Americans Direct Scorn Over High Gas Prices Towards Washington, Willing to Cut Safety to Up Mileage

Roughly 90% of the increase in the price of oil has to do with the Federal Reserve destroying the value of the dollar by creating massive inflation. The CPI numbers are misleading pure and simple so that the government can spend willy nilly and continue their needless wars and self-defeating social programs.

The remaining 10% increase in the price of oil is due to speculation and increasing demand by Chinese and Indian markets.

Bush's trip to beg the Saudis for more oil was a slight of hand tactic to direct attention away from his administration's fiscal nightmares and Ben Bernake's destructive monetary policies.

If Americans had any clue what the Fed was doing to their money they would have rioted years ago.

This is the correct idea, not flawed!. There is no free lunch, something will have to give to produce a vehicle that has improved fuel economy with the same performance at a reasonable price. The other choice we can make is to reduce our emissions standards for both spark and compression ignition engines to allow for increased nox. this will allow gas engines to run leaner, with other advances turbo and superchargers and direct injection to downsize the engines at a cost level that will be accepted on a large scale basis. As for diesels they will be able to stop wasting fuel to perform regeneration on the particulate filters and stop pumping egr into the intake and reducing the gains that diesels have over gas engines. Hard choices suck, but we have to make them, unlike the baby boomer generation who think the world owes them a living, and they can have their mcmansions and suv's too!

"But 90% of those surveyed support an increase in alternative energy development, although 81% want the U.S. government to allow more drilling both on and offshore. And Americans also favored conservation measures, with 83% saying they supported tax incentives for alternative transportation."

If the next president is smart, he will do all of those things. Opening up drilling offshore is a nice compromise to get the other stuff through. Especially nice, because there probably isn't that much oil offshore, so it's unlikely anyone would actually drill the areas that are under discussion any time soon. There are far more profitable places in the world to use the available drilling equipment.

read:

Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say

Limiting speculation would push prices to fundamental level, lawmakers told

By Rex Nutting & Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:24 p.m. EDT June 23, 2008

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday.

Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.

Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis and Roger Diwan of PFC Energy Consultants agreed with Masters' assessment at a hearing on proposed legislation to limit speculation in futures markets.

Krapels said that it wouldn't even take 30 days to drive prices lower, as fund managers quickly liquidated their positions in futures markets.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/gas-could-fall-2-if/story.aspx?guid={2673c102-68e0-41d9-9c9a-10ee2e723948}&dist=msr_13

Oil lease areas may be suboptimal. Smaller areas might allow additional development of less productive prospects on a less risk-averse basis.

I feel that the public in America is not yet ready to take responsibility on the influence that a consumerism way of life has on the natural resources and looks for a technical solutions.

I bet you most people complaining about high gas prices are people who drive those huge escolades and trucks.

I drive a corolla around and only need to fill up 9 gallons and i get 26mpg (driving kinda fast and city driving) so i only pay about $45 every week and a half to two weeks.

If people drove around cars like mine then we wouldnt be complaining about the gas prices.

"If the next president is smart, he will do all of those things. Opening up drilling offshore is a nice compromise to get the other stuff through. Especially nice, because there probably isn't that much oil offshore, so it's unlikely anyone would actually drill the areas that are under discussion any time soon. There are far more profitable places in the world to use the available drilling equipment."

You know, that's not such a bad idea. The best estimates are that it will take a decade before any wells start producing anyway, and by then we'll probably have an alternative so drilling won't be attractive.

I guess it goes to show 81% of Americans are idiots. A good compromise where they drilled offshore (NOT in the ANWR) and had a 3-4 year plan to reduce oil dependence by 50% or encourage mass transit so it accounted for 50% or more of local transportation then it might be ok.

The reasoning behind that is because gas prices are NEVER going to drop again. With China booming in the industrial age now their demand will spike leading to increased prices, only evening the playfield out. If oil companies do manage to suck something out of the Gulf, it won't be for another five years before they manage to get it up and running and it impacts our economy, at which, it's a tradeoff with China's increased usage.

How about driving "safely", making highways seem extremely more dangerous because of all the people who can't slow down to a reasonable speed?
I've gotten into a hypermiling habit and have seen HUGE savings in gas, but when people are doing 75mpg *illegally* while I'm doing 55mph (posted speed limit), I honestly don't feel safe.
I think the govt needs to fork up the initial investments in alternative energies and hold off on drilling for as long as possible.

If our next president and congress can take advantage of popular support and leverage an allowance for off-shore drilling to pass laws enacting some meaningful policy that discourages new fossil-fuel plants and encourages on-grid and alternative fuel vehicles as well as increasing wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and nuclear, we can expect to see some of the most prosperous years this country has known since the end of WWII. And they will be green, too. By the time any significant amount of oil actually starts flowing from this drilling, we can theoretically have reduced our oil use enough- without significant economic loss- that it might provide a significant share of our needs.

But if 15% changed their vehicles to geo metros, civics, etc etc...

The roads would be safer from the loss of SUV's..

"I bet you most people complaining about high gas prices are people who drive those huge escolades and trucks. "

Not true. I work part time on weekends for my father at his full service gas station, and the smaller the car, the more people complain. I had a customer put $158 in his older Suburban, he couldn't care less. The cranky old lady in her 99 Civic complained that she's never had to put more than $15 in it before.

The same can be said for me, I didn't care that I put $60 in my Monte Carlo yesterday, but I am not that thrilled about $18 to fill my Buell.