What will be our breaking point (Price of Oil)

[Midnight Mike]

Europe and Asia don't rely on cheap gas as much as we do and their public transportation systems are much better than ours. Not to mention, they don't have huge SUVs and all drive smaller and vastly more fuel-efficient cars than we do. Remember, Congress tried to pas a law to raise the fuel standards and it was shot down. It's been shot down to our peril now. Our competitive advantage was that we had cheap gas due to lower gas taxes and fuel inefficiency didn't matter so much. That no longer applies.

Can't really compare one country to another as they are all different.

Don't forget in Asia & Europe they use aircraft for many short haul flight, while in the USA, we would drive.

We can drive from Manhattan to Niagra Falls in 10 hours & never leave New York, a drive like that in Europe & you could have visited 6 countries :lol:

Also, in Asia, they use 747 & 777 aircraft for 1 hour flights.

Yes, in Asia they have a good train system, but, their highways, though not as complex as ours, are congested & have traffic worse than ours.

It is this same highway that connects the country & is what makes this country rich, unfortunately, same highway that allows many cars on the roads.

Take the cars off the roads & the economy in this country would come to a standstill.

The solution to the problem is to find an alternative energy source, which is easier said than done.

In the meantime, domestically, we need to get our drill tip sharpened & allow drilling.....

[bonanzabucks]

Europe and Asia don't rely on cheap gas as much as we do and their public transportation systems are much better than ours. Not to mention, they don't have huge SUVs and all drive smaller and vastly more fuel-efficient cars than we do. Remember, Congress tried to pas a law to raise the fuel standards and it was shot down. It's been shot down to our peril now. Our competitive advantage was that we had cheap gas due to lower gas taxes and fuel inefficiency didn't matter so much. That no longer applies.

Can't really compare one country to another as they are all different.

Don't forget in Asia & Europe they use aircraft for many short haul flight, while in the USA, we would drive.

We can drive from Manhattan to Niagra Falls in 10 hours & never leave New York, a drive like that in Europe & you could have visited 6 countries :lol:

Also, in Asia, they use 747 & 777 aircraft for 1 hour flights.

Yes, in Asia they have a good train system, but, their highways, though not as complex as ours, are congested & have traffic worse than ours.

It is this same highway that connects the country & is what makes this country rich, unfortunately, same highway that allows many cars on the roads.

Take the cars off the roads & the economy in this country would come to a standstill.

The solution to the problem is to find an alternative energy source, which is easier said than done.

In the meantime, domestically, we need to get our drill tip sharpened & allow drilling.....

As you mentioned, Asian and European train systems are so much better than ours and they mostly rely on those to connect from place to place, even to different countries. At least in Europe. Asian highways are bad, sure, but European ones are as sophisticated as ours. Don't tell me that Paris and Frankfurt have worse traffic than Atlanta and LA because they don't. This is just the lifestyle we chose here and we're getting pummeled because of it and our reliance on cheap gas without investing in other transportation infrastructures. If we kept up with the reliable train system we had in the past, we wouldn't be facing as big a problem as we do now.

I'm not saying we should take cars off the roads. But look...the price of gas is $3.30 right now, people are driving because they have no choice and our economy is not only in a standstill, it's reverting.

Actually, we have oil lots of oil, but not just in Alaska. The Colorado oil shales are the biggest reserves in the world. Yes, it's expensive to extract, but it's very profitable with oil being the price it is now. It's just like the tar sands in Canada. With oil being as high as it is, it makes extracting oil from the Alberta tar sands profitable. These oil companies don't want to invest in extracting it. I say revoke their tax breaks unless they invest money in extracting oil shale or invite foreign companies who would be more than happy to do it. Letting Exxon or people like Matt Simmons influence our energy policy hasn't worked.

[adam613]

In the meantime, domestically, we need to get our drill tip sharpened & allow drilling.....

Mike, you're ignoring the actual problem. The increasing price of oil (and gas) right now has very little to do with the supply of oil. As such, coming up with more oil from a domestic source isn't going to decrease any prices. Remember, it's not just Americans who have to pay $115/barrel for oil; it's the entire world. It just hits us harder than it hits the Europeans because our currency is losing value in comparison to theirs.

Increasing the supply won't change prices. Increasing the value of the dollar will.