Grrrr gas is going up again

[snoseek]

and this I disagree with to an extent as well. I think people should go out more and celebrate with good food and drink. I would like to see the bad restaurants weeded out, but not due to lack of diners and people spending money. I'd like to see the bad restaurants go away because there are better restaurants out there producing healthier foods for their diners. The world needs to celebrate more and great restaurants and nightlife provide a great avenue for it.

It's cool with me we disagree on this. I would like to see people actually go back to cooking for themselves. Let's face it, most folks eating at restaurants are eating at low-end places several times per week. These are the people that are disattached from their food and they represent the majority. I would like to see a return of eating out as more of an event not a function. Even on the high-end there is more of this year after year. I have always jokingly said that if every cook/chef dropped dead tomorrow people would probably learn how to cook real fast and maybe even get healthy. AS we eat out more and more we get heftier and heftier-no coincidence. I feel strongly changing my customers habits-some previously ate out 5+ nights per week and never packed a lunch!!!!! Sad thing is I would kill for customers like this in the restaurant world.



Oh back to cheap oil. So I would go ahead and assume that somewhere in our lifetime (certainly your kids) oil will become very very scarce. Our rate of consumption with cheap prices will stay steady or likely increase as actual supplies dwindle, leaving us at the mercy of foreign countries. It doesn't matter if oil trades @50 or 200, it doesn't always represent what is really going on. I feel like the government putting an artificial bottom on this will allow us to keep some American money in America while kick starting the market action with both demand and money to look for a solution. How much is left to be harvested is a question but technology will need a good bit to catch up.

To the idea of domestic drilling I wonder how much it would cost beginning to end. Keep in mind OPEC countries will always control the vast majority and could easily lower prices just for the hell of it right? This only seems to make sense if oil is truly scarce...forever.

I don't get mad at OPEC for cutting production when prices are low. It seems in their best interest to sell a limited product as high as possible to stay in the game as long as possible. Those countries have the resources-we are pretty much owned for many more years

 

[deadheadskier]

There are a minority of fit and healthy people in this world who eat lunch at pricey restaurants, shunnig fast food after going to an expensive health club getting to and fro both places in their Hummer that could care less about $5 gas, while the obese guy gets their fill on 2 for $3 Quarter Pounders with Cheese between jobs because it's all they can afford after filing up their tank to get to work.

that's what I'm saying

 

[Glenn]

Increased gas prices were the straw that broke the camel's back regarding the current economic state. Yes, there were significant other factors, but high gasoline costs had a big ripple effect.

Like it or not, we're going to be using fosil fuels for the next 20-30 years. Some out there think we can jack up the price of gas and by 2012, we'll be driving cars powered by Mr. Fusion. No going to happen.

Just remember that high gas prices don't just effect people who drive large vehicles. It effects the owner of the trucks that haul your food to the market, it effects the cost of generating electricity to power your house and it effects the cost of those nice new ski boots you've been scoping out at the ski shop.

 

[Geoff]

It's cool with me we disagree on this. I would like to see people actually go back to cooking for themselves. Let's face it, most folks eating at restaurants are eating at low-end places several times per week. These are the people that are disattached from their food and they represent the majority. I would like to see a return of eating out as more of an event not a function. Even on the high-end there is more of this year after year. I have always jokingly said that if every cook/chef dropped dead tomorrow people would probably learn how to cook real fast and maybe even get healthy. AS we eat out more and more we get heftier and heftier-no coincidence. I feel strongly changing my customers habits-some previously ate out 5+ nights per week and never packed a lunch!!!!! Sad thing is I would kill for customers like this in the restaurant world.



Oh back to cheap oil. So I would go ahead and assume that somewhere in our lifetime (certainly your kids) oil will become very very scarce. Our rate of consumption with cheap prices will stay steady or likely increase as actual supplies dwindle, leaving us at the mercy of foreign countries. It doesn't matter if oil trades @50 or 200, it doesn't always represent what is really going on. I feel like the government putting an artificial bottom on this will allow us to keep some American money in America while kick starting the market action with both demand and money to look for a solution. How much is left to be harvested is a question but technology will need a good bit to catch up.

To the idea of domestic drilling I wonder how much it would cost beginning to end. Keep in mind OPEC countries will always control the vast majority and could easily lower prices just for the hell of it right? This only seems to make sense if oil is truly scarce...forever.

I don't get mad at OPEC for cutting production when prices are low. It seems in their best interest to sell a limited product as high as possible to stay in the game as long as possible. Those countries have the resources-we are pretty much owned for many more years

I did a huge diet a year ago. Part of that was changing my behavior so I prepare all my own food and pay attention to the calories and nutritional content of what goes in my mouth. I'm now preparing my own food out of economic necessity since I'm living off an unemployment check but what I eat is no different from when I was pulling down a Vice President salary last winter. The main thing that has change is I'm living in Vermont with no access to fresh fish.

On the oil thing...

We will burn oil until other energy sources are cheaper than oil. I expect that we will have a hydrogen economy 100 years from now. The energy to make the hydrogen will come from nuclear, hydro, tidal, wind, and geothermal sources. We'll probably be heating with electricity from those same sources and hydrogen in applications where it's cheaper to use that. It will replace gasoline and diesel to drive engines. We don't need a huge government program to create a magic technology. It already exists. What is needed is to change government policy that allows NIMBY people to block the construction of nuclear reactors, hydro, and tidal projects. The free market will construct pipelines to move the stuff around. The free market will install hydrogen tanks in gas stations.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I remember last spring when some of you guys were predicting gas to be $6 a gallon. Here we go again. Yup, it's going up abit but there is nothing there to support a big increase in the near term. BTW, OPEC only produces 40% of the oil we use so what they do is not such a big factor anymore.

 

[ctenidae]

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4943#more

Just reading the snippets tells you about all you need to know.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nothing will get accomplished with prices below 3 dollars. The quickest way to get off Foreign oil is really expensive prices followed by the market filling the newly created demand for cheaper energy. Look at how much it was talked about last year-it all seems like a distant memory now.

I say tax the hell out of it-never let it below a certain pre-determined number. Use increased revenue for future technology.

Again, easy to say when you don't have to drive to work or other things....

 

[andyzee]

Seeing oil prices tumbling today, should drive gas prices down by tomorrow

 

[hammer]

Seeing oil prices tumbling today, should drive gas prices down by tomorrow

I thought that only happened when the prices rose suddenly...