[quote=INAV8OR;

704.2/20.7=34 days worth of Oil. Now we don't want to tap all of it and the US doesn't want to change anything, so how about tapping 1/2. Thus, building up the supply and drive prices down. I know this thought is a pipe dream seeing that China has 1.3 billion people and
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 06/06/08 at 19:32 GMT (EST+5) is
304,269,221. So, how can we be using almost 3 times the amount of Petro.
Nonetheless, something needs to be done to prevent all of us from getting canned.[/quote]

It is a strategic reserve not a "break glass in case of expensive oil reserve" besides, you think oil is expensive now - what do you think those friendly OPEC boys would do to the price if we didn't have a reserve?
Thirdly it wouldn't do didly squat, and lastly maybe peoples behavior will actually change ie. stop driving their SUV's as everyday cars, and eventually US demand will drop and prices will stabilize. As far as airlines go - its too late, Darwinism is about to kick in.

Scoop

 

You know, I'm not really concerned about the price of gas at the pump. $4, $10, its the cost of doing business. I don't care. I would love a hybrid, as long as it was affordable and has power to tow my boat. I like my toyota tacoma pickup, going to hate to change it in. However, I don't want a hybrid because of the fuel price, its environmental. I'm concerned up how much it costs of filling the plane up. Thats what keeps me up at night. They need an alternative jet fuel ASAP.

 

Speculators makes sense.

It kind of reminds me of the current housing 'crisis'. It's not really a crisis for me as I didn't buy a house at an over inflated price. I wonder how many of those geniuses are currently buying vastly over inflated oil futures. At some point they are going to have to sell them, or buck up for the $140 and have those barrels dropped at their front door. As it looks now, with all the airlines parking planes and the market for large vehicles drying up, they just might not have the buyers. No buyers and the price drops. More positions out there, the harder it is to sell them, the price drops further, those geniuses have to cover their positions so start buying cheaper to cover themselves, etc. etc. and down it goes; much like it has in the past.

Everybody should take a little read of how the commodities market, and specifically the trade of oil and oil based products works; in particular those smart guy's buying futures, probably with someone else's money (again). Likely the same guy's sitting on over valued property, also paid for with someone else's money.

All this said, personally I see the whole thing as natural selection at work in human society, and since I work for an airline that still makes money I can only hope that the price stays up long enough to cull the herd a bit more. In the mean time people driving gas hungry cars can go ahead and halve their fuel cost by getting into a smaller, cheaper to by and cheaper to run car.

 

I need to become president of the world. That would fix everything. Trust me.

 

Dude,

I just bought a gallon of spring water: $ 0.99

 

Unfortunately futures traders make their money on the way up, then turn around and make it on the way down. They might be creeps for keeping all of us in the lurch but they are smart creeps, VERY smart creeps.

 

Ok I understand that most pilots are extreme financial experts and we sit in on strategic oil meetings with world leaders at least once a week. OR is it that we just let the media tell us what they heard and think and then tell us what WE should think. What ever it is I myself really haven't a clue what is going on and to be perfectly honest with you I highly doubt all of what I hear is what is ACTUALLY going on with fuel, reserves and the economy. Now this might sound stupid but I have a question about a barrel of fuel. It costs the US currently around 120-130 per barrel which results in around 4 bucks a gallon for us and I think it's a little cheaper per gallon for JP. So my point is that I have been to Europe and other parts of the world and for many many years they have been paying more than our current fuel prices for a gallon or equivalent of gasoline. And when you go to those countries they use those smart cars, everyone and their grandmother rides a scooter and many of their cars run on diesel. And when I'm there it seems that no one really complains all that much about "The Fuel Prices". And you never hear on the news about the dilemma in other parts of the world about rising gas prices. Now I could totally be way off but if they have been doing it for many years, why the heck can't we? And I was also wondering about aviation around the world. If they are paying and have been paying what we now pay for fuel for many years, what are they doing to keep the costs down so that we don't hear about all the turmoil in foreign airlines? Hopefully I did not offend anyone. Just a little something that I had bottling up.

 

hybrid and pure electric cars aren't cheap.

GM says the Chevy Volt will retail for around $50,000 and have a range of about 600 miles. They're pushing for a $10,000 tax credit from the feds, they think they need that much to sell enough units.

$50,000 is cheap?

All these alternative fuels are just that, alternatives. They're the alternatives cuz they cost more than cheap oil. Until oil is more expensive than the alternatives (permanently), consumers will not pay the premium for alternative (expensive) fuels.

 

No kidding, I'm not sure what he's referring to. Of course we have the technology to make cars that do what he (Aerospacepilot) says, but he doesn't ever mention the cost. The Telsa sports car will go what, 200 miles on a charge, but even then it costs over $100k. That's just "slightly" out of the realm of the majority of people buying cars. I can go get a late model 40 mpg Saturn for $3k on craiglist in my area, $97k (difference in cost) buys a LOT of gas, even at $7/gal. Over 550,000 miles worth of gas in fact. No to mention the opportunity cost of financing the $100k. For me and my driving habits that's about 180 years worth of gasoline. No way would I spend even $20k on a hybrid at this point. I'd rather go diesel and burn biodiesel. A small diesel in a small car will get 60-80 mpg highway. Then make synthetic diesel out of algae or coal and presto, problem solved with no major infrastructure changes.

 

The prices I have read on the VOLT said they were trying hard to get it under 30 grand. And the first generation of Tesla cars were engineered for the rich so they could get enough money to come out with a mass market car. Even with an electric or plug-in hybrid you don't need a major infrastructure change. The proponents of these types of cars are touting the energy independence of these cars - meaning the power can come from a little gas burning generator on the car, a solar panel, a nuclear plant somewhere, a windmill somewhere or a coal burning plant. If you believe the efficiency numbers they publish, it is much more efficient to burn gas in an on-board generator to generate electricity than burning gas in an internal combustion engine. I don't know if the technology is there yet or the price of gas is high enough yet - maybe someday.

Also this was posted earlier on alternate jet-fuel options:

http://www.vnunet.com/business-green...s-launch-algae

Lets hope they figure out a way to mass produce this stuff for cheap in the near future. The sun will burn for a long time.