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obama not interested in lower gas prices

I suppose no one remembers that gas was at 4.50+ before the financial collapse, and that the only reason it fell was due to a drop in demand from people trying to save money. The fact that it's going up again is actually a good sign for the economy, as much as it's an annoyance.

Chu is essentially correct: we shouldn't expect the price of gas to fall, and in fact it will likely continue to rise over the coming decades unless we find ways to move off of petroleum. Any attempts to drill more or release reserves will provide only very short-term gains. Enough to get everybody elected to another term, but not enough to solve any real problems. Fortunately, the more motivation everyone will have to move to other solutions.
 
Well he did say with his policies energy prices would skyrocket. Granted, he was talking mainly about electricity and coal, but you can't tell me that his policies would only affect JUST that.

So Obama not being concerned about higher gas prices doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Steven Chu even said, "Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." He's probably dancing every time gas prices go up.

And then they claim to be "for the poor working class" well how do you propose that when you keep making everything for them cost more? The "evil rich" aren't nearly as affected by increased prices, but the middle class and lower class feel it quite hard. Plan backfire? Or just lying through their teeth?

crashtestdummy said:
I suppose no one remembers that gas was at 4.50+ before the financial collapse, and that the only reason it fell was due to a drop in demand from people trying to save money. The fact that it's going up again is actually a good sign for the economy, as much as it's an annoyance.
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Yeah, and I expected it. The initial problem that was causing high prices to begin with was never solved. But I think the gas prices are going up faster than the economy is recovering.
 
Gas prices are not even set by supply and demand anymore.

Speculative investment is more of a controlling interest than actual availability. Prices do not go up that much that quickly based on actual events that fall way short of catastrophic. The whole thing is a game, and the last time that it was played people pushed for teh development of Hybrids that you could actually be seen in w/o loss of face.

If it happens again, for long enough, we will see more development in this. Maybe even electrics that do not cost $40K for something that looks only slightly sportier than a Prius.
 
I'm in the market for a new car soon, and I have many models to choose from that get 38+ mpg highway, and these aren't just tiny econo boxes either. Toyota is launching a prius variant that gets 50+ mpg for under 20K in March. Does anyone think that would be the case today if energy prices were still cheap? Our government should do what it can to ensure adequate and secure supplies of oil in this country, but the simple policy of "cheap oil" should not be our main goal.
 
there's just too much demand for oil, especially from the developing countries. Production can't keep up and we're starting to run out of the easy oil. This isn't going to change anytime soon unfortunately. It also doesn't help that China subsidizes gas so their demand is higher than it should be..
 
Mxylplyx said:
I'm in the market for a new car soon, and I have many models to choose from that get 38+ mpg highway, and these aren't just tiny econo boxes either. Toyota is launching a prius variant that gets 50+ mpg for under 20K in March. Does anyone think that would be the case today if energy prices were still cheap? Our government should do what it can to ensure adequate and secure supplies of oil in this country, but the simple policy of "cheap oil" should not be our main goal.
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Exactly. Particularly when you can pretty easily argue that any measures to try to ensure cheap gas would be temporary stop gaps at best. Artificially lowering gas prices in the near term would actually be worse, since it delay research into higher efficiency products and alternative fuels that we'll ultimately need sooner or later.
 
From a big picture perspective, Chu is correct in what he is saying. I suppose if we want our policy decisions to continue to be about whatever short term policies play well in an election, then he shouldn't have said it.
 
crashtestdummy said:
I suppose no one remembers that gas was at 4.50+ before the financial collapse, and that the only reason it fell was due to a drop in demand from people trying to save money. The fact that it's going up again is actually a good sign for the economy, as much as it's an annoyance.

Chu is essentially correct: we shouldn't expect the price of gas to fall, and in fact it will likely continue to rise over the coming decades unless we find ways to move off of petroleum. Any attempts to drill more or release reserves will provide only very short-term gains. Enough to get everybody elected to another term, but not enough to solve any real problems. Fortunately, the more motivation everyone will have to move to other solutions.
Click to expand...

You guys need only go back to 74 to find out what high fuel cost bring. I say bring it. I can't think of a people who deserve it more.
 
really? you really think he has that much pull over it? fact is, profits must go up and maintenance is occurring.
 
Rainsford said:
Exactly. Particularly when you can pretty easily argue that any measures to try to ensure cheap gas would be temporary stop gaps at best. Artificially lowering gas prices in the near term would actually be worse, since it delay research into higher efficiency products and alternative fuels that we'll ultimately need sooner or later.
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Allowing speculators to artificially increase gas prices is no good either. I'm not saying they are the only problem, but they sure haven't helped anything.

And locking out access to domestic oil is a dumb move too.
 
ohnoes said:
there's just too much demand for oil, especially from the developing countries. Production can't keep up and we're starting to run out of the easy oil. This isn't going to change anytime soon unfortunately. It also doesn't help that China subsidizes gas so their demand is higher than it should be..
Click to expand...

Baloney. This is what the speculators hope happens, but it won't.

What will really happen is demand for oil will fall so much that in ten years it won't fetch a price that justifies refining it.

We will always be awash in oil, just like there's more NG than we know how to use.

Wasn't too long ago we were going to run out of natural gas..
 
Newt Gingrich is promising $2.50/gallon gasoline if he is elected president, so it must be true that the president sets gasoline prices... he's even encouraging campaign donors to enumerate their contributions in "Newt Gallons".
 
production hasn't been able to keep up with consumption for the past few years. we still have 1.4 trillion in proven reserves left but that's not what's important. production gets less efficient as the fields get depleted so you can't pull out oil fast enough to meet daily demand.

Bottom line, its not about how much oil you have in the ground, its how fast you can pull it out.
 
Tom said:
...Wasn't too long ago we were going to run out of natural gas..
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Now the same people who told us that to justify high natural gas prices are claiming "100 Year Supplies" to justify destroying water tables with fracking.
 
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