cnbc - freaking out over $81/barrel oil

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

one says it's speculation on the trading floor. other guy wants to know what they are speculating about. answer - france's sabre rattling about iran.

[karlrschneider]

1. I'm hoping for $100/bbl

soon. :-)

[entanglement]

10. Your wish is Goldman Sachs prediction - $85 by December and $ 95 in '08

[lonestarnot]

11. That was my last year's prediction and I'm psychic.

[hogwyld]

12. Why stop at $100?

Why not $200 or more? I can envision a world without cars, especially SUV's.

[lonestarnot]

13. What we gona do, ride our thumbs?

[hogwyld]

16. Well, we can rebuild our mass transit system

for starters, and we can move people into the cities and out of the energy intensive suburbs. We can take those same suburbs, and plant food, lowering the transportation costs. Reclaim those fertile lands, and return the more arid, but irrigated farmlands to their natural state, and build solar farms, wind farms, geothermal farms, and hydro farms to power our cities, and all electric transportation system. Mandate the maximum energy efficiencies available for all buildings and lifestyle choices. High speed rail instead of airliners. There are a ton of options available if we are willing to make the hard choices.

[Javaman]

20. And just were do you think the power to manufacture all the parts

for this mass transit system is going to come from?

remember plastic is made from oil. oil price goes up, the price of plastic goes up. if runs on diesel, the price of diesel is going up. if it has lubricant, that will go up. reality is, we should have built mass transit when oil was cheep.

we are now sprint to the end.

[hogwyld]

27. Well, at least it's a capitalized expense

The plastic seating should last a few years at least, and all of the rail systems should be run on solar electric power or some other renewable electric power. I'm sure that the lubricants needed aren't going to break the oil bank. On the plus side, we'll rebuild some industry here with the demand for steel needed for the rails and the manufacturing of the railcars. It's a whole lot better alternative than doing absolutely nothing...

[Javaman]

28. It's the upfront cost.

just saying things will last or we may or may not need or use something doesn't cut.

resorces are being eaten up by china and india. They are producing massive amounts of cars for their populations now. That requires oil. Each car requires between 30 and 50 barrels of oil to manufacture.

Now with that building boom and oil now over 80 bucks a gallon, the concept of making the tracks, the fuel needed to transport workmen to and from sight, the materials needed to manufacture the rail cars, the heat needed to smelt the steal and iron, etc...

It gets very very expenisive not just cost wise but energy wise.

Like most things we humans due, we wait till the last minute to "solve" any crisis then freak out trying to fix the problem, instead of doing preventive maintanence or planning ahead.

in the end the mere enertia of our current oil soaked era will prevent our current situation from being turned around in any timely manner.

Plus the dead head thinking of our congress who can't decide on an energy path for the nation.

[MadHound]

15. So you're wishing for even more despair and poverty

And a serious economic collapse. Watch everything from food to all manner of goods and services rise in an inflationary spiral. Hey, I'm set, I grow a lot of my own food, have a vehicle that gets 100mpg, and am looking at putting in a woodstove and wind turbine. I could ride it out, but most people couldn't. Could you?

[MatrixEscape]

18. I agree MadHound ...

Some people should be careful what they wish for. You made a good point and I am growing my own food and making transitions rapidly now that I see what is going to happen.

Some people don't see that oil is everything that we call modern life in general, not just what goes in the tank or the furnace.

As iil goes up, (like it or not) everything, (and I do mean everything) will increase in price, from food, to clothes, to all those neat plastic items that you like to buy which are currently made mostly out of petroleum. Go look at your car, your TV, and just about everything else you own and find out how much plastic there is.

Things have to be transported, as well. That includes raw materials to a factory and the stuff that goes out the door. Farms use lots of fuel and energy, as well as petrochemical-based insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Oops, that $10 tomato best be savored, even though it doesn't taste like much. One chews a twenty-dollar-a-pound steak very slowly and and savors each bite, I guess.

Also, imagine your city/town being inundated with rural folks who had no other option but to drive to work and to the store? If they can't afford gasoline, you will certainly see a lot of migration to your locale.

So, only someone who has their head up a green dream idea tube would fail to see that, unless we shift quickly to AFFORDABLE alternatives in a way that effects large numbers of people, hoping for expensive oil is like craving rope at your own hanging.

[karlrschneider]

24. I'm pretty energy-frugal but I worked my ass off for years drilling oil wells.

Sold it for $17 a bbl for way too long.

[sarcasmo]

26. $150 a barrel and then we can get rid of the SUV's.

Then again some idiot will tell me that they can't give up their SUV because of the room.

[IDemo]

29. End of 2008 soon enough?

CIBC Chief Economist - Oil @ $100 By Late 2008, OPEC/Russia/Mexico Exports Down 2.5 Mbd By End 2010

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. So, what are the neo-cons going to do about this?

You know the group I mean: the folks who got their panties in a real wad when oil went over $40 a barrel while Clinton was president and who pissed and moaned about how Clinton was destroying America as a result.

[AuntPatsy]

5. What they have bee doing since day one, ignore perhaps outrage and sit silently

[Jim__]

6. Blame it on Clinton.

After all, he caused 9/11 and 9/11 caused the rise in the price of oil. :sarcasm:

[madinmaryland]

23. Ding ding ding!!1!!!

It's the Clenis!!1!!

[liberal N proud]

8. Tell you that it is still cheaper than milk

I have had bu$h nazis try to use that scenario many times.

The will always have that argument a gallon of gas will always be cheaper than milk because as oil and gas prices rise so does the cost of milk and everything else.

[Nickster]

14. Yeah, but I don't go through 11 gallons of milk every week and milk doesn't get my car to move and

get my butt to work.

[Javaman]

21. I usually counter that by saying, "so when was the last time you drank a glass of oil?"nt

[bullwinkle428]

25. Ask them to pull the oil-producing cows out of their asses

if they want to use the oil=milk analogy!!

[opihimoimoi]

3. Soon...it will be $$181.00...per 42 gal barrel....then..later...$5.00 or more.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

4. THE TRICKLE DOWN CHANNEL

JUST ANOTHER REPUBLICAN MOUTH-PIECE.

[Supersedeas]

7. at least they are discussing that and not OJ

[Jankyn]

9. Here's a giggle...

The other night, I watched a movie about global warming from 1993, starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia. (Well, I only watched part of it because it was a really bad movie.)

But what made me laugh was that no one was driving anywhere because oil was at $60/barrel.

Hah!

[halobeam]

17. BWHAAA!!!

:rofl:

[hunter]

19. Maybe those were 1993 dollars...

What's that in much less valuable 2007 dollars?

[Javaman]

22. is that the really bad movie were he's driving around in an

electric car that stalls out in the desert somewhere?

[lonestarnot]

30. aha hah ha hah ha hah