The free oil is being used to fuel the vechiles which are searching for WMD
The price of gasoline? I don't know and I don't care. I don't own a car, so I don't worry about gas prices or parking or insurance or getting ticketed by the ever vigilant Chicago police department. I take public transportation or taxis wherever I want to go, and I couldn't be happier.
regular unleaded was $1.64 in eastern WA
joefromchicago wrote:The price of gasoline? I don't know and I don't care. I don't own a car, so I don't worry about gas prices or parking or insurance or getting ticketed by the ever vigilant Chicago police department. I take public transportation or taxis wherever I want to go, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm glad to hear that Joe. I'm considering trying that myself... It is just so foreign to me to not have a car because I grew up in Lake Geneva, WI (a place I'm certain you are familiar with) where virtually no public transportation exists.
McGentrix wrote:I am still looking for the free Oil we are stealing from Iraq. Isn't that one of the claims that the left made about the war? That we were going to steal all there oil? well where is it? When are the tankers going to start lining up?
They're keeping all the bucks for themselves and their rich buddies ;-)
McGentrix wrote:I am still looking for the free Oil we are stealing from Iraq. Isn't that one of the claims that the left made about the war? That we were going to steal all there oil? well where is it? When are the tankers going to start lining up?
McG - They weren't taking to GIVE it to you for free. They organised all this so that some-one more 'reliable' would be in charge of it, the Kuwatiis and Saudis are just as lousy as Saddam's lot ever were, but the White House doesn't have a problem with them. In fact they get damn good value for the 'democratic' capitalism they're buying from the Bush family and associated cronies. Who else could get the US Marine Corps to back up their multi-national trading cartel?
McGentrix wrote:I am still looking for the free Oil we are stealing from Iraq. Isn't that one of the claims that the left made about the war? That we were going to steal all there oil? well where is it? When are the tankers going to start lining up?
Hold on a minute, McG. Surely you didn't think they were going to give it to YOU for free! Them's good Republican capitalists, they is.
Mr Stillwater wrote: Who else could get the US Marine Corps to back up their multi-national trading cartel?
hey buddy, leave the marine corps out of this
I get cheap gas all the time...
unlead regular is going for $2.05 a gallon on the Big Island of Hawaii which hurts when you only get about 12-15 mile to a gallon in a SUV.
ouch
The USA has just about the cheapest gasoline in the world (not counting the Arab oil-producers). In Europe, where they sell it by the litre (1 gal.=3 3/4 litres), petrol sells for the equivalent of around $5/gal. And you guys who can put regular unleaded in your gas tanks have no cause for complaint whatever. I drive a vehicle which requires 91 octane fuel, the top-shelf stuff. It's around US$25 or more every time I fill up. And I fell so lucky to be living on the US mainland!
Light sweet crude oil is currently going for $35 a barrel (42 gallons). That's 83.3 cents a gallon to our Saudi friends just for the raw material. In most states you pay 45 cents a gallon in State and Federal tax on gasoline, so we're up to $1.28 a gallon to Washington D.C., the State Capitol and Riyadh right off the top. If you are paying $1.65 at the pump, this leaves 37 cents a gallon for:
- exploration
- punching a hole three miles deep into the Earth
- Degassing, desanding, desalting and dehydration
- piping to a terminal
- terminal facilities (tankage, loading berths etc)
- The biggest oceangoing vessels ever built by man
- Shipping halfway around the world
- Unloading terminals and tankage
- piping to refineries
- The entire refining process. The initial fractionation, both atmospheric and vacuum, reforming, catalytic cracking, desulfurization and blending
- distribution by piping and truck
- Retail sales.
And some are complaining about 37 cents a gallon for all of this?????
How about comparing other liquids you buy to gasoline. Do you get beer or wine for $1.65 a gallon? How about Perrier? Their manufacture is a walk in the park compared to gasoline.
What about milk? To get that all you have to do is squeeze a cow's tits.
But those of us in the rest of the world (yes there is one), get very pissed off when Americans complain about fuel prices. You pay less than half what the rest of us pay, so get over it.
Jim wrote:And some are complaining about 37 cents a gallon for all of this?????
My biggest complaint is that we are waisting our money with a fuel supply that has no future. That 37 cents should be going to improving alternative fuels and building cars that aren't so dependent on the Middle East. Oil will run out some day. Alternative fuels won't.
pueo - I unreservedly apologise for any offense that you may feel about any slur that I appear to have made about the USMC. Although I am Australian and opposed to the Iraqi invasion, not matter what the entire population of the USA may think, I am upset every time I log on to discover that there are even more US servicemen and women killed or permanently disabled because of this. Even worse is the mounting carnage of Iraqis and Afghanis that seem to have become the 'wallpaper' of this administration's naked ambitions in the Middle East.
However, I feel (this is a personal opinion) that the military might of the USA has now been subsumed into the effort to impose a hegemony on nations that can't be swayed by other means. I can't see that the promise of cheaper prices at the petrol bowser are really worth the loss of life and the erosion of those values that the 'West' is trying to bring.
Again, I'm sorry for any offense that may have been taken.
joefromchicago wrote:The price of gasoline? I don't know and I don't care. I don't own a car, so I don't worry about gas prices or parking or insurance or getting ticketed by the ever vigilant Chicago police department. I take public transportation or taxis wherever I want to go, and I couldn't be happier.
This is a main reason why I didn't get my driver's license until I was 26. Living in the Bay Area, we had (and they still do) an excellent Public Transportation system. I wish I could do that here. Kansas City has virtually none to speak of. Oh, we have our share of taxi's, but the bus routes are almost non-existant, and what lines they do have don't work out for me.
Could be a whole new topic, but Turner_727 has a good and valid point. One of the reasons why Americans are so car crazy is that automobiles are an essential necessity most places, even major cities e.g. KC or LA. Some of the older cities -- NY, Chicago, Boston, San Fran, Washington, DC, Philadelphia -- have excellent public transportation systems, even when we curse them. But they are the rare exception to the rule that there's no way to get from here to there unless you drive. In addition to the suggestion that alternative fuel sources be explored, we should also improve our public transit system. A lot.
Quote:That 37 cents should be going to improving alternative fuels and building cars that aren't so dependent on the Middle East.
There's plenty of incentive for parties to research into alternative fuels; the potential for profit on any patents is enormous. As far as jacking up the price to pay for other things (like, fer instance, improved public transport), I'm all for it, and have voted for it.
Last I remember reading, LA's much-improved public transportation has suffered from low ridership. People still like their cars. (Perhaps the real motivator is having nowhere to park. Seems to work in NYC.)
