109 dollar oil!
 

Fasten your seat belts its going to be a bumpy ride !


There are old pilots and bold pilots but NO OLD BOLD PILOTS .

Are you saying we should reduce to maneuvering speed?


Someone please proof read me...

Goldman Sachs consultants expect the barrel to reach $200 in coming years. Records are set and broken daily - and I would not be surprised to see gasoline reaching a $5.25 average by the Memorial Day weekend.

Our government needs to step in and do something NOW. But through history we have almost always been re-active instead of pro-active with our economic situation.

What is the answer? I don't know. But if you do, or you even have ideas - do something about it. Write your congressman, petition a board of investors; do whatever it takes. National unity is the only way to overcome this recession.

First I'm not flaming you I'm just quoting you because I think you make a point that alot of people make. What is the government supposed to do? The last thing we want is the federal government regulating anything (remember the old airline days). We as Americans consume more gasoline than any country in the world and yet we have the arrogance to think we should pay less for it? Isn't that bizzaro economics? Up is down, left is right, demand more supply and pay less for it? Right now Europeans pay about 2.3X the rate we do just based on taxes alone. So if the solution is to take out all the taxes on gas you would probably see a significant decrease at the pump. Now the question is how do you pay for all those programs?

Hopefully since oil is getting this expensive the time will finally come that we find a replacement. In the past oil was so cheap we didn't need to look for an alternative, times are changing. Nothing would be greater than the day an alternative is found and the Oil companies start freaking out because their precious strong holds are no more.

Now that would be nice. Love your avatar by the way.

It also doesn't help we are depreciating the dollar in so many ways lately. Between poor lending and the fed "saving" banks by pumping money into the system, the value of the dollar just keeps going down, contributing to the present upward trend of oil.

Now we just need to start raising prices and seriously cutting capacity (yes, loosing aircraft). Like it or not, that's where we are going next.

Checko

We also do more, militarily, than europe to secure a steady supply of middle east oil. I do not shed a tear for europeans paying more than we do.

I was listening to a contrarian point of view yesterday and the individual suggested that because of a very expensive operation (just west of Iran) the US government actually benefits from expensive oil. The argument was that the tax rate on Gas and similar oil products is at round %30. So, higher prices yield higher gross revenue from taxes according to him.

At any rate the benefit of pay for departure changes significantly when variable costs change (oil). It will be interesting to see how airlines deal with the increased costs.

Well if the aircraft is loose then tighten it up.:)

Sorry but it was way too easy.

True. And no harm taken. But the point is worth saying over and over again.

People in this country are very, VERY apathetic when it comes to the economy, politics, or military as a whole in this nation. It is, and always has been, about the individual; "What can I gain from this situation?" Few have the interest of the entire nation in mind.

There are several things that the government can do to decrease the cost. Just like you said, basic economics, increased demand and steady supply will drive the cost up. What can you change there, increase supply? Well, yes but with very limited effectiveness right now. Decrease the demand, mainly through our military spending. We are fighting a war abroad that is destroying American lives and families. Also, increase the research for alternative fuels; we know that there are better things out there besides corn oil.

In the end, I am a firm believer that we need to take care of our own nation before we can even attempt to be the world police.

As an individual, you can start a recall to remove incumbent politicians. It has happened before and I'm sure that it will happen again.

Good analyst video... rough times ahead.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/play...nce&ch=1316259

We have pasted the halfway ponit on available oil in the world. If this is true there is no way oil prices will decrease. Americans in general need to have a reality check on what the cost of fuel is going to be in the very near future.
If you and I know this why is our industry so shy when it comes to increasing the cost of flying from point A to B?
The Cruise industry began increasing the cost of a cruise by about $50 per person and while on a recient cruise I didn't hear one person complain about it.
With regard to the goverment getting involved, I cringe at the thought. I still have a picture of the most poweful leader in the world asking the Arabs to increase production in the hope of lowering oil prices. Have we resorted to begiging by our leaders to acheive something that is inevitable.

Well I see lots of people complaining about $3.00/gal gas while they drink $4.00 lattes and $1.00 bottles of water (both of which equal approx. $25 and $8 per gallon respectively if you work it out) :rolleyes:

I figure if you want to pay $1.50/gallon of gas; find a friend to share yor commute to work. Want to spend $1.00/gallon; find 2 friends! Whatever happened to carpooling? (I know it's not practical for some, but I'm sure it could be for many others!?) Or, how about trying to plan out your errands to be more efficient (one big loop rather than back and forth!?) - People will drive 10 miles out of their way (spending $5.00 more for the extra gas) to save a buck on an item on sale. :confused:

I still see a lot more "we" can do as well!

On the aviation side of it, well I guess it's ticket prices and Int'l travel for the time being!? Or coconuts! How did Virgin's flight go, any results yet!?... :eek:

Until people reduce their consumption and realize they don't need cheap, easily replaced crap to keep them happy oil will remain high. I'm amazed at how much people complain about these prices, yet don't flinch at filling their SUV to drive from the suburb to the city every day while their neighbor does the exact same thing to drive to their job in the building next door.

Speculators driving the price of oil up won't help anybody in the long run, including the speculators. Sooner or later something is going to give, and the economy will be in such a horrible state that the price of oil will fall on it's butt as well.

In the mean time, we need to start finding a realistic replacement. Ethanol isn't the answer. One severe drought and you're not only affecting our food supply, you're affecting fuel supplies.

Sadly we Americans rely on cars to transport our fat arses down to the local strip mall 10 miles away to get our Starbucks fix. Luckily for many Europeans, public transportation, train networks, etc are vastly superior to what we have here, as well as city planning designs that are pedestrian friendly and dont require one to travel far for basic services.

Gas prices will rise regardless. It's time to start downsizing our cars and bad habits.

Europeans have these things because their cities were not designed to cope with vehicles. If you look at most older cities in the US (New York, Boston, Chicago) they often have very good mass transit systems.

Another huge problem with such systems in the amount of initial investment required. Many times cities have tried to get public support for mass transit systems only to be shot down because of the tax increase required.

Yes, oil companies pay 41% of their pretax profits back to the US government. Exxon alone paid well over 30 Billion dollars in those taxes in 2007. The government is not about to cap oil company profits.

I don't pay taxes in Europe, but I'll bet higher gasoline prices there are due in large part to higher Government taxes.

Exactly - Back in 1997-99, the dollar to pound was around $1:1.5 pounds(1.7 in '99). Gas was also around and approaching 4 pounds/gallon over there then (so well over $5 US then!) However, it has and probably always will be much more expensive as you said due to higher gov't tax. Remember though, you want Nationalized healthcare and such that has to come from somewhere! There's a reason why there's a 40% VAT (Value Added Tax) on everything over there! BTW - I was paying $1.69/gallon (no foreign VAT) for the same gas that was over $4.00 on the other side of the fence!

That is interesting how you tied oil prices in with nationalized health care. I fail to connect the two. It's about what the government spends its money on...a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 or health care for the entire USA for many years. Tough choice.

Good idea - lets bump the federal tax on auto fuel way up (auto fuel only, not aviation fuels of course). This will force people to look for ways to reduce consumption thereby reducing demand on oil which will result in cheaper jet fuel. More people will fly since it will be much cheaper than driving ensuring job security for all of us! And as a bonus we can use the extra tax revenue to pay for nationalized health care! There - all our problems are solved! :D

I recently purchased a hybrid vehicle and doubled my fuel mileage in an insant. Better than double in fact. I see a lot of things on television talking about how paralyzing the cost of renewable energy, hydrogen vehicles, electric vehicles, and all the rest can be. They use big numbers like 10 billion dollars, or 6 billion dollars for another thing. And then I read that this war in Iraq, (not arguing for or against here) is costing about 12,000,000,000 PER MONTH.

If we used one month in Iraq and bought as many hybrids as possible it would be around 545454 vehicles. For one year that's about 6.5 million. That's at the price we paid. Obviously not a practical answer but still food for thought.

Maybe it is time for another Apollo style initiative to kick oil, responsibly over time. Sort of a "New Deal" for the 21st century.

He was connecting the necessity for higher gasoline taxes, not the price of crude oil, to the ability to pay for government sponsered programs such as socialized medicine in Europe. JP

save the petroleum for the jets....

let the people walk and ride bikes to the NuKe Power generated electrical trains.

Good point. If you take a look at some "newer" cities/metropolitan areas that saw growth, especially after WWII, they all suffer form that problem. The vast suburban growth, as well as the "white flight" escalated the suburbs and made public transportation networks completely unworkable. Instead of residential areas being built around the transit system, you know have to try and build the transit system in the residential area. Not an easy task.

Besides the tax issue, you have the issue of people simply not wanting the tracks to run through their neighborhood. They don't want the noise, nor the element that sometimes comes along with mass transit systems.

I live in one of the areas described above. On the last election, it was finally passed to build a rail system that will link downtown with the suburban metro areas,as well as the airport which is way outside the city. It should only take around 20 years to complete.

I remember seeing Prince Harry from the UK there in the warzone. Wonder where our leaderships kids are?:rolleyes:

Every incentive we have to help save gas gets us kicked in the balls one way or another. Good example is diesel...............great mileage, but now it's 50 cents higher a gallon than gas. It's UNREFINED gas for crying out loud. Used to be a lot cheaper than gas, and you got a nice tax credit for buying diesel............now they screw you. :confused:

And now he's back if I'm not mistaken. His "secret" deployment got cut short after 10 weeks due to security/safety concerns.

Granted, he went.

I believe that two of McCain's sons are currently in Iraq

This is such a bogus argument. People don't fill their cars up with lattes to drive to work, nor do they fill up with water to drive to work either. They don't use a gallon of sunscreen at $85 either. They use GAS. Comparing gas to milk, water and lattes is just ridiculous. :rolleyes:

I wonder how many barrels of oil it will take to produce that many new hybrid cars.

I absolutely agree. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like any of our candidates (much less the president) have suggestions that are good for the long-term prosperity of our people.

And he's requested to go again, as has his brother William. Interesting how THEY feel like helping the effort but our country's leadership seems to be very "invisible" over there..........ok, I forgot that Romney's kids were helping him to try and get elected and he said that was how "they supported" the effort..............:confused: I know one of McCain's sons is a pilot for AMR, yet he despises pilots, and unions. :eek: (sorry for the thread drift).

I don't think it's difficult to see that the author is suggesting that Americans need to make a choice in the name of fiscal responsibility: buy a latte, or buy a gallon of gas? Since lattes are (more or less) luxury goods, and transportation is (more or less) a basic necessity, you can see where he's going with it. The argument in this context is certainly food for thought.

One could also argue that speculators are driving the price ever higher right now simply because there haven't really been many other viable investments lately. With the exception of today, the stock market has pretty much been tanking lately. I would expect the price of oil to back off, at least somewhat, once the economy gets back on track.

How about enacting strict laws that forbid idling vehicles. We have all seen all the hotel shuttle vans around airports that just sit there idling their engines, wasting fuel, and polluting the air. Funny how I step off the plane in Frankfurt, for example, and NOT ONE taxi is idling with his engine on! Not one!

Its time to change habits and stop wasting!

I know what he's pointing towards, but you don't get just ONE gallon of gas when you go to the station. I only buy one latte at a time unless I'm buying for the whole crew at which point it'd be cheaper to fill up with gas. ;)

How about 50 airplanes waiting in line to takeoff, or waiting to be deiced? It's a bit on the ridiculous side if you ask me. Heck, we takeoff to the south in ATL and are climbing through 10,000' before we get turned around to head north back to EWR. Figured in the 737 we'd already burned almost $1200 in fuel just to get going the right way. What a waste.:(

I dont think you can compare an aircraft waiting for takeoff, which is contantly moving toward the runway, to a shuttle van, car, or taxi, that is parked idling for 10, 20, or 30 minutes waiting to pick someone up. However, Branson has suggested using tugs to tow an aircraft to the departure end of the runway to save on fuel. Maybe he is on to something...

Yes there are definately things we can do to improve efficiency in the ATC enviroment, but lets start with easier, more effective solutions now.

BINGO !we have a winner !Hey shark ya got it .now if the rest of you guys read his post you may understand whats going on !Let me embellish a little bit here .The SPECULATORS ARE THE ONES RESONSIBLE FOR THIS !they sit back and laugh about what they are doing to the rest of us and to americas industrys in general --- today i saw a sign for 3.85 for diesel and it will continue and guess who pays? WE DO so the government needs to step in and nail these ppl by the nads > now before i get flamed i will say i am not one for government intervention but these scum are really pushing this country into somewhere we really do not want to go again.1929 ring a bell?

I think a lot of people are missing the real issue - the dollar is in a death spiral right now.

Supply & Demand don't tell the whole story. Politicians talk about reducing demand, and sure, that's valid. Others talk about OPEC and the US Oil industry capping production, and that's also valid.

But look at the price of commodities - anything from wheat to gold to oil has more than doubled in price (in dollars), but if you look at the value of the same things in Euro, they've been fairly stable.

The subprime mortgage ship has sunk, so stop trying to save it by lowering interest rates and in doing so destroying the rest of the economy. And the plan to give everyone $1000 (or whatever the current planned economy-boosting tax rebate is) is ludicrous. Wise people will use it to save or invest, but that same "subprime" faction of our society will probably go out and buy another plasma TV.

[quote=waflyboy;338617]I wonder how many barrels of oil it will take to produce that many new hybrid cars.

The same amount it would take to create the same number of conventional cars which are goingto be built anyway. This argument doesn't work because the cars are still going to be built. They are to replace conventional cars not supplement.