus, after that remark, I can't believe I bothered replying to your last one!  Oh, you're so right ChevsMark!  Those darn pesky regulations!  If we only had even LESS than we had before, all the recent collapses in the markets never would have happened huh!?  Gee Chevs, what would we all do without codgers like you to keep us from adapting to the ever changing world!??  =P

Jenksed, What do you mean nobody has the balls to do something, it's up to every American balls or no balls, if they hike the price and try to screw us again DON"T BUY  THEIR OIL and let them swim in it. Don't let the same thing happen again ,we here don't buy gas at the pump and they will swim in no time.

lol yourself Michael, Yes, the gov't regulates 'us' Americans to death, you must not be in any kind of mining, oil or manufacturing positions, yes, we are regulated to death, but not the other Countries!!! That is why we can not compete, we have unions and regulations, our undoing.

What the oil producers are doing represent only part of America's "ideals".  What did the 19th century American tycoons do with their money- they built a country.  What does Russia and Venezuela and Iran do with their revenues- spend it on their people?  HA!  What have the Arabs done in the last 50 years with their enormous revenue from oil?  If it were to go away today, they would be no better off than they were 1,000 years ago (at least after a few years without continuous oil money).

Most modern Diesels can run off of bio fuel as well as diesel, and most trains run off of a huge battery that is recharged by a diesel engine running at the same RPM all the time so it is not using more energy at times. Same technology was engineered into the Chevy Volt. So it wasn't as original as some think. The technology is there, however we don't have the infrastruture to use a renewable energy source. Such as hydrogen which is a viable solution if we can find out how to control it. If a company were to build a hydrogen Hummer, and you could go down the street and fill up at any gas station Hydrogen would cost less because more and more companies would be dealing in it. However, how many gas stations in your area carry hydrogen? Unless the government helps build the infrastruture to the next energy source that we decide to go with then we will still be depending on these theives.

Bio fuel is a waste.. it cost more to put Bio Diesel in your truck than diesel..

PCU, bio diesel would not be a viable because it would dig into food sources. Diesel- electric is not viable now for road transport because of weight limits. Any real solutions must be in place before any move can be made. The transportation industry has almost no room or transition time without it impacting people being able to eat . Drilling here, drilling now is the only real alternative.

You are correct Biodiesel is not the answer, E85 ethanol is not the answer. Has anyone seen what increased farming has done to the MS delta. The fertilizers that are being pumped into the crops has run down the Mississippi and destroyed the Delta.

What I was saying was that there are options as jendsed stated "it is impossible". It is not impossible for alternative energy to pull the weight that Semi trucks do.

However, think of this if the entire US went to diesel the cost that we spend on fuel would drop at least $300 million a year.

Oh, and before you talk about drilling drilling drilling, let me say it again. The people that drill for oil are going to sell that oil to the highest bidder to gain profit. You won't see a drop of that oil and it won't effect the market because if it does the OPEC nations will simply cut production again, and cause it to go back up. Wake up people.

I get what you are saying. But when it comes to transportation impractical is the same as impossible. There simply is not enough of a cushion for experimentation before people start starving. Diesel is a byproduct of oil so we have to have oil from somewhere. Why not at least a larger percentage from domestic sources? Then work in alternates like any other new technology.

CORN ethanol is a disaster, but that doesn't mean ALL "bio-fuels" are a disaster.  Right now, we are working on bacteria which can turn sileage and other agricultural waste into ethanol.  A lot of "bio-diesel" actually comes from waste cooking oil, which would otherwise end up in landfills.  Sugarcane is 8 to 16 times more efficient than corn as an ethanol source, but we don't grow sugar in the USA anymore because the sugar monopolies have bought Congress (go to Hawaii and check out all the abandoned sugar cane fields and then tell me why Hawaii has to import 80% of its energy, esp. with wind and sunshine and waves and tides and geothermal right there to be used, too).

A little bit of terminological exactitude (and scientific acumen) would improve this conversation.  Dismissing "bio-fuel" when you mean "corn ethanol" confuses the issue and obstructs the solution.

To PCU:  Diesel locomotives do not use huge batteries and run their engines at a constant RPM.  The engine drives a generator that supplies current to electric motors that drive the wheels. The RPM varies according to the load. (number of cars, terrain, etc)  When one engine cannot supply the necessary power they just connect as many engines together as they need.  Longer trains may have several engines and add more as necessary to climb through mountain ranges.

RoC:

Biodiesel is actually a byproduct of processing soybeans into animal feed, soybeans cannot be fed directly to the animals without removing some of the oil (fats actually).  Ethanol from corn is extracted from the sugars (starch) in corn what is left is protein which is still fed to the animals and actually is more digestable for the animal.  The problem with ethanol is it takes just about as much energy to make it as what you get out of it thats why there were subsidies for ethanol production to offset the energy costs.

Hydrogen has the same problems as ethanol, it takes alot of energy to produce from water.  Another problem is its ability to leak through most all substances making it a danger to keep the vehicle in an enclosed garage.

oldefarte:  when you say the sugar monopolies have bought Congress, can you be specific on that? Do you mean Brazilian companies or ? Please don't give links, I don't appreciate the resulting spam junk mail.

Stupid remark. My Pontiac has better fuel economy than most hybrids! And my 350+ hp Chevrolet gets over 30mph.

Act2........your "350+ hp Chevrolet gets over 30mph"........lol......I would hope it can go way faster than that.  I think you meant mpg instead of mph.

My Pontiac has better fuel economy than most hybrids!

No it doesn't. The only hybrids that get worse economy than your Pontiac would be the mega-hybrid-SUVs such as the Escalade.

my 350+ hp Chevrolet gets over 30mph

Yea, so can my bicycle.

josh...too funny

Josh,

Maybe if you were old enough to drive something other than a keyboard you would be credible. If you knew what you were talking about you would know that GM has more vehicles over 30 mpg than all the import companies together. But with your joystick firmly in hand you will never learn. Step away from the monitor and go out in the real world and become educated!

Yeah Josh!  And get off ChevsMark's lawn too!  Damn kids and their silly want to have this world be around for their lifetime.  Geez you're a douche Chevs...just because you'll be ashes sooner than most others Mr. Wilson doesn't mean you shouldn't care about the state of the world after your gone!

mpg is not the point.  We do more sitting at traffic lights than driving.  Hybrids take some of that gasoline we spend idling, right?

21 year-olds can't own a bicycle?

GM has more vehicles over 30 mpg than all the import companies together

If you REALLY believe that to be true, I would advise you to

Step away from the monitor and go out in the real world and become educated!

You actually don't even have to leave the computer to find the truth, just do an advanced search on cars with 30mpg or better and check out the results.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/advancedSearch.htm

Agreed William. Of all the postings, yours is short and goes for the throat! We deffinately need to come back with a production cut of our own and squeeze their greedy little nuts until they feel the pinch as we do!

I don't agree, but it does take fuel to ship food.

Good idea.  Let's give financial aid and food to all these countries that hate us just like we, USA, take care of OUR poor.  Just enough to stay alive and have to keep scratching until the end of the month.  Watch us do that?   Our eyes will get old and dim before that happens.  We, USA, have to look good to outside world not so much to our own.

I always wondered how we can help so many people far away on our tax payer dime, when we have so much people in need at home. It almost makes me feel like "take care of our own first, then worry about taking care of others". I don't mean to sound shallow and harsh, and of course we should all be concerned about starving people over seas who are less fortunate then we are, but we also have a lot of need here at home as well. Is this unreasonable?

if it gets too low, it aids the downward spiral that affects everything else and is not a good thing.

I saw a photo once of a diamond covered mercedes owned by one of the Saudi royal family. I thought it was a joke when I clicked on the photo, it wasn't. Which also goes to show that besides being crooks, they have no taste.

The royal family sit on gold toilet seats, even when  gas was $.50 a gallon.

They also buy "prized" camels! They can't figure out how to spend all the money they get. Example:

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, spent $16.5 million dirham ($4.5 million USD) at a recent beauty pageant in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi. The remarkable part is that the acquisitions, like the contestants in the pageant, were camels.

  http://most-expensive.net/camel

P.C.U. ; I hear what you are saying, but how are we to get the money we need to invest in new energy sources??  Don't say the government because that is you and I. Can you afford to pay more, I can't. We need to use what resouces we have now to generate money to pay for what we will need in the future.

Maybe if we weren't tangled up in a BS war we could afford to invest in that...

No matter what we do we are going to end up paying for it. It's the future and the outcome that is important. I promise you that either way pay for it now, or in 5 years from now a gallon of gas is going to cost you $6- $8. So either we all chip in and bring our country out of the Mideast S*#thole that they have created or we can go to war. What would you want to do?

We spent near a trillion dollars in Iraq. That would have paid in full for solar power to about a third of American households.

...And we spent what, 700 billion, on a stupid bailout plan that they said they didn't even Know if it would work, that is going to add an incredible amount of debt on this country, all with the stroke of a pen, in one freaking day. Drill now and renewable in the future. We can't depend on these numb nuts who hate us who want to cut prioduction and artificially inflate the price. (The same turds, BTW,  who wouldn't increase the oil production when prices were so high). I think they can live of the $150.00 a barrel they were screwing us for quite a while.

If you owned a company and made a huge amount of dollars drilling for oil, would you invest your profits creating something that would put you out of business?

They are investing in other energy sources because they want to make money from them too. It is just common sense and good business. But if you want to knock someone for being greedy, how about McDonalds? What about Coca-Cola bottling company? The profits last year for the oil companies averaged $.08 per gallon. A mere pittance compared to what the bottled water companies made. One American oil company alone paid over $30,000,000,000.00 in taxes last year (that's $30 billion BTW) so guess who's really benefitting from Oil Profits? Yous friendly State and Federal Government!

Chevs, on the contrary, not knocking anyone, if I owned a business, I would love for it to make bookoo bucks. That is the human dream, and for anyone who argues that point, who do you think you are fooling?

"The profits last year for the oil companies averaged $.08 per gallon. A mere pittance compared to what the bottled water companies made."

You can't compare the profit margins of two different industries who sell in different volume levels as a way to justify the business practices of either company.

hey chevs,and you still think anyone in government is going to help us move away from oil,it's not lack of balls,it's money over brains,

One part of me agrees with all of you, we need another viable source of energy, the other says that with the dropping oil price, the less American drilling also, which would mean more unemployment via rigs, supply companies, roustabouts, pumpers, etc., and with the Auto industry in the lark, and all the jobs that go along with that, I fear this great country of America is going to end up owned by the Chinese completely, I pray this is not the beginning of the end. I love America!!! We help everyone else in this world, so now why can't we help ourselves for a change.

Common sense.  The purists here don't like the cleaner fossil fuels, either. We need to keep doing it for many more years or I fear we WILL be 100% tanked.