Arkansas Blog

Back in the good old days when fuel was $1.78 I predicted to the local coffee shop wags that by the time Bush left office gasoline would be $4.00 a gallon. That was greeted at the time with guffhaws and sneers. I simply based my prediction on the close ties of the Bushes with Big Oil and the contempt the Bushes hold for common Americans. I realize now my prediction was too low. Click on Cato

All we have to do is ban speculation in the oil market. Oil would fall to about 90 dollars in a week saving us 250 BILLION dollars each year. Then we could slowly increase gas taxes to start weaning the country off gas and help pay off our 9 trillion dollar debt. Stop and think of all the money we are paying to oil companies because Congress is too stupid to ban speculators from the oil markets.

In a time when our government/military is borrowing enormous amounts of money to steal/control oil exclusively for the benefit of the rich... Nobody should be making a profit from our soldiers blood. Nobody.. Every damn dime of profit.. whether from blackwater, Exxon, GE, Haliburton, Commodity speculators etc... should be considered tax for Americas security... Unless they invest it in alternative energy right here at home... No outsourcing. Add government subsidies to big oil and MIC etc... and I would be willing to bet the real cost of gasoline is at least 2 bucks a gallon over and above the price at the pump.

The vast majority of the increase in the price of oil is both intentional...and equivalent to raising taxes on the poor.. Continued chaos in Iraq (maybe Iran too) is most profitable for the rich and powerful in America and abroad.

War profiteering should be as close to a hanging offense as lying us into war.

Think!

I just finished a 35 mile bike ride. People aren't driving slower or less, they just seem to be angrier while they're doing it. I used to think the tipping point to see a major shift in consumer and driving habits was at the $5/gallon level but I may have to up that estimate. Hey Max, how much is that premium you put in your SUV?

Gas prices will keep rising as long as we keep buying it.

Then when we cutback, it will keep rising because we have no substitute for it and we have to keep buying it.

We now have rings is in our noses and the Oil folks have our leashes in their hands. . .

I bought a Toyota Prius hybrid in August 2006. Over the past 22 months I've driven roughly 19,000 miles and saved $1,100 on gas. Being retired I don't drive as many miles as most folks, and those who do drive more miles would save even more on gas.

My first year of ownership gas averaged $2.49 gallon. From August 2007 to present gas has averaged $3.02 gallon. I don't need to tell you how much gas costs today. The higher the price per gallon, the more I save per mile driven.

My old Honda CRV got 23 miles per gallon, while the Prius gets 46+ miles per gallon, twice the fuel efficiency. The Prius has more safety features like vehicle stability control and air bags all around and has more acceleration due to battery power than did the CRV.

Cost? Since I got an optional package with the safety features, I paid Orr at Hot Springs $23,500 (list was $24,150) and got a $3,150 federal tax credit for buying a Prius before Toyota was penalized for being the most successful hybrid vehicle manufacturer.

So I had $20,350 in the Prius when it was brand new. Subtracting the $1,100 in gas savings to date I now have $19,250 in the Prius and my cost of ownership goes down every time I fill up the tank.

What did I give up? Well, my old CRV did have a bit more carrying capacity that I used a few times each year. But the hatchback Prius has an amazing amount of capacity with the rear seats folded down. Recently I've been hauling 12 bags of compost, that have 2 cubic feet each, with room to spare.

What did I gain? A much more environmentally sound vehicle, a safer one and one less prone to tipping over in the event of an accident. Plus it is way more fun to drive than the old CRV.

The Prius is also spewing out half as much carbon dioxide, more than 2 tons less, each year into the atmosphere. I'm doing what I can on a local level to help the global
environment.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead was right when she said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has."

I was operating 3 vehicles during the last "oil crisis" which was set up by Henry Kissinger as part of a solution to MidEast crisis at that time. We were moaning and complaining that gas would reach $.999 per gal. It went higher. There were not so many 4-6 cylinder cars back then. Numerous alternatives were invented locally and nationally which made the headlines. One day I sat in the donut shop just above Evelyn Hills in Fayetteville and witnessed a full sized (big V-8) Olds with 3 passengers and a driver depart with a certified one-gallon gas tank mounted on the hood. The 3 passengers were newspaper reporters. They drove the big Olds to Ft Smith, old highway then, 62 miles away on one gallon of gasoline.

The story was, locally, front page news. I never heard any more about that invention. A few years later I never heard anymore on the official oil companies story of "we're running out of oil. There won't be anymore in 20-25 years."

Now it's full circle. This is another well-designed crisis about which we can do little. Someone on here remarked last Friday that oil just jumped $10 barrel and supply and demand didn't waiver.

..................Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries) 2008
......................(Thousand Barrels per Day)

CANADA.. 1,886
SAUDI ARABIA 1,541
MEXICO 1,220
NIGERIA 1,102
VENEZUELA 980

Entire list at my name

Waterboy, what mpg does the prius get for highway miles??
i read about a scooter that gets 96mpg. wonder how comfy that would be driving 130miles per day?
I traded my sequoia SUV for a Rav4 17mpg vs 28mpg. Can't decide if it will be worth the trade for 10mpg more. I think I would try a motorcycle if it got 60mpg.
I like my job in LR and I like having decent insurance. I am on 4day work week which helps. An apartment is out of the question there is nothing in LR that I can afford, and I have two boys at home.
Im screwed.

mrs. rosso just reported that diesel is $4.99/gallon at the Conoco on Highway 49 outside of Helena...

Looks like food prices will be skyrocketing soon...