My solution to this gas crisis:

[A wise Man]

I’ve pondered long about this gas problem we have in this country, and how we are being manipulated by congress, the president and the oil industry. They’ve come up with every excuse in the book as to why the gas prices are raising at an alarming extraordinary rate without a valid reason as to why. In the mean time we suffer at the pumps and they fill their pockets with black gold as their stock portfolios grow with greedy resolves. It all began with the selection of this person called Bush Jr. and his oil soaked cronies.

Prices have been going up every since 2000 when these people took over the WH
with their false representation of these United States. Dick Cheney and his secrete energy meetings are the culprits as well as the Supreme Court that refuse to allow Cheney to disclose the minutes of those meetings as well as who attended them. They couldn’t give us a reason why the prices were raised from $1.55 per gallon in 1999 to $1.89 the day before hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, as the prices escalated to over $3.00 per gallon on the day the hurricane hit. They blame that price hike on the hurricane as we were gouge to submission. Today 2006 the blame is on China, oil refineries, supply and demand, SUV’s, and of course the consumers, not the oil companies or those Senators and Congressmen that jumped on the greed band wagon with their investments.

Since congress, the senate, the president, the oil companies nor the justice department can’t come up with a logical sane solution and we the people are being ignored, then we the people must take matters in our own hands. My solution is this.

We start with emails to every Congressman and Senator and newspaper in this country, CNN, CSPAN, FOX, LOCAL MEDIA and RADIO MEDIA, with the warning that starting with this Congress, there will be a shutdown in Washington with the exception of exits in and out of Hospital areas. We organize the truckers union, public transportation, buses, cabs and the citizens to drive their vehicles up to the Congressional doorsteps run out of gas and get out of their vehicles to stop traffic in protest to these obscene prices and make them pay for it.

This email must get everyone’s attention nation wide to let these idiots know that “WE THE PEOPLE MEAN BUSINESS”, and if we are ignored then we will follow up with our proposal. From the steps of congress to the expressways, from coast to coast until they relent to our demands of lowering gas prices substantially.

First:
We send this warning to every Congress person politely telling them our intention.

Second:
We alert as many businesses, homes and citizens in Washington notifying them what we are about to do and when we are to do it.

Third:
Notify the trucking unions to participate.

Fourth:
Make sure that as many media sources know about the warning.

Fifth:
Organize the first shut down, date and time.

Sixth:
Carry out the warning until these people start to listen and lower these prices substantially below $2.00 per gallon.

This is my email: CUT AND PASTE

“YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE “

TO ALL CONGRESS PERSONS
We the people of these United States have had enough of your bickering ineptness
concerning the needs of the American people by the people. You have failed us in every imaginable way possible for any elected officials. You seem to have forgotten that as an elected official you work for us and not for special interest to fill your greedy appetite. You have ignored us long enough. You have let Dick Cheney and his secrete energy meetings with the oil companies rob us of our resources as they line their greedy pockets over flowing with enormous profits and we get soaked with enormously high gas prices
without a reasonable explanation as to WHY!!!!.

We the people are now giving you this polite warning that we intend to shut you down in
protest of your unconstitutional attitude toward the American public. This is not a republican or democrat issue. You have let the oil companies literally takes us for granted
as you’ve failed to neither regulate nor cap these high escalating prices.

Now since we have no other recourse in finding help or solution from you nor the judiciary, we exercise our constitutional right to protest your lack of leadership in solving these ridiculous price hikes.



People this is serious. We can no longer allow corporate to control our lives and livelihood with their greed and corruption any longer. For if we don’t do something when our elected officials do nothing, then we are “ALL DOOMED”.

[DS1]

1. hmm

Good thing Halliburton just finished building all those prison camps, no?

[A wise Man]

2. I'm just getting Tired

of being ripped off by these thugs, so decided to fight back without violence.

[DS1]

5. I know

and for the most part it worked in Europe when truckers started shutting down highways and the like

[TheFarseer]

3. would it have an impact if

everyone stayed home one day - including work? maybe on a Saturday. and you're wrong about one thing, oil spokespeople have never blamed SUVs for higher prices.

[A wise Man]

6. I added that in

for those that feel SUV'S are at fault. SUV'S on the road are much less than mid size automobiles and trucks.

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. !

:popcorn:

[calmblueocean]

7. The only way to get gas prices down is to drive less.

If you could get everyone to agree to take a day off and NOT DRIVE ANYWHERE, I believe you could get the oil companies' attention.

[A wise Man]

9. I'm seeing that now

less and less consumers are at the gas stations. Mainly because they can't afford the price

[liberal N proud]

12. It has to be a shut down, a blockade

People will continue to go to work even though it may cost them more to get to work than what they will make in the day at work. And the bu$h supporters, what few of them there are will not participate.
You have to shut the nation or at least a city down to get attention on this scale.

[A wise Man]

16. That is the initial ideal

We the people initiating a statement

[A wise Man]

25. I think

whether this ideal comes off or not Republicans, Democrats, Blacks, Whites, Yellow or Green, we as a nation are all in this together. We all must put aside our differences and shock the nation that we no longer are going to put up with this BS

[Warpy]

4. I'm glad you're angry, but issuing the warning ahead of time

will only give them a holiday. They won't be inconvenienced. Everybody else will be.

[A wise Man]

8. I agree with you

this is my ideal in rough form. Input from all of us is needed.

[Warpy]

11. General strike

That's the better idea, give working folks a day off instead of the bosses.

I think you'll see enthusiasm for it as gas edges toward $4.00, and it will.

Personally, I don't think the problem is the price of gas, though.

It's WAGES.

[Wickerman]

10. Excellent thinking, but consider this

Any disruption to supply raises gas prices. What you are suggesting is what, another disruption.

I am not evil enough to work for an oil company let alone am I evil enough to write their justification for raising prices, but, dammit, they would. Why? It is a necessary commodity that is no longer has any real competition built into the distribution end. They can raise prices at will and for any damn reason. We are fucked unless we end the addiction.

[A wise Man]

17. I'm not addicted to oil

If I could drive on air or H2O I would.We have no other source of transportation when our jobs are 30 to 40 miles away.

[Wickerman]

20. It wasn't a question of if you were willfully addicted to oil

It was a statement that we as society are. That driving on H20 ain't working out too well yet, is it? I also live a distance from my work and haven't figured out how to get there without spending fossil fuels. I go back to my thesis that until we as that same society do something to change our need for oil we are at the mercy of the oil companies. They can and certainly will do whatever they want. I predict that soon they will stop offering even the most mundane of reasons for price gouging.

[A wise Man]

22. There isn't anything

that I can disagree with concerning reasonable input to America's fuel problem.My problem is there is no shortage according economist, but they can't give a reason why prices jump from month to month to week to week now day to day.We pay!!! They get rich

[hwmnbn]

13. I'd support this plan in a heartbeat .......

The main challenge is organizing on such a large scale. I think the truckers unions would get on board since they are on the front lines of this crisis.

Did you envision this action in Washington DC only, or nationwide? I would think local actions of solidarity could be arranged.

The question is how pissed off must "the people" be to join this effort? I believe we are reaching that point where something like this would get overwhelming support.



I wholeheartedly agree, it's time to quit bitchin' and moanin' and start doing something. We can be inspired by those immigrant demonstrations.

WE are the tax-paying citizens. We must once again remind our elected officials THEY works for US, not the lobbyists or oil industry!

Your post got me riled up, thanks. :thumbsup:

[A wise Man]

18. My ideal was this

We start with Washington. Straight at the congress to get media exposure, then move on to expressways to across the country if our demands aren't met. The media is the message they would have nothing else to report but the blockade

[katinmn]

15. I like it. Would add something about rolling back tax breaks for

oil companies, re-institute environment regs that have been rolled back by BushCo, clean out EPA cronies and put EPA focus on oversight and alternative energy development, and demand that Congress pass an energy policy that requires oil companies to hand over xx % of their profits toward alternative energy development.

While gas prices are disrupting our pocketbooks, the harm the energy policy is doing to our environment and our foriegn policy is an even greater concern to me.

[A wise Man]

19. Can you imagine

a CEO getting 400mil for retirement including all which he has accumulated since he's been working there. I wonder what the janitor made?

[A wise Man]

24. Have you notice

that since 2000 the EPA has been non exsistant

[katinmn]

27. Yes, I have. And I've also noticed our public water quality

has deteriorated rapidly, and rivers and lakes are polluted to dangerous levels.

Whereas companies used to be fined for polluting, now the EPA looks the other way.

[NNN0LHI]

21. Hope I'm not in some ambulance having the big one when this all happens n/t

[A wise Man]

23. I included

All areas with the exception of route in and out of hospital areas

[NNN0LHI]

26. Nearest hospital from my house is over 20 miles away

If you stopped and thought about it for a moment you would realize that all roads are routes in and out of hospital areas.

Yep.

Don

[MadHound]

28. OK, say we do this, and we're even successful with it.

Trouble is that how long will the prices stay down? A month or two, a year at the very best. And then up they'll go again, through the roof.

That is because we're dealing with a fundemental problem here folks, the ongoing, onrushing decline of cheap oil. Yes, the oil companies are doing a bit of gouging on the way down, and while heinous, it is a natural reaction, for the oil companies are going to get theirs now while they can. In a few years or a decade it is going to be much harder for them to make decent profits because most of the cheap oil will be gone. But the underlying, fundemental problem is that we're running out of cheap oil, and no band aid fix, be it shutting down Washington, abolishing oil taxes, or giving us refund checks is going to change that basic fact.

The signs of this problem are all around us. Saudi Arabia, while never disclosing what their actual reserves are, is showing signs of their oil fields running dry. The biggest oil field in the world, Ghawar in SA, is having to have twice the volume of seawater pumped into it in order to retrieve the oil that is taken out. There have been no new discoveries of oil in SA for fifty years.

A new oil discovery in Kuwait of 13 billion barrels is being touted like it was the new mother lode. Talk about spin, 13 billion barrels will only fulfill the needs of the US for less than two years. Oil shale, and extremely energy intensive and expensive method of extracting oil, is now being seriously considered by both government and corporations. US domestic wells are still capped, because even at seventy five dollars a barrel it still isn't a money maker to reopen them, that's how dry they are. And whereas once ANWR was considered unworthy of drilling, after all at todays consumption rates all the oil in ANWR would only last six to twelve months, now there is a huge governmental push on to go in and get that relatively miniscule amount of oil.

These are serious signs that we've hit Peak Oil and we're in decline now. There have been no major new discoveries of oil in the past forty years. Our domestic production of cheap oil peaked in the seventies, and collapsed in the eighties. Now we're seeing the peak of global peak oil, and we're verging on the collapse of all oil. We're heading over a cliff people, and we'd better start putting the brakes on now before it's too late.

Band aid solutions like this aren't the answer. The answer is to start now with a long term plan to transition the US over to clean, renewable fuels and energy. We have the capability to provide all of our electricity needs via wind and solar. We have the capability to provide for all of our fuel needs with biodiesel made from algae oil. This is what we should be demanding that our so called leaders do, instead of trying to get them to apply Band-Aids to the problem. Otherwise, we're just going to go right on over that cliff into oblivion.

So if you want to march on Washington demanding long term solutions, and a transition to renewable, clean alternatives, I'm with you. But if all you're doing is marching on Washington to demand a Band-Aid, count me out. I've better things to do with my time, like setting up a wind turbine, and making my own biodiesel.

Long term solutions people, not short term Band-Aids.

[Strelnikov_]

31. Per Matt Simmons, In An Interview I Heard Recently

noted that ~0.9 M bbl/dy (~ 12%) of US domestic production is from stripper wells where the petroleum energy extracted is less than the electrical energy used in pumping due to the 'water cut'.

EROEI/Thermodynamics (re: tar sands, oil shale, deep water, <insert non-conventional source here> ) looks like it is going to cause the effects of peak oil to hit harder and faster than most of us who have followed this issue imagined.

[MadHound]

33. Thanks for the info and helping back up my point.

If you have links to those stats, please PM me with them, I'd love to add those to my resources.

[Strelnikov_]

42. It Was From An Lecture On Global Public Media's Site

Probably one of the best big picture energy lectures I have heard recently.

http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/660

http://media.globalpublicmedia.com/RM/2005/11/for_2005_1130_simmons.mp3

[A wise Man]

34. I think you've miss understood

the velleity of the quest. In 1978 the oil companies said there was a shortage of gas. Gas lines formed and there was discussions of gas rationing like Germany. After investigations ensued, gas stations were charged with gouging at the behest of oil companies.Today we are falling into the same trap, but this time at the behest of Dick Cheney and his secret energy meetings. Are you going to fall for the same BS over and over again from these political thieves. Your coffee must be burning.

[MadHound]

38. No, I don't think I've misunderstood a thing

I understand your frustration on this issue, hell we're all frustrated about it, we're all feeling the pinch. And I also understand your desire to do something, anything to try and ease the pressure.

But what I'm contending is that while you solution *might* provide some short term relief, it won't cure the root cause of these problems, which is the fact that we're running out of cheap oil. Band-Aids like you propose, while offering a feel good course of action, a way to vent one's frustration, really won't do much in the long run. It is just more short term thinking, short term solutions, which is what got us into this mess in the first place.

I well remember the seventies and the gas lines. The gas lines were indeed a product of oil company manipulations. But it was the supply that was being manipulated the most. You see, Nixon tried to put price caps on gasoline, and that led to the oil companies slow down the supply of gas to the pump. However one of the great unsung reasons for the actual price increase was the fact that our domestic supply of cheap, sweet crude peaked and started running dry. We simply didn't have anywhere near the capacity to pick up the slack when the oil embargos hit, and thus, away went the prices.

You would have thought we would have learned from this problem, in fact Carter started us on the path to a renewable energy solution. But sadly, between Reagan scrapping Carter's programs, and oil companies ever increasing importation of ME crude, we became even more dependent on oil, rather than less. And for twenty years the oil companies and the government were able to overlook the impending catastrophe. Oil was cheaply imported, and thus consumption ballooned. Now we're starting to hit the brick wall of global peak oil, and we're in deep trouble because we haven't done a damn thing to prepare for this. Another by product of short term thinking, we ignored the problem for two decades, and now we're looking down the barrel of a rifle because nobody planned ahead.

I agree with you to a certain extent, oil companies are doing some gouging. But first off, oil companies know the score, and they're gouging now because they know here in a few years they're going to be struggling to stay afloat as oil continues to rise in price, and their profit margins are no thicker than a hair.

But the real driving force is the hard fact that the world is running out of cheap, sweet crude, at the very point where two population groups, India and especially China, are trying to emulate the US and build an oil economy. And meanwhile, with the US still sucking down as much oil as ever, the hard nosed law of low supply and high demand is coming into play with a vengance.

Like I said earlier, we can apply your Band Aid, and it might even work for a year. But that is going to be one more year we'll continue to delude ourselves about infinite supplies of cheap oil, all the while we're approaching the edge of the cliff at ever increasing speed. Better we face up to the hard reality of depleting oil resources now, and start implementing a long term solution now, while we have a bit of time left.

We have the long term answer right now in renewable alternatives, clean, cheap and enviromentally friendly. Let's start putting them to good use now, before it's too late. Otherwise we're going to be paying for our short term solutions and shortsightedness with more than just money.

[Sammy Pepys]

29. OK........

How about you send the first round of emails and let us know how it goes?

[A wise Man]

35. I'm lining up every congressman

on the gov list to do just that. Why don't you?

[Sammy Pepys]

36. Chances are they'll never see it.

Something like this is just not going to be taken seriously. But I'm curious to see what kind of feedback you get, so please keep us posted.

[A wise Man]

39. I promise you this

That I will make every effort. Maybe Jack Cafferty will put it on CNN

[Sammy Pepys]

40. I will not fault you there.....n/t

....

[Strelnikov_]

30. "As Prices Are Raising . . Extraordinary Rate Without A Valid Reason Why"

Would peak oil be a valid reason?

Going into 03, crude was ~$31/bbl with a gas price of ~$1.50/gal
As of today, crude is ~$72/bbl, with a gas price of ~$2.90/gal.

Therefore, increase 232% for crude, 193% for gas.

I am sure there is some profiteering downstream of the supertanker, but my opinion is that most of the refined product increase is due to raw material price increase.



2002 (+) 1.8 M bbl/dy Price $20/bbl-> $31/bbl
2003 (+) 3.4 M bbl/dy Price $31/bbl-> $31/bbl
2004 (+) 2.4 M bbl/dy Price $31/bbl-> $42/bbl
2005 (+) 0.3 M bbl/dy Price $42/bbl-> $62/bbl
2006 (+) 0.1 M bbl/dy Price $62/bbl-> $72/bbl To date.

So, in the face of increasing price, we have a steady increase in production, just as one would expect (even in 2002/03 with the overlay of the Iraq buildup/invasion ~ sabre rattling).

Then, suddenly, in 2005, production flatlines.

Price drop? No.

Recession reducing demand? No.

OPEC, a cartel that could not even keep it's act together during the relatively low prices of the 90's oil glut, finally are working in unison, and contrary to past (seemingly annual now) statements that the current price of oil is too high? I wasn't born yesterday.

Oh, but no. The high prices can't be peak oil.

It just has to be Big Oil collusion Bushco sabre rattling Ahjad sabre rattling lack of investment OPEC collusion Chindia demand . . . and on and on and on. . .

Yet, nearly every article mentions 'supply problems', in passing, always secondary to the talking point of the day.

There is a lot of money to be made in the initial stages of peak oil, some of which will not be made if the 'consumers' catch wind of the beginning of the end of the oil age, and begin to make other economic and political arrangements. This is why the existence and effects of peak oil are being treated similar to global warming by the corporate media and our politicians.

The only permanent solution to the oil trap we now find ourselves in is massive conservation measures coupled with development of redundant alternative energy sources and carriers to petroleum derived liquid fuels.

In lieu of rationing by price, a carbon credit system of rationing should be established to ensure a baseline quantity of energy at a baseline price. Consumers would pay market price for energy consumption over the baseline quantity.

In the coming world of energy scarcity, the current ‘free-market’ dynamic will be incapable of providing a relatively stable energy supply. We will need a diverse, redundant and integrated energy infrastructure that will require planning and coordination far beyond what ‘market signals’ (ie: price) can provide.

As such, we need to establish a USEA (U.S. Energy Authority) that provides centralized high-level planning, management and funding for the energy infrastructure.

Why funding? Imagine what would happen to an energy infrastructure dependent on biofuels during drought years. Can you imagine the effect of a ‘dust bowl’ series of years on a biofuel industry? One way to mitigate would be to build a ‘strategic coal stockpile’ with mothballed liquefaction capacity ready to be put on line in the event of a shortfall.

The energy infrastructure of the future will have to include redundancy. Mothballed capacity and stockpiles are not a part of a Laissez-faire system.

[jsamuel]

37. that is completely misleading

2002 (+) 1.8 M bbl/dy Price $20/bbl-> $31/bbl
2003 (+) 3.4 M bbl/dy Price $31/bbl-> $31/bbl
2004 (+) 2.4 M bbl/dy Price $31/bbl-> $42/bbl
2005 (+) 0.3 M bbl/dy Price $42/bbl-> $62/bbl
2006 (+) 0.1 M bbl/dy Price $62/bbl-> $72/bbl To date.

funny that you start in 2002...

What was it before 2002? I'll tell you that 2002 was the LOWEST IT HAD BEEN IN 20 YEARS!!! Yet in 2002 gas prices were in the 1.89 range, up from the 1.00 in 7/8 years ago, when it was higher. That means that in 1999,2000, and 2001 it was HIGHER than it was in 2002, 2003, or 2004.

Also notice that gas prices in 2005 were at 2.00pg when bbl was at 60 dollars, yet it went up to 70 and we are now at 3.00pg.

This doesn't make sense at all.

That is a superficial analysis that doesn't look ONCE at the average price of gas along with those numbers or the years preceding the gas hikes.

[Strelnikov_]

41. Whatever. If You Do Not Think That A Large Hike In Raw Materials Cost

translates into a large hike in the finished commodity, so be it.

If you do not find it troubling that production suddenly flatlined in 05, even in the face of rising prices and demand, so be it.

And I started in 2002 because that is where the graph started.

[jsamuel]

43. i'm not saying you have an some horrible motive, I am saying that if you

really want to study gas prices, you have to go back before 2002 (the lowest it has been in 25 years now) to make an effective and accurate analysis. Please do.

[MacDuff]

44. thank GOD

somebody here understands the economics of Peak Oil!

This is it folks, there will be ups and downs, but UP is the way of gas prices in general from now on...

it is NOT a God-given right for an American to drive a Chevy Tahoe 40 miles each way to work...

rather than trying some sort of huge protest, why don't you look at your life and see how you can change it to use less gas? - can you move closer to work? can you work closer to home? can you ride a bike somewhere? walk? take a train or bus? install efficent appliances?

that chart above shows what is happening - OIL prices are up, so GAS prices are up

the REASON oil companies are making such huge profits, is the fields that are pumping this oil were invested in at a time when oil was $15/barrel - now it's trading at $70+ barrel - so there are huge profits - however, those profits will go aways fast with demand exceeding supply

all the protests in the world will not create another barrel of oil in the ground.....

I wish it were not so, but it is...

[jwirr]

32. I have a few questions. Most of my family work in health care:

nurses, respiratory therapy, care for the disabled and elderly. Often our jobs mean life or death. Would you expect these people to stay away from work?

The goal of $2.00 gas is admirable but it does not address the real issue. It is a short term answer. We need to get our US car makers to start mass producing some kind of vehicle that uses alternative energies and we need research to develop all alternative energy ideas. We need to free ourselves from foreign energy sources and from the *ss/Carlyle Group/Oil industry permanently.