Ziggy by Tom Wilson & Tom II for March 21, 2011

I have the same trouble! could be old age!!

Gas is so expensive now, I can’t afford to fart.

I remember going to a station once and asking for a dime’s worth……………….

Remember the Oil Embargo of 1973?? Sometimes the stations would limit you to $3.00 worth of gas. At today’s prices some people would not even make it home on that much!!

I have the solution to the oil crises. The US should buy our oil from domestic sources instead of from the countries who hate us and want to destroy us. We have enough oil in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas to tell OPEC to stuff it. And now we have discovered a huge oil reserve in Montana. Goodness, this is such a no-brainer!

I remember that problem in the sixties on my 62 Rambler, but the gas was $.33 and I didn’t want to be embarrassed looking in the glove for another nickle.

Then I made my fortune pumping gas. “48 cents of high test and check the oil.”

Love this Ziggy. Who COULDN’T relate?! …but davidf; The “no brainer” is the thought of remaining dependent on fossil fuels in the first place. MORE OIL is NOT the answer. So many ‘Americans’ mock others’ cultures for remaining ‘in the dark ages’. Meanwhile, there are truly clean technologies these same people mock to explore, while refusing to even IMAGINE taking their lips off the crude, greasy, toxic, & antiquated teets of the gas and oil industries.

Is the fuel you BURN more precious than the air, water & life that ALL require to further EXIST? The ‘no brainer?’ New technologies=new jobs=real future. “Gimme more oil!” = brain death with minds closed for business.

I have a 1 gallon gas can and stop it right on 1 gallon. And I’m middle aged!

xsintrix, that’s because the gas comes out just as fast (or slowly) as it ever did. The part that goes faster is the cost counter. So if Ziggy was trying to get exactly $1 (more likely, $4) worth, it would be a challenge. Stopping at 1 gallon is just as easy (or hard) as always.

Think Brazil.

All oil goes on the world market, and is bought from there. I suspect that all that American oil would go on the world market and cost just as much, unless the supply was flooded with American oil, in which case everybody would pay less. I don’t think that American oil could only be sold to American companies, which don’t have the capacity to refine any more than they are doing now.

Ditto gofinsc and, particularly, Relevart. If the choice is between importing oil or using oil that is produced domestically and with absolutely no risk of environmental harm, then domestic oil would be the obvious choice, particularly if the land owner (usually the Feds (read: all U.S. taxpayers)) is appropriately compensated. But it’s rarely that simple. We don’t yet have foolproof extraction methods, and much of our domestic oil is in challenging locations. We also don’t have enough oil to dramatically alter worldwide supply or to meet all of our own needs for an extended period. Then there are the pollution concerns associated with fossil fuels, not to mention that when oil is cheap, we then don’t factor fuel economy into our vehicle purchase decisions, don’t consolidate trips, don’t pursue shorter trips, and don’t look to “alternatives” such as walking, biking, or using transit. Even at $4 a gallon, gas prices don’t reflect the true cost of automobile use and sprawl, so why would we strive to reduce the cost?

If you believe in Joseph Smith’s “invisible hand” (market economics), then you should also be advocating for automobile expenses to fully reflect the cost of building and maintaining roadways, cleaning or eliminating resultant pollution, etc., etc. We don’t need lower gas prices; we need higher taxes or user fees which can pay all of the costs of vehicle usage.

There’s no shortage of oil. There’s an overabundance of regulations keeping us from getting ours, and no regulations in other countries. The regulators want energy to get so expensive that only the rich can afford it.

If they were really as concerned about the environment as they claim, they’d support other forms of energy (although they claim to be, they oppose any measure that affects them directly, like Kennedy and the offshore wind farm) and be opposed to oil transport (where most of the leaks happen).

Well it is a good thing you don’t have to drive to work everyday Ziggy. A gallon of gas will not take you very far. You should check into a Hybrid vehicle. They are fuel efficiency and low emissions. Like a Mo-ped. That would be perfect for you!

Tigger where do you live that gas is a $1.00 a gallon? Venezuela?

Youconeric - that was when gas was $0.109 / gal, right?

And as for exactly WHY gasoline is hovering near $4.009/gal; it’s complicated. Partly, the speculators who are buying and selling oil based on what THEY think oil’s price should be (current offer is $80/bbl, with 1000bbl available, speculator says, I’ll take 2000 bbl!”, knowing that when that second 1000 bbl becomes available, since he already “owns” it, he can hold the marketplace hostage… and sell all 2000 bbls for $105.

The way around that is for some major producer(s) to stop buying and selling on the open market - like BP or Shell - who own theoretically the entire vertical structure, well to gas pump. Stop selling the oil; just keep it “in-house”. The problem being that petroleum products are not very amenable to “just in time” production; it takes time for the oil to reach the refinery, get processed into useful products, and reach the consumer. So, the oil companies buy and sell to each other - and until fairly recently, there were limits on speculation in energy sources, so BP might sell 1M bbl of crude today and buy it back from AMOCO as refined gasoline; while the US Navy bought the heavier fractions for use as ships’ fuel, USAirways bought some of the kerosene (plus additives) for jet fuel, etc… Put the speculator in the picture, and that 1M bbl doubles in price.

Oh, one other thing….

Relevart, what we have TODAY is a petroleum-based economy and infrastructure, not some pie-in-the-sky super-eco-friendly system that’s currently Unobtanium based. Research continues apace whenever and wherever it can. Weaning the world off fossil fuels would be great - if you have an alternative that’s deployable NOW. The closest we can come to that is nuclear fission. And the MSM is busy shouting “The sky is falling” thanks to a once-in-a-thousand-year occurrence, and overstate the dangers of the aftereffects on top of their original alarmist statements. So the NIMBYs scream and point to the “news reports” when someone proposes building a nuke plant anywhere within 1000 miles of their house. Nuts!

Welcome to the club, Ziggy!

I’m 64 and I bought a 500 cc single cylinder motorcycle with a 2 gal. tank. I get more than a hundred miles and that’s in town driving. I get more on the highway and It’s so much more fun to ride than a cage. My big Harley gets 45mpg with an engine that has one hundred HP at the rear wheel. Imagine what we could have accomplished with the money wasted killing folks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You’re right Radio Tom. Why even bother? I guess American ingenuity is dead too.