i read somewhere that equipment is available in other countries but not being asked to be brought to the US.

Also being reported "17 Countries Offer Gulf Assistance, BP Accepts Only 2 Offers"

The Gulf area was the largest new discovery of oil recently and its new online production has held pump prices down of petrol in America. Now that it is now out of bounds you will see those prices rise fast hitting every American with there big gas guzzlers firmly in the pocket.

So which is it going to be, higher prices for years to come and dependance on the Arab states for supply, or the once in 30 years of oil spills. My betting is that America will bleed BP dry, an American oil company will do a stock market raid on BP buying it for peanuts and then miraculously the Gulf area will be reopened for business as usual, with leasons learned from this spill.

Good business for America especially as it was an American manufactured piece of equipment which caused the initial failure.

i am in favor or $10/ gal gas

you will see more ideas and solutions for other sources of energy

I hope you'd be ready for $15 gallon milk. Or $20 pack of chicken breast or your medical costs ballooning even more than they already are.

$10 a gallon for gas would cripple the country more than you could ever imagine. There would be no progress in other technologies because there would be no prosperity from which to draw the capital.

ok, agreed. lets back it down to $6/gal (we weren't that far off 2 years ago)

They pay $8-10 a gal in europe right?

You obviously do not have a service oriented company. We struggle with the high costs of fuel adding to the overhead already. In small town USA (Or Louisiana) the median income is lower already. Add higher costs for services then the snowball starts rolling (faster than it already is). Already they (customers) are opting for the lower cost option which usually includes no worker insurance, comp. , health, auto etc. This results in a net liability for the customer if something happens. Our median income will drop also as the jobs leave. Many companies are contemplating the move or shut down pending the drilling moratorium (sp). We are not completely oil driven but it is all connected somewhat.

Sure everyone can "armchair quarterback" this situation. But the knee jerking kicks us right in the Balls!

Of course its just my opinion, what do I know? I live here, work here, been here all my life, and own a business here. And contrary to the belief of others in the country our education system goes past the third grade.

My lake doesn't have oil... lets go sailing.

Clayton

Whatever our cost is for gas in Europe it is about 2.3 times as much. But diesel fuel is much cheaper and much of the EU runs on that. Much of this cost in attributed to taxes. I believe in France the tax on petrol (gas) is like 70%.

Prices in Holland:
Gas is $1.90 / liter
Diesel is $1.48 /liter

How many liters in US gallons? 4?

Current average gas price (RON 95) in the Netherlands is $7.31 / US Gallon.

There's a difference between wishing that the price of gas/oil going up due to natural market fluctuations and wishing that someone would arbitrarily set the price higher. The only way the latter happens is with onerous government taxes. These days - thats not out of the realm of possibiliy.

You'll still see a rise in price of consumer goods when the price of fuel rises more than temporarily. I've read that our last excursion into $4+ gas was short enough to not affect consumer prices that much (it did) - but if it happened indefinitely you'll be paying the price not only at the pump - but everywhere.

I am a marketer for 3 medical companies. i think this is a service industry (health care is a service right?)

One of the companies sells products that we ship. i am well aware of the cost of shipping, and we are still paying "fuel surcharges" on every order we ship (despite fuel rates dropping 25% since the $4/gal).

However, I completely understand and basically agree with your points (and Tadd's).

I am also no economist but my comment was more ideology than actual theory.

my point was that higher costs (apparently around $4/gal) spurred on a tidal wave of "non oil" ideas and demand. wind, solar, thermo, etc were a hot topic 2 years ago (as was drill baby drill).

Of course our memory is sooo short as soon as prices fell back around $3 people canceled their prius orders and got back into their suv's.

I drive a 6 cylinder car, have a boat made from oil related materials, have lots of plastic in mu life (not really by choice), and am just as much a user of our oil nation as anyone else, but i would hope we find new ways (or go back to some old ways) that would reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

i am no scientist and don't have many solutions to our current socio/economic love affair with oil, but i hope we can move away from it in my lifetime.

i have no desire to increase the cost of anything, except to spur on invention into "cleaner, renewable sources".

I certainly saw prices increase for everything when gas prices went up. Fuel surcharges, milk, etc.

It also seems to me despite any "deflation" in our current consumer basket that the govt reports.... i have felt large inflation in my personal basket of late. everything from utilities (up 20-30%) to services (dry cleaning, hair cuts, escorts to dogfood (25%) has seemed to have an unusually fast appreciation in costs, at least in my world.

Diesel costs more than petrol/gas in the UK

Petrol/gas £1-21/Litre = $9-64 / gallon
Diesel £1-25/litre = $9-96 / gallon

Most of that is tax

Sooo....when can we get those new Electric Cars I keep hearing about??

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3155453

BP's $23M in presidential campaign contributions is the best investment they've ever made.

If fuel jumped to $10/gal, whether through market prices, or taxation, I think that would be great! I wouldn't have to go to work anymore, because nobody else could afford to buy cabinets. That would be awesome! I could live off what the land provides me, shooting deer, and defensless people to take what they have. My god, why haven't we thought of this before?! Its a magical utopia just waiting to happen!

This ain't Europe. You could fit most of Europe into Texas, we don't have the population density to justify the cost of having mass transit everywhere. If people can't afford to get to work, our economy will be completly doomed.

I've said this before, you want a solution? Its easy, kill everyone you know. Or, wait for that new wonder virus to pop up and wipe out 50% of the population again. Of course in today's modern, mobile society, it'd probably be more along the lines of 90%. That's your solution. STOP BREEDING! Its not a case of suddenly having too many people, there has always been too many people, period.

Make love, not babies.

If you dig a little deeper you will find BP, and most other Major Corporations involved with any heavily regulated industry (airlines, autos, phama, etc.) give huge amounts of money to candidates of BOTH parties, so no matter who wins, they've got "Friends" in DC willing to make it go "their way".

If you are really board and want a good laugh, pick up P.J. O'Rourk's "Parliment of Whores". We have, "The Best Government Money CAN buy!"

how benevolent of you.

Like this?



Got $100K you can have one tomorrow, wait a few more years and the price may drop.

Tesla just got bought, in lose terms by Toyota and will be manufacturing these in California @ the old NUMI plant.