Gas Prices

[VABills]

I fill the tank about twice every three months. I'm spending maybe about $40 extra a year. Which, in 2003 terms, is probably only about $20, what with how the dollar's fallen since then. And then I'm only spending about $15 of that on gas, the rest I spend on ethanol.

 

Really, food prices are probably hurting most people more - since we're now putting corn in our gas tanks, the cost of everything that contains or requires corn (i.e. everything) has shot up. We spend maybe $1000/year more on food now than we did three years ago.

Exactly. Good point. I went grocery shopping two weeks ago, and was shocked when I went to pick up a new jar of mayo. The damn thing for a medium sized jar was 6 bucks. 6 bucks for !@#$ing a couple eggs and some veggie oil mixed together.

[Dr. Fong]

Exactly. Good point. I went grocery shopping two weeks ago, and was shocked when I went to pick up a new jar of mayo. The damn thing for a medium sized jar was 6 bucks. 6 bucks for !@#$ing a couple eggs and some veggie oil mixed together.

 

 

Time to start making your own.

[EndZoneCrew]

Exactly. Good point. I went grocery shopping two weeks ago, and was shocked when I went to pick up a new jar of mayo. The damn thing for a medium sized jar was 6 bucks. 6 bucks for !@#$ing a couple eggs and some veggie oil mixed together.

 

6 Dollars.....where the hell are you shopping?

[Just Jack]

I see the point! And you're right. Gas is the easiest thing to complain about, and yet we are paying the cheapest prices in the world.

 

I love all the bitching about it because I'm in the solar industry...And it's coming...Trust me....If you have expendible income, invest in solar. It is inevitable. I'm not necessarily talking about cars, just energy in general. Look back at this post in 10 years and feel thankful, or sorry...One or the other...

My parents got a windmill last year, it supplies normally between 90%-100% of what they use. If they added solar, they'd never have to pay for electric again, and the electric company would be paying them instead for what they produce.

[KD in CA]

its a no win situation until the goverment steps in and says enough is enough.

 

What exactly does that mean? What do you think the government should be doing about it?

[Guest dog14787]

What exactly does that mean? What do you think the government should be doing about it?

 

 

Put a cap on gas prices, the oil companys don't like it then to bad, they can make a few million less.

 

Its a drop in the barrell to them.

[VABills]

6 Dollars.....where the hell are you shopping?

Shoppers Food. That's my point. It was just a standard grocery store.

[Arkady Renko]

Put a cap on gas prices, the oil companys don't like it then to bad, they can make a few million less.

 

Its a drop in the barrell to them.

 

Yes because price controls have always succeeded and never have created shortages.

[DrDawkinstein]

I see the point! And you're right. Gas is the easiest thing to complain about, and yet we are paying the cheapest prices in the world.

 

I love all the bitching about it because I'm in the solar industry...And it's coming...Trust me....If you have expendible income, invest in solar. It is inevitable. I'm not necessarily talking about cars, just energy in general. Look back at this post in 10 years and feel thankful, or sorry...One or the other...

 

i just sent a letter this weekend to a condo board asking if i were to buy in their building, would i be able to install solar panels on the roof...

 

we'll see.

[DC Tom]

Put a cap on gas prices, the oil companys don't like it then to bad, they can make a few million less.

 

Its a drop in the barrell to them.

 

Why not put a cap on federal and state taxes on gas? They make about thirty times more per gallon than the oil companies do; cap taxes and you can drop gas prices by almost fifty cents a gallon, rather than one or two.

 

 

But then...you don't actually know how oil companies make money, do you?

[DC Tom]

My parents got a windmill last year, it supplies normally between 90%-100% of what they use. If they added solar, they'd never have to pay for electric again, and the electric company would be paying them instead for what they produce.

 

The footprint of that thing is bigger than my yard.

 

 

I have electricians coming over next weekend to give me quotes on upgrading the meter and panel; one of the things I intend to insist on is the system must support integration of some solar panels a few years down the line. Even if we just run the central air off solar panels, we'll save a couple thousand a year.

[TheMadCap]

Put a cap on gas prices, the oil companys don't like it then to bad, they can make a few million less.

 

Its a drop in the barrell to them.

 

 

Right and create massive shortages which will cause even more bitching.

 

You can't have it both ways. You cannot have a free market economy for some things and not others. Besides, state and federal governments make tens of times more per gallon than Shell or Exxon does...

[KD in CA]

Put a cap on gas prices, the oil companys don't like it then to bad, they can make a few million less.

 

Its a drop in the barrell to them.

 

 

Yikes. Paging Fan in Chicago.....

 

 

 

But then...you don't actually know how oil companies make money, do you?

 

No, but he knows that oil companies are evil. Salon.com told him so.

 

 

[Chef Jim]

Time to start making your own.

 

Better yet, time to stop eating mayo. That stuff is evil.

[Lurker]

Yes because price controls have always succeeded and never have created shortages.

This is a real "age test" response, isn't it....

[Just Jack]

The footprint of that thing is bigger than my yard.

My parents have 4 acres and are surrounded by farm land, so footprint wasn't an issue. Depending on where someone is, because it's above the tree line, you can see it on a clear day from a mile away.

[Guest dog14787]

Why not put a cap on federal and state taxes on gas? They make about thirty times more per gallon than the oil companies do; cap taxes and you can drop gas prices by almost fifty cents a gallon, rather than one or two.

 

 

But then...you don't actually know how oil companies make money, do you?

 

 

No, I don't, I know very little about oil companies, and I suppose while the price if gas is terrible, it does push us to find alternatives which is a good thing.

[Navy Chief Navy Pride]

I fill the tank about twice every three months. I'm spending maybe about $40 extra a year. Which, in 2003 terms, is probably only about $20, what with how the dollar's fallen since then. And then I'm only spending about $15 of that on gas, the rest I spend on ethanol.

 

Really, food prices are probably hurting most people more - since we're now putting corn in our gas tanks, the cost of everything that contains or requires corn (i.e. everything) has shot up. We spend maybe $1000/year more on food now than we did three years ago.

 

 

2X every 3 months?

 

Thats great but do you leave your house? What do you drive (hybrid?). Share your secrets damn it.

 

 

I cant complain tough as I am only spending about 250.00 per month in 2 vehicles. Minivan and SUV!

[HelloNewman]

Hold onto your hats!!!!

 

Just passed by a gas station selling diesel fuel....4.35 a gallon. I guarantee you everyone will be seeing fuel surcharges on their bills soon enough if they have not already for garbage pickup.....food prices......everything.....because everything is transported by guess what....Diesel trucks!!!

 

 

My question is this.....why is the american dollar so weak?? What made it take such a plunge and how can we get it back up?

 

 

I am seriously considering trading in my larger car for a Honda Fit with better milege....already have a yaris from toyota.

[Helmet_hair]

Your Post Peak Oil Future:

 

circa 2024, is the dark depressed result of the excesses and missteps of 20th century modernism. Overpopulation, environmental decay, technology, and the erosion of civil political structures have left the world a dangerous, chaotic place.

 

Two inextricably linked core dynamics have come to exert the greatest influence over the state of the world in 2024; overpopulation and environmental decay/depletion. The swelling of humanity beyond 7.5 billion members has placed insurmountable strain on the global ecology’s ability to support life. The climate system, stressed by years of pollution, changed beyond how anyone’s computer models had predicted. Forests died, plains turned to deserts, glaciers melted, dry places became flooded, and most importantly, weather patterns changed drastically. The old, familiar, natural weather cycles were turned up their ears; snows fell in deserts, annual rains never fell again, and a new climactic chaos was set in motion. The effects rippled out into the world of human affairs: crops and water sources failed causing starvation, migration, and conflict. Economic and population support systems that were thousands of years old were suddenly left without the basic natural capital that had fuelled them and sustained their dependants.

 

Additionally, the depletion of global petrochemical resources has brought an end to the once steadily increasing supply of cheap energy. As large deposits of oil, gas, and coal ran out, there were increasingly aggressive moves to tap smaller deposits as fast as possible, with soaring commodity prices providing the incentive. Nations often fought over energy stocks that were previously held to be marginal. Many small states, such as Venezuela in South America, and the Central Asian '-istans', saw energy booms as their once modest energy resources became highly valuable, and their global political capital increased. This in turn sparked a brief period of modernization and prosperity, at least for a small class of elites, before their deposits were drained and they returned to their previously economic status.

 

The pressures that overpopulation has put upon natural and economic resources combined with dwindling energy supplies extracted a huge toll on the once mighty system of states and super states. In many places in the less developed world, such as Africa and South East Asia, many once powerful states ceased to exist in any meaningful way, having disintegrated into a jumble of wild lands, tribal coalitions and warlord fiefdoms. For instance much of Indonesia, wrecked and deforested by over exploitation, is an archipelago of the dark, dangerous pirate kingdoms that war with each other, and vie for the right to plunder intruders and neighbors. In other parts, such as Central Asia and the Middle East, the integrity of states have has only been maintained the outside influence of another state, sometimes as assistance of alliance, sometimes as assimilation or through a puppet government. In case of Afghanistan, the former NATO countries, the Western Coalition, have all but occupied and annexed it to use a secure staging ground to protect their energy extraction operations in the region.

 

In the developed world, the death of energy has shortened the reach and power of nation states, weakening the superpowers, which are less able to project their power at great distances from their borders, and forcing lesser states into alliances or subservient roles in order to acquire the resources needed to maintain their sovereignty. Because of this, the superpowers have been weakened vis-vis each other, but strengthened relative to smaller states. In general, a new regionalism has taken over which forces states to deal more directly with their neighbors, reversing the trends of globalization that had been on the rise for decades previously. Wars, both small and large, are frequently fought on almost every continent, and all in its first 24 years, the 21st century is on pace to greatly surpass the vast death tolls of the 20th century before it.

 

In practically all nations, rich to poor, a steady process of Brazilification, in which the middle class disappears, and the gulf between the upper and lower classes widens. This resulted in massive civil unrest and internal conflict, with the poor railing against the unequal distribution of scare resources and the rich using technology and the tools of the state to preserve their status. Where the states were strong this resulted in increasing government repression and the dwindling of civil rights and basic freedoms. In other cases the state was overthrown, was co-opted by extremist political forces advocating change of varying degrees, or merely disintegrated into class warfare. In general, a new totalitarianism is seen, particularly in states like Russia and China, which have historical precedents and cultural dispositions towards it. In the ‘freer’ parts of the developed world, ever more sophisticated technological methods of social engineering and consent manufacture are needed to quell the increasing unrest of a population raised with the ideas of democracy and freedom. Increasingly, government use of disinformation and propaganda gives way to outright force used to stop dissent. All of the developed nations are guilty of the use of coercive violence against disruptive elements in their own populations, and all come to resemble police states in some way. This trend facilities the increasing power of the military class within these societies, with the corresponding weakening of the ability of civilian government institutions to oversee them.

 

Countries that found themselves unable to compete for dwindling energy and natural resources were forced to deal with the reality of a dwindling energy supply first. Places like India adopted cheap, efficient, often high-tech alternative energy sources like solar, wind, and bio-fuel, to meet the needs of daily life, much of which was adopted by individuals and neighborhoods on a local level. In the developed world, where populations were much more accustomed to the luxuries of a cheap energy economy, many shocking changes in lifestyle accompanied the rising scarcity of energy. For all but a small global elite, a smaller scale of daily life becomes the norm. The extravagant energy uses of the previous age, such as casual long distance travel, overly illuminated cities and single passenger vehicles were exchanged for efficient solutions that were practical and durable. People relearned how to grow food and make things last. For the lucky ones who lived in places that were spared disasters and catastrophic changes, a simpler life was adopted, gladly. For much of the underdeveloped world no amount of adaptation would delay the inevitable: a massive kill-off. Places in much of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia simply had too many people. Diseases and starvation wiped out whole families and cultures, cities burned, and where it still could, nature tired to reassert itself over civilized lands.

 

The 'super-state' coalitions formed as energy related federations of states, much like the way the European Union was first formed to deal with steel trade issues, they formed in the interest of pooling influence in order to mutually secure energy resources, although pretence to other collective objectives was sometimes half-heartedly offered. The idea being that if there is only enough energy for half the world, then the half of the world that bands together to secure it have the best chance of doing so. The current arrangement was based upon a diplomatic convenience: it would be easier for Russia and China to ally with each other and split the Central Asian oil reserves that lay between them than it would be for them to fight over them, which would most certainly lead to mutual destruction and the ceding of the oil to their enemies by default. Russia also felt that a seemingly inevitable conflict with China over the Russian territory of Siberia would be easier to avoid/mitigate of the Chinese were kept close at hand, and were thus easier to monitor. The result however, was practically the same, as immigrants from Chinas swelling population ended up filling the population gap in Siberia left by Russia’s population decline. Siberia became Chinese once again.

 

The Western Coalition was a much more natural union; the NAFU countries and the EU have already been allies in NATO for most of the previous century. Indeed the entire NATO framework was merely reinvigorated to form the foundation of the Coalition when the Red Star Alliance formed and started aggregating energy in Central Asia. As there was little in the way of territorial tension, the Coalition was much more stable and active in pursuing its interests aboard. Powerful allies like India, Pakistan, and Japan were attracted imply because they were threatened by the Red Star Alliances existence. However, the main problem of the Alliance was in its scattered nature, its constituent nations were far from the strategic objectives they sought to control. In the end, when resources were scarce, the Coalition wasted much energy aboard that it could have used at home. Regions such as Canada and California, that could support their populations with domestic resources, found themselves sacrificing these resources to fund acquisition projects in far flung places, many of which were failures. This caused much internal pressure to fracture the coalition, much of which has never been resolved.

 

Finally, if there was one shining, 21st century example of human adaptability and enlightenment it was the South American Socialist Federation. Perhaps because they had started encountering problems of scarcity, poverty, and state terrorism earlier than much of the world, the governments of South America took many admirable steps to maintain and protect the populations of their territories. Enlightened policies of resource distribution and sharing, equitable trade and ownership laws, many of them quite radical, allowed for many of the hardships felt in rest of the world to be avoided. Despite the immense destruction they brought, the imperialistic attacks by the North American States served only to reinforce a communal identity in South America which translated into an enlightened group effort to overcome the hardships that followed.

 

Daily Life

 

Despite the changes to modern and no-so-modern lifestyles, life does go on in the world of Frontlines. However there are some major differences between how it is experienced in the developed world and the non-developed world. In many ways the crisis of the 21st century has lead to a blending of innovative high tech solutions with a re-adoption of old, traditional ways of doing things.

 

In the developed world the scarcity of energy has resulted in a re-evaluation of the priorities of the capitalist, consumer economic model. While many of the products and advancements of modernism are of great benefit, many of the imperatives of the economic model; unlimited growth, synthesizing of unnecessary consumer demand, rampant materialism, and massive waste, are what lead to the state of the world in the first place. The first changes that accompanied the depression and the dwindling of the energy supply did away with wasteful habits; easy individual transportation, extravagant and/or unproductive uses of energy, disposable consumer products designed with planned obsolescence, personal acquisitions of unlimited wealth, and the whole culture of decadence that was encouraged by late capitalism. There simply was enough of anything to waste. Manufacturing slowed drastically and the pace of progress in society slowed, but goods were made with durability in mind, and re-use, recycling, and refurbishment is introduced into the economic process. Additionally, multi-use products that can fill a number of rules replace specialized products. In the developed world old low-technology for the basic needs of life reappears: rain barrels for catching water, domestic animals commonly kept for food, rooftop gardens in cities, recreational properties turned to sustenance production, and barter for local crafts and services exchanged. The scale and scope of lives gets smaller with people adopting public transit, often itself hi-tech and efficient, and living within its bounds. There is vastly less long distance trade and imported products become rare. Solar stills for condensing moisture or purifying salt water become common in every house. The rooftop solar panel becomes the icon of the age and is more often the sole source for domestic power; lives are lived within the energy means it provides. People learn to make do, somehow.

 

In the developed world, and for the ruling classes in the non-developed world, a mixture of efficient hi-tech amenities, such as computers, phones, and entertainment appliances, are still available to those who can afford them, as are remarkable pharmaceuticals and health services are a privileged few. The upper classes use technology to segregate themselves from the lower classes and to surveil and keep data on the population.

 

Old structures that were built with outmoded energy requirements, such as requiring an electric elevator, special climate controls, or requiring electric lighting to be useful, became obsolete. Cities are arbitrarily retooled for efficiency with some structures being reclaimed or repurposed. As energy gets more expensive, human labor replaces automated or motorized power in manufacturing and construction. Culture drifts back to streets and neighborhoods, away from media and networks.

 

Climate conditions also affected people’s daily lives. In many places water shortages occurred for the first time in areas that had always been well supplied. As the earth warmed, the tropical climate band at the equator started to creep towards the tropics, absorbing once temperate lands. New crops had to be acquired and seasonal variations observed.

 

In the non-developed world things are bleaker. In many places the larger population has bent the environment’s ability to sustain them to breaking, and massive depopulation occurs. Gradually life resumes with the survivors, who are more accustomed to sustaining themselves modestly amid adversity, having less competitors for their means of survival. Scarcity of previously available natural resources, such as wood, means that people concoct previously unheard of methods of recycling of common wasted products and disposable trash left over from the wasteful consumer phase. Landfills are dug up and their contents are forced into usefulness by sheer desperate necessity.