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Posted by SALfan on Monday, March 21, 2005 10:41 AM
Have someone let us know when you are in your Smart car and get broadsided or rear-ended by some airhead soccer mom in her 3-ton SUV who is too busy yapping on her cell phone to drive. We'll be sure to send a nice flower arrangement to your funeral.
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Posted by vsmith on Monday, March 21, 2005 2:07 PM
Your comment could refer to ANY small car or compact truck on the market today.

As part of the certification process, they cra***ested several Smarts including one head on into a large mercedes sedan, it did very well, better than many other small cars. Of course one thing your all forgetting, little cars are far far more manuverable than big cowmobiles, most accidents can be avoided by an alert driver, and not getting too close to to the porkmobiles helps, and your right, phone yapping soccermoms in Cadillac Escalations do scare me, and I'm in a big pickup truck!

Personally I dont see much real difference betwen Smart, Scion, Toyota, Nissan, or Hyundai when it comes to small car vs big car accidents, the question is, how long will people hold out when it cost $100 a week to fill the tank of the Porkmobile. You can claim to high heaven that no one will take your SUV away, but how many people will be able to back that up at the pump? Its one thing when your rich, its another when Jr doesnt have luchmoney because daddy HAS to drive his gigantormobile.[;)]

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, March 21, 2005 3:06 PM
....What ever reason we state for increasing gas prices....Just watch when a bbl. of crude rises in price and in about 12 hours we can expect a raise at the pump. Greed has to be included in some of the reasoning of price changes.

Quentin

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Posted by SALfan on Monday, March 21, 2005 3:57 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

Your comment could refer to ANY small car or compact truck on the market today.

As part of the certification process, they cra***ested several Smarts including one head on into a large mercedes sedan, it did very well, better than many other small cars. Of course one thing your all forgetting, little cars are far far more manuverable than big cowmobiles, most accidents can be avoided by an alert driver, and not getting too close to to the porkmobiles helps, and your right, phone yapping soccermoms in Cadillac Escalations do scare me, and I'm in a big pickup truck!

Personally I dont see much real difference betwen Smart, Scion, Toyota, Nissan, or Hyundai when it comes to small car vs big car accidents, the question is, how long will people hold out when it cost $100 a week to fill the tank of the Porkmobile. You can claim to high heaven that no one will take your SUV away, but how many people will be able to back that up at the pump? Its one thing when your rich, its another when Jr doesnt have luchmoney because daddy HAS to drive his gigantormobile.[;)]


You are certainly correct, and I don't disagree with you. Phone-yapping soccer moms scare the daylights out of ME, even in my two-ton land yacht. I will never understand how someone could miss seeing, or try to scare out of the way, my Mercury that seems 20 feet long. It happens, though. Anyway, my point was that the sheer physics of being hit by a monster makes me pause any time I get the urge to drive a small car.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 21, 2005 7:06 PM
Gas just went up here in Blair,Ne. today. $2.15 for Regular Eothnol. & $2.20 for just Regular unleaded Gas. Diesel is now $2.29.
BNSFrailfan.
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Posted by adrianspeeder on Monday, March 21, 2005 8:02 PM
Biodiesel is going to be a big player in the future, as all the tech is here today to use it. Just needs to be distributed.

Where do you think the electricity is going to come from to run the electric trains? Electrification just moves where the fuel is burned.

I said it before and I'll say it again, I hope posers in large suvs and trucks ditch them for smaller cars. Free up space for me, and have to worry less about my safety.

Yesterday when I was proudly dropping $56.00 in my truck, a young woman in a blazer was complaining about $2.21. I just laughed thinkin "If you wanna play, you gotta pay."

Adrian"4x4V8balls-to-the-wall"speeder

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, March 21, 2005 8:53 PM
Adrian, everyone can have their idea of how to treat this world oil price now....and my opinion is I am not too happy about it and so I suppose I'll continue to complain about it because it is my belief we are getting ripped off to a certain degree...And I don't know what the answer is to combat the problem...don't have all those answers. I do know my rather nice over the road car does get decent milage...{a 3.0L V6}, and my little SS S-10 doesn't break me up to drive as my daily driver...and have some fun with it too but hope something soon breaks on the horizon here or someplace to combat this problem.

Quentin

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Posted by vsmith on Monday, March 21, 2005 11:39 PM
Adrian, was she whining about it while filling a Hummer H2 fashion accessory like the lady I ran into out here last summer???

My neice-in-law now wants a Ford Excursion, just so she can "look cool" with her friends...I suggested a Scion Xb or a Honda Element, she thought I was joking...I said wait till she has to fill it!

BTW $2.45 regular at the second most expensive gas station in downtown LA (there are only a couple on the way home to chose from)

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Posted by spbed on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 6:44 AM
Oil closed yesterday @ a new hi over $56.50 a barrel. The best 2 words this counrty can ever hear is self sufficent[:D]


Originally posted by vsmith

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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 7:27 AM
....That's about the most unusual reason to drive an Excursion I've heard...She better hurry they are going out of production....Wonder why.

Quentin

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 7:50 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by spbed

Oil closed yesterday @ a new hi over $56.50 a barrel. The best 2 words this counrty can ever hear is self sufficent[:D]


Unless you mean a different form of energy, "self sufficient" is a myth. Oil is an international commodity and many of the big oil companies are foreign owned. In the U.S. and many other parts of the world. once the lease is issued and the royalties paid, any oil that comes out of the ground belongs to the oil companies. They ship it by the shortest route to wherever it's needed and since Supertankers don't fit through the canals, that means some North Slope oil currently goes to Japan. The OPEC countries do set quota's, the spot-market prices from the commodity market speculators jumps when they tighten, and the corner gas station price jumps the very next morning, but most of the oil sold to the large oil companies is covered under longer-term contracts. They earn record profits and are happy to see OPEC and the spot-market prices take most of the blame.

Why did we allow IRAQ to become an OPEC member? Would such a cartel be legal in the U.S. Is it even ethical under a system of free-market Capitalism? And why are we taxpayers paying to put oil into the Strategic Reserve at record prices when it's 98% full? The answer IMO is the current administration was bought and paid for by oil.

What we need is a competitive form of energy. Many parts of the world have already figured out that nuclear is the answer, but the current administration seems hell-bent on preventing countries from building new plants on the pretext they might make weapoms, never mind that there's plenty of weapons grade stuff floating around the former USSR, virtually un-secured.

We could be using natural gas for transportation, but instead we're burning it up heating homes and making electricity. Use nuclear & coal to make electricity and provide stationary energy needs like heating using that. But my guess is that one of the current administrations "secret" campaign promises to financial backers for a second term was $80/barrel oil.
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Posted by adrianspeeder on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 7:54 AM
Here we go on the excursion again... It's been goin out of production for the last three years. (rolls eyes). With the diesel engine, it is a worthy efficient tow rig for larger families, and most are used for that. Ford compleatly misadvertized and dropped the ball on the Ex. State it as a heavy haul people mover and let it be.
I always wondered why when anybody quotes its fuel milage, they use the gas V10s specs, when 80% or so come with the diesel. Ooooohh it makes it look worse, I see. Ford is the only player right now with a full size diesel heavy haul suv. Eventually the Chebby burbon will be available with the Duramax, but for now Ford is the only player, and I don't think they will give that up... oh wait, they dropped the Lightning too, so maybe they will.

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Posted by spbed on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 7:57 AM
Where I live diesel is higher then 87 octane. What then is the benefit of a diesel engine? [:D][;)]


QUOTE: Originally posted by adrianspeeder

Here we go on the excursion again... It's been goin out of production for the last three years. (rolls eyes). With the diesel engine, it is a worthy efficient tow rig for larger families, and most are used for that. Ford compleatly misadvertized and dropped the ball on the Ex. State it as a heavy haul people mover and let it be.
I always wondered why when anybody quotes its fuel milage, they use the gas V10s specs, when 80% or so come with the diesel. Ooooohh it makes it look worse, I see. Ford is the only player right now with a full size diesel heavy haul suv. Eventually the Chebby burbon will be available with the Duramax, but for now Ford is the only player, and I don't think they will give that up... oh wait, they dropped the Lightning too, so maybe they will.

Adrianspeeder

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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:03 AM
...Wow....that's a bunch of interesting stuff...Believe they've been shipping oil from the north slope to Japan for years...At least I've read about that some time ago. And what would happen to any oil that would be brought out of Anwar area....Would it even come to us in this country....?? This world oil supply is a giant puzzle and I doubt if many really know the real truth of it's real operations.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:08 AM
...Better take a good look at it Adrian....it's on the way out...This model year.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:12 AM
...Diesel is priced higher here in the mid west than several levels of gasoline.

Quentin

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Posted by spbed on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:16 AM
Sorry as by law I think Alaskan oil will only go to the lower 48! The way I look at it it is like turning water on & off. The more people conserve the more oil producers just lower the output to compensate. The more used & the producers do not increase the price the higher the price will go. We either have to become self sufficent or make the oil producers believe that we ARE going to be self sufficent & you see how fast the price will plunge. if you did not see Indoenesians rioted yesterday over the price of their gas.[:(][:(]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

...Wow....that's a bunch of interesting stuff...Believe they've been shipping oil from the north slope to Japan for years...At least I've read about that some time ago. And what would happen to any oil that would be brought out of Anwar area....Would it even come to us in this country....?? This world oil supply is a giant puzzle and I doubt if many really know the real truth of it's real operations.

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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:31 AM
...We started to work on alternative fuels and oil from shale rock, solar, and many others back in the early eighties but then it was just forgotten and developement on most of that stopped....Wonder where we might be now if developement could have continued. One part of it does seem to have continued and that is generating power from wind power....Several clusters of them have sprung up in southwestern Pennsylvania {Somerset County}, and I believe more are in the works. They are contributing to the power grid, for sure....and I hope we see a bunch more of them. What they produce we're not burning oil to do it.....

Quentin

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:41 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by spbed

Sorry as by law I think Alaskan oil will only go to the lower 48! The way I look at it it is like turning water on & off. The more people conserve the more oil producers just lower the output to compensate. The more used & the producers do not increase the price the higher the price will go. We either have to become self sufficent or make the oil producers believe that we ARE going to be self sufficent & you see how fast the price will plunge. if you did not see Indoenesians rioted yesterday over the price of their gas.[:(][:(]


If Congress wrote such a provision into the ANWR bill, it will likely be overturned by the courts as a restraint of trade. If that fails the oil companies could take the matter to the WTO. And even if that oil stops going to Japan, the oil from Souuth America that goes to Southern California will instead go to Japan. It's a world market and a great deal of the increased demand is coming from China and India.

Trying to conserve or produce our way out of this won't work for the reasons you've given. What will is competition. Oil company representatives like to say we can't grow enough grain or produce enough alternative energy to replace oil, but it doesn't have to be an either/or answer. Natural gas likely couldn't supply all our transportation needs either, but if 1/4 of the cars and trucks could burn something other than oil. Ford currently produces something few people know about called the Flexible Fuel Vehicle. In my area the power company is runinng it's trucks on Bio-diesel, while tha gas company is running theirs on NG. Imagine if consumers had the same choice on a weekly basis.
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Posted by spbed on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 10:15 AM
I actually think this issue is as important as the man on the moon project was or the Manhatten project so I think we have to have a concerted national effort to become self sufficent . My opinion is our leaders may have their hands in the oil compnaies cookie jar which is the reason they do not take action to solve the problem [:(]

Originally posted by Modelcar

...

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Posted by jchnhtfd on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 10:19 AM
If one has been following the news, it is interesting to note that the German government (which is notably green) has come to the conclusion that maybe nuclear isn't quite so bad after all, and is beginning to look at it again as a base load power source... it's all about balance, and there is no one energy source which is all 'bad', or all 'good' -- even if one is successful in defining 'good' and 'bad'.
Jamie
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Posted by WSOR 3801 on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:04 AM
Consider this: There are about 20 million illegal Mexicans in the US. Mexico is swimming in oil. Make a trade -- 1 barrel of oil per illegal per month. [:0] 20 million barrels a month might help with the situation.

As for power plants, why not burn garbage? We have plenty going into landfills. Garbage seems to be the only thing the US has an excess of. Then electrify the mainlines, save on terminal costs, fuel, etc. Run the local type services on biodiesel, after the biodiesel clogs the filters, etc. from cleaning the sludge out the bottom of the tanks (locomotive and in-ground storage). It'll smell like french fries when the local goes by[:p].

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Posted by TurboOne on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:24 AM
87 is $2.40 here in San Diego, Premium is $2.65.

Welcome to gas prices SoCal style. We have been the highest for as long as I can remember.

Also house utilities are a rip off. We have cut consumption every year, yet our bill goes up.

I am now gonna try a new approach to gas. Make more money. Buy the biggest safest car out there. If I am making double my income, then I win as long as gas doesn't double. Same with utilities, use up as much as I can.

Green is the dumbest idea around. Everytime we try and be green, they jack up the prices. Lets go back to using in excess, and by consuming so much, we can get the prices back down.

As for those who like green, why do most of you shop at Walmart? If China ever stopped producing so much "cheap" products, they couldn't afford all the gas they are taking, and we would get our supply back.

Also no one is talking about the refinereries. That is the bottleneck, not OPEC. We haven't had a new refinery in years, yet we clamour for more production. Heck here in CA we need "special" refineries for our treated gas. Go back to good old nasty gas like everyone else uses, and get back to lower prices.

Tim
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Posted by wcfan4ever on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 12:23 PM
Gas prices have gone down here in eastern WI the last few days! They went up to $2.21 late last week and now are down to $2.17. Diesel here is between $2.32 and $2.36/gal

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 1:43 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by TurboOne

87 is $2.40 here in San Diego, Premium is $2.65.

Welcome to gas prices SoCal style. We have been the highest for as long as I can remember.

Also house utilities are a rip off. We have cut consumption every year, yet our bill goes up.

I am now gonna try a new approach to gas. Make more money. Buy the biggest safest car out there. If I am making double my income, then I win as long as gas doesn't double. Same with utilities, use up as much as I can.

Green is the dumbest idea around. Everytime we try and be green, they jack up the prices. Lets go back to using in excess, and by consuming so much, we can get the prices back down.

As for those who like green, why do most of you shop at Walmart? If China ever stopped producing so much "cheap" products, they couldn't afford all the gas they are taking, and we would get our supply back.

Also no one is talking about the refinereries. That is the bottleneck, not OPEC. We haven't had a new refinery in years, yet we clamour for more production. Heck here in CA we need "special" refineries for our treated gas. Go back to good old nasty gas like everyone else uses, and get back to lower prices.

Tim


Which planet you live on? Because it obviously is not planet Earth.
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Posted by spbed on Thursday, March 24, 2005 7:01 AM
Yesterday there was a report that our production would be increasing due to new wells in our north lands. Oil reacted to that by immediately dropping $2.00 per barrel. Lools like the key to cheaper prices is becoming self sufficent.

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Posted by TH&B on Thursday, March 24, 2005 9:51 AM
Somebody said "burn garbage". There has got to be something in that, I have heard vaguely that it can be done clean, if so talk about being self sufficient !!

I don't know much about this exept that there seems to be alot of oppasition to it ..... so it must be a good idea.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 24, 2005 10:04 AM
How will the refinery explosion in Texas City yesterday affect all of this?

m
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Posted by spbed on Thursday, March 24, 2005 10:10 AM
I know it use to be done at the apartment house I lived at not for fuel but just to dispose of it. I think along came the people concerned with the econ & the burning was terminated. [:o)][:o)]

Originally posted by 440cuin
[

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Posted by spbed on Thursday, March 24, 2005 10:12 AM
Your question is presuming that yesterdays explosion will reduce refining capacity making gas more scarce? [:o)]

Originally posted by mehrlich
[

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