It's about gas mileage but also MILEAGE. As in how far you regularly drive in a day/week/month/year. As an urbanite who either walks (15 minutes) or bikes (5 minutes) to work each day, I'm happy to see the pump price rise.
Posted at 2006-04-27 08:21:06 [PermaLink]Ken, you're being righteous and you're laughing at the misfortunes of others.
I know, it's fun, but not too helpful!
We need alternative sources of energy, and no, I'm not saying that because I've gone all hemp-fabric tie-dyed.
We need this because our dependance on imported oil is slowly destroying our way of life and our society.
If we choose to criticise the oil companies, then let's do so in a constructive way, a way that eschews "left-gripe" in favour of helpful and realistic suggestions.
Both alternative automobile technologies and energy sources exist, so why don't we get off our sticks and develope them?
To boot, I've absolutely no intention of ever, ever riding a bike to work.
Too Pee Wee Herman! Too Toronto!
Besides, Montréal motorists, who love gas-guzzlers, know most cyclists are "vert" anglos (duh!) and so they eyeball 'em up in their hood ornaments to ensure a better "hit".
Why is it that people quoted in the news are always stupid? Totalitarism would be great if I was in power.
Posted at 2006-04-27 10:43:45 [PermaLink]How I wish the American government would do nothing to gas prices. Almost every single foreign policy decision, announcement, or rumour which has come out of the white house since September 2001, as well as just about every response, has been seen by oil traders as an indication that oil supply would be threatened and that the prices would rise.
So, unsurprisingly, since it is in the best interests of all the major players in the oil markets for prices to rise, they have on the chaos supplied by a stupidly aggressive foreign policy which creates chaos to counter people who thrive on and actively seek out the creation of chaos.
Cause, meet effect. The last time prices hit the present levels both Iran and Iraq were under threat of war and their nieghbours were worried about what would come. Who could ever have predicted that inciting the same instabilities would result in the same consequences? I guess God forgot to mention it to Dubya in their frequent tete-a-tetes.
Funny, I can put $45 worth of diesel in my ancient (1976) Krautmobile without cursing.
But a banker with a presumeably newish Cadillac curses at $43?
What a god-damn whiner. Someone should give him (a BANKER, no less) a lesson on inflation and ask him to calculate the price of gas in 1981 in adjusted dollars.
John: What alternative fuel source would not "destroy our way of life and society"? How is oil, specifically, destroying it now? Why hasn't it been completely destroyed since the 1920s?
Ken: Don't forget that more expensive fuel makes everything you and everyone else buys, and every service more expensive. Schadenfreude is a terrible way to run an analysis.
"Almost every single foreign policy decision, announcement, or rumour which has come out of the white house since September 2001, as well as just about every response, has been seen by oil traders as an indication that oil supply would be threatened and that the prices would rise."
Other than that, how'd you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?
Sigivald, I shall state my case as follows:
The little pie-chart on the side of each gas-pump showing the taxes/profit ratio should carry an additional wedge, one displaying the precise percentage of each oil dollar that serves to fund jihad.
Do you not realise that every time you fill-up you contribute to the "cause"?
You know, the money used to finance the 19 high-jackers didn't come from the sale of desert sand, and nor do the abundant funds now being used to islamise our society.
So in a way we're not consuming oil at all. The oil is consuming us.
So let's explore new sources of energy and related technologies with the goal of obtaining independance from the need for Saudi Arabia's "soft" loan from Allah.
The longer we remain on this teat the more we facilitate and promote the Bronze Age fanatics, and the more our society becomes fragile.
Nothing tie-dyed there!
John Palubiski: In the case of the US the Muslim countries are no longer that important:
"The top sources of US crude oil imports for February [2006] were Mexico (1.774 million barrels per day), Canada (1.700 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.418 million barrels per day), Nigeria (1.342 million barrels per day), and Venezuela (1.175 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Angola (0.464 million barrels per day), Iraq (0.444 million barrels per day), Ecuador (0.222 million barrels per day), Brazil (0.164 million barrels per day), and Algeria (0.163 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 9.860 million barrels per day in February, which is an increase of 0.147 million barrels per day from January 2006. The top five exporting countries accounted for 75 percent of United States crude oil imports in February and the top ten sources accounted for approximately 90 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports.
Canada was the largest exporter of total petroleum products again this month averaging 2.249 million barrels per day to the United States which is a decrease from last month (2.311 million barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum products again this month was Mexico (1.878 million barrels per day) which was an increase from last month (1.796 million barrels per day). Nigeria had a substantial increase in crude oil and total petroleum exports to the U.S. when compared to last months numbers."
Of course Mark Steyn might have his own view on whether Canada is a jihadi state!
The situation for Canadian crude imports seems just somewhat more mid-east reliant:
"Crude oil imports for 2005 receded by 0.9%, compared to 2004. About 75% of Canadian imports come from Norway (25.7%), Algeria (17.9%), United Kingdom (15.7%), Saudi Arabia (8.2%) and Iraq (7.1%). North Sea countries represented 41.4% of total imports, while Middle Eastern countries accounted for 33.2% of total imports."
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Mark
Ottawa
Mark:
Since oil is an internationally traded commodity and a fungible good, where the U.S. sources it's foreign oil is irrelevant with respect to money flowing into jihad supporting Arab countries. Other countries will take up the slack so to speak when the U.S. sources its oil imports from Canada, Venezuela, etc. The key indicator is total demand relative to supply.
Gareth:
Thanks, that’s my quote of the day. I sometimes hope that news channels edit out the smart ones because I hope people aren’t all that stupid.
Dara:
You are beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist. Sure there are jitters about the oil supply, Iran certainly isn’t helping. A year or two ago, post Iraq, oil prices were fairly reasonable. What’s happened – well China’s growth (along with India) has certainly put pressure on demand and Katrina also knocked out some key refining capacity. Interesting, but one topic I haven’t heard mentioned is the lack of gasoline refining capacity. When was the last time a new refinery came on stream?
John P.
Maybe you should try riding this to work, an electrically assisted bicycle made in Quebec ([External Link] BTW – I took one for a test ride when I was in Montreal over Easter, it works and works very well.
BTW – are you in Montreal? Driving anything less than a Humvee in that city sucks given insanely stupid drivers and roads comparable to Afghanistan. Nice to see your gas taxes at work. I also like the sign at the bridge at St. Anne de Bellevue when driving onto the island – you can now turn right on ared light in Quebec – EXCEPT Montreal.
I saw great CNN weepy video on the web the other day (sorry, I couldn’t find the link) that detailed the sorrows of some dork who had to pawn his antique watch for gas money. This was so he put gas in his 25 year old Jaguar sedan which you just know sucks back the dinosaur juice (not to mention the repair dollars).
The above link to the electrically assisted bicycle doesn't work (my fault). This does.
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John Palubiski: Any ideas on how to limit rising Chinese and Indian gas consumption, major demand drivers now?
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Mark
Ottawa
Like Boortz, I blame our government schools for the epidemic of "folk Marxist" thinking.
The best solution is to do nothing. Give the market some time to adjust.
JasperPants
Mark Collins, I,m short of ideas on how to limit Indian and Chinese oil consumnption. President Woo has gone a wooing in Nigeria, among other places, in an effort to shore up supply. I've no answers for you, sadly.
Your statistics are impressive, and seem to demonstrate that America's dependance on M.E. oil is not as great as thought. When I referred to "our society" I meant THE WEST, in general, so when we shift the focus to all western nations it becomes obvious that much of our energy supplies still come from the Middle East. The fact remains that we, the western consumer, provide enormous revenues to various states in the Gulf region, and that these states then use a part of this profit to fund "questionable" activites.
We all pay a kind of jihadi tax with every fill-up and part of that tax can end up in that hands of people who would seek to harm us.
I'm not ragging on the oil industry per se... they've no controle over where oil revenues go... I,m merely stating that OVERALL our dependance on M.E. petroleum is, in the long term, somewhat unhealthy.
To John B.:Yes I do live in Montréal (on island)and yes the drivers are a bit insane. The Québec gov't doesn't dare allow Montréal motorists to turn right on a red light because it would result in too much chaos....and casualties.
You're correct in your description of our roads, as well. Last winter on the Van Horne overpass ( just west of Rue St-Denis) there was a pothole SO huge it almost became a tourist attraction.
And what of the Metropolitan "expressway", Montréal's 401, but with a speed limit of only 70 kmh? Yesterdays *elevated* version of tomorrow; as though city planners back then figured we'd all be driving flying cars by now. To boot we even used to have a monorail! So practical!
It's so much faster and easier to get around just using various backstreets, but then you have to know the town fairly well to do that.
And I'm still not interested in riding a bike, electric or otherwise.
The lowest I can go is a rickshaw, provided I can find someone to pull it....
John P.
Since I travel to Montreal about 6-8 times a year to help my mother around the house, maybe we can hook up some time for a beer. That’s how I know the roads are so bad, the wine so expensive and the beer so cheap (at Costco). The dear old Metropolitan "expressway" – fortunately I seldom need to travel along it which suits me well. I remember when it was built back in the 1950’s I believe. I read an article several years ago regarding a meeting of highway engineers where the Metropolitan was held up as an example where every mistake that was conceivably possible had been carefully incorporated into it’s design. Lanes too narrow, lanes that suddenly appear or disappear, exits and entrances on varying sides of the expressway, no emergency lanes – the list went on and on. For sure Montreal cannot do modern highways. One of my favourite design idiocies was the series of elevated expressways built for Expo 67 that intertwine like spaghetti (where the Decarie exits). The lighting was built into the guardrail about four feet above ground just where all of the salt laden gunk would be thrown up by cars and piled up by plows. After the first winter over half were out of commission. Of course, there is the smoked meat.
Cheers.
John B. Yeah, sure... sounds like a good idea!
Not sure if you can glean my e-mail address from Daimnation.
I suppose that if we contact the site's owner he'd be willing to kindly provide the necessary info.
Cheers! John P.