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gas at $20/gallon

thebornotaku

Monkey
May 19, 2008
359
0
Northern Bay Area
a bit naive... remember all the oil based infrastructure required to feed and suppy a city... not going to haul much cargo on a bike.

The NE has a whole other problem being dependent on heating oil... that sh!t is going to be expensive this winter..!!!
Maybe not that much cargo on one bike, but a whole fleet of them...

Or grow locally. Be happy.


Oh, and firewood. Use it.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
how do you propose to generate electricity to run water and sewage pumps etc?
Everyone will have a generator trainer and we will be required to ride to generate the electricity! It will solve the power and overweight problems!
 

thebornotaku

Monkey
May 19, 2008
359
0
Northern Bay Area
Everyone will have a generator trainer and we will be required to ride to generate the electricity! It will solve the power and overweight problems!
this =D



I see what you're getting at, though.

The problem isn't how to supply big cities, imho, it's the cities themselves. Of course, I've lived in... the middle of nowhere, surrounded by local farms for... my entire life. So.
 

FlyinPolack

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
371
0
It's no longer called "supply & demand". It's now "supply & Command" He Who supplies, commands the price. The demand will always be there for those in command...
 

BMXman

I wish I was Canadian
Sep 8, 2001
13,827
0
Victoria, BC
Energy efficiency will increase once the over the hill crowd fades out. Most older people have no concept of sustainability.
I will have to agree...whenever I talk to anyone older than me about it they have a seriously unrealistic view of the current situation at hand...D
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
What's really driving the cost of oil? the devaluation of the dollar and the poor credit rating of the US:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/2008/05/mounting-pressure-monday.html

Time to choose America. Are you going to sit still while our politicians from both parties scream about "speculators" and "Oil Barons" when in fact the real problem is your Congressional Representatives and Senators and The Federal Reserve, who have personally and through proxies allowed the costs occasioned by the fraud of the last 10 years to be shifted into your gas tank?

80% of Americans neither participated in or profited from this scam.

Why are you tolerating being saddled with The Bill?
 
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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,532
7,864
What's really driving the cost of oil? the devaluation of the dollar and the poor credit rating of the US
and are either of these trends/states likely to change in the near term?

$20 here we come... :cheers:
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
i am so with you. even if the commuter bus takes 20-30 min longer than driving straight through, not having to deal with the other idiots on the road or with parking if heading to downtown makes it totally worth it. well, not paying for gas makes it worth it, and the lowered stress is icing on the cake...

:D
Traffic stress is one of the most compelling, least known benefits to ride the bus in many cities. No how bad traffic is I just close my eyes, turn on the ipod and relax. The Rapid (a commuter bus) gets me home as fast as I could drive, and sometimes faster.
 

moose99ps

Chimp
Jun 11, 2008
69
0
bend, oregon
no, i wouldn't. instead i'd hope to be walking down a nice sidewalk (or riding down a dedicated bike path) in a small community with all amenities within a mile or two.
now think about what you said to start the thread... now if fuel is at 20bucks a gallon and you want "nice" sidewalk or a "dedicted bike path" how would it possibly maintained at that price for fuel? what your saying is absolutely foolish.... stupid hippies...
 

BMXman

I wish I was Canadian
Sep 8, 2001
13,827
0
Victoria, BC
You suckers up there in Victoria already get reamed in the butt for fuel. I know because i was up there visiting some friends in 2006.
So basically you would like to see us fat Americans pay out the nose for gas too;& be all artsy,laidback pot smokers without owning a pocket knife,sword,guns,ammo or any of that,EH !
Do us a favor & stay in Canada! Don't cast your philosophy of living to us Americans either.
I'm not down with the U.N's global hippy commune,commie,weapons free,robe wearing agenda! Toughen up dude!:lighten:

Go catch that serial killer dude!:lighten:
Canada pays more for gas because of higher gas taxes and per capita Canadians own more guns than Americans....read up instead of just making ignorant blanket statements...D
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,532
7,864
now think about what you said to start the thread... now if fuel is at 20bucks a gallon and you want "nice" sidewalk or a "dedicted[sic] bike path" how would it possibly maintained at that price for fuel? what your[sic] saying is absolutely foolish.... stupid hippies...
how would bike paths be maintained? perhaps we wouldn't clean off the sidewalk by dissolving bubble gum with gasoline...

what's your point, that bike path maintenance would be impossible if energy costs were higher? how do all the european countries manage? for that matter, if rising energy costs caused more bikers to take to the streets (with correspondingly less in cars) why couldn't a portion of the road maintenance excise tax be used to maintain pathways for the new road users?

oh, the words you're looking for are "dedicated" and "you're". you may recall your fourth grade teacher telling you that "your" and "you're" are different words. on second thought, you probably don't recall that. scratch that.
 

BMXman

I wish I was Canadian
Sep 8, 2001
13,827
0
Victoria, BC
You sure about that, Champ? http://www.guncontrol.ca/Content/Cda-US.htm A little old but there is no chance canada's ammount of fire arms has grown by this much in the period of time. Maybe you should read up before making ignorant statements..
lol...maybe you should find some stats that are a little more recent like 2006...right before I moved here I did some exhaustive crime searching...it's one of the reasons I moved here....but you keep trolling since you're so good at it....D
 

Defenestrated

Turbo Monkey
Mar 28, 2007
1,657
0
Earth
You suckers up there in Victoria already get reamed in the butt for fuel. I know because i was up there visiting some friends in 2006.
So basically you would like to see us fat Americans pay out the nose for gas too;& be all artsy,laidback pot smokers without owning a pocket knife,sword,guns,ammo or any of that,EH !
Do us a favor & stay in Canada! Don't cast your philosophy of living to us Americans either.
I'm not down with the U.N's global hippy commune,commie,weapons free,robe wearing agenda! Toughen up dude!:lighten:

Go catch that serial killer dude!:lighten:
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
A little old but an article by Kunstler in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302456.html

I've read some of his books most recently the novel World Made By Hand. He has some very Interesting points and more than a few things he says make sense.
Nice article.

Reminds me a bit of "The End of Nature" by Bill Mckibben. Scary thing is that he was saying the same things almost 20 years ago... and hell, to some extent, Thomas Jefferson was against urbanization and the industrial revolution for reasons which are only now beginning to really apply.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,532
7,864
good article. while I agree with his premises and general conclusion that lifestyle changes are needed and that no magic bullet exists, I'm not sold on anti-urbanization. last I read (via Cell mag and MIT Tech Review) big cities are more energy efficient per capita than any other arrangement. how much of this efficiency is predicated on cheap energy and transport I do not know.
 

.Pit Steelers.

Nostradumbass
Jun 18, 2006
1,429
0
Hawaii
lol...maybe you should find some stats that are a little more recent like 2006...right before I moved here I did some exhaustive crime searching...it's one of the reasons I moved here....but you keep trolling since you're so good at it....D

Maybe you should find some more recent stats becasue your so smart. When you moved there you did some crime searching. What a loser.. Im so good at trolling please..tell me more.
 

don

Turbo Monkey
Nov 8, 2001
1,319
0
Rumson, NJ
good article. while I agree with his premises and general conclusion that lifestyle changes are needed and that no magic bullet exists, I'm not sold on anti-urbanization. last I read (via Cell mag and MIT Tech Review) big cities are more energy efficient per capita than any other arrangement. how much of this efficiency is predicated on cheap energy and transport I do not know.
As much as I hate going to semi-local NYC, when I am up there I do enjoy that many people walk, bike or use the subway/bus. I think what Kunstler means moslty is the large use of multi-level buildings and no agriculture close-by. If you need to take an elevator a building is too tall in his mind which makes visual and functional sense too. And I think there was much more argiculture here in NJ and Long Island that could support that need back a few decades but that's been changed too.

I think his thoughts on rail use are very interesting. Air travel has become more fustrating in so many ways over the years and will be limited in the future (which I think is a good thing).
 

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,652
9,645
To get back on topic....hybrid drivers like speeding and tailgating.

I like brake checking them.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,532
7,864
an article on CNN money about Matt Simmons, a houston oil analyst and venture capitalist who not only agrees with me about $20/gal gas and lifestyle changes that must be made, but also supports Obama over McCain for energy policies. a good read.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

CNN.com/money said:
[...]

It was on this same porch five years ago that Simmons had the insight that convinced him that the oil age had passed its zenith. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in February 2003 with his friend Herbert Hunt (yes, the son of H.L. Hunt who, with his brother Bunker, almost cornered the silver market in 1980), Simmons had become suspicious of the Saudis' claims about the vastness of their oil supply. In his four decades of working in the oil and gas industry, everyone he had ever talked to had taken it as gospel that the Saudis had enough oil to bail the world out when other supplies ran short. If that wasn't true, Simmons believed, the era of cheap oil was over. Demand for crude was on the rise worldwide, and supplies were getting tighter all the time. If the Saudis were pushing up against the limits of their oil production, the world needed to know.

In his typically analytical fashion, Simmons went hunting for data. He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. "I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon," says Simmons, "and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I've just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We're in big trouble. I'm going to write a book."

And so he did. But writing the book didn't exhaust his passion. Today he is more convinced than ever that we've reached peak oil. If he's right, current world oil production- 86 million barrels a day- is about as high as we're going to go.

[...]

"John McCain is energy illiterate," Simmons is saying. "He's just witless about this stuff. As a lifelong Republican, I'm supporting Obama." A dozen oil and gas men sitting around a conference table in Lafayette, La., chuckle nervously as he continues. "McCain says, 'Oh, we're going to wean ourselves off foreign oil in four years and build 45 nuclear plants by 2030.' He doesn't have a clue."

[...]

McCain's midsummer move to begin campaigning on a platform of more offshore drilling has only hardened Simmons's position. "What a hypocrite," says Simmons, who supported McCain's rival Mitt Romney in the primary - no surprise given Simmons's history with the Romney family. "Here's a man who for at least the past 15 years has strenuously, I mean strenuously, opposed offshore drilling. And now it's 'drill, drill, drill.' And he doesn't have any idea that we don't have any drilling rigs. Or that we don't have any idea of exactly where to drill." (As for McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, Simmons says: "She's a very colorful person, but I don't think there's a scrap of evidence that she knows anything about energy.")

For the record, Simmons has been advocating more drilling off the coast of the United States since the early 1990s, but now he says that treating it as our salvation is misguided. "I'm not saying we shouldn't do it," says Simmons. "We should, and the sooner the better. But we shouldn't think that it'll have any impact for a decade or two." The exception, he says, is the reservoir in the hotly debated Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. "ANWR," he says, "is the only place that we could drill right now and it might actually make a difference in a year or two."

As for some other currently voguish sources of fuel coming to the rescue, he's dismissive. Oil shale? "Buck Rogers stuff. It just can't work." Ethanol? "It's a joke. The numbers just don't add up."

Simmons believes that a radical change in the way we live is inevitable. "We should basically be going back to creating a village economy, so that we really reduce the energy intensity of how we live," he says. "We need bigtime conservation, not feel-good conservation. Make things where they're used. You'll end long-distance commuting, and we have the tools to do that now with webcams. Grow food locally. Grow food in your backyard. If they're not commuting, people will have time to do that."
 

?????

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2005
1,678
2
San Francisco
"Simmons believes that a radical change in the way we live is inevitable. "We should basically be going back to creating a village economy, so that we really reduce the energy intensity of how we live," he says. "We need bigtime conservation, not feel-good conservation. Make things where they're used. You'll end long-distance commuting, and we have the tools to do that now with webcams. Grow food locally. Grow food in your backyard. If they're not commuting, people will have time to do that."

Never.
Not gonna happen.
Ever.


"For the record, Simmons has been advocating more drilling off the coast of the United States since the early 1990s, but now he says that treating it as our salvation is misguided. "I'm not saying we shouldn't do it," says Simmons. "We should, and the sooner the better. But we shouldn't think that it'll have any impact for a decade or two." The exception, he says, is the reservoir in the hotly debated Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. "ANWR," he says, "is the only place that we could drill right now and it might actually make a difference in a year or two."

Perhaps McCain, along with everyone else, sees it as a temporary fix just like he does?
 
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ludovic

Chimp
Aug 5, 2008
64
0
Make gas prices rocket, and we will be forced to use alternate sources.
Since we already have the alternate sources of energy, it's going to bring huge headaches at first - big inconvenience for all of us with gas or diesel cars/trucks.

There will be many many other problems with prices rocketing... but something has got to give, and we must do the right thing: stop what ever we are doing.

Do I want to see 20 bucks a gallon? Frankly, no.
Do we all like quick changes? no.
Again, something has got to give. It's not going to be pleasant.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,532
7,864
"Simmons believes that a radical change in the way we live is inevitable. "We should basically be going back to creating a village economy, so that we really reduce the energy intensity of how we live," he says. "We need bigtime conservation, not feel-good conservation. Make things where they're used. You'll end long-distance commuting, and we have the tools to do that now with webcams. Grow food locally. Grow food in your backyard. If they're not commuting, people will have time to do that."

Never.
Not gonna happen.
Ever.
i think it's inevitable, too. oil is a finite resource, after all. the only question is whether it'll happen within my lifetime or not.

"For the record, Simmons has been advocating more drilling off the coast of the United States since the early 1990s, but now he says that treating it as our salvation is misguided. "I'm not saying we shouldn't do it," says Simmons. "We should, and the sooner the better. But we shouldn't think that it'll have any impact for a decade or two." The exception, he says, is the reservoir in the hotly debated Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. "ANWR," he says, "is the only place that we could drill right now and it might actually make a difference in a year or two."

Perhaps McCain, along with everyone else, sees it as a temporary fix just like he does?
please show me evidence where mccain has acknowledged that drilling offshore would do just about nothing for current prices. during the whole RNC it sure seemed like he and the party were implying otherwise.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
Make gas prices rocket, and we will be forced to use alternate sources.
Since we already have the alternate sources of energy, it's going to bring huge headaches at first - big inconvenience for all of us with gas or diesel cars/trucks.
Huge headaches = destroyed economy