**and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think
that the cost of a gallon
of gas is CHEAP at $1.50- $1.75**

It's more like we've conditioned OPEC to think we'll be willing to pay whatever they ask for oil. So far it looks like they're right. I don't buy from either of those companys anyway. Sounds like someone is thinking logically to a wrong conclusion. It wouldn't make any difference because we'd still be using the same volume of fuel.

I see no sense on picking on any oil company..
One of the fastest growing industries in our country is "bio-Diesel", but we need a whole lot more of it - and people to be aware of Diesel powered automobiles..

During the late 80s I drove a low horsepower VW Golf oil-burner for 100,000 miles, averaging 50 mpg.
There is no rational need for this insane horsepower race - which, of course uses more fuel...
Ten or twenty years from now there may be no more affordable gasoline and all vehicles will be Diesel

That boycott message has been around for a long time, and it hasn't made a bit of difference.

This country just needs to make a commitment to start developing alternate fuel supplies as Earthworm has suggested.

It's not easy to find much in the way of small diesel cars. I think the Chevette was about the last American small car that offered them. If any cars were available now with one, I'd certainly consider buying,

There are a lot of feedstocks for biodiesel, and it isn't just corn or standard ag crops that can be used to make it.

Now with the hurricane damage in the Gulf, it may take a long time to replace the refining capacity that has been lost, and also repair the drilling rigs that are out of service.

As much as I hate to see the price of gas go up to 3.50 or more right now, if it didn't do that, people would continue using it as they have, and within a short time, we'd be back to the long lines of the 70's and paying record high prices for fuel. I've certainly been considering what my needs are for gasoline. It's hard to run equipment on the farm without fuel, and projects I'd planned for this fall will be delayed or put off.

GG

A month ago or so, about the time the gas prices starting going up in Michigan, I was flipping channels and ran across a financial program... The man was talking about the best type of stocks to buy... Take one guess... Yep, the oil companies... Wanna know why.... Because the profits, for the 3 largest oil companies, have DOUBLED in the last year...

As for diesel fuel, I've heard it puts more bad things in the air than regular gas... I know nothing about bio-diesel...

One reason, we as a nation, use more gas than other countries is because of a complete lack of common sense...

They put more plastic into our cars to increase the mileage yet plastic is made from petroleum... If your right foot weren't so heavy you wouldn't burn so much gas.

It's too inconvenient wash dishes so we buy Styrofoam plates and cups and toss those out... Let's see you drive to the store to buy the plates, which are packed in plastic, the garbage man uses a truck that gets about 10 miles to a gallon to take them to a land fill where the men with their bulldozers, which get about 5 MPG, compact the junk that will take about 100 years to decompose.

The Jones's bought a new 4 wheel drive SUV so I have to buy a bigger one so I can drive 50 miles, on a smooth highway, back and forth to work... Why??? If you're not going to use it off road you have absolutely no need for a 4 wheel drive vehicle for every day use... And if you're so insecure that you have to out do the Jones's you have my condolences because it will never end.

Just about everything we buy now-a-days has some form of plastic in it, the keyboard you're typing on, the wires and other components in the computer, the floppy disks that you have to toss out after a year or two, your vinyl siding, some of the clothes you wear, the packaging for your food... Cut back on some of theses things and you'll be saving gas for your fuel efficient car.

Keep your tires correctly inflated, keep your car tuned up, don't go joy riding, try to save up your errands and do them all in one day and plan your route so you don't retrace your path, take an elderly neighbor with you it saves them gas and you do a good deed at the same time, don't use the car A/C unless you really have to and for God's sake ease up on the gas petal, no jack rabbit starts or speeding, it not only saves gas it saves lives.....

Rita

since these oil companys swap product back and forth, like kids swap candy, just how do you know your not buying say mobil gas when go to b.p. and vice a versa. as i sit here, iam sending 40000 bbls of bp no lead gas to marathon tankage, and they are loading trucks headed to who knows what companys station. tomorrow i have to pump 28000 bbls of bp product but its going to be tagged as shell product. by the way dsb22 we just sent a 35000 bbls of sun no lead to mobil tankage. which mobil site did you work out of? iam near your woodhaven facility.

RitaOtay has got it just about right.Except many of the plastics are made from Soyoil also.Just another use for Soybeans to stop the depandancy on oil.

Im sure a few will remember about a year ago I predicted gas would hit $3.00 and that I was thrased for saying it by a few Escalade and other SUV owners.Who felt I was picking on the SUV owners.Well the day has come.They got you right where they want you now.Oh well thats the price you pay for keeping up with the Jones.lol

Because the profits, for the 3 largest oil companies, have DOUBLED in the last year...

That's the negative part about capitalism -- you can charge what the market will bear. We're sufficiently addicted to petroleum that we'll pay a lot.

As for diesel fuel, I've heard it puts more bad things in the air than regular gas... I know nothing about bio-diesel...

Diesel engines exhaust less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines (contributing less to global warming). Diesels do exhaust more NOx, but newer diesels and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (required by law in the U.S. by 2007) will allow the use of pollution controls which will reduce NOx further. Diesels in Europe are being equipped with particle filters which trap the soot. In the meantime, diesels use a fuel which requires less refinement than gasoline and the better mileage that diesels get means less fuel has to be transported in the first place (sorry, bill_h!).

Biodiesel is even cleaner, with about one-third less CO2 and two-thirds less NOx and soot. In addition, biodiesel can be manufactured from crops or food-processing byproducts. Some diesel owners even have converted their vehicles to run on filtered deep-fry oil. Is anyone recycling gasoline?

One reason, we as a nation, use more gas than other countries is because of a complete lack of common sense...

That's easy to say, but hard to prove. I'd be one of the last to defend the current truck craze and many Americans' fascination with "stuff". However, for decades, our society has reinforced certain behaviors by measuring success in terms of what we own -- the more and the bigger, the better. Our expressions of freedom have made mass transit and multiple-unit housing less desireable for most people. It all has a benefit -- and a cost.

Just about everything we buy now-a-days has some form of plastic in it, the keyboard you're typing on, the wires and other components in the computer, the floppy disks that you have to toss out after a year or two, your vinyl siding, some of the clothes you wear, the packaging for your food

Interesting selection of products ... What would you make a keyboard out of to avoid plastic? Ivory? Celluloid? Wood? Ditto for wire insulation. You're probably too young to remember the dangers of knob-and-tube wiring, which featured no plastic at all. Vinyl siding replaces a few decades worth of paint, the production of which usually is not a "clean" process and usually involves petroleum anyway. Except for the very earliest recordings, recorded music and data have always employed plastic -- tape, vinyl albums, 78s, CDs, floppies ... all mostly plastic. I wouldn't want to do without them. And I don't think any of us want to go back to the days when kids dropped glass containers or the grocer had to reach in (sans plastic gloves) to handle your food.

I don't work in the plastics industry or the automotive industry. I agree that some uses of petroleum have gone overboard. But, as a society, we made decisions not all that long ago which seemed simple and harmless and even beneficial but which are starting to have some dramatic effects. I would like to think that a reasonable approach will prevail and we can use American ingenuity and unity to address these changes.

gas prices are dropping, its all going to be forgotten b-4 the next payment on the hummer is due. hahaha

Steve_o, thanks for the info on diesel and bio-diesel...

I don't usually try to defend my responses for fear of starting a heated argument... LOL. But let me try to explain my point of view a bit more... The reason I say our oil problems have resulted from a lack of common sense is because I do remember the 'good old days'.... I remember the days when we all took street cars or buses... For those who were rich enough to own a car they were smart enough to use them sparingly... I also remember the days when we would make do with what we had, buying something new meant that whatever we were replacing was beyond repair... We didn't buy things to keep up with the Jones' and we certainly didn't run out and buy another one because there was a new and improved model... And I remember the days when the local grocery store raised the price of a loaf of bread to 26 cents and we walked the two extra blocks to get it for 25 cents...

I know, I'll come across as a penny pinching tightwad... I'm not... But I will pass up a gas station that's selling gas at $3. a gallon when I know there's one on my route that's selling it for $2.90... In fact there have been times when I've gone out of my way to buy cheaper gas... After 9-11 I had to go about 3 miles to find a gas station that didn't raise their prices $1. or more and I always avoid stations that change their prices 3 times in one day... LOL

There are times when I do my weekly grocery shopping at three different stores because each one has something 'on sale'... ( I plan my route so there's no wasted miles. ) My reasoning behind that is that stores will keep raising their prices until you stop buying from them... I've seen it happen, all to often around here... At one time all the stores in my area sold a gallon of milk for $2.19 then one store upped it to $2.59 and the others soon followed until some were selling it for as much as $3.99 a gallon... Meijers got smart and lowered theirs to $2.... Guess where I buy my milk now... LOL

The same goes for anything else, including gas stations... I won't name names but why go to one gas station that always has higher prices when there's another down the street that's always cheaper? Why buy the high priced premium if regular will work just as well? Why buy a new computer because it's .5 GHz faster? Why buy a new keyboard because Pete says his is better? Why replace your siding when you think you'd prefer another color????

We have become a throw-away society and we're obsessed with having more than anyone else... It is time to stop that thinking... There's an old saying... Waste not, want not...

There's another saying... He who dies with the most toys wins... Nope, he who dies with the most toys is dead.

Rita

he who avoids the toys, and saves the money wins!

Boycotting won't "hurt" the oil companies one bit. But it WILL hurt the retailer in your town. He's making about 3 cents TOPS per gallon. He makes his money by us coming in and buying munchies or beer. And staying away will hurt HIM, not Exxon!
We're paying the higher prices right now because of a catastrophe down south. Refineries are currently offline, but will be back up soon. and the prices will fall.
But I know this will drive some here absoluely nuts, but the Government gets about 38% of the price of gas in taxes. If they REALLY cared about us they would LOWER THEIR TAKE! A bill is going to be introduced in the New York legislature to do just that. But'we'll see. Do they consider tax money "their money"? Or is it OUR MONEY? HHHMMMMM.

I hear you, Rita. I agree that we have become a "throw-away" society. Unfortunately, it is drilled into most Americans from birth that one's value is determined largely by how much money you make and how much you have. The availability of cheap everything (including credit) only fuels that notion. It is a long-standing American value that one's children should have a better life than you had. This is an extreme manifestation of that. And if it's the way you and 'most everyone you know was brought up, is it a "lack of common sense" or is it merely "normal"? Unfortunately, reverting back to paying cash and making do or doing without will cripple an American economy built on buying ever more. I'm not saying it's right, it's just the way it is. And it won't change easily (though it might change quickly, seeing as it took only a generation or two to move from "children of the Depression" to "eat, drink, and be merry").

ChristopherH, I don't think the government gets quite 38 percent of the price of gas in taxes. I think you may be thinking 38 cents per gallon. At least that's about what it is here. Many states are considering what NY is oonsidering -- rolling back or temporarily eliminating taxes.

While that would definitely be a popular thing to do (and it would allow the politicians to tell the public "we're doing something about this") it could ultimately backfire and just put more money into the oil companies' profit columns. If the price of gas is lowered 30 cents a gallon due to a tax cut or elimination, then that just props up demand and causes people to keep using more, which causes oil prices to keep rising. In a few weeks we're paying the same as we were with the tax in place, except the money has just been diverted from the government to the oil companies. While I know many people may have a hard time choosing from between those two entities for where they'd like their money to go, I'd suggest that at least the tax money does go to accomplish some needed government function, whereas if it goes to the oil companies it just further adds to their already more than adequate profits.

As far as durable plastics such as computers and car interiors, they're probably a good use of plastics. Bad uses of plastics would be throwaway items that can't be or aren't being recycled. You look at soft drinks; those used to be in glass bottles that were returned for a deposit. Now most are sold in plastic bottles, probably way under half of which are recycled. The problem with recycling up until now is that in the case of many products, it was questionable as to whether it was even worthwhile to recycle them due to the energy required to recycle being greater than the energy to make new ones. But high oil prices will change that, and hopefully we can start recycling nearly everything made of plastic. I would favor putting a deposit on plastic soft drink bottles and other recyclable items that are frequently simply thrown out to encoourage recycling of these items. These are the kinds of simple things we can do that really don't hurt anybody, cost little, but could make a big difference.

Good points Steve_o... To tell the truth I never stopped to think that kids do believe that it is 'normal'...

You are right, change is never easy and I guess we won't change our thinking until we run out of everything... lol Peace! Oops, I'm dating myself again... LOL

Rita

Very interesting, Rita
But I do not think most of us are wasteful, Steve, many are as they can afford it...
I believe we are finally at the beginning of the end of "cheap" petroleum, and that, slowly but surely, bio-fuels and nuclear will take over, as they are in Europe(rapeseed oil)(much higher levels of conservation)(much more nuclear)...
We do, as usual, have a lot of catching up to do...

All I can say is two words regarding Phillip Hollsworth and his 'this can really work to bring down prices' by boycotting Exxon/Mobil (actually one oil company) theory.

He thinks the oil companies laughed at the 'don't buy gas on a certain day' idea? Well, Phillip, I'm afraid they'll get just as big a laugh out of your idea too. The other remaining top eight oil companies have hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and would be just as capable of sustaining the current gasoline pricing scheme. Besides these oil companies all sell gasoline to each other. What then will help bring down prices at the pump? It's the old supply and demand theory. Plain and simple. When gasoline reserves go up...the price comes down. Conversely, When demand is high and reserves go down...the prices go up and keep rising. Simply boycotting one or two of the top 10 of the over 200 oil companies in the U.S. will have no effect on prices at the pump.

Rita; there are no streetcars or busses in about 90% of America.

This 'email' about boycotting Exxon and Mobil is nearly 7 years old now. Is Exxon even still around? Didn't they get bought out years ago?

I also remember the days when we would make do with what we had, buying something new meant that whatever we were replacing was beyond repair... We didn't buy things to keep up with the Jones' and we certainly didn't run out and buy another one because there was a new and improved model...
*******
It's an old Yankee saying. "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without."
People today have no idea what that means. Heck, they probably don't even know what "Yankees" are. I'll give you a clue. They ain't from Noo Yawk!

You're all idiots. It's not the companies fault that oil is becomming harder to retrieve. It's the places that they recieve oil from's fault. Gas prices are rising because they are being forced to. Companies don't raise gas prices to earn profits, because if they do that, more people will buy electric cars. Head back through high school you ignorant,selfish, morons.

is jake a troll? digging up a 6yr old thread? surprised he did not include a link to a website to buy car parts.

Nah, he just wants to call people names.

But I guess he doesn't realize gas prices are rising because oil is a commodity and is bought and sold by speculators on a daily basis. Just like corn and pork bellies.

Oh, and by the way, EXXON/MOBIL have gotten out of the retail gasoline business. There are no company owned stations any more. The stations you see are just renting/leasing the NAME, that's all. All your local gas stations get their gas from the same wholesaler. Up here all our gasoline comes from the Port of Albany tank farm in NY.
The price is set by speculators and that is the price at the refinery. As of Fri, 3/11 it was $2.99 per gallon. Then the transportation costs come in, the middlemen get their cut, and then it goes to the local station and that EVIL CAPITALIST has to compete with the station across the street so he gets about 3 cents per gallon. Less if you use a credit card because he has to pay the credit card costs.

And some credit card processors charge upwards of 5% just for the privelige of you using your VISA card. And if you use a "rewards" or "mileage" card he is charged even more. You see, VISA isn't giving you those rewards, they're charging the merchant, so he is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daily gasoline prices

i live in mn. story in paper about canada wanting to build pipeline to gulf of mexico so they aren't forced to sell to refiners in the chicago area. they want more money by selling it on the open market. story basically says oil company lobbyists have pretty much talked US govt into approving plan. and i thought canada was our friend?