Fuel Prices Fuel Protests Around the World

Gee .. ya think it might be time for change?

What do these people think will happen exactly? Someone will wave a magic wand and oil prices will go down?

Or maybe they want subsidies and tax cuts, so that people have a smaller incentive to conserve, increasing demand and bringing the price almost right back to where it was?

Talk about useless protest. At least if they held their governments responsible for what they actually do, like war, torture, privacy violations, corporate welfare, corruption, etc.

So what exactly are they protesting? Their own dependency on oil?

So the pain at the pump is being felt everywhere with the exception of the OPEC Nations.

Gold has no real value in human terms, you can't eat it and you can't use it to heat/cool your home. It has an inferred value because we have a limited supply. Given any rational thinking person in the desert the choice between a bucket of water and a bucket of gold, and the water has far more value.

Certainly there are things that these OPEC nations NEED (not want), that they get from elsewhere on the planet.

We need to hold whatever it is that they need hostage as they hold oil hostage against us, and we need to move oil from being traded on the Futures market and move it over to the Commodities market. This will stabilize the pricing.

They probably want what everyone else wants, the truth. The powers that be say the problem of rising fuel costs is a supply/demand issue, the saudis say they won't increase supply because there isn't an increase in demand. So how can the rising cost be attributted to 'demand' on our end, but the supply side says there is no increase in demand and thats why they aren't increasing supply.

Someone is lying purely to line their pockets.

This is starting to look an awful lot like the opening montage from The Road Warrior.

This is a GREAT time to move from gas taxes to weight taxes. These taxes are ideally direct taxes used to fund the roads; therefore, since weight causes the most wear on the roadways it should be the factor that decides the tax rate.

Truckers will still not like this; however, you can't get everything for free. Here in MN, we underfunded for decades and many of us knew bridges were way behind so it was not a surprise that a bridge collapsed; only that such a big bridge wasn't better taken care of. (NOTE: its a federal bridge and that was part of the problem... it wasn't entirely MN's fault.)

Karma for our bad earth destructing habits coming back to bite us in the butt???? NO WAY!!! RIOT RIOT RIOT!!! AHHHH

They are protesting the high (70% or so) fuel taxes by blocking roads and/or refineries. This stops fuel deliveries, which is what causes the shortages, and causes disruption to anyone who relies on a car.

Time to go back to a quieter more peaceful time with less stress on speed and more on quality of life. A time for coal driven trains, Pullmans, cheap rail freight, and time to bounce your babies on your knee. Time for Jack Daniels, and home made beer. Time for gardens and Mom and Pop watching
TV for an evening. We could even get out our swimsuits, or fishing rod, or go for a walk in the park. If the large multi-nationals miss us they can always bribe us back with cheaper oil. In the meantime, enjoy life, expect less, but do less for 'The Man' .

The UK is an OPEC country, and scotland is in the UK, at least until it decides to secede (just in time for north sea oil to run out).

Everybody get your canned goods and shotguns!

Considering France is something like 80% nuclear, you would think they would be the first to have most things shipped by rail. electric rail is already in place.

conservation can come in many ways:
not shipping junk mail that mostly gets thrown out and trucked to a landfill.

reducing excessive packaging works the same way.

Chris, you said:

"Gold has no real value in human terms, you can't eat it and you can't use it to heat/cool your home. It has an inferred value because we have a limited supply. Given any rational thinking person in the desert the choice between a bucket of water and a bucket of gold, and the water has far more value."

Oil is THE NEW "GOLD"!

And electric vehicles ARE THE FUTURE!

Slightly off topic, but gold is actually very useful and valuable in the electronics industry. It is, after all, one of the best conductors. It being a noble metal has further benefits of not going rusty (normally).

Oil companies have stopped the funding of renewable energy, and the production of electric cars for the last 20 years, now WE are paying the price for this!!!

This could have been avoided if we had the opportunity to use electric cars like the EV1 10 years go.

This is still happening

wow their goverments let them do that the goverment their must suck even the antiguan goverment is better

The thing is stop shipping so many things and buy local! I agree with going back to a simpler life when you had the space and the time to have a garden and grow you're own food. When I was growing up which was not that long ago, my dad and I always had a garden. Eating in season works. Even in colder climates. In the winter you rely more on vegetables that keep in long term cool storage. The other thing is many of us in NY commute when it's so easy now to telecommute. Employers really need to get on the bandwagon with this. I guarantee you at least in the NY tri state are we could probably get rid of 75% of the traffic with telecommuting but our country is so slow to change especially when it makes sense to and don't get me wrong I love this country but there are things about it I really don't love sometimes.

In fact, oil producing countries are also suffering. Fuel prices have gone up in Saudi Arabia, UAE etc. Those countries know their oil reserves, why do you think Dubai etc are building hotels, islands like mad before it all runs out?

Amish, Mennonite call them what you will but at the end of the day, we will be buying $25 turnips from them as they pull their wagons topped with luxurious leather seats from our Hummers and Mercedes SUV's.

Conservation is a misused word, it leads people to believe that this is a short term solution, but unfortunately it is the new way of life.

"And electric vehicles ARE THE FUTURE"

Are you aware that almost all electricity comes from burning fossil fuels?

Sure they are the future but for all the wrong reasons.

We have some serious prolems to solve ahead of us and many need to quit being so ignornant. Help us solve these issues instead of making them worse.

This article was a bit muddled. The US gov't takes a hit for not coming up with renewable energy resources, but then further down there's a lament about strikers at a GM plant that can no longer afford to make gas-guzzlers? Shouldn't the GM plant closing be a good thing in environmental (albeit not human day-to-day) terms? And really, has anyone done anything to encourage China to work on their environmental issues? How about Dubai - are all of those new buildings "green"?

This is a perfect example of people who don't see the big picture of a situation. Let the oil barons raise the prices through the roof! That way they will be hurting their own business in the long run. People are so narrow in their thinking these days and have an issue with seeing the greater good in situations that directly affect them. Everyone is proud to show how much of a green liberal they are until they really have to pay for it. They should be ashamed!

I see this protest as a way to begin the process of asking the government to move towards renewable energy, not as a lost cause for the oil prices. The closing of a plant is a good start, but their should have been green jobs available for those who were put out of work before the closure. Being an environmentalist is to be in balance with the earth and those who inhabit it, animals, plants, and people, not to destroy economy, but to develop each other into a sustainable future lives here on this planet. At least those in Europe, Canada, and East Asia care enough about something to do something about it. We in the States are apathetic, the many small movements around the nation need to combine and maybe something might happen.

Protesting the price of a good seems poor at first, however there are regulatory practices, tariffs, etc. which can elevate the cost of a good in any economy.

So saying "What do these people think will happen exactly? Someone will wave a magic wand and oil prices will go down?"
Well, yes, they will go down a little. In this current economic climate, a little matters.

Before everyone hops on their high horse about bikes and electric vehicles realize that there is a lot more behind what you are saying. For some people it would mean moving to another city and leaving their family behind. For others it may mean a complete change in profession which they have had for their adult life.

Not everyone can sip mochachinos while scooting around the 405 on their Tesla roadster.

Since the Supply/ Demand Theory seems to have holes has anybody given any thought to the fact that maybe the oil is running out far faster then keep telling us. Why on Earth would they tell us that oil is pretty close to being gone. Like 10 years away, and NOT 50-200 years. This would cuz hording and mass panic. I believe all this is good in the long run for us all. How else are we going to switch to renewable energy. This is what America and the World needs to break its dependency. Cut the cord.

I can't think of any clearer signs that we're officially at the point of Peak Oil.

Things will get much, much worse before they get better. But fortunately, I think the world to come after this one will offer much more to those who remain.

The question is...how best to be one of those that remain?

This is PEAK OIL folks.

WE ARE ALL DOOMED!

Good luck.

These protests are good if it wakes people and thier governments up to the facts that Oil is running out of time. Time for renewable.

Hello, I am new to your site but would like to comment on a few things. I trust whomever is reading this will be able to place this where it will have the most impact within your site.
I am a 32 year old male who has lived in and or visited nearly every state in the USA. I have lived in the quite and hospitable state of WV and have lived in the complete opposite extreme of Chicago IL. I have seen the personalities of people in almost every spectrum possible and can say with near certainty that people from smaller/slower states are much more likely to help someone than those living in the large city areas.
I am all for going green, however there seems to be so much confusion, so many half baked ideas floating around. It seems like no one really has a definitive answer. Its like we are a bunch of chickens running around with our heads cut off. There are so many conspiracy theories for the supposed shortage in oil. For the rise in pollution, and for the true cause of global warming.
The simple truth is that we are human. Every last one of us have it within ourselves to destroy or mend. We would like to blame the government or maybe the president or our state governments for the mass destruction of the world but in truth it all comes down to the fact that its so much easier to destroy than it is to put it together. I can tear a house down in one day but it will take me weeks or months to build it.
We, as a species like to have the most for the least amount of work. Thus those in big businesses that work the least make the most and the common man that breaks his back everyday in the hot sun makes the least. It has been this way throughout history. The scribes of the old days kept their language a secret so that only they could prosper from it. Today the government holds the secrets so they can prosper.
We as Americans support paying someone to throw a football for 20 million or more a year but do not support paying those who do hard labor enough to support their families. We pay actors/actresses more per year than most people make in a lifetime. WHY?? We keep ourselves in the gutter and don't even realize we are doing it. Go Cowboys...ermm hunny how are we going to pay the rent this month? I dunno Earl you are already working over 80 hours a week i don't know what else we can do.
Humans are selfish beings for the most part. To demonstrate this fact take the old man that was ran over by the car and no one bothered to help. It aired not to long ago. How can we possibly come together to thwart the acts of our governments if we cant even help each other.
I cannot speak for other countries but in the USA we have the right to peaceful protest. We have the right to question our government. There isnt a government in the world though that will change if only a few protest.
If you want to stop the oil prices from rising then come together as one and either stop driving all together for awhile or simply use only one gas station. If everyone used exxon for a week chevron and texico will have no choice but to lower their price. Then you switch to the next lowest priced gas station untill another company beats them. Its not that hard to fix whatever needs fixing in this country ruled by multiple markets. They have to compete so use it to your advantage, and conveniently enough we are armed with the internet where we can post which gas station to use for which day.
Tired of companies not making energy efficient products? Then those of us supporting the green cause who have money need to all buy the very best energy efficient product and post what that product is. If 250,000 green people with money buy these items then the price of that item will drop low enough for the remaining people who are not as wealthy to get them. Its all about supply and demand. All things start off incredibly expensive and they all drop in price if a lot of people are buying their product.
Use the companies against the companies. Its quite a simple concept and again with the help of the internet its easy to follow through with as well.
The real question at hand is are there really enough people who want to be green to truly stand up against the government and force them to hear us? 302 million people in the USA, how many are green? Again the internet can help us determine this.
There are so many green groups. There should only be one. People need to put their pride aside and quit thinking they have the best ideas to fix everything. We all have some input concerning the issues at hand, and each of us will likely have something new to add to the train of thought.
Mostly though I think we as a whole lack the sticktoitness to accomplish anything great. We run into the wall of the government and flee. Nothing great is ever accomplished without hard work and dedication. We can ramble away constantly about this and that but thats all it really equates to, a bunch of worthless ramble.
We have the power to force changes, are we willing to use it though?
We seek an ends to mass deforestation but fail to see the reasoning behind it. Our population in 1980 was around 226 million. We have increased our population by 76 million in a little over 28 years. Thats about 53,200,000,000 more pounds of paper products being used each year. So by the year 2038 we will have a need for a trillion more pounds of paper products than we used in 1980. Of course there is going to be mass deforestation. We want to stop it but fail to fight it at the source. Familys should be limited to so many children. It may seem cruel but it keeps the population in check. The average life expectancy keeps going up too due to advances in medicine which only makes our population soar even more.
Ill close this for now. We need to be more fact oriented and have a true desire and drive for change. Compromises will most certainly have to happen along the way, but the end product will I am fairly certain be grand.

One poster asked what do people expect to happen? Have the government wave a magic wand and lower prices? Exactly. Many of these are social democracies (Socialists) in which the government has direct control over how much the price of fuel is.

The US Government has less direct control over the price of fuel. They manipulate it other ways (wars, theft, etc.), but can't directly dictate the price of fuel. Truckers will most likely park their trucks here too. Probably this summer. But they won't be able to demand the price of gas be lowered, only that they get (or somebody gets) a subsidy to help them out. Thus continuing the cycle of corporate socialism that got us here in the first place (Peak Oil notwithstanding).

"We need to hold whatever it is that they need hostage as they hold oil hostage against us"

In case you were wondering, what they NEED is food, because they live in the desert! The "plan" is to starve them. Thats why the ethanol program is actually such a good thing, its economic warfare at its finest. If the US can make sure that food prices keep rising with the price of oil, they are going to have to sell us their oil. That is if the rulers of exporting countries want their citizens to eat!

The problem is not that the Saudis don't want to increase production, what more scary is that they CAN'T increase production.

It's not like we can simply pump oil out of the ground at any rate we wish, nature has limits too. Saudi oil production has been more or less flat since 2005 (check with the EIA). This is despite increasing production continuously almost since the 50 or 60's. The North Sea oil field has also "peaked". There is only a finite amount of oil in the ground and we can extract it at a finite rate.

The biggest problem is that Demand has outpaced supply, in other words, GLOBAL oil production has peaked at 85 million barrels a day:

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/06/18/pickens-oil-production-has-peaked/

If the above link doesn't work, go to the Christian Science monitor and type in "oil production peaked".

This is despite the fact that in 2008-2010 global oil demand is estimated to be 87 million barrels with a shortfall of 2 million barrels. Guys nature doesn't play around, and neither should we. We need to think more like scientists and engineers, otherwise the MadMax scenario might become a reality.

We need to quit burning stuff - be it coal, oil or wood. I'm not talking about wood burning stoves or fireplaces - I mean huge furnaces to make electricity or burning fossil fuels to move cars and trucks.

Where we have alternatives we need to use them even if they don't replace the old ways 100%.

Lastly we need to get the green movements to the mainstream. We recycle everything. Most of our friends only recycle a little (newspapers for example). I want to build (b/c I cannot buy) an EV but my friends and family could never imagine doing that b/c it would require adjusting their lives. I know folks who will drive a big V-6 SUV b/c they don't like to hear a compact sedan's four cylinder spin hard up hills. C'mon - get your priorities in order!!! My mother just won't be without her big SUV b/c she says she has worked hard for it (she's retired) and therefore deserves it. Geez - how do you change that mind?

I don't like paying the high price of fuel but I do like the side effects - making people consider what they consume and helping alt-technologies along.

It truly amazes me to see Americans doing nothing. Everyone just sits in front of the "Lobotomy Box" TV and watches the Nightly News about Brittany or Paris and are all completly brainwashed. Everyone gripes and groans about paying $5 per gallon of gas but not a single person is standing up and doing something about it for REAL. A few people are buying hybrid cars, but if you look at the mileage of a hybrid Civic vs. a regular Civic you are maybe getting 5 miles per gallon more at most. Is that worth it? to spend $30,000 or more on a new car that gets ok mileage and cost how much in pollutants to make and then ship to the local dealer? when your old car got slightly worse mileage, still in perfect working order and you don't have to pay out more money for it? I don't get it. The American media spin doctors, dictated by our government are truly the one to blame for all of this mess. I'm not exactly sure what the solution may be besides real mass transit and a fully electric car powered by solar (still have the pollutants and chemicals of creating the car), though if we are all not standing up and fighting for a better, cleaner, healthier life, why are any of us still procriating as we are leaving a dying planet to our children and it will be too late for them to clean it up. YES! Road Warrior/Mad Max is beginning with just a few days ago in L.A. 4000 gallons of fuel was stollen from a gas station and the copper wiring was ripped out of a power plant. People need to harness that anger and desperation towards our government instead of hurting local business owners which inturn hurt innocent people.

@ Michael Beverly:
The selected boycott you advocate is bollocks.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

QUOTE
"This year's litany of complaints about gasoline prices is a re-run of the same program from years past: Gasoline prices in the USA are too high; gasoline is a unique commodity whose price isn't subject to the usual market forces of supply and demand; OPEC and greedy American oil companies secretly manipulate the market to keep prices artificially high; and a simple boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline will rectify all
this.

Oil companies can manipulate their prices somewhat by controlling how much gasoline they produce and where they sell it, but they can't alter the basics of supply and demand: prices go down when people buy less of a good, prices go up when people buy more of a good, and prices go way up when demand outstrips available supply. The "gas out" schemes that propose to alter the demand side of the equation by shunning one or two specific brands of gasoline for a while won't work, however, because they're based on the misconception that an oil company's only outlet for gasoline is its own branded service stations. That isn't the case: gasoline is a fungible commodity, so if one oil company's product isn't being bought up in one particular market or outlet, it will simply sell its output to (or through) other outlets:
Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline — and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."
A boycott of a couple of brands of gasoline won't result in lower overall prices. Prices at all the non-boycotted outlets would rise due to the temporarily limited supply and increased demand, making the original prices look cheap by comparison. The shunned outlets could then make a killing by offering gasoline at its "normal" (i.e., pre-boycott) price or by selling off their output to the non-boycotted companies, who will need the extra supply to meet demand. The only person who really gets hurt in this proposed scheme is the service station operator, who has almost no control over the price of gasoline.

The only practical way of reducing gasoline prices is through the straightforward means of buying less gasoline, not through a simple and painless scheme of just shifting where we buy it. The inconvenience of driving less is a hardship too many people apparently aren't willing to endure, however. "
END

I disagree with those who feel that high gas prices in America are bad. As gas becomes more unaffordable, people will demand more efficient (smaller) cars which will be better for the environment and we will be better able to sell them overseas. Because gas is already MUCH higher than here in most of the world, they're reluctant to buy an SUV from us. Detroit has already begun thinking about selling the Hummer line.
SUVs do not improve "survivability" according to the government and other disinterested researchers. They do have higher roll-over rates though. Since Detroit makes MUCH more on SUVs & larger cars than they do on compacts, they have been understandably unwilling to trumpet these results.
If you feel power plants producing electricity for cars would continue to produce unacceptable levels of pollution, you disagree with the research which states that per mile driven, power plants produce 1/4 of the pollution of cars. Besides, there is always the possibility of producing electricity from solar panels; zero pollution, near zero costs (they last about 40 years & then have to be replaced).
Finally, no matter how much we conserve or how we do it, there will continue to be greater shortages of EVERYTHING (clean air & drinkable water, power, food, etc.) until (not unless, since this is inevitable) people start reducing the population on the earth. More & more people, the same goods available, leads to wars (Darfur) and other traumatic means (lawsuits over water already going on around the country) to reduce the population load.

I love the idea of going green. I truly do. I try very hard to do what I can within my limits. My limits are constantly expanding due to gas prices. I cannot afford to live in the city and I cannot afford to commute (BTW, the good jobs are in the city and the city is about an hour away). So what option does that leave me? I get to work for $7 an hour and live with my parents. I can barely afford to drive the 15 miles to work and still pay the bills that I do have (I would ride my bike but there is no bike trail and it is not safe to ride on the old country roads I have to drive to get to work. There's not even a shoulder.). After working more than 100 hours in a 2 week period and not even clearing $600 a third of my income went to pay for gas. I would absolutely LOVE to purchase a hybrid but can't afford one due to my situation let alone afford to drive to the city for any repairs that need to be done.

I hate that this is so long, but I would like to point out one thing. Gas prices hurt everyone, but the people that get hit the hardest are the people who have no choice but to commute so that their families can survive. And to repeat a fact that everyone has been using lately, alot of people are having to decide whether to fill their car or put food on the table. So don't complain about people and their bigs SUVS that they bought 5 years ago when gas prices weren't bad, complain about the expense of hybrids that people in the middle income bracket can't afford. I think I'm done for now. Thanks for listening.

While what Michael Beverly said sounds very reasonable, it's unfortunate that John is correct (well, more like Snopes). However, it's the same fact on a larger scale, the entire energy market is NOT MANIPULATED by moving your buying habits to another company. Energy, in gasoline form, or electricity, does not vary in demand just because you buy it from somewhere else. Those new people simply start getting enough money to buy their power from another company (or gasoline) and so on.

The ONLY way to affect energy prices is to NOT BUY. Just like the super-computer in the movie "War Games" the only way to win is NOT TO PLAY AT ALL.

Now if you want solutions, base them off that fact, and ignore the rest of the equation like whatever the Saudis are doing, or how much in taxes you get charged on a gallon of gas. Create solutions as if you lived in a world WITHOUT gas.

As for "Love my Mustang" who cannot afford gas, or most of it goes toward simply getting to and from work, what about buying a small scooter? Those things get 70-100 mpg and they are pretty cheap. They only cost around $500-$1000 and you can get financing with your parents help, meaning you won't need all the money up front. There are even electric ones, although more costly and don't travel as fast so might not be road safe. After getting one of them you should be able to cut your gas usage considerably :)