When gas hits $10 / gallon, we're totally [censored]

[MrMon]

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Your avatar fits you well.

And by the way, you just claimed that "Our entire civilization and way of life are all predicated on cheap oil supplies" -- maybe, just maybe, this is the problem, not the solution.

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My avatar is a live cam from the Window in the Basin at Big Bend National Park... a most beautiful place to visit in Texas. Once gas hits $10 a gallon I won't be able to afford to drive there anymore.

Yes, having our entire way of life being dependent on cheap oil is a problem. There is no "solution" tho.. other than a return to very dark days when the oil runs out. The Dems/libs think magic solutions will result from all their "green" initiatives (wishful ignorant dreaming).. they are more concerned with the global warming BS than the real problems we're facing.

Horrific conditions just around the corner when the oil runs out.. there is no getting away from this problem.

L8r.. BB

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There's a big difference between gas costing $10 a gallon vs. there being no oil at any price. As long as oil (or some energy source) is available at some price, we'll adapt. Energy costs are such a small fraction of our total costs that as long as we're able to meet energy demand, the economy will naturally adjust to accomodate whatever price is required to fulfill those demands. There may be disruptions while we scrap our SUVs and all buy large motorized roller skates, but we will adjust. Just remember to buy stock in Large Motorized Roller Skate, Inc.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

Geez.....$10+ gasoline will NEVER happen unless politicians interfere with the free market.
i.e. Democrats and their Greenie-Weenie Allies

First there are other alternatives to gas and I'm not talking about that crappy ethanol. We have oil in Alaska which democrats have so far prevented us from tapping. We have oil shale in HUGE abundance. We have coal in HUGE abundance.

1. Oil Shale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale

2. Coal (Convert Coal to Gas)
This is a WW2 technology and companies like SASOL of South Africa produce synthetic gas today from coal. There is a company in South Dakota that converts coal to natural gas and they make TONS OF MONEY....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_synthesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol
http://www.sasol.com/sasol_internet/...1&rootid=1
http://www.dakotagas.com/
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/2007...ls-success.htm

3. Untapped Oil reserves that policians have successfully prevented from being utilized.


So why have we not use oil shale and coal to make gas?
Answer: Money.
The captital costs of building an oil conversion plant is HUGE. The only way it becomes feasible to build such a plant is when three things happen:
1. Oil gets VERY expensive.
2. People believe that oil will continue to be expensive so that if they build such a plant....the prices won't fall causes the investors to go bankrupt.
3. Politicians and their Greenie-Weenie allies won't use the courts to bankrupt investors with nuisance lawsuits...

For synthetic fuels it costs in the ball park of roughly $35-40 a barrel ASSUMING the govt and the greenie-weenies don't sabotage their efforts via lawsuits and court injunctions. This means oil must me at least $45 a barrel to even think about building a synthetic fuel plant.

Item#1 is satified as shown by Dakota Gas's success.
BTW when this plant was first built...prices fell and they lost TONS and TONS of money. But now that prices are high....these people are hauling Brinks-Trucks full of cash to the bank....
http://www.dakotagas.com/

Item#2 I think it is safe to say oil prices will remain high for a long time but perhaps investors disagree with me.

Item#3 Is the Hard Part
These plants are EXPENSIVE so it will take a lot of investors pooling their money. If prices fall or if environmentalist use nuisance lawsuits to stop the building of these plants....the investors will go bankrupt (or lose tons of money). Consider nuclear power. Nuclear power is now a hip form of electricity production because of its ZERO CO2 production. But back in the 1970s/1980s environmentlists launched hundreds of nuisance lawsuits to stop building these plants for months at a time. The result was a $2.5 billion dollar nuclear plant started costing $6.5 billion and investors lost a ton of money.... The result was people kept building coal-fired plants because they were cheaper and there was no worry from law suits...

The lesson here is will the greenie-weenies torpedo synthetic fuel plants like they did the nuclear plants in the 1970s/80s? My guess is yes....and evidently a lot of others think so as well. The Greenie-Weenie's killed nuclear power in the 1970s/80s. Will they kill synthetic fuel production? Maybe.....there are lots of liberal judges that will order work stoppages on alledged 'safety' problems without being presented any hard evidence. This is what killed nuclear power....

Personally I think people will get very motivated in favor of synthetic fuels once gas get too expensive and the greenie-weenies will face a huge backlash if they try to interfere.

[Wes Mantooth]

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...all buy large motorized roller skates,

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brilliant, lock it up! so buying these the day it comes out.

[morphball]

I think for sure the world is going to end because of peak oil.

Actually, considering the decaying state of infrastructure, the government must know that oil is about run out. Why fix a road there's no gas for.

It's too bad we killed all the whales, we could have made oil out of their blubber.

[clowntable]

A gallon is about 3.5 liters, right?
1 liter of gas costs around 1.3 Euro here so we're at 4.55 Euro/gallon.
Converted to $ that's 6.2$/gallon (at a rate of 1,3569)
I'll tell you if we live once the doomsday scenario becomes true.

That being said I can live an average day without actively using a single drop of gas or oil (pretty sure a lot of oil is used in the production of goods I purchase).

[Borodog]

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Do you have any ideas on how to deal with this problem?

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There are no solutions...

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?


If you're looking for some solutions I would recommend www.mises.org .

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When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

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When all the problems are caused by government, all you need is less of it.

I find your one liner doubly ironic, because the only tool government has in its toolbox is a hammer (a blunt instrument for delivering force).

[Borodog]

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[ QUOTE ]

Your avatar fits you well.

And by the way, you just claimed that "Our entire civilization and way of life are all predicated on cheap oil supplies" -- maybe, just maybe, this is the problem, not the solution.

[/ QUOTE ]

My avatar is a live cam from the Window in the Basin at Big Bend National Park... a most beautiful place to visit in Texas. Once gas hits $10 a gallon I won't be able to afford to drive there anymore.

Yes, having our entire way of life being dependent on cheap oil is a problem. There is no "solution" tho.. other than a return to very dark days when the oil runs out. The Dems/libs think magic solutions will result from all their "green" initiatives (wishful ignorant dreaming).. they are more concerned with the global warming BS than the real problems we're facing.

Horrific conditions just around the corner when the oil runs out.. there is no getting away from this problem.

L8r.. BB

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a big difference between gas costing $10 a gallon vs. there being no oil at any price. As long as oil (or some energy source) is available at some price, we'll adapt. Energy costs are such a small fraction of our total costs that as long as we're able to meet energy demand, the economy will naturally adjust to accomodate whatever price is required to fulfill those demands. There may be disruptions while we scrap our SUVs and all buy large motorized roller skates, but we will adjust. Just remember to buy stock in Large Motorized Roller Skate, Inc.

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Something must be wrong. I concur.

[Nielsio]

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Do you have any ideas on how to deal with this problem?

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There are no solutions...

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?


If you're looking for some solutions I would recommend www.mises.org .

[/ QUOTE ]

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[/ QUOTE ]

When all the problems are caused by government, all you need is less of it.

I find your one liner doubly ironic, because the only tool government in its toolbox has is a hammer (a blunt instrument for delivering force).

[/ QUOTE ]


Projection is [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Your avatar fits you well.

And by the way, you just claimed that "Our entire civilization and way of life are all predicated on cheap oil supplies" -- maybe, just maybe, this is the problem, not the solution.

[/ QUOTE ]

My avatar is a live cam from the Window in the Basin at Big Bend National Park... a most beautiful place to visit in Texas. Once gas hits $10 a gallon I won't be able to afford to drive there anymore.

Yes, having our entire way of life being dependent on cheap oil is a problem. There is no "solution" tho.. other than a return to very dark days when the oil runs out. The Dems/libs think magic solutions will result from all their "green" initiatives (wishful ignorant dreaming).. they are more concerned with the global warming BS than the real problems we're facing.

Horrific conditions just around the corner when the oil runs out.. there is no getting away from this problem.

L8r.. BB

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a big difference between gas costing $10 a gallon vs. there being no oil at any price. As long as oil (or some energy source) is available at some price, we'll adapt. Energy costs are such a small fraction of our total costs that as long as we're able to meet energy demand, the economy will naturally adjust to accomodate whatever price is required to fulfill those demands. There may be disruptions while we scrap our SUVs and all buy large motorized roller skates, but we will adjust. Just remember to buy stock in Large Motorized Roller Skate, Inc.

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Something must be wrong. I concur.

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A broken clock is right twice a day.

Also, when all you have is a hammer, you still occasionally stumble across a nail.

[MrMon]

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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Do you have any ideas on how to deal with this problem?

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There are no solutions...

[/ QUOTE ]


?


If you're looking for some solutions I would recommend www.mises.org .

[/ QUOTE ]

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[/ QUOTE ]

When all the problems are caused by government, all you need is less of it.

I find your one liner doubly ironic, because the only tool government has in its toolbox is a hammer (a blunt instrument for delivering force).

[/ QUOTE ]

Blind faith in markets is no more a solution than blind faith in government. I agree that markets in general should be trusted more, but markets also occasionally fail. They are not infalable. As someone once commented, in long the long run, the markets is always correct, but in the long run, we're also all dead.

FWIW, my original comment was directed to the fact that my confidence in 95% of the participants in this forum to truly comprehend the papers at mises.org are about what your confidence would be in their ability to truly comprehend the papers at physicstoday.org.