Greenies; Are you naive enough to think expensive gas is a good idea?

Question

I own a 2005 pick-up. In your minds it is a gas guzzler. However, I am at the point where I have to choose between making payments, or buying gas. Fuel prices have depriciated the value of this truck far enough that I am too upside down in it now to trade it in on anything.

So, I am about excercise my option of giving it back to the bank. With a fresh repo, I won't be able to buy anything, so I will be digging my grandma's '73 Old's battleship out of the weedpatch. Yes it uses more gas, but no $400 a month payment. How many people are out there putting old cars back on the road because your forcing us to?

Everytime drilling for oil, or building a refinery in USA gets mentioned, the green groups sue it into a quagmire stalemate, and nothing gets accomplished.

Drilling for oil, and building refineries in the USA would drop prices signifigantly. Just look at Kuiait, and Venuzualea...they pay pennies a gallon just as we used to.

Answer 1

Giving back collateral is a serious situation, not an option to exercise ... forget the repo and the bad credit ... once the vehicle is sold at a reduced value because of the current market ... you will have a deficiency balance, and you will be responsible for that, too. So the getting out of the payment might not save you much money ... and frankly If you work a part-time job a few hours a week, you can make the $400 payment.

Regarding the green movement, which I am not part of .. Yes, the cost of oil has force people to think of alternatives for fueling vehicles and heating and cooling their homes - which has come closer to the goals of these groups to limit oil consumption.

BTW - gas was expensive in 2005 too ... about $1 less a gallon ... so if you burn 30 gallons a week ... it costs $30 more to run your truck ... you are risking financial ruin for that ?

Answer 2

Nah, your understanding of international commodities markets is all screwy.  More drilling here wouldn't really change gas prices.    It's a desperate act that would hurt us in the end. We have to just  bite the bullet and wait for alternatives to gas.

EDIT

Because we are not (as I suppose you appreciate) a socialist country, any oil we produced would just go into the international market for oil, and it would be a drop in the bucket compared to what is being produced elsewhere.  We wouldn't exactly be flooding the market with oil.  As much as the the gas prices hurt us, it's better to conserve the little oil we have until petroleum becomes REALLY scarce.

EDIT

It's ridiculous that we haven't taken any steps toward energy independence.  But this method will not take us there.  Opening up more seaspace to drilling -- on top of the untapped waters that are currently leased to the petroleum companies -- really would not lower prices.  All of the experts agree on this.  The supply of petroleum in the world is limited. It's better to save the little supply we have for when we really need it than to squander it now in a fruitless attempt to save a few pennies on the gallon.

Answer 3

Sadly they do think the high gas prices are good.  As you point out, they fight any effort to drill or add more refineries.  This prevents us as a nation from controlling our fate and leaves prices high.

In their minds, they see the increase in ridership on public transportation as a desired effect of the high gas prices.  In your case, however, you have the flipside of that coin.  You'll pull out the gas guzzler just to save the payment every month and, in effect, use more gas and create more pollution by doing so.

Funny, isn't it.  If all they cared about was the environment, they'd see the effects of their policies and change their tunes.

Answer 4

The idea that drilling for oil will take years, if ever, to reduce the price of oil, is complete NONSENSE.

Speculators are bidding up the price of oil because they see that demand is increasing faster than supply.

This is a direct result of Democrats refusing to allow us to drill for our own oil.

The very same day that Congress passes a bill allowing us to drill again and to build more refineries, the speculators will IMMEDIATELY drive the price of oil DOWN even faster than they drove it up.  Within 5 days of that bill passing, oil would be down to $60 a barrel, and down to $30 within a year.

Take heart, pressure is finally building on these nutcase liberals, and it will happen soon.

Answer 5

The only way that expencive gas is NOT good

is that it puts money in the pockets of people who don't need it but  will use the $$$! to buy power and influence in the system.  Bad News  for the middle class!

All of the industrialized nations  have  become petrol junkies.

and now we have to pay the pusher whatever said pusher demands!  your first born....  or?

Answer 6

The DECISIVE FACTOR was your lack of ability to see that gas prices would not continue to stay so cheap.

If you had watched any TV documentary about China, this would have been obvious,

The fault is at the government for not having prevented you to make this bad choice. Most other countries apply a discount/tax system to encourage people buying efficient cars.

Kuwait and Venezuala have "artificially" low gas prices as they do not correspond to the markt price. As such it is a gift to the citizen.... at their expense !!!

Answer 7

Drilling for oil would take years to have any effect.

Answer 8

I am not a "greenie" by any strectch of the imagination, but I recognize there is a silver lining to this cloud.  

We really need to get energy independence!

We need to conserve.

We need alternative fuels.

We need to drill for oil here!

It has ALWAYS been idiotic for us to be so dependent on the very people who want to blow us up!