Gas Prices Are Insane!!!!!

[Molson]

so why isn't there a refinement industry that can make the shitty oil better? seems like it has the capabilities to be profitable.

There is/are.

There are many grades of crude. Light. Heavy. Sour (high sulfur). Sweet (low sulfur).

But not all refineries are equipped to handle all grades. As long as the crack spread (the margin between the price of oil and finished products) is large enough to accommodate the costs of refining heavy crude (i.e. from Alaska), than doing so is profitable, and we'll continue to do it.

And I've seen this mentioned in this thread a few times... and it's driving me nuts. For the last time, the US is a net importer of oil. 9 mmbbl/day. That means, total, we import more oil than we export. We are a net exporter of most finished products (e.g. gasoline). Do not get these confused.

 

[bombadil.360]

Molson, you're correct.

in fact, many oil producing countries, like Venezuela, have no refining capabilities, most refining is done in the U.S. and that indeed is what the U.S exports / uses as payment for crude imports.

 

[SpasticGramps]

He died, and so did the Penn Stare Scientist who was trying to get funding from the government for it. It seems rather suspicious.

The Penn State professor was 86. This John L guy looked like he was getting up there. It's unfortunate, but MD Anderson is carrying on his work related cancer. I didn't see anything about anyone working on the combustion part of it though.

Patent is probably locked up in BP's vault.

 

[trichrider]

^^^still there are possibilities. laser took quite some time to create, and was expensive to produce, now there are pen lasers...just sayin'.

technology will advance to overcome expense.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I just watched a Navy tech vid. Are the smartest guys on the planet showing off their alt-energy prowess? Hell no, they're developing a gun that shoots a projectile at mach 7.

See, if we can obliterate them into 100,000 pieces as opposed to 50,000, they'll be even deader.

It's probably for big ships... like aircraft carriers... like Chinese aircraft carriers. Depleted uranium at mach 7... there's nothing to stop it.

 

[trichrider]

rail gun huh?
saw that...it was declassified to scare the hell out of terrorists...

this is what i meant by tech advances. they took the concept of a gun and created an explosiveless accelerant...powered by electricity, more powerful than chemical accelerants.

electromagnetics are the future...50 years ago it was plastics (oil).

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Yeah, rail gun. That's it.


With our luck it'll scare 12th century hate about as much as "bombing them back to the stone age" i.e. not very much.

 

[trichrider]

oh but it's good for the economy!

according to the machine.

 

[SpasticGramps]

We need these weapons to fend off Krugman's alien invasion.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Lol. If he doesn't say, "End The Fed" he's a warmonger.

If a terrorist jumped out from behind a rock with an AK47, Paul would probably just get shot.

 

[Stoner4Life]

He died, and so did the Penn State Scientist who was trying to get funding from the government for it. It seems rather suspicious.

well shit, maybe DiscoBiscuit is right about this shit being really poisonous, maybe the gasses killed them both.......

 

[BlackOpsJesus]

Mo Money(fake,printed,Monopoly Money) Mo Problems

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

We've already passed peak oil many years ago, we're on the downside now.

It's a fucking shame that politicians are either just blatantly paid off by lobbyists or are too busy focusing on petty shit that doesn't matter rather than the REAL issues. Like seriously, it's 2012 and we're still trying to figure out if homosexuals have the same rights as heterosexuals and if weed should be legalized. The simple fact that the government's stance on both of these issues is negative should clue you in as to how much of a clusterfuck Washington is.

We need entirely new minds in government, it's amazing how every single one of them (and us) knows that there are 100% certain impending problems of dire importance such as our current path entailing us running scarce/out of oil without adequate renewable resources to take its place and our exponentially expanding population that NEEDS to be halted asap. Our population has doubled in 44 years from 3.5 billion to 7 billion. The simple solution is to break our vicious cycle of producing an increased amount of food every year because the population keeps growing. We need to level off our food production and then start to very gradually decrease it to naturally bring down the population of the world. With a gradual decrease there will be no drastic shortages bringing about riots or anything like that, and this experiment is repeatable with ANY species of animal, humans included.

One might say "we don't have enough food already, there are starving people in third world countries all over the place" but that is not because we don't have enough food, but rather, because we aren't doing a good enough job of getting food to where it needs to go.

End of rant though, the bottom line is we have much more pressing issues (like the search for alternative and renewable resources) but the people in Washington are still bickering over petty shit that should have been resolved decades ago, if not centuries ago.

 

[mrcreosote]

We need these weapons to fend off Krugman's alien invasion.

Gramps,
Yer friggin killin me.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If CBO goes dynamic, we won't need aliens. Our own lawmakers will provide the invasion. Will make the AA downgrade look like prelude to insanity rather than plain old stupidity. Reminds me when folks are just starting out and eventually think, "I just won't pay the bill." And somebody says, "Be my guest but it'll wreck your rating." Most peeps know what that means and what implications exist. But not these guys. Fundamentalism is all they can manage and they don't do it very well.

Like the kid who tries to snatch your toy. He can't get it out of your hands so he does the only other thing he can manage. Break it.

 

[mrcreosote]

We need to level off our food production and then start to very gradually decrease it to naturally bring down the population of the world. With a gradual decrease there will be no drastic shortages bringing about riots or anything like that, and this experiment is repeatable with ANY species of animal, humans included.
------------------------------------------
You might want to rethink that.
Naturally bringing down the population is called starvation.
Happens every time population exceeds food supply. In the end stages people surely get docile and stop reproducing but until that point is reached people get very cranky.

Would you care about rule of law if your family were dying of starvation?
I wouldn't.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

how do you ask the last guy to die for a stupid idea?

 

[SpasticGramps]

If CBO goes dynamic, we won't need aliens. Our own lawmakers will provide the invasion.

That's sound like a lot of fear mongering and doom saying there eh? Not that I haven't been accused of such, but you are pretty quick to point it out. Just sayin'.

This is nothing new. Is it terrible yes, but it's a continuation of policy.

We already hide our unfunded liabilities off the books not to mention Fannie and Freddie are hidden off the books. This would be more of the same and par for the course.

Whether it's the BLS hiding what real inflation is or the CBO hiding what our real debt is the gub is in the business of trying to control perception through BSing numbers, not actually fixing anything.

Same shit different day.

 

[SpasticGramps]

This is a cool site. Look at California. Ouch.

USA National Gas Price Heat Map

 

[Useful Idiot]

It is actually sickening the amount of money our country spends on nonsense,yet, our people pay the price and we just have to suck it up and live with it. Meanwhile citizens suffer the cost. I'm sure some of us have it ok, and the gas prices do not affect some of us too much. I really feel for the folks who are already having troubles paying bills,buying food, trying to provide for the ones they love,then gas prices go up and create another burden for these folks. Hell can you imagine working min. wage and trying to support your family???? I really feel for those folks!! I know a fella who commutes 140 miles a day for his job,his job requires for him to have a truck,he gets a gas allowance ONLY for work mileage,his truck gets about 12 MPG,I told him to find another job.