Oil jumps above $100 on refinery outage

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I read that they project people are going to finally start saying "that's enough" and drive a whole lot less. I'll believe it when I see it. That's what we can hope for. That is what I think those who say "in my country it's 5000 qwerty a ha' litre or whatever measurements they use, so you should be happy" don't understand. This IS America and we do expect that our government listen to the people who are saying "this is enough when I must choose between feeding my family and gasoline" by boycotting, cutting down, and aggressive feedback.

I don't believe gas prices are on an unavoidable upswing. I do believe that if we get a president (et al) who is (are) not in the pockets of the oil companies we could effect some changes.

Shawnee, I wish that were possible, but I don't think that this as a political issue. There is an ever declining amount of oil in the ground, constraints on extraction, shipping and refining, and an increasing world-wide demand.

The only changes that can be instituted to reduce oil prices significantly are those that result in reduction in demand. These could include: greatly improved mass transit, greatly increased vehicle fuel efficiency, rationing, massive recession, and rapid conversion and implementation of alternative fuels.

Some of these options are possible, but not immediate. Conversion to alternative fuels might be possible one day, but this will still require drastic conservation measures - we cannot meet more than 25 to 30% of our current demand using cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel.

Rationing of conventional oil would spur implementation of most of the other options on that list.