Are global warming believers happy that oil prices are so high because it will result in lowering the use of..

Question

fossil fuels? Would you like to see the price of oil go higher, remain the same or go back down?

Answer 1

No Gary, I'm not happy about this.

I'd rather people became educated and consumed less because they realized the actual costs of their consumption, whether it be gasoline, heating, housing designs, etc.

The price per barrel took another jump Friday.  It may drop a bit after the summer, but I think we'd better start getting used to the higher prices. The death of the SUV is being cited as part of the fallout from the spiraling oil prices.  There will be others, including a ripple effect throughout the economy, with jobs lost in many sectors.  The unemployed are not necessarily the same as those who could step into jobs opening up as alternative technologies begin to blossom.  

Very serious this, let's deal with this in the short term by driving less than the oil companies expect us to, so they end up with a glut and we'll get at least temporary relief. In the long run, we need to change the way we do business so our lives aren't monopolized by greedy conglomerates seeking record high profits.

Answer 2

I am and it inspired me to become a multimodal commuter. I now bike 2 miles to an electric train. Ride the train 27 minutes, and then ride the bike which is carried on the train another 10 miles to work. I hope we get 10 dollar a gallon gasoline soon.

Ethanol does increase greenhouse gases. Reasonable people could disagree about whether it takes more fossil fuel energy to make ethanol than what is in the ethanol made.

In the only calculate off I have seen where the two engineers disagreed and checked each other's work the difference came down to whether or not you should count the energy in the tractor tires. That is the engineer that proved that there was more energy in the ethanol than what it took to make it found that there was enough to make the tires for the tractor used to make the ethanol.

I do not want the money going to Oil companies. I would like it go to a tax that is used to research clean energy and build a train for dumdum. That would also keep the money here instead of sending it to terrorists for them to use to kill us.

It is true that at $3.00 no conservation occurred. At $4.00 we are seeing conservation and some of it long term as people  are now dumping their SUVs and public transportation ridership is at its highest level in 60 years.

Having over half of the land that we grow crops on become too hot and dry to grow food will raise prices permanently.

Answer 3

No, we should have reduced consumption through mandatory auto MPG standards years ago.  We've known that oil prices would shoot upsince the 1970.  It was even predicted accutrately to occur in this timeframe.

People who are resistant to change, people who fail to accept evidence if it results in predictions that they don't like, who tolerate industry manipulation of our political leaders and who tolerate industry misinformation facilitate these types of issues hitting much harder than they need to.

The same is true for global warming.

Answer 4

we aren't actually running out of oil, there are full oil tankers all over the world waiting to be refined, the problem is that the refineries can't keep up.

Answer 5

I guess you didn't bother to actually do any research.  When gas prices when up to $3.00 last summer, use actually INCREASED.  Demand for gas and oil is not decreasing because of the price increase.

Answer 6

Canada has enough oil to meet it's own needs for 200 years.  I am not happy with the idea of the US consuming all of our oil in the next 20 years at a rate of 2.542 million barrels per day.  With higher oil prices, maybe the US will become more serious about meeting its own needs and depend less on others.  The US has good prospects for solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass sources of energy.  Now would be a good time to start building more alternative energy capacity.  Meanwhile, the higher prices are paying off Canada's national debt and lowering my taxes.  

My company is bringing some renewable energy to market this year by utilizing the waste from another process.  The production will be equivalent to 1.5 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day this year rising to 300 boe per day in 3 years.  About 75% of the new production will be in North Dakota meeting about 0.001% of US demand.  If 100,000 Americans started projects of a similar scale, all of US demand could be met domestically.  If US skeptics don't want to build alternative energy facilities for the environment, they should do it because it is good for their country and their bank accounts.

Answer 7

I am also quite happy as I had thought the Vectrix electric motorcycle was to expensive and now thanks to the fuel price increase i have bought one and haven't looked back, I am charging it from solar cells and it is costing stuff all to run and the solar cells will pay for themselves in ~2 years, less if the cost of fuel keeps going up.

Answer 8

Most people won't be happy about it however it is still within their power to change.  I live in a rural area so it will affect us because commuting is a way of life plus, farmers, loggers, and contractors are affected negatively by the higher rate. I find it interesting how some show no care for these folks who utilize fuel for a living.  Most would gladly rather using something else however there is nothing available.  For those who are happy about the hardships placed on others, tells me more about what global warming is really about to them.

Answer 9

no. go back down. im sorta big on Global Warming but the U.S. is like so depended on it. maybe if SOMEONE will find other things to replace oil instead of getting in on the oil companies' money. coughBUSHcough. you know hes not going to do anything about it. the higher prices go, more money he makes and he plans to keep it that way.

Answer 10

Though I'm not a "believer" (I'm actually a skeptic that has been convinced by the overwhelming evidence) I am pleased to see anything that causes single-occupant SUV/truck commuters to start questioning their mind-set of unlimited cheap fuel.

Answer 11

Wooglet is proof of how insane people can be!  Not everyone's fortunate to live close enough to bike everywhere and take a non-existent train!  And $10 gas means the prices of everything skyrocketing because everything relies on transportation--by ground and by air!  How disgusting that he wants to make the oil companies so rich off of something these people supposedly hate so much!  $10 gas will just equal mass poverty, people having to work five jobs, and children starving--while bloated, disgusting people like these stuff their faces!!!

Wooglet: Sure...and the oil companies would spend their windfall profits on public transportation which would guarantee them less profits because...?

And for those who don't know, we've been growing crops and making fertile land out of deserts for a while already--don't let the alarmists scare you into accepting price gouging, rationing, GMOs, and taxation that's definitely not going to better your life or help the environment!

http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/48930...

I hope Wooglet's the first to be laid off as a result from the sky-high operational costs.

Answer 12

Honestly yeah, I'm happy about it.  Other than gasoline, I haven't noticed the prices of any products go up significantly despite the price of oil skyrocketing.

Look, if Americans would decrease oil consumption without prices needing to rise, then that would be one thing.  But we have some of the cheapest gas in the world and some of the worst fuel efficiency in the world.  It's not a coincidence.  When gas is $2-3/gallon, people don't worry about efficiency and conservation.

Yesterday morning the lead article on Yahoo was on the death of the SUV.  A recent GM study found that more people (especially women) would rather talk to a guy with an alternative fuel vehicle than a guy with a sports car.  If it takes gas prices being a little high to make this happen, then so be it.

And you know what?  Our gas prices are still only half what they are in most European countries!  Really we have no reason to complain.  Just adapt - become more fuel efficient and stop complaining.  Personally a $1/gallon rise in gas prices only costs me an extra $20 per month, because I've worked to become as efficient as possible.  If you don't have good public transportation, then get a fuel efficient car.  You can get an electric moped that goes 50 mph and 50 miles per charge for just $3600.

http://rmartinbikes.com/evd

There are plenty of ways to adapt our lifestyles to become more efficient and less costly.  We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions starting immediately, and if slightly higher gas prices makes that happen, then yeah, I'm all for it.

Answer 13

Interesting thing is many of the Democrates now complaining of high prices were the ones a few years ago saying gas was to cheap. They wanted to raise taxes on it to make it closer to Europeans prices ($7 to 8 dollars).

Answer 14

The Democrats have kept Oil Prices high by using taxes in order to 'encourage' conservation...way longer than present.  

It didn't work in the past and it's not going to anytime soon.  SUVs and Trucks are still being sold and people are still driving to the mailbox.

Look to the freeway and tell me if there are still more driver's in the regular lanes versus the rideshare lanes.

People are looking to alternative sources...such as Renewable Corn-based fuels, which is actually worse for Global Warming and Pollution overall.

Answer 15

I think that the prices will go down after this summer but its obviously inevitable that they will go up since there is only a finite amout of fossile fuels.  As the supply goes down the price will go up and since countries like China are continually increasing their use of oil the price is just going up.  We should be happy that we don't have prices like Europe which are hovering around $9 per gallon.

Dawgz

Are you being serious?  Ford just recently shut down four of its suv/large truck plants.  Also you say that ethanol based fuel increases co2 emissions?  They are actually carbon neutral since the carbon that is released in burning is taken back in when they grow the corn for the fuel.  There is debate on whether  it is raising corn prices and the affect it has on water use.  But it definitely doesn't increase greenhouse gases.

Answer 16

That's an interesting question.  I actually do believe that declining supplies of fossil fuels and increased prices will keep us from completely s******g up the climate.  Of course, they're going to leave us with what may be an even bigger problem: how to supply the world's ever increasing demand for energy. Whether you believe in global warming or not, I doubt that you think dependence on foreign oil is a good thing, so maybe it will motivate people to come up with real alternatives.