I never heard any thing, so I guess it wasn't that much of an impact on the oil industry. I watched a show last night on Hybrid cars and ones that use Hydrogen, and wouldn't mind having one. With all of the dimming from the stereo, I am sure it would put huge amounts of stress on an electric car. (yes)
I guess the May 19th Boycott didn't work
- Thread starter MisterT
- Start date
mixmaster_matt
Member
i got the e-mail and still got gas yesterday, because i needed it. They are not gonna lower gas prices cause some shmucks thought they could be smart. People just need to accept it, and get on with their lives. It sucks but so do many other things in life. If you really can't stand handing over at least $2 a gallon in gas, which I know todays prices are more, then ride a bicycle.
MP5s Make Ready
Member
- :
- 2002 Red Protege 5
I saw the Scientific Frontier show last night about the hybrid cars...pretty interesting, as long as they put some effort into styling instead of making them look like jelly beans I'm all for clean fuel.
TXMazdaSpeeder
T is for Turbo
- :
- 2003 Black Mica MSP #566
some kind of performance would be nice alsoMP5s Make Ready said:
performance and economy don't follow each other very well. it's a tradeoff and you got to go with what you need most. Some days i really do wish i had a hybrid car.TXMazdaSpeeder said:
the rate I'm going, I spend about $1740 in gas a year. i can't imagine paying for premium with the mileage I put on my car.
Besides, the Prius looks like any other sedan. it's not like the Honda insight, which looks like an insect.
edit: yeah, i got gas yesterday because I had to, it's the way it is.
Although I was sure to buy twice my normal amount of gas because I knew it was a stupid idea.....so maybe I ruined it for everyone. Hehehe.eting_pro5
Member
- :
- '03 Pro5
CONGRATULATIONS IDIOTS! This one goes out to all of those fools who didn't buy gas. Yesterday (May 19) gas prices here were $2.03 for regular. Today: $2.11. Glad I took advantage of the relatively cheap $2.03 yesterday.....SUCKERS! OIL COMPANIES OWN YOU!
Milk is different. It also is an artificial price subsidized by the government. Actually, no one knows what the real price of milk would be if government didn't control it. It could be higher or could be lower. Anyway, this could all be solved if we just drilled the artic.bman said:
Suppose that a substantial number of people didn't buy for a day. They'd all be out and buying gas the day before and the day after. And you're not going to get a sustained boycott because that would mean people not driving, which isn't a good option for the enormous number of people who have to commute.
If there is such a shortage, then why is NASCAR still going? Today is ride your bike day here in Charleston, but **** that, it's too hot for one and it's also "Get your bike stolen from the ghetto guys next to the hospital that I work at" not to mention graduation day for the medical students. I'll drive thank you. 
SMART car?
I'd get one of these as my second car. Supposed to be coming to the US in 2006. Is said to be shorter than a Mini, and FOUR of them can fit in a standard parking space, parked two by two.
http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html
As long as I don't get whacked by a cell phone yacking wench in her SUV.
I'd get one of these as my second car. Supposed to be coming to the US in 2006. Is said to be shorter than a Mini, and FOUR of them can fit in a standard parking space, parked two by two.
http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html
As long as I don't get whacked by a cell phone yacking wench in her SUV.
(attn) The marketing tool was crap. Come on individuals. An email? And you all expected it to work? I just happened to run out of gas on the 18th so I didn't fill up on the 19th but for a boycott to work they need to do it MLK style. An email about it just isn't going to cut it. It should have been on the radio, posters and everything for it to appeal to anyone. Great idea but non-effective unfortunately.. (sad)
IT would only work if it was done for a week. Otherwise, forget it. It also hurts the mom and pop stores around the area who are hurting just as badly trying to compete without losing too much. I find myself not driving as much nowadays to cut down on cost. Pretty soon a gallon of gas will be like the cost of cigarettes. Good thing I don't smoke.
msubullyfan
Yeah, I'm an engineer...
- :
- 2005 Nissan Frontier 4x4
A one-day ban on gasoline isn't going to help send notice to the oil companies, who have a month or more supply of gasoline sitting in tankers and who measure revenues in annual terms. However, it does kill the small business owners who run gas stations and depend on daily revenues to feed their families.
Guys, I see a lot of bashing the oil companies going on. I think it's important to point out a few basics of how the oil production/refining industry works to make sure that the spike in gas prices can be understood (I'm an ex-Exxon engineer who worked in refining support -- now I work in the power industry)...
First, the cost of gasoline is mainly made up of five components...
1 - oil exploration/production
2 - refining
3 - energy conversion
4 - transportation
5 - taxes
Explanation of each...
1 - (called "upstream" in the business) This cost is from actually finding the crude oil, drilling for it, pumping it out of the ground, and getting it to the oil storage facilities. While US/British/Dutch companies like ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Chevron-Texaco, Shell, etc. do much exploration, drilling, and pumping themselves, the American economy relies on much more oil than these companies have production capacity worldwide. Hence, we rely on a great quantity of foreign oil preserves, much of which is controlled by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). OPEC has continued to control crude oil prices by restricting demand, so the cost for crude oil has doubled from $20 per barrel to over $40 per barrel in the last 18 months. This is where much of the cost increase has come from -- as oil companies have to pay much more for their raw materials (read: crude oil), that cost must be passed on to the consumer for the companies to make a profit.
2 - (called "downstream" in the business) Refining costs include the cost of building refineries, maintenance on them, and the cost of keeping the refineries running. This cost has held relatively flat in recent years, and has actually declined in many instances as oil companies reduce staffing and try to do more with less people to keep costs down. Also, as environmental restrictions in the US continue to become tougher, companies must produce different, more expensive, blends of gasoline (I'm sure some of you have heard of "reformulated" gasoline, as an example).
3 - Refining is a very energy-intensive, low-efficiency process. It takes much heat to break up the components in crude oil, and natural gas and electrical power are the main energy sources for refineries to run their processes. Natural gas demand has increased at twice the rate that new gas wells and production facilities have been built in the last 5 years due to an increasing reliance on natural gas to produce electrial power. This has been because natural gas burns efficiently and produces less environmental emissions than coal power and because nuclear plants can't be built because of the political hot potato of "not in my back yard". So, almost all new power plants built in the last ten years have been combined-cycle gas turbine plants (I can provide more info on how these work if anyone's interested). So, it's a double whammy: Natural gas costs more because more is being used, and power prices go up because gas is higher. Both of these are needed in large quantities to process crude oil into gasoline. So, the increasing energy conversion costs are passed along to consumers, too.
4 - It might be surprising that transportation costs have dramatically increased in the last few years. Due to two factors (1: the high relative cost of labor in the United States vs. other countries, and 2: the stringent environmental restrictions that refining companies face in the US due to the EPA), much of the world's refining capacity (even in US?European companies) has shifted from North America?Europe to Asia. This has caused a significant increase in transporation costs, although it is partially offset by the reduction in labor costs and the less stringent environmental regulations.
5 - Don't ignore the impact of taxes on gasoline. It's roughly 1/3 of the cost of gasoline (sometimes more in different parts of the country). This cost is completely out of the hands of the oil companies. As gasoline prices increase, I have yet to hear of any state lowering the taxes on gasoline to help the consumer offset the rising costs of the things listed above.
So, what can be done about it?
1 - We have to stop depending on foreign countries over which we have no control to supply the bulk of our oil supplies. We have a HUGE resource in Alaska (in ANWAR) that can help out a lot. President Bush has been a proponent of tapping into these resources until we can develop the technologies that reduce our dependency on crude oil. However, he can't get enough support in Congress to get approval to do it because of people that have no idea what they're talking about who are scared of "ruining the environment".
2 - Make sure that we support the EPA in providing more federal funds for our petroleum and power companies to help develop and implement emissions controls. All the cost of retrofitting refineries and power plants to better control emissions is directly passed onto the consumer. This can be done without increasing taxes IF many federal entitlement programs are cut.
3 - THIS IS IMPORTANT - make sure you use your vote to vote for politicians (whether Democrat or Republican) that stand for a sound energy policy of increasing domestic production, encouraging development of new technologies, and providing tax credits for companies to make power plants, refineries, and industrial facilities more energy efficient so they can afford to pay for them. Guys, I'm not trying to get politically biased, so please don't get onto me for this, but John Kerry has stated for the record that he favors increasing the taxes on gasoline up to twice what they are now (which could drive gasoline to $3/gallon) to force people to go to more fuel-efficient cars. This is not a political slant -- it's a fact. Other politicans (mostly Democrats, but some Republicans have, too) have stated the same idea. Anyone who is involved in the energy industry will tell you that this is a BAAAAD idea because it doesn't matter how efficient your car is, you're still going to get taxed for it at the pump.
I'll be glad to respond to any questions...
Guys, I see a lot of bashing the oil companies going on. I think it's important to point out a few basics of how the oil production/refining industry works to make sure that the spike in gas prices can be understood (I'm an ex-Exxon engineer who worked in refining support -- now I work in the power industry)...
First, the cost of gasoline is mainly made up of five components...
1 - oil exploration/production
2 - refining
3 - energy conversion
4 - transportation
5 - taxes
Explanation of each...
1 - (called "upstream" in the business) This cost is from actually finding the crude oil, drilling for it, pumping it out of the ground, and getting it to the oil storage facilities. While US/British/Dutch companies like ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Chevron-Texaco, Shell, etc. do much exploration, drilling, and pumping themselves, the American economy relies on much more oil than these companies have production capacity worldwide. Hence, we rely on a great quantity of foreign oil preserves, much of which is controlled by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). OPEC has continued to control crude oil prices by restricting demand, so the cost for crude oil has doubled from $20 per barrel to over $40 per barrel in the last 18 months. This is where much of the cost increase has come from -- as oil companies have to pay much more for their raw materials (read: crude oil), that cost must be passed on to the consumer for the companies to make a profit.
2 - (called "downstream" in the business) Refining costs include the cost of building refineries, maintenance on them, and the cost of keeping the refineries running. This cost has held relatively flat in recent years, and has actually declined in many instances as oil companies reduce staffing and try to do more with less people to keep costs down. Also, as environmental restrictions in the US continue to become tougher, companies must produce different, more expensive, blends of gasoline (I'm sure some of you have heard of "reformulated" gasoline, as an example).
3 - Refining is a very energy-intensive, low-efficiency process. It takes much heat to break up the components in crude oil, and natural gas and electrical power are the main energy sources for refineries to run their processes. Natural gas demand has increased at twice the rate that new gas wells and production facilities have been built in the last 5 years due to an increasing reliance on natural gas to produce electrial power. This has been because natural gas burns efficiently and produces less environmental emissions than coal power and because nuclear plants can't be built because of the political hot potato of "not in my back yard". So, almost all new power plants built in the last ten years have been combined-cycle gas turbine plants (I can provide more info on how these work if anyone's interested). So, it's a double whammy: Natural gas costs more because more is being used, and power prices go up because gas is higher. Both of these are needed in large quantities to process crude oil into gasoline. So, the increasing energy conversion costs are passed along to consumers, too.
4 - It might be surprising that transportation costs have dramatically increased in the last few years. Due to two factors (1: the high relative cost of labor in the United States vs. other countries, and 2: the stringent environmental restrictions that refining companies face in the US due to the EPA), much of the world's refining capacity (even in US?European companies) has shifted from North America?Europe to Asia. This has caused a significant increase in transporation costs, although it is partially offset by the reduction in labor costs and the less stringent environmental regulations.
5 - Don't ignore the impact of taxes on gasoline. It's roughly 1/3 of the cost of gasoline (sometimes more in different parts of the country). This cost is completely out of the hands of the oil companies. As gasoline prices increase, I have yet to hear of any state lowering the taxes on gasoline to help the consumer offset the rising costs of the things listed above.
So, what can be done about it?
1 - We have to stop depending on foreign countries over which we have no control to supply the bulk of our oil supplies. We have a HUGE resource in Alaska (in ANWAR) that can help out a lot. President Bush has been a proponent of tapping into these resources until we can develop the technologies that reduce our dependency on crude oil. However, he can't get enough support in Congress to get approval to do it because of people that have no idea what they're talking about who are scared of "ruining the environment".
2 - Make sure that we support the EPA in providing more federal funds for our petroleum and power companies to help develop and implement emissions controls. All the cost of retrofitting refineries and power plants to better control emissions is directly passed onto the consumer. This can be done without increasing taxes IF many federal entitlement programs are cut.
3 - THIS IS IMPORTANT - make sure you use your vote to vote for politicians (whether Democrat or Republican) that stand for a sound energy policy of increasing domestic production, encouraging development of new technologies, and providing tax credits for companies to make power plants, refineries, and industrial facilities more energy efficient so they can afford to pay for them. Guys, I'm not trying to get politically biased, so please don't get onto me for this, but John Kerry has stated for the record that he favors increasing the taxes on gasoline up to twice what they are now (which could drive gasoline to $3/gallon) to force people to go to more fuel-efficient cars. This is not a political slant -- it's a fact. Other politicans (mostly Democrats, but some Republicans have, too) have stated the same idea. Anyone who is involved in the energy industry will tell you that this is a BAAAAD idea because it doesn't matter how efficient your car is, you're still going to get taxed for it at the pump.
I'll be glad to respond to any questions...
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Well one thing is for sure: The prototypes and energy conservation issues is most likely being brought up a notch do to the issues with OPEC. I hope things progress and do so fast and take the rich Arabs out of commission for the most part. The have a lot of power since we consume so much oil whether it be for business or recreation. Until then, they have the power to change things around. Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase production to 500K barrels a day, but it won't affect prices until the fall. So until then, this summer expect to see them continuously increase. I am just surprised that it hasn't affected the SUV/Truck sales.
This is going to sound selfish, but wouldn't it be nice to get a tax break for owning a four cylinder, compact sedan. I know you do with a Prius and/or an Insight, but it would be nice for those who consume less gas to benefit from a break and increase people's desire to want to purchase more economical cars. I know there are those who need bigger SUVs and Trucks for work and family, but it would be nice.
This is going to sound selfish, but wouldn't it be nice to get a tax break for owning a four cylinder, compact sedan. I know you do with a Prius and/or an Insight, but it would be nice for those who consume less gas to benefit from a break and increase people's desire to want to purchase more economical cars. I know there are those who need bigger SUVs and Trucks for work and family, but it would be nice.
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