Gas - maybe it really is going out of style ... look how it's being used.

vsk

wow...so we americans feel it is our natural right to have cheap oil and gas?

When the Armerican public gets tired of the Goverment stuffing their personal funds and pockets, they will stand up and declare enough is enough.
We have allowed the BIG companies to take Americans freedom and monies. They are selling up out for greed and selfish gain.
Americans had better wake up are we will not be a free nation any longer. The goverment will tell us, as they already are doing, how to live, where to live, and how we are to spend our monies. WE are destroying this world with the polutions, politics and govrerment spending. The outside nations are just sitting back and waiting for this country to fold so they can buy us out. ARE THEY ALREADY DOING THAT? I THINK YES!!!!!

"wow...so we americans feel it is our natural right to have cheap oil and gas?"

...duh, it's in the bill of rights.

I always enjoy the Simpson's television show where the town Mayor Quimby always influences the city voters with such an asinine scheme, and they willingly (overwhelmingly) go along with it, usually for some stupid reason... either way it's funny on TV

...and then there is the US govt, making a fictional cartoon Mayor seem intelligent.

...and the voters who, for whatever reason, vote the same inept members back year after year.

Art imitating life, or the other way around. Either way I'm not laughing.

Cheers,
tom-tom

More of the same. It's all a red herring. None of the measures specified will come to fruition on a time scale that will impact the retail market at all. This measure is is simply an attempt to protect the profit-quo of the industry for the next couple of decades. On top of being inadequate, it's a lazy man's bandaid. And they dare to couch the argument in terms of national security. In the long term, that is what this plan most surely sacrifices.

Let's hope the dems stay off this bandwagon.

"I gave up my dreams of conquest when I realized that all I would ever have to show for it was the world..."

What a solution ...

Now that oil is unsustainable, lets destroy the planet getting the last drops ... why worry about the next generation?

If the same investment needed to develop arctic wilderness oil were instead put into 'green' and renewable energy the payback would be slower, but many many times greater.

Simple mathematics shows that these "huge" oil deposits found in places like Alaska and elsewhere across the world wouldn't even last a year at our rates of consumption.

Clearly it's not the answer. I thought these guys (and gals) had degrees? Clearly not in math.

Here in Finland we pay $8.35 per gallon.

YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN.

This has nothing to do with actual laws, now or in the future, and everything to do with the November elections. They want simple proposals that make good headlines, substance is not a factor because it won't be reported.

You have the party in the majority favored to win, but they are already perceived as incompetent. This forces Pelosi to block a vote on it and the story is 'Dems block cheaper US oil'. Republicans are going for a repeat of the 1948 Do-Nothing Congress, when they blew a huge lead in the polls. Remember Truman with the Dewey Wins newspaper.

Thousands of bills are submitted every year by congressmen and only a few dozen are passed. People need to calm down.

RN:
First, I saw no post before yours that brought up price per gallon at all, much less complained about it. Second, there in Finland your whole country is just over 700 miles long. Our east coast is more than twice that, and our breadth over 4 times. To try and have a tu quoque argument between any EU country and the US is kind of moot. Of course we use more, waste more, pollute more, et al.
Our contributions to the problem dwarf pretty much everybody else's, with a few notable exceptions, and our consumption habits are counterproductive. Part of that issue is that we've been THE bulk buyer in the world, and bulk breeds discount. If the EU conglomerated the oil markets of member countries and purchased centrally, they'd probably see a price drop. Then again, you do love that Russian crude, and once they saw you getting together they'd probably milk it.
In terms of Anwar, I think the consensus is that it's best not to tempt a fat kid with an ice cream cone when the goal is to slim down. Not only won't it help, but if it could we shouldn't want that kind of help.
I hope we're done with oil before it's gone. It would be great to leave some where it is.

Many other countries around the world already spend much more on fuel than we do. Our cheap gas priorities.. meant that we created a gas guzzling society. I think expensive gas will get us all thinking a little harder about how we lay out our cities, and use up our resources.

Isn't necessity the mother of invention?

Perhaps we ought to double the gas prices...use the extra money for research. (I know someone's going to hurt me for that one)

Dear John! I appreciate Your interest in global issues, You made Your homework before replying. I was not replying to any of the comments, just merely pointing out the fact that people in US are making a huge íssue about gasoline price.. It kinda goes hand-in-hand with the comment "so we americans feel it is our natural right to have cheap oil and gas?"

I'd like to direct TH readers to take a peek at Finnish taxes on energy, I think we are on a right track here?

http://www.environment.fi/default.asp?contentid=147208&lan=en

I am not a member of Environmental or Tax administration.

America will, as usual, solve the problem with technology in the long term and the world will be a better place.

In the short term, oil producing countries are simply not pumping oil near capacity (read 'they are holding back'). This is, alas, a game ... and those with the drilling capacity are in control.

China and India thirst for oil continues to climb exponentially.

Result: RIDICULOUSLY HIGH GAS PRICES

America could be off oil dependence in 10 years if we just had the guts to make it happen. We have the guts, but until gas rises further, the pace of solutions will also be slow.